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Google Nexus 5 Reviewby Brian Klug on 12/5/2013 8:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Mobile
- Snapdragon 800
- Android 4.4
- Nexus 5
231 Comments
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cynosure4sure - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkFreaking Finally :P Reply
jiffylube1024 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link+1. Reply
w0203j - Friday, December 06, 2013 - link+2 Reply
JaimeCarlos - Sunday, December 08, 2013 - link+3
There was no reason to take it so long -.- Reply
JoannWDean - Saturday, December 14, 2013 - linkmy buddy's aunt earned 14958 dollar past week. she been working on the laptop and got a 510900 dollar home. All she did was get blessed and put into action the information leaked on this site... http://cpl.pw/OKeIJo Reply
spencersears - Friday, October 03, 2014 - linkIt sure is a nice phone! But it can't match up to the competition these days, by for example HTC One M8 (see http://www.consumertop.com/best-phone-guide/). I wish Google was as good at making phones as they are at search engines or email! Reply
nappingrat - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkLike a fine wine - good things take time! Thanks Brian! Reply
pwr4wrd - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkLike a fine wine? It is not my intention to start an argument but have you really had any fine wine? If you actually did, you would not call any android platform unit a fine wine. One of the worst analogies seen online. Reply
raazman - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI'm sure nappingrat is referring to the article, not Android. Reply
nappingrat - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYou got it raazman; I think the review itself is top notch. I, like most people, wish the phone were more polished. Gotta love the intertubes for the entertainment value though - an unfavorable review of my review of Brian's review. Reply
Azurael - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkOn the other hand, I don't think you could say Android hasn't matured fantastically over the years. I've been a fan since the start (G1 > Desire > Desire Z > Atrix > SGS2 > One X > Nexus 4) These days, I look forward to using Android more than any other platform I interact with on a daily basis... Even 1.5 on the G1 felt like an upgrade from the busted original iPhone it replaced (maybe not graphically, but certainly functionally - Notifications and Copy/Paste!) And I really wouldn't want to use anything pre-ICS these days.
And not being a fan of wine, I'd take an Android device any day over the offer of a glass of super priceless vintage wine :) Reply
blackmagnum - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWhen will Google owned Motorola get a chance to build a Nexus? I'll be looking for a different design language than the Koreans. Reply
mrdude - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNever, I hope.
The Moto X has some really innovative ideas that are unlike any other phone in the market. I think that phone showed that Motorola is aware that there's a lot more to a great smartphone than just bumping up specs and PPI. The Nexus line, at least to me, seems to be about providing a stable platform to push out Android releases and offer a clean and conservative platform to build upon or strive for. A Moto version of Nexus would likely be just another boring smartphone, which is what I find most Nexus phones to be - great phones, sure, but really boring :P
Thanks for the review, Brian. Looks like I'm pulling the trigger on the Moto X for roughly the same price Reply
usama_ah - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkCompletely agree. For a while I wanted a Motorola Nexus but after the Moto X I am happy with Motorola doing their own thing because they've been doing a great job. If anything it would be nice if the two camps (Moto and the Nexus team) learned from each other. Reply
Wolfpup - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm fine with the Moto X *IF* it's supported roughly as fast and long as the Nexus line. I figure the Moto X might be, as it might sort of be an unofficial Nexus, given it's supposed to be pretty clean android, and is technically FROM Google.
I wouldn't touch anything else with a 10 foot pole. Gross 3rd party goop on top of the OS, and if you're lucky you get one OS update, and then it's 8 months late (but hey, that's okay, malware writers are good about waiting for everyone to update before they attack, it's just good sportsmanship).
The goop Samsung and the rest slop on top of Android reminds me of the bad old Windows 3.1 days, although with Windows 3.1 at least some of the ideas there were interesting, and you could revert to the real interface. Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAs long as the nexus line, is that a joke? I just sold a less than 2 years hold Galaxy Nexus that won't even see 4.4, even Samsung devices last more wrt upgrades... Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHold = old, pls excuse this keyboard Reply
Elrando Horse - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkPlease point me towards the 2011 Samsung phone getting the Kitkat upgrade. Reply
redundant - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkthe beauty of the nexus line is how damn easy it is to install a custom ROM with 4.4. i know that the average user wouldnt be interested in installing a custom rom, but then again nexus buyers usually arent your average folk. Reply
Azurael - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkErm, since the design language is from Google, I'm not quite sure what you're hoping for... Does the Nexus 5 look like the G2? No, it doesn't. Does the Galaxy Nexus look like the SGS2/3? No. The Nexus 4 looks more like the Optimus G than the others I've mentioned with it's sparkly glass back, but it's still more Google than LG given the hardware platform is the same! What have you got against Korean design anyway? It's not like anything Motorla have produced since the original RAZRs could be regarded as stylistically interesting... All smartphones look pretty much the same, it's just something we're going to have to grow to live with. A big slab of glass with a speaker at the top and a mic at the bottom is just that, and you can't really deviate too far without hampering ergonomics. Reply
StealthGhost - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkFinally a Nexus with good battery life. Great review as always Mr. Klug! Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkIt's also one of the first review to actually back up the battery life claim with numbers. The others are all subjective. Reply
harpocrates - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThe Verge review was a joke in this regard, stating "During our time with the Nexus 5, it's been hard to get a real grip on how its battery truly operates.". Instead of taking the time to figure a methodology to test the phone, they simply rushed out the review without real facts about battery life. I'm very pleased to see real data here at Anandtech. Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI totally agree. However I would also like to see some "idle" battery life tests, with display off, but with push notifications turned on. It would be more representative of the average use than browsing the web over wifi for 8 hours. Reply
Laxaa - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAgree as well. Other reviews have made the battery a lot worse than it seems here(compared to the competition) Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link+1, for the article and the comment.
It's good to see battery life data, but something more representative of the typical user would be good.
Also, I feel that Anandtech are pulling their punches here with regard to non-removable versus removable batteries: Is it really the case that the design choice of a non-removable battery gives 40% better life? Somehow I doubt that... but it's what the charts seem to show.
So a more detailed explanation of the pros and cons of non-removable versus user removable batteries would be good, along with some data.
I'm not saying that such explanation had to be in *this* article, but the recent separate "explanation" of AnandTech policy with regard to an emerging history of neglect of these issues was heavy on defense and short on details with regards to assertions that non-removable batteries increase battery life, and thus are simply design choices with trade-offs. How much trade-off? 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%?
I'm thinking that for typical users that a 20 - 30% increase in battery life would probably be needed to offset the "hassle-factor" of not being able to change your own batteries at will. For example, if like most users you can get through the day okay, or you can get through the day on one session of say, a half hour of opportunistic charging, then a 30% increase in battery life might be enough to get you through 2 days of more or less the same behavior. That could be significant enough to sway the decision strongly in favor of a non-removable battery for most people.
Basically, I think in days and weeks on this issue. I have to charge a moderately used BB-Z10 once every 36 hours (1.5 days). A lightly used Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that I also always carry with me requires charging once every 3 days. A feature phone that I use as a bedside alarm clock needs charging once every 2 weeks.
A nitpick is that AT recently committed (somewhat unconvincingly) to being agnostic on non-removable batteries versus user removable batteries, and to not discriminate. I'll admit that I was surprised and impressed by AT's attempt to be just that... this article was much better than some others of late. However, to follow through and complete the act, being truly neutral requires openly characterizing the pros and cons, and describing them accurately.
This needs to start with descriptions. Calling these batteries "internal" versus "non-removable" is close, but not quite adequate. Both types of batteries are "internal." The correct two subsets that the category breaks down into are "user removable," and "user non-removable." In this way, the uninitiated reader who happens upon an AT article is clearly informed that the battery in the device that they are considering purchasing (in this case, the Nexus 5) is of the type "user non-removable."
Moving on to a discussion of the best way to get access to the battery: Seeing the back cover off of the Nexus 5 in the AT photos makes it plain that changing the back cover to a tool-less user removable design would be both desirable (from a consumer perspective) and not-so-challenging (from the manufacturer's perspective).
Overall, the Nexus 5 looks like a great affordable mid-range unlocked phone with a few flagship quality design features such as a great SOC (finding an unlocked phone at this price / quality is a rarity, and is to be commended). Unfortunately, the lack of a user removable battery will remain one of the Nexus lineup's weakest points.
As an alternative, the Blackberry Z10 can occasionally be bought unlocked direct from Blackberry USA for half price (it was recently on sale at $200 each). It has a user removable battery, great multitasking OS with awesome messaging hub software (that consolidates all messages, call info, and notifications in one place) that is a real time saver, but inferior camera. The Samsung S4-Mini is another reasonably priced unlocked phone with a user removable battery.
Going up the range to a higher-end flagship, there is also the Google Play variant of the Samsung S4 that has a user removable battery... if that is important to you... since we *are* being "neutral" on the subject.
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkthe removable or not battery is a samsung argument only, you can get external batteries for any device, some even can work with multiple brands of phones, and the price is ok Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkand they all suck because they basically discharge on the USB port to charge your phone, wasting at least 30% in the process Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkWhile efficiency is obviously a concern,I don't see how that means they all suck. You can get a 5,600-6,000 mAh battery for like $35 that's still smaller than the phone itself, built in micro cable and everything... Such a battery is basically good for two full charges (or more).
There's smaller ones, the tiniest are usually cylinder shaped, but the built in cable and flat form factor of the former seems the most useful IMO. I've been using one for a while and I really don't miss rebooting plus taking my case & battery lid off just to swap batteries.
Obviously everyone's needs are different, some may not have the time or space for a USB battery to top up the phone in a bag/pocket. Thankfully there's still OEMs catering to all needs in the Android ecosystem. Reply
dynamited - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkNo, it's about the overall life time of the battery and after 18 months you are at 50% capacity Reply
flyingpants1 - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkSo basically, you don't use your phone, therefore you can get "3 days" of battery life. Got it.
