Nexus 5 Teardown
ifixit.com
ifixit.com
The vibration motor is at the top of the phone. This is causing some people to complain on XDA that the haptic feedback is weak or non-existent. When you run a vibration test its easy to hone in on exactly where the motor is located which seems a bit off to me.
The speaker is absolutely anemic. I 'feel' the sound vibrating the back of my phone more than I can hear it through the single tiny speaker located at the bottom of the phone. Companies need to start emulating the HTC One and place the speakers on the front.
Otherwise the device feels elegant and the texture allows for a softer grip that allows longer use without getting crab hands.
Now KitKat (and specifically Hangouts) is a different story altogether...
1) To quote a Reddit meme, the icons are just... too damn big! Yes, the screen is lovely and the new icons are perfectly good looking, but they're huge! Even on a 5" 1080P screen, you are only allowed a 4x4 grid. I used a 6x6 grid on my Galaxy Nexus and think that size is far more appropriate, especially if you want to take advantage of multiple widgets on your homescreens, or a mix of widgets and shortcuts on the same homescreen.
2) Related to the first complaint, you can't create app folders in the app drawer. This makes it impossible to "hide" things like LightFlow, News & Weather, Keep Screen On, the default Email client, or other utilities and random apps you don't ever want to see. At least you get five rows of four, but still, the icons are infuriatingly large.
I haven't played with the camera enough to comment, and the battery is light years better than my Galaxy Nexus so I have no complaints there (yet). I do carry a Powerstick (http://www.powerstick.com) in my briefcase when traveling, though.
The fact that you can now do both video and voice, or just voice, Hangouts while on cellular networks is enough for me to overlook quite a few issues.
One last tidbit: the new dialer & phone app is much, much better than the old stock one (imho, this is something Samsung really did a good job of with Touchwiz), but it is not intuitive and there are some wonky things about it, like the fact that the standard dialing screen only shows 3 of your starred contacts and there is no apparent way to scroll/view the rest of your favorites.
I'm expecting a 4.4.1 sometime not too long from now because there are enough things lacking polish to warrant a few extra weeks in the oven.
As for the hardware, not a huge fan of the sharp edges, but it does feel good in the hand and the small side bezels make it feel smaller than a 5" phone should.
Then again, I wonder how much of the "your speakers suck" problem is really just "OMG netflix why the hell are your streams so quiet"?
Galaxy Nexus? Yes. Nexus 4? Closer, but still yes. Galaxy S3 and S4? Yes, because Samsung is really pissing me off with their lack of speedy updates. HTC One Play Edition? Undecided. Merging the two together would be the best phone (speakers on One, the proud buttons and texture on the N5) but I wouldn't trade one for the other at this point.
On the Nexus 4 and 5, the option is enabled regardless if you paid for tethering or not. This is because the phone comes directly from Google, so t-mobile did not get to install bloatware (custom OS) that disables the feature.
I call it "native" because it is built into the OS, versus installing third party apps that mimic the feature. Usually these apps require rooting your phone.
I have used nothing by samsung smart phones, the last phone I had that was a non-samsung was the Moto Razr Original Flip phone.
I currently run a Note II, will never buy another directly as a Result of their lack of updates for the device. Stilling have 4.1 as the official rom is ridiculous
The unremoveable bloatware and need-to-root for certain features is beyond frustrating. It's like that Dell laptop you got back in the early 2000's, except you need to reinstall the OS to run it normally.
Too bad I already ordered the 5, but if its as bad as you say, I may have to sell it and just give up on Nexus and get the HTC One.
I really wish they'd put some more effort into the speakers and camera on the Nexus phones, though the Verge review implies that the meh Nexus 5 camera is mostly software.
I'm extremely disappointed that Google launched such a tight integration with such key functionality missing.
I've also had to clean my phone off twice because Google's backup service continues to think the phone is new so it keeps sending me a bunch of crap I don't want on my phone.
I haven't seen a lot of lag issues yet, but I've only had it for 24 hours or so.
KitKat ship with an experimental version of ART, and it seems to perform better in synthetic benchmarks than Dalvkit. People online are also reporting a smoother experience with it (but it might be placebo, I don't think there's a scientific and unbiased comparative between the two yet).
The single and only lag complaint I've seen was an utterly ridiculous "scroll up and down quickly in Chrome" video preview on the Verge. Not only does it have zero association with actual use, iOS displays exactly the same so-called "lag" on premium devices with complex websites like the Verge.
The lag beast has been slayed. Perhaps mostly through just enormous computational horsepower, but it is a non-complaint.
http://bgr.com/2013/09/20/iphone-android-touch-screen-respon...
