Google Nexus 5 Review

The Nexus 5 smartphone has had so many leaks that it barely needed an official announcement. Still made by LG, the latest Nexus smartphone brings all of the expected upgrades; a larger display with a higher resolution, a faster processor, etc. The Nexus 5 is also the first device to ship with Android 4.4 KitKat, which brings a lot of important changes, including a more refined UI. While the Nexus 5 doesn't have anything that distinguishes it from other flagships, it's price tag is very appealing as always, and the pure Android experience may be more appealing to some users than competitors' modified software. 

	Google Nexus 5	Apple iPhone 5s	LG G2
Body	138 x 65 x 8.6mm, 130g	124 x 59 x 7.6mm, 112g	138.5 x 71 x 8.9mm, 143g
Display	4.95" True HD-IPS+ 1920 x 1080 (445ppi) w/ Corning Gorilla Glass 3	4" IPS 1136 x 640 (326ppi) w/ Corning Gorilla Glass	5.2" True HD-IPS+ 1920 x 1080 (424ppi) w/ Corning Gorilla Glass 2
Storage	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM	13/32/64 GB, 1 GB RAM	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM
Connectivity	Wi-FI, GSM (2G), HSDPA (3G), LTE (4G)	Wi-FI, GSM (2G), HSDPA (3G), LTE (4G)	Wi-FI, GSM (2G), HSDPA (3G), LTE (4G)
Camera (Rear)	8 MP with OIS, LED flash and 1080p@30fps video	8 MP with dual-LED flash, 1/3" sensor size, 1.5µm pixel size, HDR, 1080p@30fps and 480p@120fps video	13 MP with OIS, LED flash, HDR and 1080p@60fps video
Camera (Front)	1.3 MP	1.2 MP and 720p@30fps video	2.1MP and 1080p@30fps video
OS	Android 4.4 KitKat	iOS 7	Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM 8974 (Quad-core Krait 400 @ 2.3GHz + Adreno 330 GPU)	Apple A7 (Dual-core Cyclone @ 1.3GHz + PowerVR G6430 GPU)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM 8974 (Quad-core Krait 400 @ 2.3GHz + Adreno 330 GPU)
Battery	Non-removable 2,300 mAh Talk time: 17hrs Standby time: 300hrs	Non-removable 1,560 mAh Talk time: 10hrs Standby time: 250hrs	Non-removable 3,000 mAh Talk time: 17.5hrs Standby time: 900hrs
Starting Price (Off-contract)	$349 (16 GB)	$649 (16 GB)	$549 (16 GB)

Design

The Nexus 5 may be cheap, but its design doesn't look very cheap at all. While it may not be as premium as the iPhone 5s with its aluminium build, it's still solidly built. The back of the smartphone takes a leaf from the 2013 Nexus 7's design with a matte finish, sold in either black or white. A large Nexus logo is rather awkwardly placed horizontally on the center, accompanied by a small, vertically oriented LG logo on the bottom. An 8 MP camera, which by the way slightly protrudes from the chassis, sits on the top left of the device, accompanied by an LED flash below the camera.

The phone's design isn't very rectangular and consists of slightly curved sides. The front, of course, consists mostly of the 4.95" 1080p display. The display is in line with what is expected from a flagship device nowadays, no more, no less. As the Nexus 5 is based on the LG G2, the bezels on either side of the display are very narrow, while the top and bottom bezels are, well, regular for a smartphone. 

The Nexus 5 isn't exactly the skinniest flagship smartphone available. Measuring 8.6mm thick, it's considerably thicker than the iPhone 5 and 5s, and also thicker than Samsung's Galaxy S4 (7.9mm). It's thinner than the LG G2, though. Nevertheless, while it may not be the thinnest, you can't possibly call the Nexus 5 thick. After all, that extremely attractive price tag requires some minor compromises, and anyway, for a $349 phone, the Nexus 5 is doing very well on the thinness department. 

The Nexus 5, weighing 130g, isn't lighter than the iPhone 5 and 5s (of course, it has a much larger display and battery), but is one of the lightest 5" flagships, as it's considerably lighter than the LG G2 (143g) and has the same weight as the Galaxy S4. Not bad for a phone with such a low price. 

Performance

The Nexus 5 is but another phone that enjoys the extreme power offered by the Snapdragon 800 processor. Powered by four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3GHz and the monstrous Adreno 330 GPU, you're pretty much dealing with one of the absolute fastest smartphones available. That, combined with the trimmed down Android 4.4 KitKat OS and the absolute lack of any OEM customizations and bloatware, gives the Nexus 5 impeccable fluidity and performance. 