I'd rather just increase battery life to 16 hours of constant use. Reply
webwarmiller - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkJust from my own experience at 'idle' with nothing disabled (wifi, cellular, GPS, Goolge Now, full sync'ing of 2 Google accounts, etc) I would estimate the battery drains btw 1-1.5% hour. I've never had a phone that sips battery as well as it does at 'idle' when everything is enabled. Reply
flyingpants1 - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI just wish everyone would stop. These anecdotal examples mean nothing at all. Reply
nathanddrews - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkArcher. Best part of the article. ;-) Reply
speconomist - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkCouldn't find that reference in the review, where exactly is it? Reply
djpavcy - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBrian,
Maybe I missed it, but you mention that you have both a black and a white nexus 5, so are the benchmarks you list for the black device, the white, an average of the two, or do you get the exact same numbers for both devices? Reply
Jumangi - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWhy would you expect different numbers from the same phones with different colored cases? Reply
dave_the_nerd - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkDA RED WUNZ GO FASTA!1! Reply
Wade_Jensen - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHAHAHAHAHAHAH BAHAHAH BAHAHAH!!!! YOU Legend!! Reply
djpavcy - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkIn my experience, running the same freaking benchmark twice on the same device yields different numbers so I would be curious to know if the two devices had similar or identical results. Reply
flyingpants1 - Friday, December 06, 2013 - link... Maybe because they might use a different revision of hardware, or different thermal throttling due to the difference in material and design used for the case. You never know. Most likely identical though. Reply
pseudo7 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkOn page 2, what does "Delta" mean in the bottom two tables?
Are lower numbers better in the table Dalvik vs ART?
(I usually rely on the key on graphs to explain i.e. "Lower is better")
Thanks for your hard work Brian, enjoying reading it so far :) Reply
NeoteriX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link1) Lower is better in the tables, and
2) Delta is essentially the of percentage of difference between the two results, with 1 being no difference, a number below 1 being a regression in performance, and a number above 1 being an improvement in performance. E.g., 1.065x = 6.5% improvement. Reply
jerrylzy - Sunday, December 22, 2013 - linkI inferred from the Delta and thought it should be "lower is better". but I downloaded AndEBench myself and ran a few tests. it says "iterations/sec". shouldn't it be "higher is better"? Thank you for answering. Reply
Wade_Jensen - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThankyou very much for a spectacular review, Brian. We know you've been ridiculously busy. Reply
webmastir - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBrian,
You have a typo on your Display Analysis page. You have "..a MIPI..", should be "...an MIPI*"..." Reply
webmastir - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkPlease proofread your entire article. Thanks. Reply
cwolf78 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkPlease go F yourself. Thanks. Reply
NeoteriX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkTo piggyback on this, the link to the RF "Field Test Menus" app link ("awesome app with shortcuts already on the market.") is broken I believe. Reply
Mil0 - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkAlso on the camera page one mention of ISO is meant to be IOS. But these are all nitpickings, awesome article Brian! Reply
speconomist - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkSerious question from someone whose mother tongue is not English:
If I understand correctly even if the acronym starts with consonant it should be preceded with "an", instead of with "a"?. could someone confirm? Reply
xaml - Sunday, December 15, 2013 - linkAnn ate an ananas after reading through an AnandTech review anticipating an antagonising effect on other publications. Reply
celltech1 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkDo you have any information on if the 5 will support VoLTE? I am assuming there is no technical reason why the hardware can't do it...Google just needs to supply the SIP client. Reply
gescom - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link349 $ / 349 EUR
How's that?
349 $ = 257 EUR + tax = ~ 305 EUR. Reply
gescom - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI was wrong.
It is more like 450 $ / 400 EUR - no contract Reply
JimmiG - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkIndeed, the Nexus 5 is a much worse buy in Europe than over in the US.
In Sweden, the 32GB N5 is €460, while the LG G2 is €475. Those extra €15 will buy you better battery life, better camera and a bigger screen. The 16GB N5 is €415, so if you're sure you don't need the extra local storage, it might be a reasonably good deal. You can also get the G2 on contract of course, and pay 25 - 50% less over the course of 1-2 years. Reply
ancan - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAlso, the 32GB is gray market since LG has chosen not to sell this version. I managed to order a 32GB from the UK play store, and including P&P, shipping proxy fee and toll, it will still be some €'s less expensive than the 16GB. Reply
Mil0 - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYou pay /less/ for a phone on contract? Here in the Netherlands we have about the same prices for phones, which I would also consider the g2 were I to replace my n4. However, last time I checked it was cheaper to buy a phone of contract and get a 'sim-only' contract. Reply
DukeN - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkEnglish Police alert: "Anyone who hesitated to move from iOS back then will find themselves with an OS today that is clearly a substitute good."
Maybe just change it to "KitKat >> iOS"? Reply
bplewis24 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThat would be a welcome change. Reply
edlee - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkyeah, I reread that sentence three times to fully understand what he was trying to say, it needs a rewrite. Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkJust swap the words "substitute good" to "good substitute."
He is clearly saying that Android and iOS are more or less on par with each other, with neither OS having a compelling advantage over the other.
It now seems more important to read the details of the articles with regards to the specific functions of each of the operating systems.
The iOS camera software is superior at this point, and a weak point of the Android OS, if that is important to you.
As I have recently come to understand (having used Apple iOS, Android 4.3, Blackberry OS 10, and WinPhone8), there is no OS that consolidates all emails, SMS, call data, and notifications in one easy-to-read list as good as BB OS10 does. A real time saver. But, you get a crappy camera.
So the Nexus 5 gets good camera hardware and crappy Android camera software. Hopefully there is a fix on the way soon.
If you want a read-out of "true" North on the compass, then iOS will easily do that, but BB-OS10 won't.
WinPhone 8 won't read FLAC audio files.
BB OS10 won't let you format the Micro-SDXC storage card using the exFAT file system. Android will.
We are now in the days where there is finally a very close neck and neck competition amongst the mobile OSes for the best quality and functionality. Unfortunately, all of the OSes have some basic features missing. They all have some catching up to do to get it right. Reply
Galcobar - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkThe sentence is correctly written.
"A good" means an item with value (as opposed to a bad such as pollution which has negative value). Most people encounter the word in the form of "goods and services."
"Substitute good" is a standard English term, meaning a good which is an adequate replacement for another good. Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm going to iOS, tired of beta Android versions ever since 4.0, that and the 18 month since device announced update policy... Reply
Alpeshkh - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkFINALLY!!!
Still reading the battery life section and. gotta say, "Great things do take time"!
Seriously, battery life numbers are clearly the biggest surprise. Who would've thought that N5 would beat iPhone 5s in some battery life tests!? All, 'Tech' blogs who rushed out for reviews & giving scores for getting clicks should really consider their reviews' process & use the device as their daily driver for considerable amount of time!
As for me, I was just waiting for Brian's review & his finding on battery life & am really happy to see the results!
@Brian, for the difference between G2 & N5 in battery life, could the PSR be the reason!? Just curious!
Thanks for the quality review as always! It was totally worth the wait! Really appreciate the effort you and whole of AnandTech people put in! Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkMost "tech" sites just looked at the number of mAh and concluded that it must suck given that it's smaller than the G2's.
I call them "tech" sites because they are becoming more like fashion magazines, putting the emphasis on how they feel about the product. Reply
yankeeDDL - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBest Nexus5 review, by far. Thanks.
I whitelisted anandtech on adblock because of this review: you guys really deserve it.
I bought a Nexus5 and I read many of these reviews before doing so, but I confess that I hesitated a bit. Now I am (even more) convinced I made a good purchase. Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkso AT approved your buy thus you give them back, how about, for a change, ack that AT is a great site for every device, apple included, can you write that? Reply
Paulman - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkMaybe it's because AT validated what he/she now already knows based on firsthand experience, while the other tech sites proved to err more on the side of naysaying?
I don't know if the comment author has received their phone yet, but of they're like me, what I found was that a lot of the review sites blast the Nexus 5 on "poor battery life" and a "lousy camera", when in fact I've found battery life to be quite good, easily lasting a day out (in fact, on my light usage, it goes 24 hours+) and even while I take pretty good quality photos in all sorts of light (just that the camera UI is kind of messed up [slow and a bit buggy]). Also, the overall feel and responsiveness of the device "feels" really nice :) Reply
yankeeDDL - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkHey, this was a great review, and, in general, I enjoy AT. I don't believe all reviews are as stellar as this one, although they're all definitely good. How can you manipulate someone's positive comment to the point of making it sound as a negative thing? Dude, chill. Reply
hamiltenor - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkGreat review, I avoid The Verge like the plague lately. AnandTech, Ars Technica and to a lesser extent, Tom's Hardware are basically the only useful technology news sites from my point of view.
Few typos, but I won't bother complaining. It's clear what you meant and they don't detract from the effort or lengths you went to for this review.
Looking forward to the line-out audio comparison! Reply
cheinonen - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm working on the article as fast as I can. I had to get another sample of a phone to verify something but I believe I have enough data to write it now. It's just big so it'll take a few days possibly. Lots of work to get done but it's coming ASAP. Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI will add to others comments that waiting for you guys to get it right is totally worth it. In spite of my nitpicks, Brian did great on this review, and I'm glad to hear that you are handling audio as a dedicated project.
I am very interested to see what you find on your audio quality investigations, especially since 90% of my audio consumption is now via mobile devices with content as follows:
- 80% are WMA-LossLess rips from redbook CDs;
- 10% mp3-360kbs from Amazon; and
- 5% FLAC 24-bit from various sources (and growing on this one).
Having tried numerous devices, I will comment in advance that I find the BlackBerry Z10 to be great for commuting in a noisy environment (good oomph for cutting through rumble over the car speakers) and the Samsung Note 2 and Samsung S-ATIV seem well refined for quiet environment listening at my desks (home and work).
