A 2 Years Later Throwback Review of the Google/LG Nexus 5.

Sid Dabholkar
15 min readAug 20, 2015

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In honor of the new Nexus 5 coming out this year (it’s all but official right now, and we’ve got some mockups slowly trickling in on random tech websites), I decided to post a review of my own Nexus 5. What did I learn? In a time where devices that are 2 years old can feel ancient, the Nexus 5 may still hold its own against other devices of our time right now.

Intro:

My favorite part of getting a new phone has always been opening the box up for the first time. That slight smell of machinery and precision that foreshadows what is to come in a few minutes. The intricate design of the box, usually the last bit of marketing that manufacturers get to plug in, as if they’re worried that you’re still hesitating and may return the phone that lies inches away from you*. And then, if you’re lucky and the battery is at least partially charged, you take in a breath of anticipation, hold down the power button, and boot up for the first time.

I always love that stuff. And if you’re lucky enough to be in a profession that allows you to handle new phones every couple of weeks, you get to experience that moment frequently. But, for the majority of Americans who are bound by a contract with their mobile carrier, that moment occurs once in two years. And in those two years, things can change. But the only thing that matters at the end of the contract term is whether or not the phone in question is still relevant and necessary to upgrade right away, or whether it’s better to wait. Or perhaps, if you’re a college student on a tight budget, or a person who doesn’t mind saving a few bucks, you want to know whether it’s alright to still buy this phone.

That’s what I’m aiming to find out, with the Google Nexus 5. I’ve used this phone every day for about two years now, so I do have a thorough understanding of the phone and how it handles tasks, goes through its day, etc. I have split up the article into several sections, with a TL;DR at the beginning.

For the purposes of this article, here are the technical specifications of the Nexus 5.

Screen

  • 4.95" 1920 x 1080 display (445 ppi)
  • Full HD IPS
  • Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3

Size69.17 x 137.84 x 8.59mmWeight4.59 ounces (130g)Cameras

  • 1.3 MP front facing
  • 8 MP rear facing with Optical Image Stabilization

Memory

  • 16GB or 32GB (actual formatted capacity will be less)
  • 2GB RAM

Processing

  • CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 800, 2.26GHz
  • GPU: Adreno 330, 450MHz

Sensors

  • GPS
  • Gyroscope
  • Accelerometer
  • Compass
  • Proximity/Ambient Light
  • Pressure
  • Hall Effect

Networks2G/3G/4G LTE

North America:

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

CDMA: Band Class: 0/1/10

WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19

LTE: Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41

Rest of World:

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8

LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20

Wireless

  • Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4G/5G) 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • NFC (Android Beam)
  • Bluetooth 4.0 LE

Ports & Connectors

  • microUSB
  • SlimPort™ enabled
  • 3.5mm stereo audio jack
  • Dual microphones
  • Ceramic Power & Volume buttons

Audio

  • Built-in speaker
  • 3.5mm stereo audio connector

Battery

  • 2,300 mAh non-removable battery
  • Standby time: up to 300 hours
  • Talk time: up to 17 hours
  • Internet use time: up to 8.5 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 7 hours on LTE
  • Wireless Charging built-in

*But, if I’m to be honest, I do sometimes appreciate the boxes. I still vividly remember looking at the faux wood box of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and musing at the irony of the mesh of plastic and metal that rested underneath. And other times, I just sigh in disappointment, like with the stark white box of the HTC Evo 3D (which, now that I think about it, does foreshadow my overall feeling of that phone).

Design and Display:

TL;DR: For the most part, the design holds up great when compared to the present competition.

After the front and back glass design that emitted a premium yet “I’m afraid that this thing is going to shatter if I drop it on my bed” feel on the Nexus 4, Google (and/or LG) opted to take a different direction with the Nexus 5. A minimalist, industrial design that, while not as premium feeling as the metal Apple iPhone 6, HTC M9, or Samsung Galaxy S6 holds up extremely well today. It’s not a cheap plastic, but is rather a rubberized polycarbonate that feels great to hold in the hand. Especially when compared to the plastic LG G2- G4, or the pre-S6 Samsung Galaxy models, the Nexus 5 wins in terms of build quality. It is 8.59mm thick, which, while thicker than the competition that you’ll see today, isn’t uncomfortable in the slightest. In fact, the 4.59 ounce “heft” makes it feel secure and less fragile to hold than a lot of the lighter phones that are out today, though chances are that you won’t even notice it.