Conclusion

The Nexus 5 isn't an attempt to revolutionize the smartphone market through fingerprint sensors and weird hand and eye gesture controls and whatnot. Quite the contrary, it's supposed to be a basic smartphone with flagship qualities, achieving success through the simplicity of its hardware and user interface. The exclusion of all those bells and whistles is what allows for its very low price, and for some people, that may be just about perfect.

Some people don't need, or don't want, a bunch of extra hardware and software features they'll barely ever use on their phones, in other words, some people just need a powerful yet easy to use phone, and that is the space the Nexus 5 intends to fill in. And it does so very well. This phone has the basics a flagship requires nowadays, a 5" display of 1080p resolution and a Snapdragon 800 processor, and also has a basic, unmodified OS, and that's pretty much it. 

If all you want from a phone is for it to provide a fast, fluid experience for all use cases, from texting to gaming and watching videos, I would strongly recommend the Nexus 5. I would only recommend you to get another phone if basic isn't your kind of thing, that is, if you like the complexity of OEM-modified UIs and nifty hardware extras like fingerprint sensors. But the Nexus 5 is, with no doubt, the best basic smartphone flagship this year.

Possible Google Nexus 5 Benchmarks Leak

As the original LG Nexus 4 is growing long in the tooth, a refresh to the Google smartphone is imminent, and GFXBench's database seems to have just confirmed the existence of the Nexus 5 smartphone. The upcoming smartphone has already had a couple of minor leaks: one is about an FCC document referring to an LG smartphone that could be the Nexus 5. The other leak was pretty intentional; the smartphone appeared during a Google promo video introducing Android 4.4 KitKat. Here's what the GFXBench leak reveals:

The device, as expected, is named Google Nexus 5. I find it very strange that the Android version is apparently named Key Lime Pie, even though Google announced officially that the next Android version was to be named KitKat. Also, the SDK version is number 18, but I'd expect it to be 19, since the version 18 refers to Android 4.3. These are reasons to take this leak with a large grain of salt. 

The device runs on a strange screen resolution of 1800 x 1080, which could either indicate Google is going for an unusual aspect ratio, or the different resolution is due to the presence of a navigation bar, which has been present in all Nexus smartphones instead of physical buttons. 

The device runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, which features an Adreno 330 GPU  and four Krait 400 cores @ up to 2.3GHz. 

The leak consists of only two benchmarks results. One of them is the rather old GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD Offscreen test, which, as the Adreno 330 implies, yields some very impressive results, although it's not exactly ahead of other Snapdragon 800-bearing devices, but rather on par with them. The other result, the T-Rex HD Offscreen test, also shows some impressive scores, again, on par with most Snapdragon 800-based devices, but slightly behind the Snapdragon 800 Galaxy S4 variant (GT-i9506) and the Nvidia Shield.

While the benchmark results aren't outstanding for a Snapdragon 800 device (this means they are outstanding compared to the rest), it does add to the slowly turning rumor mill about an upcoming LG Nexus 5 smartphone. Like I said though, the Key Lime Pie nomenclature and the odd SDK version number, as well as the strange display resolution doesn't help me gain confidence on this leak, but a 1080p, Snapdragon 800 5-inch Nexus smartphone is almost predictable, so the leak could be legitimate. 

Google Nexus 7 (2013) Review: Aggressively Specced, Aggressively Priced

When Google announced its first Nexus 7 tablet, built by ASUS, back in mid-2012, it was clearly destined to make the budget tablet market skyrocket. For a very low $199 price tag, the Nexus 7 offered excellent performance, good built quality, and virtually immediate Android updates. It was a cost-performance paradise, so unsurprisingly it quickly became extremely popular. Now, one year later, when the OG Nexus 7 is growing long in the teeth, Google and ASUS took cost-performance to a whole new level again with the new Nexus 7.

The refreshed 7-incher offers one of the fastest processors and a 1080p display, while keeping a very slim profile and record-breaking weight, all for just $30 more. Of course, competitors are in a catch-up state, but for now, the new Nexus 7 is clearly and by far the best budget tablet, and is also certainly the best cost-performance tablet ever made. 

