Gadgetory

typically getting the cheap version of an awesome product comes with the fair amount of disappointment we've all been victims of Pennywise pound-foolish thinking at least once and we've usually paid the price in terms of quality so when a company rolls out a mobile phone that's incredibly cheap you might expect that it's also pretty bare-bones or at least load it down with compromise that was arguably the case with last year's Nexus 4 but does it remain true on Google's newest pure Android flagship let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the LG Nexus 5 for Google the first thing you lay eyes on after taking the Nexus 5 out of its box is the phone's stark industrial design the chassis bears a slight tumblehome configuration with sharp laser cut corners ceramic side keys and glossy edges that contrasts pleasantly with the matte finish back on our white version the tiny earpiece port is also white counterbalancing the single notification LED below the screen but that and the oversized camera lens around back are the lone concessions to aesthetic boldness otherwise the Nexus 5's modern look is thoroughly understated that looks great lying on a table but picking up the phone gives you the first indication that it's not the highest end device around the Nexus 5 doesn't feel cheap per se the casing is solid and the gorilla glass 3 around front feels nice but the lightweight conspires with the glossy side rails to remind you that this is a phone designed in part to be inexpensive and that savings has to come from somewhere that impression vanishes when you take a look at the spec sheet up with a Snapdragon 800 processor 16 or 32 gigs of storage an 8 megapixel optically stabilized camera and a nearly 5 inch 1080p display the Nexus 5 can hold its own with its cutting-edge flagship competitors the display isn't the best we've seen but it's certainly far from the worst the phone's two major variations support enough LTE bands to cover the orgy needs of the masses and little details like qi wireless charging then the Hall effect sensor for accessories are bound to impress the sticklers for detail out there while the story of the nexus family as a whole has changed over time one thing hasn't this phone is still all about the software it's not just android 4.4 kitkat we're talking about either the nexus 5 packs a launcher that is for now exclusive to this hardware that means it's got nice touches you'll only find here like swiping to the left to jump into google now Android purists might object to their leftmost home screen being replaced as they did with the HTC One S blinkfeed but Google now is much more visible than it was in older versions that required you to pull it up from the bottom and we think visibility is the point here there's also the ability to jump into Google now via a voice command right on the home screen which lets you do everything from launching an app to running a search to calling a number vocally it's not as handy in concept as the touchless control found on the Moto X but it actually works better in execution because it's very sensitive and almost never fails to activate which makes it quite handy other features like the dialers yellowbook like internet search and the bundling of SMS into the hangouts app are nice but listing the phone's added features misses the point it's the way those features work together with the interface that's important the total experience of using KitKat on the nexus 5 and that experience is the best we've ever had on an Android phone it's been a while since Android was considered the ugly duckling platform but still Google refuses to rest on its laurels each new iteration brings even further refinement and 4.4 is no exception using Android on this device isn't just fluid and efficient more importantly it's tasteful and reserved in quite a beautiful way testing the Nexus 5 on AT&T over the course of five days in the Greater Boston area showed us that it's still possible for LG to surprise us sometimes that surprise is pleasant as with phone calls the Nexus 5 delivered solid voice quality on our end and callers said we sounded quite nice with the dual microphones doing a good job at noise cancellation sometimes the surprise is less pleasant LG learned that mounting a speaker on the bottom is smarter than doing so on the back as was the case with the Nexus 4 but it didn't improve the speaker itself all that much which is a shame and between the extremes of the Nexus 5's good and bad points lies the camera while it is a significant improvement on its predecessor and capable of some very nice output given the right conditions it's also pretty inconsistent in day-to-day usage indoor shots in particular waffle between noisy and under saturated and the camera doesn't do as well as you'd expect in low-light conditions given its Hardware stabilization the camera is perfectly serviceable for social media needs and might even pull through for a printable photo every now and then given the right lighting and judicious use of Google's new HDR plus shooting mode but this camera still wouldn't be our first recommendation if you're looking for truly excellent images fortunately it performs a bit better in terms of video recording as you can see here in my other pocket as it were Union Square Somerville and there's our autofocus time pretty quick come back out to distance here and there we are not a whole lot of sound on the top of the hill here in Somerville how long you'll be able to roll that video and use the phone in general will vary from person to person but here we think the Nexus 5 is decidedly average on a standard usage test which included a large amount of Wi-Fi and LTE browsing several voice calls a near-constant social media SMS and hangout usage we were able to make it about 23 hours before the Nexus 5 gave up the ghost chirp eight of those hours were in standby as we slept but that's still not too shabby given a four hour screen on time the Nexus 5 is no Galaxy Note 3 or RAZR MAXX but you should feel free to plug in some headphones and listen to Spotify on your way to work the acoustic quality through the headphone jack is quite nice by the way because the Nexus 5 is not likely to die on you by lunchtime and the buzz surrounding the Nexus 5 won't die out for a while either that's partially because of the geek glamour of the Nexus name but let's be honest it's do first and foremost to pricing despite its few shortcomings there's no way a smart phone with this kind of feature set should be selling for 349 off contract while it'll be interesting to see what effect this pricing model has on the rest of the industry let's leave talk of the future for another day right now in the u.s. at least this is the best deal in mobile so while this device would ordinarily average out a bit lower on the pocket now review scale it's insane value combined with an excellent overall user experience boosts its score to a solid 8.4 and that's what we're giving the Nexus 5 folks if you want some more perspectives on the Nexus 5 Tanner Martin and I discussed the device within gadgets Brad Mullin on the latest episode of the PocketNow weekly podcast so tune in for that also you can check out our comparison videos here on YouTube and the full written review of the Nexus 5 will be available on November 9th at pocketnow.com but before you go anywhere please drop us a like if you enjoyed this video follow us on social media we're always there tweeting posting and so on and as always thank you so much for watching we'll see you next time