Best Google Play Edition Phone (circa July 2014)

[Crell]

My trusty Nexus 4 is slowly falling apart. It's not charging properly, I just had to replace the battery (it died entirely and I needed to get data off it), etc. I think it's time for a new phone. :-(

I like stock Android, so I'm looking primarily at the Google Play Edition devices. I was hoping to wait for whatever Google came out with this fall in the Nexus line, but the latest rumors say it's going to be a 6" phablet beast; no thank you. If I want a tablet I'll wait for the Nexus 8/9/whatever it's called. The Nexus 4 is about as wide as I'm able to go. I am also on T-Mobile.

So my options appear to be:
- Nexus 5
- HTC One M8
- Moto G
- Samsung Galaxy S 4

The S4 is at this point rather old. The Nexus 5 sounds nice but is also not a new phone. (Less than a year old and it's already old. Sigh, modern technology...) I know quite little about the others. Anyone have any expert opinions or thoughts to share?

What I'm particularly interested in:
- Battery life. I travel a lot, including internationally. My phone is my lifeline. I can't have it die in the middle of a strange European city. I frequently have GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth all running at once so it needs to last.
- Good quality screen. Goes without saying.
- I do not use it as a music player very often, and almost never through the speaker. So the HTC One M8's big speakers are not a big selling point for me (although I don't mind them).
- Size: I'm left handed, so reaching my thumb across the screen a lot. I can't handle a too-big phone. The Nexus 4 is as big as my hand can go. The Nexus 5 is no wider, just taller, so that's OK, but if it's over 5" it's pretty much out for me.
- I do some gaming but that's not its primary use. It's mostly a business device and web terminal.
- When I'm on vacation I have a point-and-shoot canon camera with me for real pictures. It should have a good camera, but it doesn't need to be pro-grade. Most of my phone pictures end up on Twitter, not Flickr.

Any words of wisdom, oh great Phandroids?

 

[gadgetenthusiast]

Moto G, good specs with cheap price

 

[mikedt]

Think out of the choice Nexus 5, it's still current spec and the size is probably right for your needs by the sounds of things. And it most definitely is a Google Play device, is unlocked, Samsung, HTC, etc. maybe locked depending on what country you're in, and there's no manufacturers or carriers to get in the way of updates. Where your photos are going to go, all depends on what app or service you use, for example using Twitter rather than Flickr.

 

[kate]

Hi Crell, I moved your thread to the Device Comparisons forum

I'd also lean towards the Nexus 5.

 

[Crell]

Thanks, Kate. I wasn't quite sure where it belonged.

mikedt: I'm in the US on T-Mobile USA. I assumed anything bought through the Play store directly is unlocked since it's not bought through a carrier. Not true?

Photo-wise, as noted most of my phone pics are tweeted immediately (via Plume, if it matters). I will often archive them but for serious picture taking I have a separate camera. So it should be a good camera but I don't need top-of-the-line; just non-sucky.

Is the Nexus 5 still relatively high-end? Or have we just plateaued in terms of device horsepower? (We may well have from what I've seen.) How is it on battery life, which for my use cases is one of the top needs?

 

[Crell]

Addendum: The Moto G looks more down-market than I'm looking for. So that leaves me with the Nexus 5 or the HTC One M8.

So far the reviews I've found have come down on "One M8 is the better phone, but Nexus 5 is the better value (at half the price)". Definitely if I'm going GPE the cost matters and the One M8 is hella expensive.

The one place that it looks like I'd benefit from the M8 is the battery. (Cameras appear to be a wash, I don't care about the fancy schmancy speakers as I almost never play music through the speakers, only through my car via Bluetooth, and with GPE I won't be getting Sense 6 anyway.) But it does look like the battery life is considerably better on the M8.

Anyone have first hand experience here? How good is the Nexus 5 on battery life? I do have some external battery packs that I carry when traveling, although I'd prefer to not have to. I just don't know if that's worth the extra $300.

 

[Crell]

For anyone finding this thread later:

I ended up going with the Nexus 5. What cinched it for me was:

- Price. The M8 is damned expensive.
- The N5 has a magnetic coil and wireless charging. The M8 has neither. I have a magnetic car mount and am disappointed that wireless charging is not more widespread. I don't need a new, bulkier car mount, too.

 

[mikedt]

For anyone finding this thread later:

I ended up going with the Nexus 5. What cinched it for me was:

- Price. The M8 is damned expensive.
- The N5 has a magnetic coil and wireless charging. The M8 has neither. I have a magnetic car mount and am disappointed that wireless charging is not more widespread. I don't need a new, bulkier car mount, too.

Some flagship phones can be horribly expensive when you're not buying them with carrier subsidy and contract. The M8 is almost equivalent of $900 here in China. Of course you're not going to get a Google Play edition device or a Nexus subsidised by a carrier, Google sells them directly. I almost bought a Nexus 5 myself, because it's still a good spec and the price OK as well, but what really stopped me was no SD and only 16GB internal, and Google's cloud is not easily available here. So I bought a Chinese Oppo Find 7a and put CyanogenMod on it, which was about half the price of the M8.