My point being that the sound "profiles" of these devices may not be perfectly accurate, but nonetheless both have their applications and usefulness.
96 and 192KHz / 24-Bit recordings are gradually making their way into my collection in increasing numbers and I'm really enjoying the sound. So HD-Audio is also an interest, especially for material that can make good use of the bandwidth.
WinPhone 8 generally cannot handle FLAC audio files, thus the Blackberry and Samsung Android are my go-to devices for music now. I use them with Sennheiser, Grado, or B&W cans over my head depending where I am at (home / work / travel).
I occasionally use a Gen 1 Asus Nexus 7 for audio listening - it is okay but clearly isn't as good as the Blackberry and Samsung devices, is on par with Zune, and much improved over the old Sansa devices. Hopefully they further improved the audio quality in the Gen 2 device, although I will skip it for other reasons.
The Z10 has excellent volume, while the Note 2 is too quiet in the car on some songs... thus indicating that some devices need supplementary amplification to reach satisfying volume on some songs. Hopefully sound volume issues will get addressed in future mobile devices. Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkLooking forward to this. Reply
Alpeshkh - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAh, should've curbed my excitement and read the display section fory that PSR thing! Reply
cgalyon - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkCould the camera performance be significantly improved with use of another camera app? I would be interested in seeing if you could do a comparison of the camera performance in the stock app, Camera Awesome, and VSCO Can. My thinking is that it could give us very valuable information on if the camera experience could in fact be one of the best on Android when provided with capable software. Thanks for the very detailed review! Reply
Tetracycloide - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkMost of the camera negatives are implemented before an app would be given camera data I think. Will require an OS update. 4.4.1 is supposed to be that OS update so we shouldn't have to wait long. Reply
AncientWisdom - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAlso VERY interested in this.... We know the problem, question is are third party camera apps the solution? Reply
blind2haters - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkDude...the metal ring around the lens IS for magnetic lenses... It has already been tested and confirmed. Great research...not. Reply
Brian Klug - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNope. http://cl.ly/image/0o2a2d342R0o
Entirely cosmetic at this point.
-Brian Reply
mike8675309 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkOn the lenses, isn't the lens the magnetic part, not the ring? Thus as long as the ring around the lens is made from a ferromagnetic material the lens would attach. n'est-ce pas? Reply
NeoteriX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHow come we can't see the Qi charger magnetic mounting points on this? Or am I not looking at this correctly? Reply
blind2haters - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkhttp://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/cell-phone-... Here I did ur research for u. Reply
NeoteriX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link...what are you showing? That it's possible to glue a magnetic mount onto a phone and use magnetic lenses? Yeah, we already knew that and it's not Nexus 5 specific. Reply
skiboysteve - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link"Google can claim that SMS and IM are now merged nicely together under one roof, but it's still two basically two discrete threads and views. It's amazing to me that it's 2013 and nobody has still been able to merge the two together the same way WebOS did with the Palm Pre."
Windows Phone 8 does this perfectly with SMS and Facebook and Messenger using the same thread with a switch button to switch between them. Reply
rwei - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI see you beat me to it, oops Reply
errorr - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkUnfortunately that is a relevant as palmOS doing it to me... Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkIf its important enough to you, find a BB-OS10 device to play with for awhile. ALL communications data is in one integrated list (SMS, Call Data, Email Accounts, Notifications, etc.). Incredibly time saving and easy.
I bought the BB Z10 as a stopgap phone that I could wear on my belt and play my music for me while I waited for Samsung to offer something in the same size range. Dunno if I'll ever go there now.
I'm so hooked on the convenience and speed of the BB-OS10 Hub. I'm also hooked on the MS Windows-like multi-tasking windows.
Now I find myself getting a bit irritated when I use an Android, iOS, or WinPhone device. By comparison to the Blackberry, the "communications channels" seem fragmented and disorganized on those devices.
I never used a Blackberry before the Z10 so I have nothing to say about whatever happened in the past, but for an actual "phone" and communicator, based on my Z10 experience, I dread the thought of them exiting the market.
People ramble on about Linux, but for my money, WebOS and BB-OS10 are the ones who pushed / are pushing the market in the right direction.
I realize Linux has great underpinnings, but great GUI design is where its "at" when time is money, or time is satisfaction. Reply
SpaceRanger - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNo Removable Battery?? No thank you.. I'll pass. Reply
Tetracycloide - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkIt's removable has in 'replace the battery with relatively little effort if it stops holding a charge' but not has in 'bring a spare camping to swap out for more juice.' Decide accordingly. Reply
rwei - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - link>nobody has still been able to merge the two together the same way WebOS did with the Palm Pre
WP does a good enough job interleaving and integrating the two that I'm almost completely agnostic over whether I use SMS, Facebook or MSN/Skype, and switch between them seamlessly based on my iOS/Android recipients' preferences. Reply
PsychoPif - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI really love AnandTech, but I find the fact that they act like Windows Phones does'nt exist quite disturbing.
I see 18 device on the battery chart, but not one runs WP8. Reply
kyuu - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBrian Klug seems to have a personal beef with Windows Phone and, apparently, refuses to review them. Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI have one sitting here in front of me (a Samsung ATIV-S that I bought on the cheap to play with).
So let me point out that out of the 4 devices (3 operating systems and as many manufacturers) that I use, it is the only one that cannot handle my complete collection of music files (it chokes on FLAC files).
So after 20 years of making about 40 billion dollars a year, Microsoft cannot bring themselves to support the leading open standard for high quality 24-bit loss-less audio files? Reply
munim - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkProbably because it's useless to have such high fidelity support on a mobile device that you'll be using outside of a studio. Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYeah, I'm surprised there's so many mentions of FLAC thru the comments... It's almost ironic, I really hope none of the people pinning for FLAC support are the same ones complaining about removable storage!
My entire CD collection is ripped to FLAC, it just makes the most sense got archival purposes, I wish more mainstream music was available in lossless formats just out of principle... However it's pretty pointless to be dragging FLAC files around on a phone.
You're not gonna be able to tell the difference vs properly encoded MP3s, even if you're traveling with $300+ worth of DAC/amp equipment and $500+ reference grade headphones or IEM (much less the kinda headphones most people use, never mind the line out or Bluetooth which would pose the weakest link in the chain).
Do a proper blind test, then try to rationalize why FLAC support is so important... Considering it takes no time at all to convert a big library and it's gonna take up a fraction of the space your FLAC library already does (I keep a discrete MP3 library on the PC just to mak esyncs quicker, the extra space is a drop in the bucket compared to the FLAC originals anyway). Reply
hrrmph - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkI'd rather spend my time searching for new music than re-encoding and maintaining more sync lists of the music that I already have. Manufacturers that bake the support into the device make life easier. Syncs of playlists "just work."
64GB of NAND was $35 the other day at Amazon. 128GB is just around the corner. Is storage really all that precious so as to justify wasting time compressing it down into such a tiny space?
With storage becoming so reasonably cheap, then lossy compression becomes perhaps still useful for video, but is an utter waste of time on audio.
In fact, if tags worked properly on redbook audio CDs, I wouldn't bother compressing them at all and would just save them as .wav files.
Same thing with FLAC. If I buy it in a high-quality format, then why waste time and resources squeezing it down?
Impulses - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkI don't spend any time re encoding or managing separate FLAC/MP3 playlists either... Media Monkey does it all for me seamlessly and it's far easier to configure it to your particular needs than something like iTunes. Should look into it, if you're really that much of a music lover it's just foolish to use 10x more space than necessary for storing music on a phone.
I bring a new CD home, open EAC to rip (simple one click process), and when I open Media Monkey later it's already set to find the new album and convert it on it's own (which doesn't even take a minute on a modern PC). When I sync it knows to only look at the MP3 library, there's truly smart playlists if for instance you wanna have a list of recently added music, etc.
My CD collection (+ online purchases) would never fit on a 64GB micro SD card encoded to FLAC, quite manageable as MP3 though. Easier to share too, or use as ringtones/alarms...
FLAC/lossless makes sense from an archival point of view, exactly because of scenarios like this. You can re-encode or edit files without taking a hit in quality... It's not a "high quality format" in the sense that you're hearing anything that you wouldn't from an MP3 though. The original mastering/editing usually has far more to do with that than the distribution format. Reply
edi_opteron - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkUmm, Where is the review of Lumia 1020? Or Lumia 1520? Oh wait, the greatest tablet in the market ( forget the app count for a moment) The Lumia 2520?
Nokia hasn't sent you the devices? Simple, ask one, and they'll send you with a rush! I can't believe that you guys reviewed HTC One Max or Surface 2 and didn't do the same for Nokia devices which are probably the best in their category.
Review the tablet please!! Reply
BoneAT - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAlthough our good friends at TheVerge suggests there's a major SW update coming in just few days improving that camera inconsistency, although not yet a new stock camera application. I look forward to you guys testing it and updating this article! Reply
A5 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkYou can't just ignore the app count when talking about these devices. No way the 2520 is the best tablet. Reply
thunderbird32 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkEven as far as non-Android/iOS tablets go the 2520 isn't the best. I'd much prefer Dell's Venue tablets. Full version of Windows on a Bay Trail SoC is so much more useful than RT on ARM. Reply
zoetrope - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWhy don't you WinTards troll elsewhere? Enough of the whining and "poor me" attitude. The intertubes is big enough for your ilk, go visit a WP echo chamber like wpcentral.com and keep out of comment sections if you can't stay on topic. Reply
Wade_Jensen - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI am thoroughly against insulting people in such a manner, but WinTard is possibly the most hilarious thing since S-gimmick and S-fail. Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThe greatest tablet? The 2520?
Well maybe almost. Nokia specs show the Micro-SD slot to be a crippled version with a 32GB max capacity.
For many people, the low storage capacity makes it DOA, falling down straight out of the gate. There are just too many competing devices that have 64GB capable Micro-SDXC slots.