I'm a very happy owner of a 2013 Nexus 7, but I have to say I think this is perceptible. It's not showstopping or even disorienting, but it does translate in performance critical tasks like web browsing and gaming being slightly less satisfying. With an iPhone, scrolling feels like you're manipulating a piece of paper under your finger; Chrome on my Nexus 7 doesn't quite achieve that illusion.
Then again, the OS itself feels way more nimble than iOS: things like text-to-speech, app installs and multi-tasking are way more satisfying on Android.
However, I own a Samsung Galaxy S1 (that's 2010 era, people) running CyanogenMod 10.1.3 (that's 4.2.2) and my responsiveness is... just fine! Pulling down the slider I get the very slight initial lag (simply because my phone is crazy slow), and the slider itself does lag behind but that seems like it's by design.
Next I am on my homescreen; ADW Launcher, and I'm running running some taxing animations with 1x Animation Scale. There is no input lag. I can get the initial lag and again that is just my phone being a wreck by today's standards, but going back and forth the animation is as responsive as could be.
Based solely on my anecdotal evidence, I call BS.
Lag historically was a significant delay between interaction and response. It was also continual stutters and variances in interaction speeds.
But by Android 4.4 and the N5, that is generally annihilated. Paradoxically at the same time iOS 7 on my 3rd generation iPad has brought Android 2.x-style lag to that platform -- I now have an experience on it where keyboard presses respond 700ms later, and other activities have completely unpredictable delays.
On iOS, putting the finger on an icon and moving it feels more "real" because the icon stays under the finger. On Android, a quick motion of the finger lets the icon trail behind... Perfectly smoothly, but behind. I hope Google fixes this at some point but I suspect the low latency we see on iOS is possible thanks to a tight integration between hardware and software that would be difficult to achieve on Android.
Overall though, I feel like my HTC One with CM10.2 feels just as smooth as my previous iPhone 5 90% of the time. 10% of the time, it stutters a bit, but I'm going to chalk that up to CM10.2 being a community project.
Chrome has no access to the iOS Nitro JS engine so a difference would certainly be expected.
You just proved my point. They are not fixing anything, just adding work around after work around and one of them is throwing more horse power at it. The inherent problem is still there, they just keep covering it up.
If you want a removable battery you have to build a clip or latch system to allow the battery to be removable as well as a component shielding so that grubby little fingers don't go in there gumming up the works. Finally, a removable battery will have different receptors on it to allow it to be more easily swapped by laymen as opposed to a ribbon cable which takes a bit more finesse.
You CAN replace the battery in these units..you just have to be better at your job than your grandmother replacing her cordless phone battery.
The only time I ever used a removable battery is to cut power to my phone to do a hard reboot because it stalled.
While this is useful, I wouldn't pay extra for it nor would it be a deciding factor.
SD Card? Why? What do you people put on your phones? I'm lucky if I break 3GB with apps. Photos, movies, etc. on Dropbox where I have 70GB worth of stuff.
And various social media apps have fairly large local caches. Examples include instagram, tumblr, and vine.
So if you're just using a bunch of cloud services you don't need a lot of space, but not everyone uses their mobile that way.
As lame as it might seem I just keep a spare battery with me at all times when the unexpected happens and I'm out later than usual or just use my phone too much.
I guess a case with a battery built in work work just as well, but I'm not willing to add the extra bulk.
Oh and get the 32GB model, that was obvious to me....
And whats worse is that if your streaming it, your gonna be eating your battery even more.
Perhaps I just don't look at facebook and instagram enough on my phone, but I never have issues under normal conditions. I'd say I usually have > 50% left at the end of the day, and I very rarely get under 20%.
The big problem with smartphones is that if you forget to plug it in at night, the next day you can end up without battery in the middle of the day.
I also have a dumbphone that I keep in my backpack for family emergencies. Battery lasts for at least 7 days, so I only have to remember to charge it once per week.
That said, it seems the portable chargers are the preferred way now. They often hold enough charge for 4-5 phone charges, so that is nicer than carrying around 4-5 batteries. And, I can charge lots of other things with it as well.
The computation is actually relatively cheap, it's keeping the camera open and on that's expensive. The camera is, bar none, the most power hungry component on modern smartphones.
I hear that complaint a lot as well. Just not something I've ever had a problem with. I set it on the nightstand and plug it in when I go to bed. I don't think I've ever forgotten to do that.
Something like this: http://amzn.com/B005X1Y7I2 seems to be small enough to be pocketable while having enough juice to help you out if you need it.
The only problem I would have is remembering to keep the thing charged.
And with USB being so standard and available pretty much everywhere, it almost seems like a non-issue. It's not like back in the day when you had to have separate car chargers for different phones for example. I've seem USB charging ports in trains, airplanes, airports, hotel rooms, portable camping battery packs and even some power extension cables.
