Nexus 5 is Utopia

[Brandon Gatz]

Let me start by saying I'm an Apple guy since way before it was cool and trendy to be one. Ever since the original iPhone I've been pining for one. Yet I've never been able to reconcile the high price and small screen, especially these days, when even phones on the lowest end of the Android spectrum have larger screens than the iPhone. As a result, I've settled with a slew of low tier Android devices with hum-hum mediocre speeds and features for the last 4 years of smartphone ownership just waiting for the iPhone "around the corner" to have a properly sized screen, but I've officially given up on that wait. I scored a Nexus 4 last month for a song and loved it immediately, so much so, that yesterday I picked up a Nexus 5 on the TMO EIP program.

The N5 is sweet and smooth pure vanilla Google experience. So fast. Makes the N4 feel like a Commodore 64. Highly recommended.

 

[Danno]

I take it you don't need MicroSD card expandable memory capability?

 

[440Magnum]

The gap is definitely closing. But I still prefer the smaller size of the iPhone. If anything, I wish they hadn't made the i5 taller.

 

[SF0059]

Couldn't agree with you more. I just picked up an off-contract Moto X and couldn't be happier.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

Don't need the expandable storage, hardly utilize the internal 16. I reside in the cloud, all my music, pictures live there.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: gr8gatzby
Let me start by saying I'm an Apple guy since way before it was cool and trendy to be one. Ever since the original iPhone I've been pining for one. Yet I've never been able to reconcile the high price and small screen, especially these days, when even phones on the lowest end of the Android spectrum have larger screens than the iPhone. As a result, I've settled with a slew of low tier Android devices with hum-hum mediocre speeds and features for the last 4 years of smartphone ownership just waiting for the iPhone "around the corner" to have a properly sized screen, but I've officially given up on that wait. I scored a Nexus 4 last month for a song and loved it immediately, so much so, that yesterday I picked up a Nexus 5 on the TMO EIP program.

The N5 is sweet and smooth pure vanilla Google experience. So fast. Makes the N4 feel like a Commodore 64. Highly recommended.


+1 I have had mine since the Tue after it was announced (announced on a Thur).

My Droid 2 was good in its time. So was a 386 chip. Times have changed.

 

[michaelluscher]

My new Droid Maxx has been doing well too. A big step up from my Galaxy S2 E4GT. And now that Kitkat has arrived, Google wallet TTP FINALLY works! *insert #FDB video here aimed towards VZ*

Do enjoy your Nexus 5, if I ever move to a GSM carrier, I'd buy one in a heartbeat, but as of now, my warmed over Moto X with a much bigger battery is making me very happy.

 

[4D-56]

I have one and im lovin it!....unlocked, GSM....not bloated with carrier apps....can bounce around a ton of pre-paid GSM MVNO's...what could be better?

Smooth, quick phone thats so easy to have. Kept in a "Ballistic" case, thats me set for the nxt 2 yrs.

 

[mitsuman47]

Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser
I have one and im lovin it!....unlocked, GSM....not bloated with carrier apps...


I thought the nexus 5, even through carriers, was bloatware free, no?

 

[Brandon Gatz]

Originally Posted By: mitsuman47
Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser
I have one and im lovin it!....unlocked, GSM....not bloated with carrier apps...


I thought the nexus 5, even through carriers, was bloatware free, no?


Correct, it is devoid of all carrier branding and bloatware. The downside to this on TMO is lack of native wifi calling.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: gr8gatzby
Originally Posted By: mitsuman47
Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser
I have one and im lovin it!....unlocked, GSM....not bloated with carrier apps...


I thought the nexus 5, even through carriers, was bloatware free, no?


Correct, it is devoid of all carrier branding and bloatware. The downside to this on TMO is lack of native wifi calling.


You can get a free Vonage app for that right?

 

[Donald]

I assume if you get the Nexus 5 from a carrier and not Google (why thought) you would get bloatware?

 

[Brandon Gatz]

Bought mine from the TMO store and expected bloatware(and wifi calling) but it was clean.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

Been through several roms, roots, and even managed to brick the phone for 10 hours. Root with factory ROM is where she is and will stay.

 

[cp3]

Originally Posted By: gr8gatzby
Been through several roms, roots, and even managed to brick the phone for 10 hours. Root with factory ROM is where she is and will stay.


Which ROMs have you used? I just came from a Samsung Infuse running Beanstalk 4.4 and I have to say that it was working better than ever before I got the Nexus. I do miss some of the customization features from Beanstalk but haven't decided if I'm going to root the Nexus or not.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

CM11 was it, vanilla android is better. After root, installed ROM Manager and can switch back and forth on the fly.

 

[Falcon_LS]

I'm looking to upgrade my iPhone 4, and really liked the Nexus 5. This is awesome! Just waiting for the 32 GB version to become available here before I get one. Right now, all they have is the 16 GB version.

 

[jigen]

It's a very nice phone. I still prefer the moto x right now but if I had to get any other android device, the nexus 5 would be it.

 

[VeeDubb]

I also have a Moto X and love it. It has nearly stock Android with only the Motorola touchless control and assist software. And they get updated via Google Play so updates are frequent. Personally, I would not buy any Android that wasn't close to stock. So it would either be Moto X or Nexus. My only complaint about the Moto X is that the screen is too small. That is the one reason I would choose the Nexus.

I played with a friend's Note 3 the other day and Samsung's touchwhiz is a real nightmare. A lot of the features duplicate stock android apps like the music apps. My friend was really frustrated because his Google Play music purchases would not automatically load on the Samsung music player, which is the default. I had to show him how to find the songs in the Google music player. I'm a veteran Android user and it even took me a while to figure out what the heck was going on. Samsung really needs to focus on simple.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

Nexus 5 has lost her luster. General weirdness and bugginess increasing over time, will need to restore soon. On another note, I pulled down 88.1gb of data over the billing cycle without TMO's lawyers showing up at my door.