Of the course, the Nexus 5 is a zero in this category, since it has no slot for Micro-SD of any type. Reply
jimbo2779 - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI'm going to ignore the childish name calling for a moment and just say that while I am a big fan of WP and windows tabs I seriously doubt the 2520 is going to be the best tablet going, on paper it has decent hardware and Nokia build quality if great it is still going to be running RT.
RT has/had a huge amount of potential but without more app support it will never draw in the crowds and that will in turn not lead to more apps so it is a vicious cycle that I doubt will be changing any time soon. As an OS it is pretty great and you only need to look at some of the fan vids of it online where people are gaming on the tab while watching a video on a TV or vice versa, there is some serious potential to it but without the app support it is likely to stay at potential.
As for WP reviews I do agree that it is very disheartening to not even have some cursory reviews/overviews of them. It really wouldn't be that hard to get a few of the key devices and at least battery test them. At this point a few days of testing would really go a long way to showing how they stack up in terms of battery life.
It is disappointing to not have any real consideration for what is a good phone OS and its devices. Market share is increasing and as it does so will app support and if AT is not careful they could be in a position where WP is more of a serious player (it already is in some parts of the world) and none of the writing staff will have much of an idea about what it is all about. Reply
BoneAT - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHaving a whole year to work on the device an two to work on Key Lime Pie, I'm surprised how rushed the Nexus 5 feels. The camera thing is a mess as if there were very, VERY late decisions to include OIS and exclude the new API, and ppl. are reporting wakelocks all over the place.
Build quality is extremely worrysome based on drops tests, each ending brutally plus the speaker placement blocks clear sound coming through, boyz @XDA improved it significantly drilling small holes into the plastic underneath.
And then there's the battery - it seems Google understands the flagship concept as far as specs and SW goes, but 4hr SoT on normal use of Google services is NOT flagship level. With a price bump I wonder how they failed to address the Nex4's biggest issue (not much real world improvement based on dozens of N5 XDA users).
Now when you have the camera focus right, when you manually improve the speaker, when you protect it from the smallest drops and when you use all around (excluding all non-KitKat compatible apps), the Nexus 5 is the most successful realization of the Google Phone. These annoyances however makes it a questionable buy, never mind the price tag. The Moto X might just be a better buy considering you get two for one Nexus 5. Reply
THX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm guessing you went with a different phone and are trying to justify your purchase by trashing the shinier, newer, more performant option. :)
Maybe I'm missing something but how is the Moto X half the cost of the $350 Nexus 5? Reply
BoneAT - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNo criticism, no improvement, buddy. I'm a Nexus user so hit any miss on your cyber bullying attempt, but thx for spotting out my Moto X - Moto G mix-up. Reply
THX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNexus 4 user? Just sell your phone and get the 5.
And I think anyone here would rather have a single fast phone than 2 slow ones, or was there a specific use-case you had in mind? Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNot-everyone-buy-a-nexus-for-300-fucking-dollars Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI think he hit the jackpot Reply
ffh2303 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAbout the charging time,my unit [a black 32GB D820] charges in under 90 minutes using a 2A Note 2 charger [Samsung ETA-U90UWE] while on. Using the Battery Monitor Widget by 3c I observed that while idling on the homescreen the phone consumes around 450mA [shown as -445mA in the app] and when I plug in the Note 2 charger it shows the phone is charging at around 1500mA [shown as +1500mA]. My charging time with the stock LG charger is the same as your findings though. Reply
rxzlmn - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI wonder why the reported times from the battery life benchmarks are so much higher than any of the reported screen-on times in 'real-world' usage? I am not trying to discredit the data, just honestly curious. How does one get close to 9 hours of constant screen-on time while the phone is being used, and why is there not a single battery stat from phones in use anywhere close to that number?
On a side note, do you plan on reviewing the Sony Z1? I am asking because it has generally received mixed reviews in terms of battery life, but actually seems to perform very good in 'real life' scenarios. Reply
sherlockwing - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAnandtech is one of the few sites that set all phone to the same brightness(200nits) when battery testing. What you see from other websites is that they test every phone at their auto-brightness or max brightness setting. That's why Anandtech's battery life benchmark results are different from other sites. Reply
rxzlmn - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm talking about real usage, i.e. people who own the phone post screenshots of Android battery usage stats. Not benchmarks. The best you see for the N5 is 5 hours+, even with WiFi only. Reply
sherlockwing - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkOfc having the phone run benchmark is going to result differently than real life usage since the scenario is different. Reply
Cinnabuns - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThe tests performed here are controlled and I imagine that the phone is not being moved around a whole lot during battery-life testing (and it shouldn't be). However, one of the nicest things about having a smartphone are location-aware services. And they drain the battery. A lot.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest culprits is Google's own location reporting service, which itself is integral to various Google Now features.
Of course, there are also various bugs that people in the real world encounter that are not triggered by the very specific test conditions in the battery life tests here. For example, Android 4.3 had a bug that could cause a phone to never "deep sleep" after wireless charging. But there's really no way for a review site to try to hunt down all the battery bugs and reproduce them. That's not really within scope of a battery life test and reviewers aren't paid to do QA on a phone, so they can only report on specific bugs they encounter in their personal use of the device (or bugs that are so heinously obvious that everybody has heard about already).
In short, there's no way a review site knows what YOUR "real-world" usage is. So the best thing they can do is to perform a controlled study with a published methodology and report the results. You get to interpret whether that methodology can be extrapolated to your own "real life" use. Sadly, other "review" sites somehow extrapolate their own unscientific experience as representative of real life usage when in truth, there is no universal real-lifeusage. Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkAt the end of the day what matters most is that AT's testing is under controlled circumstances SMS repeatable, thus you get a very fair relative comparison between the tested phones. You may not get 9 hours on wifi if you aren't sitting next to the router, at X brightness, with zero background syncs, etc etc; but you can easily tell whether phone A will so better than phone B based on their tests. Isn't that all that really matters when you're trying to decide whether to buy A or B? Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkSMS = and
WTB comment edit Reply
augustofretes - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBecause those stats aren't the product of a controlled test? Because some people in those tests have their display at high brightness, because some are playing games, and a thousand of each? Reply
tehh4ck3r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkhttp://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5175568/fixing-t...
Has Anandtech had a chance to play with this yet? Reply
Brian Klug - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNope, I have heard nothing about it and have no insights. Wait for real testing.
-Brian Reply
jamdev12 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHahahaha!!! Awesome comeback Brian. I like the fact that you have real testers at Anandtech that take that extra step and have unbiased comments about the product and its features. Reply
Wade_Jensen - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAgreed haha, but its definitely confirmed. Poor Brian has to redo camera testing soon. Reply
Myrandex - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWindows Phone does great with threading IMs through Facebook and Windows Live messenger along with text messages... Reply
David-K - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkDid you see this ?
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Nexus-5-huge-camera... Reply
A5 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkhttp://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5175568/fixing-t...
4.4.1 with camera fixes coming imminently. Reply
theblacklaser - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkMy next phone will be a Nexus Whichever-Version-They're-On-When-It's-Time-For-A-New-Phone. No question about it. Reply
Arnulf - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkgood as it might be, the size/capacity of that battery is still a design fail. I own the 16 GB Nexus 5 model (I imagine 32 GB is exactly the same as far as dimensions go) and the phone is way too thin. LG could easily have made it 20-25% thicker so it would be more comfortable to hold, and the extra space could be used to beef the battery up to LG G2 level.
This and the limited storage (coupled with the fact that there is no microSD expansion slot) are my only complaints about this phone though; too bad such nice hardware wasn't designed into a better product. Reply
BearCatCow - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWhat a great article! Very objective and evidence based. The attention to display accuracy rather than whoever pumped up the saturation the most, the clear analysis of the camera's hardware (potential) vs software (current usability), and the multitude of battery measures are very helpful. Reply
bioyuki - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBrian: Did you notice any differences in real world rf performance between the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4? Only a few data points on my end, but it seems like the N5 performs on average 3-5 dBm worse than the N4 (LTE and HSPA on Band 4). Also, does the N5 contain any of Qualcomm's tunable front end parts? Reply
BearCatCow - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkQuestion: what were the differences in battery performance with ART runtime vs the default? Reply
nostriluu - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkhow about a battery test that's really useful for most people, how a device lasts over the course of a day with a typical set of apps? these rundown tests are really not that helpful. Reply
NeoteriX - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWhat do you specifically propose for an objective, repeatable, platform agnostic test, hmm? What is a typical set of apps? What about the fact that apps are always changing? What about the fact that many apps are not multi-platform or aren't standardized across platforms?
The rundown test (based on something agnostic and universal like web page loading) is probably the best kind of objective test you're going to get; you'll just have to extrapolate your daily performance from that.
Besides, as a pragmatic matter, Brian's/Anandtech's reviews are already take so much time and effort to do, and that's with multiple a 5-9 hour long battery tests (LTE, 3G, Wifi...). One can't test any other feature of the phone while battery testing... you want to seriously add a suite of 12-24 hour tests on top of that? Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkCan't believe someone's actually pinning for less controlled/repeatable battery testing just because it might be closer to their own use... AT does the best battery tests bar none, whether they mimic your use or not is irrelevant, just find a phone you own or have owned on their list and extrapolate from there. It'll be far more accurate than a pseudo real world test with too many random variables to account for. Reply
flyingpants1 - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkJesus Christ, I cannot believe some of the comments on here. The battery life tests here and everywhere else are terrible. None of them reflect real-world usage whatsoever.
The only real test here is a synthetic web-browsing battery life test, and it gives results between 6-10 hours, I'll eat my monitor if anyone's phone actually lasts that long in real-life web-browsing. Obviously a synthetic benchmark can be a useful as a comparative tool between phones, but not much else. It's basically the equivalent of a 3dmark score.