The decision was a combination of a lot of things- I save money. I am aware of my surroundings. I think. A lot. Sometimes I talk to people on the train. Or I will print out a paper and not bring anything else with me. "You read this you lazy no-attention mfucka or you sit here and do nothing". I am learning to draw- also on paper. I do not care which wireless company has been revealed this week to have a direct back door for the NSA. No one ever calls me. This is a big deal for me. Even when I had a phone, there is rarely necessity or cause for disruptive synchronous communication.
And, for everything I miss about phone ownership, there is almost always something good that came out of it. I miss maps. But I also never learned where anything was. I always depended on my phone even after living in a city for years.
I miss being able to immediately find the results to some shitty singing compeition show. Others miss me being more responsive- my response time is now ~5-10 minutes during the work day but on the weekend it might be a few hours. But really, its ok.
I would consider a really nice dumb device though.
You've got a strange definition of "exact same functionality" when it means making the phone effectively double the size & weight for half of its operational time.
I acknowledge that the new 5 has bigger and better everything, however, I can live without it. Furthermore, I think the Nexus 4 is a design classic, I like the glass back with its embedded speckles. I am a bit the same way with the N7, I prefer the original to the new and improved version. All considered, I am pleased that I do not feel 'miffed' to have the old models of both tablet and phone.
"The main goal of optical bonding is to improve the display performance under outdoor environments. This method eliminates the air gap between the cover glass and the display"
GS4, iPhone5, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, HTC One (Horrible offender here).
If you get an 8/10 on iFixit, you have about the most perfect score possible with top of the line phones.
if you do decent product design instead of copying every bad decision apple made, you'd have the glass framed. It would have no discernible air gap. all the things you said would be just as fine. and it could be replaced by removing the frame, probably with screws.
but no, let's use corning glass (with lots of impurities so it is crack prone but hard to scratch... the perfect glass to be framed) and use it on the whole front of the device so it is guaranteed that it will break if the device falls.
sometimes i really wish apple had had it's way on the illegals claims about owning design elements. we'd at least be safe from their bad choices.
Just about the only downside to fusing the display is repairability.
and yes i know corning glass decision is only because it does not scratch.
my main point thought is about extending a fragile glass like corning to the corners.
My hopes are pretty high though. And I thought the battery wasn't easily replacable, but that video tells the contrary. I'll see for myself I guess.
"With a little help from our MEMS, you can still take photos in quick succession with the speedy new autofocus."
EDIT: It appears that they are using the MEMS acronym, not the branded product. The component itself does not look like the MEMS|Cam branded components either.
Edit 2: Just read more on MEMS and if this phone has MEMS, then the camera software is NOT supporting it. It can take up to a solid second for the camera to make even minute adjustments.
I also think Google needs a whole rewrite for the Android camera app, by camera experts, because the camera is becoming a great competitive advantage, and I think the Android camera app/driver framework is keeping a lot of OEM's back. If they do rewrite it and make it very good for Android 5.0, they will hopefully allow it to be installed to other devices, too, like they already did for the keyboard and launcher.
I totally agree...time to get a decently functioning camera in there.
This was a design decision by the Android team, in response to users on the Nexus One (Android 2.x) getting confused about having 2 GB free on their SD card and not being able to install DRMed apps because their 512 MB of internal storage was full.
In my opinion, the less you store on your phone the better off you will be. I've seen the look on the faces of people who don't backup regularly and using your phone as a USB drive for your life is a "Bad Idea"
I have a ton of music and that's what I put on the microSD. If I lose it, no big deal, but it's really nice to be able to have all my music there.
Personally I'm pretty comfortable taking a quick glance and saying "Looks like it's not working, I don't really know anything about these, you should try the tech support number" without going all nuts or passive aggressive on innocent friends and family.
Instead of being comfortable feigning ignorance I instead choose to be proactive in educating my friends and family about the dangers of local storage and a haphazard backup schedule.
Don't be rude and assumptive.
Previously phones would mount the external storage to /sdcard/_external and /sdcard would be the internal storage. It is really crappy and horrible. What happens to my installed apps on external storage when I suddenly yank out the card? What about if I take the microsd card and then delete a bunch of app data on it and put it back in?
Personally I don't want to have a complicated exposed file system on a phone. I don't want to have the option of moving apps between internal and external storage. This sort of stuff is why Android gets a bad reputation.
Anyway, I'd much prefer simplified file sharing/connectivity between my Android phone and my Macbook Air. I already have all my music, data, etc on the Mac in Dropbox, I just need an easier way for my phone to get to it (adhoc wifi?).
"consumers are being asked to reveal their degree of price sensitivity"