now that the newest Nexus smartphone is
finally here let's see how it stacks up
to the previous one
hey Strasbourg our firm manager or
authority of what's going on everybody
and this is the Nexus 5 vs. then Nexus 4
when it comes to the design we are
essentially looking at glass versus
plastic the Nexus 5 uses a soft touch
plastic in its black version and when
you look at the back the Nexus logo is
in landscape mode next to a lens unit
that is quite large but houses optical
image stabilization contrast this to the
Nexus 4 which has more of a dual glass
sided design and on the back you do have
the Nexus logo there with the smaller
camera unit but also inside of the glass
is the crystal reflection design that LG
utilize not only in it but also in the
original lg optimus G when it comes to
the feel in your hands the Nexus 4 with
its 4.7 inch screen does have a slightly
better screen to use in one hand plus
its rounded look also made at rest
pretty comfortably in the hand contrast
that to the Nexus 5 which has a closer
to 5 inch screen but it's still quite
easy to use with one hand all things
considered however its profile is much
more decisive especially in its lines
and in its corners it has a much more
rigid look to it compared to the very
rounded look of the floor while it can
be argued that the Nexus 4 has an
overall more unique design than the
Nexus 5 I think that the 5s minimalistic
design choices are more of a strong
point rather than a detraction the Nexus
4 given the time that it was released
came with a 1280 by 768 resolution
screen that was capable of 318 PPI for
the time it was definitely one of the
better performing screens however the
1080p craze followed just behind it so
with that in mind the Nexus 4 screen
might be considered more mid-range today
and then we look to the Nexus 5 which is
the logical next step in the evolution
for the Nexus line yes it does have the
5-inch screen at 1080p resolution this
time with 445 PPI that is in line with
today's top tier standards perhaps what
is great about LG's display experience
is that with the Nexus 4 despite being a
much older phone it does still hold up
so it's really up to you whether or not
the resolute
is something you need as well as the
pixel density but sharpness on the Nexus
5 despite being great does not
necessarily blow the Nexus 4 out of the
water so it's just a matter of what size
screen you really need it is a battle of
old and versus new when it comes to the
performance aspect the Nexus 4 did come
with the Snapdragon s4 pro and the
audrina 320 which for its time was a
pretty big deal because quad core
processing was not as common back then
as it was today
however today this processing package is
definitely starting to age when compared
to the top-tier market that we have when
we move on to the Nexus 5 we see the
evolution that we were pretty much all
expecting the Nexus 5 got the Snapdragon
800 clocked in at 2.3 gigahertz and the
updated Adreno 330 now there's no doubt
that especially with the performance
optimizations put into Android 4.4 Kit
Kats that the Nexus 5 is one hell of a
fast phone not only is multitasking as
seamless as it has ever been but also
doing intensive tasks should be easy for
all users so with that in mind the Nexus
5 might be worth the entrance fee
already just due to its performance
aspect it is in the hardware department
that we find both of these phones more
neck-and-neck than probably anywhere
else and that is because the Nexus 4
features have actually returned in the
Nexus 5 well most of them for example
the 16 or 32 gigabytes of expandable
memory are available in either device
however as we've come to expect from the
Nexus line they are not expandable some
features that return include qi wireless
charging and even an LED notification
light down right below the screen when
it comes to connections there is one
very stark difference while the usual
bevy of connections like GPS Wi-Fi
Bluetooth and NFC do return there is an
important addition of full LTE support
found on the Nexus 5 those of you who
are using the Nexus 4 and got sick of
the HSPA+ connectivity can look to the
Nexus 5 for a much faster mobile
internet experience despite the Nexus 5
having a 2300 million baauer unit
compared to the 2100 milliamp hour unit
found in the Nexus 4
we all hope too that the power saving
optimizations an Android KitKat would do
their job unfortunately that wasn't
completely the case
whereas the battery life on the Nexus 4
was actually pretty decent this is also
considering its lower specifications
with the sheer power that the Nexus 5 is
capable of underneath having only a
slightly larger battery made the battery
life on this newer smartphone
aggressively average if you don't do too
much on your Nexus 5 you'll probably see
some decent longevity however it is when
you ramp up your usage that you start to
see very easily diminishing returns
unfortunately when it comes to the Nexus
5 battery life is probably its biggest