It's a well-known fact.. actually, by now a universally foregone conclusion that smartphones die extremely quickly, and are super annoying to charge. Brian uses phrases like "It can last the whole day on a single charge" which are utterly meaningless. That just means you left your phone in your pocket most of the time. But when you actually want to use your phone in a pinch, or while travelling, or in an emergency, or for serious work, then it's a completely different story. Yet for some reason you wouldn't get that impression from most reviewers. And so we're forced to compromise.
Compare with laptops from a couple years ago, they'd advertise 5 hours of life, get 3 in reality in ideal conditions, and within a year be down to 2 hours. I'm sure a lot of people were happy with that. So what. The Macbook Air came along and gives you up to 12-16 hours. Now *THAT* is all day life. That is what we should be getting on smartphones. 12-16 hours of screen time and constant use. Then we won't need to go and do forty million battery life tests anymore, because the problem is *solved* for 99.9% of use cases. Instead we're getting price gouged like crazy for storage, and R&D goes to things like 500PPI displays and downloading at 150mbps, things which should be of slightly lower importance than making the phone stay alive.
No idle test. This is really important, the percentage drop should be less than 1-2% every 24 hours.
No video test.
No gaming test.
Nobody seems to care about texting. People usually send *way* more texts than they make calls, and texting drains battery faster than calls do. I often run out of battery life on the train while texting, seems like a percentage point every minute or two even with my display on 0%.
The reviewers are definitely on the manufacturer's side on every single issue here: against microSD, against removable batteries, but *FOR* pointlessly thin, even to the point of sacrificing battery life and functionality. If they were on the *consumer's* side, they'd be tearing apart every single 16GB device, advocating the $1 microSD slot for *EVERY PHONE*, and demanding *EVERY PHONE* have either a version with a removable battery, and/or EXTENDED (MAXX) battery version.
My ideal device would be a 5" screen, LG G2 or RAZR MAXX-like device, 10.5mm thick, 4500mah, with 64GB microSD and front speakers like the HTC One. The closest thing right now is the HTC Butterfly S, IMO the best phone on the market by far, there are no tradeoffs at all. Reply
bountygiver - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWell the camera UI didn't go miserable in 4.4, but since 4.3. Navigating settings in 4.3+ camera UI is a pain as toggles have no feedback and there's no tell whether an option is a menu or a toggle.
For the not focus problem, just tap another place and tap the original position again to refresh it. Reply
Krysto - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm curious why you're calling 512 MB phones "mid-range", when you can find such a phone even for $100 unlocked these days. Even Moto G at $180 is a low-end to mid-range phone, and it has 1 GB of RAM. Is it because you don't want the iPhone to be considered mid-range? Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkTell me how would you consider the 5s (or even the 5c) midrange, because of ram and screen size? Both are top of the line, like it or not... Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkiPhones are upper-midrange. They don't have:
- Tool-less removable back covers (Blackberry, Samsung);
- User replaceable batteries (Blackberry, Samsung);
- Internal user expandable local storage such as via Micro-SDXC slots (Blackberry, Samsung, Sony);
- Dual-SIM slots (Samsung S4, S4-Mini, and Note 3 have variants that are so equipped);
- MS Windows style easy-to-open, easy-to-reduce-to-thumbnail, easy-to-close multitasking windows (BB OS10);
- Interleaving of all communications in one list, such as SMS, Call Data, Email Accounts, Notifications, etc. (Again BB OS10);
- WMA-Lossless audio file support (Android and Blackberry); and
- 4K-60fps OIS-stabilized video recording (okay, nobody has it, but a real flagship device should). Reply
flyingpants1 - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkRight. In addition to the screen size thing. And no NFC, or USB, no front speakers, no waterproof, no wireless charging.. there's actually a ton more.. Reply
erple2 - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkTo be fair, your first 3 points don't tell me high end at all. Those are just convenience features.
The 4th one isn't really all that important outside of a few select markets, so scratch that.
The software itself isn't really a good reason to decide high, medium or low end - there are plenty of Apple Zealots that will tell you the many things Apple does that neither BBX nor Android do, and they'll place some sort of unrealistic weight to that small feature. Curiously, the more I use my phone, the less I care about the fancy interface of the multitasker. Android's method seems to work just fine for me.
The interleaving of communications sounds great, but it comes with one HUGE caveat - crappy app support for EVERYTHING ELSE.
WMA isn't really a deal breaker at all - iOS will play FLAC audio (with an additional app), or the native AppleLossless format.
Though having used an OIS phone in the past, I would consider that a high-end feature.. Reply
akdj - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkWhat about performance? Camera quality? Eco system, app/development support and software available? Post purchase support? Immediate updates and 'point' updates to kill bugs? Oh, yeah... Performance? Did you happen to notice the 5/5s in the 'upper mid range' scoring in graphics, computational power, battery life (no need to replace batteries), a 64GB option (no need for an SD slot), who cares about dual SIM slot when damn near every "world radio" is built in? Buy a new SIM when you arrive at your destination, with minutes, for ten bucks! iPhones and iPads have long been able to playback lossless formats and FLAC. It's kinda cool, there's typically 'an app for that' when using iOS. Not so much using BB OS10. And Samsung's TouchWiz cream soup is thicker than mashed potatoes (I've got a Note 2). Their phones are more bloated than a new Compaq computer bought at Computer City in 2003 with Vista! I own Android and iOS devices. Daily drive a pair of phones. The Note2 and 5s. I can honestly tell you've got ZERO experience with iPhones...and need to before spewing such silly comments. Who needs 'tool less removable back covers' when your phone runs all day on a charge, doesn't break down, and has options for enough on board storage (that EVERYTHING can be loaded to vs. the VERY select few items I can put on my Note's SD card, essentially limited to media....which is available through iTunes Match via the cloud and doesn't need to be stored) to negate the need, again, to access anything inside!
Couple other cool things. Post purchase support...Samsung? Fuggedaboutit! Apple? Take it to the store or call their number....usually they'll just hand you a new one...
...lastly, one thing I've found with my iPhones, I've always sold them and came out ahead after two year of usage! $300 out of pocket on the subsidy, use it two years, sell it for $375...pick up the latest model for $300 then enjoy a nice dinner...or pick up a Mophie case to double my 'juice' if necessary
BBOS 10---the integration of communications is a good idea....in theory. Then again, it's kinda nice to separate email from SMS, Facebook from voicemail....for me at least. As I run a business, some things need to be responded to a bit more professionally than others. I can see myself confusing what I'm responding to. With iOS 7's notification update, this is irrelevant anyway, as it's all just a swipe down front the top of ANY screen within ANY app. Again....use one and you'll educate yourself.
OIS is cool. But it takes up space to be done. And done right....HTC's ONE does get it right, albeit at the expense of shot detail (look at iPhone, Android of your choice vs HTC's pics, their all over as well as excellent reviews of each at dpreview, an excellent camera site, as well as DXOMark). Apple will incorporate it if the technology is there, allows it without sacrifice to shot quality or design aesthetics and usability. Their new burst mode is phenomenal....my 5s shoots faster (with s bigger buffer) than my Canon 7d! All the way up to 100 shots at damn near 10 shots a second....pics what it thinks are the best 'focus' shots so you don't have to dig through....and you can trash the rest.
Again....use one. You might be impressed....unless you enjoy taking your phones apart, then you're absolutely correct. The iPhone isn't for you Reply
gus6464 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkWill you guys be doing a Moto G review? It looks it would be an interesting review for the price it goes for and it's performance. Reply
Quicksand Jesus - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThank goodness there is still a site around that can do a REAL in depth review. I'm so tired of subjective reviews with opinions and no real substance. Other sites could learn alot from Anandtech! Reply
naalex - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThanks for long-awaited and much appreciated review Brian. I was hesitating on buying the Nexus 5 given the shoddy battery-life scaremongering on other websites, but I couldn't wait any longer, so I bought the phone before your review came out. So far, I was thinking I was deluding myself because the battery life has been superb, but your review confirms that the Nexus 5 isn't a dud after all.
I also think the camera troubles are a bit overblown for "normal" users. Yes the camera app is wretched, and focusing is a mystery, but the phone can take good-quality pictures in good and low-light conditions. Photography geeks or more discriminating users might be able to tell the difference between the photos taken with the Nexus 5 and its competitors with better camera packages, but I think for most normal users, it's fine. And hella cheap! Reply
grayson_carr - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkOne thing I'm interested in that you didn't cover Brian. Viewing angles of the display. The viewing angles seem great when looking at the display directly from the sides, top, and bottom, but when looking at it from the corners, it looks seriously washed out (gamma shift?). Just wondering why it does that when HTC's high end LCDs always seem to look good from every angle. If the Nexus 5 is using the same display as the Droid DNA, I would guess it has to do with the Nexus 5 lacking some additional component? A polarization filter perhaps? Know what I'm talking about? Any ideas?
Before people go saying "who looks at a device from the corners?", please consider the phone sitting on a table or desk. You usually don't sit it directly in front of you, but off to the side, meaning you're looking at it from a bottom corner if you want to quickly check a notification or something without picking it up. Or maybe you're just showing pictures to people around you. Chances are, they won't be looking at the phone directly from the side, but more from one of the corners. Your pictures might look great to you from directly in front of the phone, while looking washed out and crappy to others around you. Reply
jamdev12 - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkGoogle is updating camera firmware today. Brian are you updating this post with an additional test for the camera? By the way thanks for finally getting this done. I know the holiday season is horrible to get things like this out, but it was well worth the wait. Reply
chandgupt - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI believe the ppi is 445 instead of 480. This must affect your "dips" calculation for display size? Reply
sireangelus - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkIf you are looking at a great sms app in a phone, try out a lumia/ativ s. Seamless threaded IM/SMS between live, facebook and sms. not quite there yet( i for once i would have made a messaging api and forced app to use one centralized for everything, whatever viber/whatsapp/wechat, they could have their frontend loaded but just 1 thread, 1 notification per contact, 1 place to find all the messages.Cursed close garden/closed source things.) Reply
BoneAT - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHuh, that was fast, I look forward for the article update on 4.4.1. Yeah, I agree Brian, couldn't Google release it like 3 days earlier? :D Reply
Egg - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI'm holding a white Nexus 5 right now. While I mostly love the device - it's my first smartphone, and I got the latest and greatest, I'm quite peeved about the color. Maybe it's just my eyes, or the lighting, but the back of my device looks more like linoleum than white. It's definitely not nearly as white as the one Brian has. Reply
BoneAT - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYou are holding it wrong. Reply
Pr3ch34r - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkAfter the galaxy nexus update issue i just can't trust google nexus program, which has been nothing more than than a beta thing. Sad but true, HTC Sense and even Touchwiz are better, and upgrades seem to last longer... Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkUmm, no. The Galaxy Nexus might've had a shot at Kit Kat if it weren't for the fact that Texas Instrument isn't gonna bother supplying new drivers when they've left the SoC game, and then there's the Verizon factor...