The one detractor is the protruding camera lens on the back of the phone. If you decide not to put the phone in a case, the camera, especially the metal ring that surrounds the camera lens, will take a toll over time. But it seems that most other smartphones, such as the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S6 have the same issue, so I guess it’s something we have to compromise with nowadays to get better cameras (more on that in the camera section).

Let’s talk about the display. It is a 4.95" IPS LCD 1080p Display with 445 ppi. It depends on personal preference, but for most people, 5' (and 4.95" is pretty much 5") is an ideal display size for most people. At 5.5", one handed use is possible, but it’s pretty uncomfortable, and 6" is pretty unusable with one hand. On the other end of the spectrum, as you get below 4.3", the space can get pretty cramped.

While not particularly as vibrant as the competition out today, the display still has very accurate color reproduction, and gets pretty bright (but not dim enough) during the day. You won’t see any pixels, and to be honest, while quad-HD displays are crisp, they epitomize pixel overkill and often deplete the battery faster. Then again, this LCD display isn’t very battery efficient either, because the whole display is on whenever there is something on the screen — which also translates less rich blacks when compared to AMOLED/OLED displays, and also means that you can’t have cool tricks like the Moto Display without a battery hit (more on that in the software section). It largely depends on your personal preference (if you like oversaturation 24/7, look no further than the Samsung Galaxy S line), but for the most part, this display will satisfy your needs and holds up its own compared to the displays of the latest phones.
Speed:

TL;DR: The performance here is still great, although the occasional force close and stutter can slightly dampen your experience.

What we have here is a Snapdragon 800 SoC clocked at 2.26GHz with an Adreno 330 GPU running at 450MHz. It also has 2GB of RAM. In the past, we always have had people say that only the newest chipsets are worth taking a look at, and if you buy even a slightly older chipset, you’re going to be making some big sacrifices in the long run. The reality is much different. First of all, this phone still has a not-so-old Snapdragon 800 series SoC, which is more than enough for most of your needs, even today. Need to write an email? No problem. Need to surf the web, send a few messages, Spotify all night long, flip through your screens to find an app? No problemo.

Second, A lot of phone manufacturers are stuck in the mindset that only the latest is the greatest, when often, the opposite can be the case. We’ve seen that this year, with the Snapdragon 810 SoC having thermal issues and requiring most phone manufacturers to throttle the performance to less than admirable levels. We’ve seen the problems that that can have on performance, such as on the HTC One M9 and the LG G Flex, where you start off with the expectation of a blazing-fast phone to quickly realize that the algorithm placed on the phone by the manufacturers pull the emergency brake on that performance after 10 minutes. Some phone manufacturers, like LG and Samsung, realized the issue and either put an older SoC (Snapdragon 808 SoC on the LG G4) or opt for a different manufactured SoC altogether (like the home brewed Exynos 7420 2.1/1.5GHz A57/A53 SoC on the Samsung Galaxy S6).

What this means is that the Snapdragon 800 SoC is plenty for almost everyone except the extremely hard-core user. Most games run wonderfully on this phone — Limbo, Deus Ex: The Fall, Monument Valley, Asphalt 8, Modern Combat 5 are the games I’ve tried on this phone, with only the occasional stutter. It can get pretty warm though, and will take a toll on the battery life.

The Android 5.x.x Lollipop update switched us from a Dalvik to an ART runtime, which made some performance improvements, especially when opening apps.

The only bad thing I’ve really noticed is the occasional stutter on Google Now, Chrome, and the homescreen, which may be because of the software rather than the hardware. I figure factory resetting the phone might fix the issues. If it does, I’ll update this review.

Battery:

TL;DR: Google tries to make it easier to swallow this pill with its software updates, but the battery life is less than average.
This phone has a 2300 mAh battery. I really do wish that this phone had a bigger battery (ideally at least >3000 mAh), or at least a replaceable battery to make this more manageable.

The battery life has been somewhat of a spread for me ever since the beginning. Given that I go to school for about 8 hours every day, I usually have light to medium usage, and I end up with about 15–20 percent battery at 10pm, which is okay. On a day where I even remotely go above that medium usage, I end up regretting the decision, as I’m left having to charge my phone right when I get home at 4:00 pm. Of course, all of this is subjective. Check the chart below to see where you fit in. I assume that the screen isn’t on all the time, and you’re doing the activities listed periodically.

