I found myself running my fingers along the carved Nexus logo on the back, and feeling the edges of the ceramic buttons - it’s just nice to hold. It's made completely of plastic, and obviously doesn't feel as high-end as metal phones like the HTC One or iPhone 5S - but it’s solid, not slippery. It's surprisingly light, at only 130 grams and 8.6 millimeters thick. The phone is shaped to feel smaller than it looks, with subtly curved edges and slightly sharpened corners that nestle perfectly into the palm of your hand. It's plain, but that doesn't have to be bad The best hardware combined with the best software. This is supposed to be the best the platform can offer. Hell, that’s what they’ll tell you if you ask them. Google clearly wants you to see the Nexus 5 as the ultimate Android device.
NEXUS 5 FINGERPRINT HARDWARE NOT AVAILABLE UPGRADE
The Nexus line of phones may have just started as developer editions, or platforms for the latest version of Android, but unless Google's marketing department and PR team are reading from different sheet music, it seems like Google wants its Nexus phones to be the kind of consumer facing devices that its Nexus 7 tablet clearly is.Īnd why shouldn't it be? The Nexus 5 is stacked in the hardware department, touts a handful of future-facing improvements, and most importantly runs the latest version of Android - a visual and functional upgrade called KitKat (or 4.4, if you love numbers).
I'm asking this question because I believe Google is asking the same one. I mean a phone that stacks up against the iPhone 5S, Galaxy S4, HTC One, or Lumia 1020. In this review of the Nexus 5, I will attempt to answer one simple question: is Google capable of making a flagship, best-in-class smartphone it can sell for $349 off-contract? And I don't just mean a nice, okay, swell, good, decent, better-than-the-last-one phone.