Even if you ignore all that though, how do Sense/TW upgrades "last longer"? The One X and SGS3 are both newer than the Galaxy Nexus and AFAIK neither one has much of chance of getting KK... It's certainly not gonna happen for months if it does happen.
Those phones are contemporary with the Nexus 4... Reply
hrrmph - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkI want to give Brian and AT a big shout-out for the table of shame on benchmark cheating.
Please keep that table going.
It probably wouldn't hurt to add Apple to the table on a future review, even if only to confirm that they are clean... if they are clean. Reply
MRMsys - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkA few people commented about FLAC files. Have you noticed how Android 4.4 broke FLAC playback? Basically my Nexus 5 cannot play my entire music library... awesome. Apparently it has been fixed at source. It better be in 4.4.1.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id... Reply
ISwearImCool - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkSo Bias. It is time for you to admit you get your marching orders from apple. Reply
Mr Majestyk - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkNexus 5 is about to get a massive Camera App update, so hopefully the review can also be updated with good news. Reply
ImTherious - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkBest review thus far on the Net. Good job, Brian. Reply
manik. - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkGreat read. Reply
Terrypye - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkHaving eagerly awaited the Nexus 5 I had hoped that the Android WiFi experience would be improved, but unfortunately it will still not accept hidden SSIDS or DHCP. With exposed SSIDS there is a huge security issue especially with educated snoopers and as for no DHCP, fixed ip addresses are fine for a home network, but not a lot of good for the traveller at an Airport for example. Of all the devices that access WiFi on my home network the Nexus 5 is the poorest despite it's wonderful features otherwise.
Come on GOOGLE, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND FIX, this issue has been around for years. Reply
Egg - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkThe first thing I did when I took my Nexus 5 out of the box was connect to my home network which has a hidden SSID.
Drag the shade down, click the the upper right corner for the settings shortcuts, click the wi-fi icon, then click the + button on the bottom. Select advanced options for DHCP settings. Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI've had a hidden SSID at home (which btw, doesn't really afford much extra security) for the last 10+ years and I haven't had trouble connecting to the network on any of my five Android devices... DHCP's always worked too. Hell I've connected to college networks that required more credentials than a simple WPA password. Reply
tuxRoller - Thursday, December 05, 2013 - linkThe low memory features of kitkat (ksm and zram) wouldn't really kick-in until you started loading some apps. Reply
ErickTapion - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkwow! the best review i have ever seen in my life O_O and i can say i will have the Nexus 5 thanks anandtech! Reply
R3MF - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkstupidest thing i have found is hangouts refuses to recognise contacts imported from vcards when displaying the 'owner' of a new text message. just display the number instead, even after associating that number with a contact. Reply
NeatOman - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkNot the best timming, with 4.4.1 update which vastly improves the camera Reply
tential - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYa I have to say this was quite bad all around in terms of timing.
I really want to read an ANANDTECH article on the 4.4.1 camera. Not read some other website which I find is never as indepth. Reply
psuedonymous - Friday, December 06, 2013 - link
The other question was whether Nexus 5 also uses a PSR (Panel Self Refresh) type display. This display is indeed a MIPI command mode panel, the same kind of system, so yes it does include those features.This is incorrect. Just having a MIPI-DSI display interface does NOT imply that Panel Self refresh is supported. Almost every smartphone on the market, and the vast majority of tablets, interface with their displays internally using MIPI DSI (the exceptions being a few tablet holdouts using LVDS, and the iPad 3/4/Air & Mini Retina, which use embeddedDisplayPort). Reply
Klug4Pres - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYes, I was sort of wondering about that - just having the right display type doesn't seem conclusive on this point. I had the impression that PSR requires having a separate framebuffer, or at least only by having a separate low-bandwidth buffer can one hope to achieve power savings. Reply
Arbie - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkYou obviously didn't read this:
1) Thinner is always better, regardless of the trade-offs.
2) Micro-SD is worthless, regardless of your needs.
In the future, please ensure you are aligned with site dogma before you post. Reply
Tetracycloide - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkAre you addressing this at the article author? Don't you think that inherently refutes your 'site dogma' hyperbole? If you've got a problem with Anand's op-ed then comment there. Why bring it up here where your only apparent point is that it disagrees (which is ostensibly your position). Reply
hrrmph - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkI think the point is that the Nexus 5 doesn't have Micro-SDXC. For a flagship to be capped at 32GB with no expandability in 2013 is very restrictive for some users. The Nexus 5 and other flagships like it are in some ways going backwards.
My first smartphone in 2009 was a Nokia N900. It was 64GB = 32GB soldered NAND + 32GB MicroSD.
That should put some perspective on the frustration many of us have with the lack of storage and the price gouging on extra NAND in today's US flagships (Apple, Google, Micro-Nokia).
Hopefully, 2014 will be the year that changes all of that. Reply
psuedonymous - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkRemember that the N900 launched for close to double the price of the Nexus 5. Reply
dawheat - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI think it's time to think about advancing your screen metrics to include more items to get a better sense of overall quality. Brightness and color accuracy are just two aspects. How reflective the screen is comes initially to mind.
Before "curved' screens come into the mainstream, you should think about how to refresh your approach on displays. Reply
adityarjun - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkHow good is the call quality on the nexus 5?
Noise suppression and speakerphone quality/loudness?
Earlier there used to be page on this but it seems it has been dropped. (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-re...
Can someone just give some subjective remarks on call quality and noise suppression? Is it good? Are there dropped calls? Does the voice sound natural? Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkWait, are you saying this thing also makes PHONE calls? How quaint!
Sorry, couldn't help myself... :P Reply
MykeM - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkThe screen on the 5c especially the saturation average is simply astounding. Reply
Impulses - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkFrom the camera section:
" I'm thankful that Nexus 5 isn't shy about pushing its exposure time out there, after all it does have ISO to damp out hand shake while running them. "
Guessing it should read OIS there rather than ISO, FWIW, though Brian's probably cursing Google right now for the timing of the camera update. :p Reply
Nexus5Forum.com - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkAwesome review. I'd love to see Brian's thoughts on the new 4.4.1 update in regards to camera performance on the Nexus 5. Reply
stepz - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI'm disappointed in the NAND write performance. In my experience the largest performance issue with Android is NAND writes. When an app saturates the write bandwidth all reads also stop bringing the UI to a halt. This is most spectacularly shown by Chrome that by writing out newly cached data blocks reading of other cached data so much as refetching it from the net would be faster, resulting in 5-10s page load times for pages that should be <1s. Or at least this is my guess on what is going on based on my experience with Linux IO scheduler. Alternatively they could try to fix the issue by modifying the system IO mechanism to have separate read and write queues or sync and async queues, so low priority writes don't block user experience. Reply
stepz - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkOne other thing, for camera comparisons you should include 35mm equivalent zoom lengths and apertures. The former is very useful for deciding how wide a shot it makes, and the latter determines the amount of depth-of-field achieved (for cell phone cameras it's going to be very little) and more importantly the amount of photons the sensor has to work with. Reply
w0203j - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkThanks for the final review, it's very comprehensive and in depth. Reply
peckiro - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI certainly would have prefered the Nexus 5, but when Sprint offered the LG G2 for $0 with a 2 year ball and chain I pulled the trigger. Been using a 2007 flip phone for several years since I have been a phone Luddite until just recently. Most of the under the hood stuff on the G2 is mirrored on the Nexus 5. My experience with the G2 tells me that the Nexus is a real screamer. Reply
chrone - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkMakes me want more. <3 Reply
Hairs_ - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkIt would probably be more useful to run a test of how long it takes between opening the camera app to taking a picture in these reviews rather than worrying about how many dslr features are missing from the interface.
If you care about such tweaking options then a phone with a minuscule lens is not the device you should use for photographs. For everyone else, the usage pattern is heavily skewed towards "quick! take a picture!", so app and shutter lag (first time, not picture-to-picture) is far more important. Reply
erple2 - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkI agree with this. I don't really care how much post processing or pre-processing I can do on a DSP for the camera image. That's what I have Photoshop for (or any number of other photo processing desktop applications, assuming you can take a photo in RAW format). The ease of use of the camera, plus the speed of the camera (first shot from the home screen) are more important to me on a smartphone. Reply
dyc4ha - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkLooking forward for the audio component of the review! Also, are you guys going to update the review with the 4.4.1 camera patch? Reply
PierLeon - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkI think the maximum brightness posted on this review is unusually low for the Nexus 5. Other reviews which have measured the maximum brightness have had numbers closer to 500 nits (490 I believe), and I have also noticed that my Nexus 5 has a noticeably brighter screen than my old Nexus 4, but according to this review the Nexus 4 is 30 nits brighter. Something seems off. Reply
NeoteriX - Saturday, December 07, 2013 - linkCould be display vendor variation. Reply
adriangb - Sunday, December 08, 2013 - linkCan a comparison with the 4.4.1 camera improvements be added? Reply
blzd - Sunday, December 08, 2013 - linkThere are already side to side Youtube and other comparisons of the camera in 4.4.1 versus 4.4 check them out. Reply
phoneface - Sunday, December 08, 2013 - linkBrian klug is a cool dude. Reply
rtret - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkCan you recommand a wireless charger for the Nexus 5? I heard that the ravpower one with built-in battery can function well with the qi compatible devices. Need advice on that. Thanks. Reply
blzd - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - linkThe official LG wireless one works great and is tiny. Otherwise any Qi will work with the Nexus 5 and in almost any case. Reply
djc208 - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkMy biggest concern with picking the LG G2 over the Nexus 5 is the software. LGs software support seems to be horrible. So while you may get more polish I wouldn't expect more than maybe one version update out of the G2 if that. At least based on how the original Optimus G has been treated.