	(2013) Google Nexus 7	Apple iPad mini	ASUS MeMO Pad 7 HD
Body	200 x 114 x 8.65 mm, 290g (299g with LTE)	200 x 134.7 x 7.2mm, 308g (312g with LTE)	196.8 x 120.6 x 10.8mm, 302g
Display	7" 1920 x 1200 (323ppi) LED-Backlit IPS w/ Corning Gorilla Glass	7.9" 1024 x 768 (163ppi) LED-Backlit IPS	7" 1280 x 800 (216ppi) LED-Backlit IPS
Storage	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM	16/32/64 GB, 512 MB RAM	8/16 GB, 1 GB RAM
Connectivity	Wi-Fi only version and Wi-Fi + GSM (2G) + HSDPA (3G) + LTE (4G) version	Wi-Fi only version and Wi-Fi + GSM (2G) + HSDPA (3G) + LTE (4G) version	Wi-Fi only
Camera (rear)	5 MP w/ autofocus, face detection, 1080p video	5 MP iSight camera w/ face detection and autofocus, 1080p video	5 MP w/ autofocus
Camera (front)	1.2 MP	1.2 MP with 720p video	1.2 MP
OS	Android 4.3	iOS 7	Android 4.2.2
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (28nm): Quad-core Krait @ 1.5 GHz + Adreno 320 GPU	Apple A5 (32nm HKMG): Dual-core Cortex-A9 @ 1.0GHz + PowerVR SGX 543MP2 GPU	MTK 8125: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.2GHz + Mali-400 GPU
Battery	Li-Polymer 3950 mAh (15Wh), up to 9 hours usage	Li-Polymer 16.3Wh, up to 10 hours usage	Li-Polymer 15Wh, up to 10 hours usage
Price	$229 for Wi-Fi 16 GB version	$329 for Wi-Fi 16 GB version	$129 for 8 GB version and $149 for 16 GB version

Design

The new Nexus 7 isn't radically different from the old iteration, but the differences are notable and much appreciated. The back design gets a makeover, since it changes the textured rubbery back of the OG Nexus 7 for a plain, still a bit rubbery plastic, resembling the Nexus 10's feel, which makes the back look cleaner. Strangely, Google didn't make it clear whether they wanted the new Nexus 7 to be used more in landscape or in portrait mode. The vast majority of smaller tablets, including the 2012 Nexus 7, are tailored for use in portrait mode, but the new Nexus 7 gives some indication of wanting to be used in landscape. For instance, the Nexus logo on the back is oriented in landscape (but the smaller ASUS logo beneath it is in portrait.....hmmm weird), and the stereo speakers are both positioned on the tablet's top and bottom sides (when in portrait).

Apart from that, the back contains the 5 MP shooter at the top left corner. Aside from that orientation shortcoming, the back of the new Nexus 7 does look significantly more premium than its older counterpart.

The front of the device is very similar to the OG Nexus 7, with the exception the the vertical bezels are slightly thinner, and there is now a notification LED below the display. The tablet's dimensions are impressive for a device with its price, and indeed, the new Nexus 7 does feel much thinner and lighter than its older version. The thickness comes in at 8.7mm; not as thin as the iPad mini (7.2mm), but still a significant improvement over the OG Nexus 7's 10.4mm girth. Impressively, the new Nexus 7 sets the record as the lightest tablet ever, weighing just 290g (299g for the LTE version), it's lighter than the iPad mini (308g, 312g with LTE) and much lighter than its predecessor (340g, 347g with 3G). Especially for its price, the new Nexus 7 is one very svelte device. 

Display

People have been wondering how long it would take for Apple to release a Retina iPad mini. Well, Google beat them to it. The new Nexus 7's display has a pixel density that sits squarely in the Retina range, and is actually the tablet with the highest ppi ever. 1920 x 1200 pixels in that 7" IPS display results in an extremely crisp 323ppi pixel density. It blows the iPad mini's mediocre 163ppi and the OG Nexus 7's 216ppi out of the water, displaying razor sharp text and bright, crisp images. The LED-Backlit IPS technology also means that the new Nexus 7 will have excellent viewing angles and vivid color reproduction. There's no question about it; the new Nexus 7 has by far the best display in the 7/8-inch tablet market, and quite possibly the best display in the entire tablet space.

Performance

Guess what? Google also gave performance a huge upgrade with the new Nexus 7. The refreshed 7-incher doesn't have a particularly new SoC, but it's definitely one of the fastest. The SoC in question is Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC, which consists of a very fast Quad-core Krait CPU clocked at 1.5GHz and a very juicy Adreno 320 GPU. With that kind of performance, the new Nexus 7 will definitely be one of the fastest tablets in existence, and will be quite the gaming machine, especially with the crisp, bright display. 

Pricing and Conclusion

I may be wrong, but from my point of view, there is absolutely nothing to complain about the new Nexus 7. As it's a Nexus device, it will be the first to receive Android OS updates for many years to come. It offers an improved build quality with better looks, it's much lighter and thinner, placing itself as the lightest tablet ever. It has an outstanding display, probably the best display ever seen in a tablet, and it's performance is excellent, making it a good gaming machine. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but the new Nexus 7 is basically one of the, if not the, best tablet ever made. And to make it almost perfect, it's also very budget friendly. It's a bit more expensive than the OG Nexus 7, but it's still significantly cheaper than the much more lackluster iPad mini. Starting at $229 for the Wi-Fi only version with 16 GB (pricing for the LTE version is still unknown), the Nexus 7 is the bargain of the century. Well done, ASUS and Google!