Google’s Nexus 5 is on sale today from the Google Play store. In the search-giant’s tradition of more-for-less, the Nexus 5 will run you just US$349 for the 16GB version and $US399 for the 32GB version.
Call it temperance, chastity or good old plainness, but the Nexus 5 offers little in the way of alluring aesthetics. The big black (or white) slab that is Google’s new golden standard is made almost entirely of a soft-touch plastic. It’s a utilitarian approach that is in a way forgivable here, considering the modest price-tag.
Where last year’s Android flagship had to make sacrifices in screen resolution, the new champion makes none. The 4.95-inch 1080p display is good enough on paper to take on best of the competition.
Under the covers
Once you strip the Nexus 5 down you get another story. The 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor is an incredibly powerful piece of hardware, seen only on the LG G2 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 so far. Backed up by 2GB of RAM and the Adreno 330 GPU the Nexus 5 should be a real goer.
The Nexus 5 is also the debut device for Android 4.4 KitKat. The theme this year seems to be cutting the fat to provide a less-cluttered experience. Considering the Nexus 5’s straight-forward character, this is a fitting partnership.
Camera criticisms
To keep the price-tag down, it looks like Google may have sacrificed some camera performance.
Google is touting something it’s calling HDR+, which is just an apparently improved and faster version of normal HDR. HDR is a photo method where the camera takes three shots at different exposures and makes a single image from them. It has huge benefits in image quality.
The problem is that, even with the speed improvements, it takes longer than a normal photo and suffers if your subjects move. It’s not something you want to use as your default shooting mode, relegating it to the realm of ‘camera feature’, rather than camera upgrade.
Like the Nexus 4 before it, the Nexus 5 will probably be a passable shooter; just not exceptional one.
Looks still matter
The Nexus 5 leaves little to complain about. The camera is one potential issue, but sacrifices must be made to obtain that sweet price-tag. The one thing that we just can’t get past is the look.
It’s understandable that Google would make this penny-ante powerhouse out of plastic to keep costs low, but why does “made of plastic” translate to “big block of plastic”? Samsung has been relying on plastic designs for some time now, yet it still manages to make really elegant devices. There’s no reason Google couldn’t do the same.
The main attraction of the Nexus 5 is precisely that it’s a top-tier phone for a mid-tier price, but it’s not enough play the part when one can also look the part.
For many consumers the first taste is with the eye. While the Nexus 5’s first taste isn’t chopped-liver, it’s a far cry from filet mignon.
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