LG is quick to release a new hardware, but even though they have been the hardware partner for the last two Nexus phones, they are far behind in the software deparment. The Optimus G was almost the same hardware as the Nexus 4, yet it's still on 4.2.2, and will probably never see 4.3 even though the Nexus 4 shipped with it. Reply
Sadrak85 - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkThese days, a manufacturer even saying that there *will* be an update is a great stroke of luck. Maybe I'm jaded, but other than the Nexus line, I no longer expect to see any software updates on the devices I buy (though, it should be noted, that I'm a mid-range buyer; burned too many times by "high-end" devices). Reply
synaesthetic - Tuesday, December 10, 2013 - linkCould always throw CM10.2 on it. Reply
Amazing2u - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkI'm a bit dissapointed with LG/google this time around...
I'm waiting for a 4th replacement of my Nexus 5. First one had a defective vibrator (noisy), second had a defective LCD and the third had another bad vibrate motor. Sheesh.
I've never had so many RMA for a single phone. Reply
Sadrak85 - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkUgh. The sentence that contains the phrase "memory pressure," and "at-boot footprint." Who are you writing to, Klug? Tech enthusiasts or a bunch of MBAs? Reply
Laphaswiff - Monday, December 09, 2013 - linkἈφροδίτης ἑορτὴ δημοτελής, καὶ πᾶσαι σχεδὸν αἱ γυναῖκες ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὸν νεών. (1,1,5) τέως δὲ μὴ προιοῦσαν τὴν Καλλιρόην προήγαγεν ἡ μήτηρ, τοῦ πατρὸς κελεύσαντος προσκυνῆσαι τὴν θεόν. τότε δὲ Χαιρέας ἀπὸ τῶν γυμνασίων ἐβάδιζεν οἴκαδε στίλβων ὥσπερ ἀστήρ· ἐπήνθει γὰρ αὐτοῦ τῷ λαμπρῷ τοῦ προσώπου τὸ ἐρύθημα τῆς παλαίστρας ὥσπερ ἀργύρῳ χρυσός. (1,1,6) ἐκ τύχης οὖν περί τινα καμπὴν στενοτέραν συναντῶντες περιέπεσον ἀλλήλοις, τοῦ θεοῦ πολιτευσαμένου τήνδε τὴν συνοδίαν ἵνα ἑκάτερος τῷ ἑτέρῳ ὀφθῇ. ταχέως οὖν πάθος ἐρωτικὸν ἀντέδωκαν ἀλλήλοις ....... τοῦ κάλλους τῇ εὐγενείᾳ συνελθόντος. (1,1,7) ῾Ο μὲν οὖν Χαιρέας οἴκαδε μετὰ τοῦ τραύματος μόλις ἀπῄει, καὶ ὥςπερ τις ἀριςτεὺς ἐν πολέμῳ τρωθεὶς καιρίαν, καὶ καταπεσεῖν μὲν αἰδούμενος, στῆναι δὲ μὴ δυνάμενος. ἡ δὲ παρθένος τῆς Ἀφροδίτης τοῖς ποσὶ προσέπεσε καὶ καταφιλοῦσα, »σύ μοι, δέσποινα« εἶπε, »δὸς ἄνδρα τοῦτον ὃν ἔδειξας.« Reply
chapo - Tuesday, December 10, 2013 - linkWhy the absence of love for the Sony devices ?
They never appear in the benchmark tables.
I feel like they have made a good job on their Xperia line and would like to see them included. Reply
synaesthetic - Tuesday, December 10, 2013 - linkHangouts is terrible, Google, stop forcing it on us. :|
Thank goodness for CyanogenMod. Reply
ErickTapion - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - linkI want to ask what percentage of brightness to 200 nits is necessary? Reply
skz - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - linkUm, could someone tell me how well the phone . . . makes calls? This seems to have been omitted from the review. It is important for some. Reply
ErickTapion - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - linkin general (others review) it's very clear but they say it's like a "robotic" sound, but i think its very good Reply
cb474 - Thursday, December 12, 2013 - linkThanks for another great, super thorough, review. I'm always especially interested to see the noise suppression test. It's intriguing that Fluence seems to have improved, but I'm still disappointed in any phone that doesn't use Audience's noise suppression chip. Reply
cb474 - Saturday, December 14, 2013 - linkI went back and listened to the noise cancellation test in Brian's Nexus 4 review. He says here's that he's impressed with the Nexus 5, even though it's using Qualcomm's Fluence chip. But to me it sounds like the Nexus 4 was better, at least in the test. And my personal experience of the Nexus 4 is that it's nowhre close to as good as the Audience chip in the Nexus One.
Also, if you look at Brian's reviews the the iPhone 5, where he compares the noise cancellation in the iPhone 4 (Audience chip) to the iPhone 5 (Apple in house noise cancelling), you can see what Audience is like and how much better it is. The iPhone 5 is more like what you get from Qualcomm's Fluence. Reply
pierrot - Saturday, December 14, 2013 - linkAnyone have speaker sound quality problems? Sounds worse than my Galaxy S1! Its static-y and fuzzy sounding on 4.4.2. Reply
blzd - Sunday, December 15, 2013 - linkNot here. They were quiet before now they're quite loud (after 4.4.2). The quality was always above average for me and even the highest volumes have minimal distortion.
Anandtech showed the top 2 or 3 volumes with headphones is more or less broken and should not be used though. Reply
mike8675309 - Monday, December 16, 2013 - linkI just picked up a Nexus 5 and it prompted for the 4.4.2 update so I can't say before the update. But currently my only issue with sound is that it can't seem to go low enough. On the volume scale when turning down the notification and other sounds it is like I want to go one step quieter but that next step is vibrate. Seems that there isn't enough range. Reply
mateor - Sunday, December 15, 2013 - linkI learned a bunch about all aspects of hardware from this review. Excellent. Reply
NexusJohn - Monday, December 16, 2013 - linkBrian, first of all thank you for the awesome, complete review! But I have one lingering question I can't seem to find an answer to: if the snapdragon 800 has a low power core that can be used for "always on" listening (hardware), why can't someone create an app (software) that takes advantage of it like in the moto x? Reply
omaudio - Tuesday, December 17, 2013 - linkHello,
What I would really love to see added to phone reviews on AT is whether or not the GPS will function without cellular connection. In other words if you are without service or in airplane mode, will the GPS functions of the phone still operate? I find more often they do not which is why I still own the HTC Amaze 4g. It is one of the only phones I can rely on the gps along with offline mapping. Important and I hope to see it added to future reviews. Thanks Reply
shanturoy - Tuesday, December 17, 2013 - linkAt nearly same price point (in India), Nexus has the edge with the Camera (OSS) and processor. But the others have removable battery, SD card slot, larger battery (for G pro).
So, if price is not the differentiating factor, which want would be most desirable among LG Optimus G Pro, Sony Xperia ZL, HTC Butterfly and Nexus? Reply
blzd - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - linkThose phones are barely even in the same league as the Nexus 5. Do you want last years phone or today's phone at last years price? Reply
eturk - Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - linkhow about updating the article to reflect the updated hardware and kitkat 4.4.2? Seems Google may have addresses the low speaker volume and camera. Reply
anirudhs - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - linkAfter using the HTC Aria for 3 years, I upgraded to the Nexus 5. I had it for a weekend, but felt that it didn't live up to its potential. The screen was gorgeous and the phone was free of bloatware. However, the phone was unwieldy due to the large screen, and the battery life was inconsistent. I am now on the iPhone and am very happy with my purchase. At least as far as the internals go, I will be able to run demanding apps for a long time.
The trend towards larger screens on cellphones in the Android space is disturbing. 4.5-4.7 inches would be nice, but any bigger and I would find it hard to hold. The likes of Galaxy Note are best replaced by a combination of a smaller smartphone and a tablet - it is just too big. Reply
blzd - Friday, December 27, 2013 - linkYou will find most people disagree with you. Even Apple phones will be getting similar screen sizes soon and rightly so at those prices.
It's not like there is lack of options in the 4.5" android department. Check out Moto G for $200. Reply
anirudhs - Friday, January 03, 2014 - linkI got my 32 GB iPhone 5S for $224.99 with a 2 year contract. Also, Moto G doesn't have 4G LTE, which explains the low price. It may be a good phone for someone in a country like India though. Reply
sweendiggler - Friday, January 03, 2014 - linkFor what it's worth, I switched from an iPhone 5 to a Nexus 5 and my battery life is SIGNIFICANTLY better on the Nexus. If I took my iPhone 5 ff the charger at 7AM, it would be down to ~45% battery when I left work at 5:30PM. When I do the same with my Nexus 5 my battery is at 75-80%.