LightMediumHeavyIdeal UsageChecking email, Light web surfing, sending messages, making calls, listening to downloaded musicLight + watching videos on YouTube, watching TV shows, playing light games, going on medium-heavy websites, using Facebook Messenger, streaming musicMedium + playing graphics-intensive games, using the Facebook app a lot, watching movies, downloading a lot of appsRealistic Battery Life12 hoursLight — 3 hours = 9 hoursMedium — 5 hours = 4 hours

It’s been pretty consistent over the two years that I’ve had the phone, so at least there’s that.

On the software side, Google has tried to address this issue with their Lollipop update. It introduces Project Volta, which was designed to address the battery inefficiencies that previous versions of Android OS have had. Project Volta has a chart that tracks your battery percentage over time, and assesses which apps are responsible for the decrease. From there, you can force-stop the apps. Of course, all of this and more can be done using third-party apps, and it would be helpful if Google had some sort of auto-kill for apps that are killing your battery in the background (I’m looking at you Facebook), but it was a valiant effort.

If that seems too conservative on your battery, Lollipop’s battery saver is there, but that seems too aggressive at times. You’ll definitely get a boost on your battery life (and it automatically turns on at 15–20%), but it throttles your processor. Say goodbye smooth animations, gaming effectively, and feeling like you’re holding a powerful phone, because that all goes to the wayside to save your battery. It works, but I can’t help thinking that if the Nexus 5 had an AMOLED display, Google could’ve just made the wallpaper black, or done something similar to Samsung’s Galaxy line’s battery saver, and we would’ve seen the same benefits without the stuttering.

This phone is compatible with the Qi wireless charging standard — the idea that you can just plop your phone on a Qi pad and go is enticing, but the reality is that it charges slower than just connecting the microUSB charger. It isn’t really worth it, but I do think that more phones, especially in the present, should have this standard.

Fast charging wasn’t available back then either, which is one of the biggest things I wish this phone had (15 min, 50% battery? Yes please), but it’s okay.

Compared to the phones that are out right now, I think you’re better off investing in a more efficient, bigger battery phone, unless battery life isn’t something that you really care about, or have a lot of chargers lying around.
Camera:

TL;DR: It gets the job done in HDR mode, but otherwise, it’s not good.
The cameras on the Nexus 5 are 1.3 MP front facing, 8 MP rear facing with Optical Image Stabilization. The camera app is a lot better than it used to be, with a lot more settings (such as being able to switch between a 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio), a user-friendlier interface (I can actually find the HDR mode now), and updates that come from the Google Play Store, rather than with a software update (kudos to Motorola for figuring that out). Of course, no manual mode here, that you’ll see on phones such as the LG G4 or the Samsung Galaxy S6, but unless you’re used to using a DSLR, you’re not going to notice the difference.

Back sensor: Let’s get this out of the way. HDR+ on the Nexus 5, especially after the updates, is really nice. The pictures look a lot more vivid, and takes in more light. The few extra seconds that the camera spends taking and processing the image isn’t ideal for action shots, but you’re in luck if you want to show off that nice topaz vase that you have in your living room, or the outdoor scenery. It’s also alright for low light shots, but it depends on the circumstances (better take a couple shots just in case). I really do love the OIS, and it stabilizes your shot really well and helps to reduce shaking (this should really be in every phone). As this is an 8 MP sensor, it’s detailed enough for most shots, as long as you don’t zoom in too much.

It’s all downhill from here. The auto (non HDR+) is okay. It’s gotten a lot better because of the software updates that Google diligently puts out (white balance, especially, has seen major improvements), but the photos are just okay. Noise is visible in many shots, and it lacks the detail that you’ll notice with many of the newer phones that come out nowadays. The upside towards using the non HDR+ mode is that the shutter speed is a lot faster, but really, if you’re pictures aren’t going to be that impressive, is there really much of a point of doing so? I guess it depends on your preference.

Unless it’s an absolute emergency, don’t use the flash — images tend to look washed out, and there’s always that annoying white spot that detracts from the quality of your picture — I’ve yet to see a flash on a phone that makes any sense to use, so it’s not just the Nexus 5’s fault. For me, the only purpose the flash serves is as a flashlight.

Front facing Camera: Unless you have great lighting conditions, you’re going to want to stay away from this. Which is a disappointment, considering the overall trend of selfies is still going strong. But there’s just very little detail and the sensor tends to err on the warmer side, which makes people look slightly jaundiced. If you do use the front facing camera, I highly recommend post-editing and using a filter to make your image look better.
All in all, the Nexus 5’s camera was a disappointment when it came out, it got slightly better over the first couple of months, but it hasn’t stood the test of time.

Software and Updates:

TL;DR: Quick guaranteed updates, stock Android, and no bloatware make this the best thing about owning a Nexus 5.