setback and that's considering one of
the aspects of the Nexus 5 that held a
lot of hope was its camera anybody who
used the Nexus 4 probably looked to the
Nexus 5 for a much better improvement
and for the most part it does fulfill
that hope in the Nexus 4 we do have an 8
megapixel shooter that was capable of
the photosphere inside of its app its
app also got a little bit slimmed down
and was more simplistic however its
interface turned out to be a little bit
cumbersome and the weren't that many
features inside of it other than perhaps
HDR but nonetheless the picture quiet I
came out of the Nexus 4 was really just
lackluster at best not only was color
reproduction pretty lacking it also
produced pretty grainy shots no matter
what kind of lighting you're in
obviously low-light shots would suffer
quite a lot the Nexus 5 was given 8
megapixels as well but this time that
large lens unit housed optical image
stabilisation which is a pretty big deal
because it should help stabilize the
camera during low-light shots therefore
flooding in more light and creating much
better shots and for the most part
especially when you compare it to the
Nexus 4 it performs pretty decently I
wouldn't say that it's the best feature
of the Nexus 5 nor is it the best camera
that is available today however I also
wouldn't say that it is the worst it
does provide some decent photos and in
very good lighting it does provide a
nice picture for you to use however
keeping hdr+ on is probably more ideal
because it processes the colors a lot
better when it comes to the software
aspect it is another evolution this time
from jellybean - delicious KitKat now
when we're talking about jellybean we
see a much better perfection of the holo
design along with more optimizations
however jellybean was essentially the
coming up party for
Google now which was a wonderful new way
of using search on your smartphone that
became immensely popular and at the time
was to me one of the best new
enhancements available on Android but of
course when you get a new Nexus
smartphone you get another iteration of
Android and this time we call it 4.4
KitKat
when it comes to the enhancements here
there are a lot of performance
enhancements and the recent apps screen
has been made even faster however when
it comes to the general look the holo
design was almost completely reworked
and now has a much flatter look that
utilizes black and white with colored
accents but the main enhancements are
you guessed it in Google now mostly in
its integration with the operating
system Google now is now a home screen a
second home screen available all the way
on the left and you can still access it
using the swipe up method from the home
button in an attempt to create an even
more integrated experience when you're
on the home screens you could just say
ok Google and they will bring up Google
now immediately for you for voice
command search now it is worthy of
mention that the Nexus 4 will be getting
the Android 4.4 KitKat update pretty
soon and that will put it more on par
with the Nexus 5 in terms of that pure
Android experience but keep in mind that
the Nexus 5 with its processing power
will probably do KitKat a little bit
more justice than the dated hardware
found in the Nexus 4 now that the Nexus
5 is out in the wild you will not be
seeing the Nexus 4 in the Play Store
anymore especially for that wonderful
price of $199 unlocked for the base
model you can't find it at third-party
vendors but you probably won't find it
at that low price on the other hand the
Nexus 5 does come with a hefty price tag
of 349 dollars however for an unlocked
phone capable of everything the Nexus 5
is capable of that is considered a bit
of a steal if you have the Nexus 4
perhaps everything the Nexus 5 does give
you over your original phone would be
worth the price of admission and that
question is a little bit harder to
answer considering the Nexus 4 will be
getting the software updates that allow
it to be a little bit more on par with
the Nexus 5 however when it comes to the
upgrade it is up to you whether the
Nexus 5's slightly better
battery slightly better camera but it's
huge speed increase our worth the price
of admission for you there's one thing
for certain however the Nexus 4
introduced us to a new model of buying
and valuing our smartphones and the
Nexus 5 was the next evolution of that
and we wanted to see where that would go
all things considered the Nexus 5 is the
next logical step and does the Nexus
line a lot of justice if this is the
kind of evolution we'll see in each and
every smartphone then I think we can be
very positive about the future of our
Nexus smartphone line as always thank
you guys very much for watching and I
hope you enjoyed this comparison to the
Nexus 4 and the Nexus 5 stay tuned to
Android thoria for all of the best
coverage check out our full review of
the Nexus 5 right over on the side over
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