I'm sure that others may have legit issues, but this phone has demonstrated AMAZING battery life for me thus far. Reply
anirudhs - Friday, January 03, 2014 - linkMay the Force Close be with you, always, O Android User! Reply
Wall-Swe - Monday, January 06, 2014 - linkAnd the iPhone doesn't force close? Tell that to the 100s of error&crash reports on my iPhone 4. Silly fanboy. Reply
anirudhs - Monday, January 06, 2014 - linkI am a fan-boy because your iPhone is conking out and mine isn't? Logic R.I.P. Reply
Wall-Swe - Tuesday, January 07, 2014 - linkIts the same argument you make about his Android phone. But I actually own the device I claim is bad. Reply
jeffkro - Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - linkI've had my nexus 5 for a few days and its a fantastic phone for $350. My issue is the LCD display, I came from a galaxy nexus and going from an OLED display to an LCD display is a huge downgrade. I was shocked at the color and contrast difference when I put the two side by side. Reply
Davidjan - Sunday, January 19, 2014 - linkNexus 5 is better that Nexus 4. At least, it supports OTG to add storage with Meenova MicroSD reader: http://goo.gl/2iJ6gf Reply
hisham - Tuesday, March 04, 2014 - linkIf i need to buy one with 350$ from where i can get it , through amazon more that 400 $ , i am out side UDA Reply
mjgraves - Monday, March 31, 2014 - linkI just loaded the example audio file into Adobe Audition for evaluation. It's not a wideband audio stream, so the Nexus 5 is NOT making HDVoice calls using AMR-WB. The review should be updated to reflect this fact. Reply


text:
MDA's Quick Guide to Purchasing, Preparing and Eating Organ Meats
Everything but the Squeal [1], Thrift Cuts [2], Hunting Ethics [3]… it would seem that in recent months we've spent a good deal of time talking about the benefits of feasting on the entire animal, but we've kind of side-stepped the fact that eating the whole animal also means eating the organs.
To some, organ meats are ho-hum foods of childhood, but to others, offal [4] is an undiscovered – and somewhat stomach turning – culinary territory. Now, we're not suggesting that everyone needs to eat organ meat in order to be perfectly Primal [5]. Instead we're endorsing offal as Primal food that has both fiscal and health benefits. Take a gander and let everyone know what you think in the comment boards!
Possibly the most common organ meat consumed in the U.S., liver was once regarded as a meal for the affluent and was even named one of the Eight Delicacies in The Li-Chi, a handbook of rituals published during China's Han era. So why should you be eating it? According to those in the know, liver is an excellent source of high quality protein; contains an abundance of vitamin A and several B vitamins; is an excellent source of folic acid and iron; is the number one food source of copper; and contains CoQ10, which is important for cardiovascular function.
There really aren't too many animals where liver is off limits – bar the polar bear, but there aren't too many arctic explorers among us. In the U.S., the most frequently consumed types are beef, veal, goat, lamb, bison, buffalo, chicken, geese, or duck liver. When selecting liver for consumption, it is preferable to select one from a young animal as it is the mildest and most tender. How to know that you're making a good choice? Many swear that the younger the animal, the paler the liver. Also, look for livers that have no slimy or dry patches and are relatively odor free.
To prepare a whole liver you'll need to first rinse it and pat dry with a damp cloth. Next, with a sharp knife, remove any exposed veins, ducts or connective tissue then use your fingers to peel away the thin outer membrane and presto, the liver is now ready to eat! Sound too gruesome? A reputable butcher can usually take care of this for you! When preparing, it should be noted that liver should be cooked until it is light pink – cooking too much can cause it to toughen.
Kidney beans might be a no-no on the Primal eating plan [5], but kidneys? They're a-ok. Kidneys are most frequently available in beef, lamb and pork form and are generally sold trimmed, with the central strip of hard white fat and the outer membrane removed. We recommend that you ease into eating kidneys by first purchasing beef kidneys, which have a milder flavor and are also the easiest – and least expensive – variety.
When shopping for kidneys, look for those that are deep red in color – except for veal, which can take on a tan-cast – are plump and glossy with no bruised or discolored areas and no strong odor. To prepare, rinse the organs in cold water and, for a milder taste, soak in chilled water with a teaspoon of salt to each quart of water for one to two hours. From there, the kidney can be broiled, sautéed or braised.
Talk about eating your heart out – depending on the size of the animal the heart is yielded from, the heart could weigh as much as 3 lbs. Because it is a muscle meat, heart is very similar to steak, roasts and ground beef, but is typically less expensive (we blame the "ick" factor for that!) and actually has a higher protein content. In addition, heart is an excellent source of a number of nutrients, including thiamin, folate, selenium, phosphorus, zinc, CoQ10 and several of the B vitamins. In addition, beef heart contains amino acids that are thought to improve metabolism and compounds that promote the production of collagen and elastin (thin and wrinkle free? Sign us up!)
When selecting a heart, look for one that is a deep reddish brown color and has a layer of fat near its top. Culinary experts universally recommend that you purchase only high quality organs. Some experts suggest that hearts from grass-fed animals can keep longer, are better in color, smell better and taste better than organs procured from other animals. As with most organ meats, hearts are pretty delicate during the cooking process, so you'll want to be sure to cook it slowly and serve it medium rare.
Sweet and bread? Sounds like a recipe for a carb overload, but in actuality, "sweetbreads" refers to the thymus and – depending on who you talk to – the pancreas glands of a calf or young cow, lamb or pig. In general, sweetbreads are pinkish-white in color, with those from the heart or belly taking on a round, plump appearance and those from the throat appearing more elongated and cylindrical.
In terms of taste, sweetbreads are…uhhh, sweet tasting (as opposed to the savory flavor of most meats), but they are by no means doughy! The "bread" part of the name comes from an old English word meaning flesh. The following is a delicious recipe from Cooks.com for sweetbreads and bacon that includes some solid tips for preparing the sweetbread for consumption: Sweetbreads and Bacon [6].
If you've made it this far in the article, then chances are you aren't going to be grossed out by the concept of eating tongue. In general, beef and veal tongues are the most commonly consumed, with both sharing a grainy, firm texture and a pinkish-grey color.
Tongue can be stewed, boiled or poached and is often pickled, or served roasted like roast beef. Before final prepping and serving the skin of the tongue is usually removed.
Type "eating brain" into a Google search engine and you find far more entries about zombies and brain, and the benefits of eating fish to boost brain power [7] than you do for recipes that include actual brain. If you do dig deep (in a totally non-zombie sense), however, you'll learn that brain has a delicate, crumbly texture and is popular in dishes from many different parts of the world, including French and Indian cuisine.
It should be noted, however, that brain can in some cases contain prions, a unique type of protein that has been linked to the development of mad cow disease. If you're not perturbed by these warnings, check out this simple recipe for scrambled eggs and calf brains [8].
Saving the best for last? You betcha! Tripe is generally defined as the stomach lining of sheep, goats, pig and deer. In the case of beef, tripe generally only refers to the first three portions of the cows stomach. Sound disgusting? Perhaps. But long ago, the dish was so revered that it was said to have spurred a tiff between between William the Conqueror and Phillip I, the King of France.
Since there is an obvious "ick" factor associated with eating another being's stomach, you'll want to take steps to ensure that the tripe that you eat is thoroughly cleaned. In most cases, a butcher will also remove any extra fat and bleach it for you so that it looks more appetizing, but it will be up to you to boil it so that the lining – the edible part – is fully cooked. Since the lining has somewhat of a rubbery texture, you'll want to cook it for at least 2-3 hours to make it tender. From there, you can use it in salad, as an ingredient in soups, casseroles or stews, or as a main dish all by itself.
What do you think, readers? Did you grow up on this stuff? Old hat? Or does even the word "tripe" make you queasy? (Or maybe both?) Voice your opinion in the comment board!
t0fugurl [9], ulterior epicure [10], stu spivack [11], Toasty Ken [12], Nick Bair [13], perago89 [14], gogogadgetscott [15], La Blageur a Paris [16], KitLKat [17], avlxyz [18] Flickr Photos (CC)
Further Reading:
A Visual Guide to Antioxidants [19]
Cheap Meat Round II: "Thrift Cuts" [2]
A Visual Guide to Peppers [20]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
We can only ship Apparel items within the U.S and its Territories.
Root for your favorite Vancouver Canucks player by wearing this Daniel Sedin #22 Name and Number tee shirt. This short sleeve cotton tee shirt features a Canucks logo on the front with Sedin #22 on the back. There is will be no doubting your Canucks pride while wear this shirt!
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* Short sleeve tee shirt with crew neck collar
* Screen print graphics
* Officially licensed NHL Product


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kids' slim princess flip flops
Product Code:
Let little twinkle toes live out her dreams with the Havaianas Kids' Princess Flip Flops. They feature a Disney princess print on a rice grain textured cushioned footbed, and sleek thong style straps. A comfortable, durable, lightweight, slip, heat and water-resistant rubber sole with a brick pattern helps bring the fairytale alive.
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text:
The people's views ignored
5:11pm Wednesday 9th April 2014
5:11pm Wednesday 9th April 2014
PEOPLE might be entitled to ask what exactly is the point of having public consultations and scrutiny committees at Cheshire West and Chester Council if the ruling Conservative executive simply ignore the views of the public or those councillors who scrutinise impartially on the basis of the evidence before them.
The issue I refer to concerns the recent decision to significantly reduce the funding support for community transport for up to 428 adults with a variety of physical and learning disabilities, many of whom attend day centre services in Northwich and Winsford.
Despite the admission that none of these service users' needs had been re-assessed to help determine whether they could individually manage to travel independently ahead of the consultation, or that the proposed routes themselves risk assessed around safe travel, the decision was upheld.
One case cited revealed an individual with a serious sensory disability would, under these proposed arrangements, be expected to make their own way to a day care centre some six miles away.
They would have to cross two busy roads, catch a train, then catch two buses (one of which did not actually have a bus connection) and repeat the return journey the same way, allowing three to four hours travel time.
Time and time again evidence and witness testimony submitted showed the decision was unsafe.
A public petition with more than 2,300 signatures was simply referred to without following due process and allowing a debate to proceed at full council.
All of this and the many other occasions when the views of the public have been simply dismissed by the ruling group makes a mockery of democracy.
Clr Paul Dolan, Cheshire West and Chester member for Winnington and Castle Ward
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