I still remember owning an HTC Evo 3D that shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and vividly recall getting a lukewarm update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (with the monstrosity that came in the form of HTC Sense 3.6 — HTC said that they didn’t give us the Sense 4.0 update because it would’ve confused people who were unfamiliar with ICS, but we all know that they wanted to market their HTC One X, S, and V series). It was never updated after that. It was an experience that disheartened me, especially when considering that the Nexus S, a phone that was older than the Evo 3D, still got updates up until Android 4.3 Jellybean. It was unfair, and so I switched to the Nexus 5.

I can tell you that I’m very happy with the software updates with the Nexus 5. For one, the updates the Nexus 5 received were speedy — the Lollipop update came within a month and a half (it would’ve come sooner, but there were reports of overheating and battery drain, hence the delay), which is a great time. Many phones weren’t updated until February of this year, and still some (like the Galaxy S5 Mini) have not received an update yet. And technically, the Nexus 5 has a newer version of Android (5.1.x) than the LG G4, Samsung Galaxy S6, and the HTC One M9 (which all have 5.0.x). In fact, as a general rule, the only reason Google tends to not give updates to its Nexus devices is if the hardware can’t support it, which is nice to know.

But let’s actually take a look at Lollipop with the Nexus 5. You’ve got pretty much everything the Nexus 6 has, including Project Volta, the new lock screen, etc. Most of the settings are the same, and there are minimal bugs — it really seems like it is optimized, and dare-I-say, made for the Nexus 5, because it does make an effort to address many of the issues that Nexus 5 owners have faced (such as the battery life). In fact the two main things that are missing from the phone are the ambient notifications and the “always-listening” Google Now that the Nexus 6 has. And there are valid reasons why these features aren’t on the Nexus 5 — battery life. The Nexus 6’s design is made by Motorola and has an OLED display, which as stated before, allows it to have ambient notifications without turning on the entire display, thereby not taking a toll on battery life, and has a separate microprocessor that efficiently handles the always-listening feature. Although, if you want, there’s an option in the Google Now settings that allows the Nexus 5 to turn on Google Now on any screen as long as the Nexus 5 is charging or the screen is on.

There’s also no bloatware and, cause it’s Google’s phone, has “stock” Android (or at least Google’s vision of AOSP). Regardless, this is probably the best reason to own a Nexus 5 (or any Nexus for that matter) — milestones are marked by the major software updates to your phone that give you a sliver of the awesomeness that you used to have when you booted the phone on for the first time.

Conclusion:

TL;DR: It depends on your priorities.

The relationship with your phone, at the end of the day, is built on compromise. A phone might have a great screen, a wonderful camera, a thin design, and a UI that pops, but might have average battery life and non-expandable storage (Samsung Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6). A phone might have a big replaceable battery, and a great camera with lots of options, but may have poor build quality (LG G4). A phone might have great build quality and a wonderful UI, but has a terrible camera and a processor that throttles you after 10 minutes (HTC One M9). The point is that there is no perfect phone out there. There are just many options that require you to give something to get something. And that goes back to our questions.

Should you upgrade right now?

My opinion? I think you can wait until the end of this year. If you’re thinking about switching to the Apple ecosystem, you should definitely wait until WWDC, which is sometime in June this year, where the next iteration of the iPhone will probably come out. The phones that have come out since the beginning of this year are okay, but not game changing in the grand scheme of things. If you really want to upgrade, I’d say one of my favorite phones of the year is the Samsung Galaxy S6, which has a great design (glass front and back, but better than the Nexus 4), a great display, but has rumors of not so great battery life (but it does have fast charging). You might also consider the LG G4, which has a great camera and a replaceable battery, but has a pretty dull design (though the leather does add some appeal). But if you can wait, wait until the end of the year — the Nexus 5 can definitely carry you into next year if it needs to, and if you wait, you’ll have more options to choose from, which is not a bad thing.

Should you still buy this phone?

If you’re really on a budget, and can find this phone unlocked, I would probably say yes — it’s still a fine phone, and has a better camera than the Moto G (which maybe the same price as the Nexus 5 at this point), and you’ll still get updates for at least another year. The Nexus 5’s a great phone to choose, and goes down as one of my favorite phones of all time. If you’re okay with a two-year contract, I would say that you’ve got better options, such as the Moto X, which may be at the same price point for a two-year contract.

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Sid Dabholkar

I like listening, reading, solving problems and cracking cases. Occasionally, I think about the years to come. My twitter @sidhaus