New Nexus 5, unhappy

[MartinS]

LED on my friend's N4, is on the top, where it belongs. .

Do you have a picture of this? I have never seen a Nexus 4 with the LED at the top!!!

Maybe he holds it upside down...

 

[charliecc]

It does beat Samsung. That's why i wanted to get one. LED on my friend's N4, is on the top, where it belongs. Maybe there's a difference with the European version. Thanks, i'll keep looking.
P.S. I do like the HTC One.

I've owned the European GNex, N4 and N5, they all have their notification light at the bottom. I'd be surprised if the US version had it at the top, but you never know.

Now, if you'd complained about the headphone jack I would have been on board. The Nexus phones used to have the headphone jack in the correct place (bottom), but since the N4 they've moved it to the top.

 

[Hook]

I've owned the European GNex, N4 and N5, they all have their notification light at the bottom. I'd be surprised if the US version had it at the top, but you never know.

Now, if you'd complained about the headphone jack I would have been on board. The Nexus phones used to have the headphone jack in the correct place (bottom), but since the N4 they've moved it to the top.

Again, different folks want different things. My Nexus One had the headphone jack on top and I can't imagine why anyone would want it on the bottom. *That* makes no sense to me.

 

[Paddy Landau]

I'm laughing at the ideas that there are "correct" choices for the lights and jacks. (I presume that you're writing tongue-in-cheek.)

What would be great is if the specific specs could be ordered, at least within some limits. Placement of the jacks; the LED; the speaker; whether stereo or mono; the colours; the position of the camera; and so forth.

It should be possible on-line with virtually no change in price, considering today's automated robotic factories.

I personally prefer the headphone jack at the top, because it doesn't get in the way when I'm charging.

 

[charliecc]

I'll take the charging point on board (although it's minor), but I'm afraid other than that the bottom is the best place for them, and yes this is slightly tongue-in-cheek.

Take the following scenarios.

- Most importantly, holding the phone with the headphones plugged in. If they come out of the top, the cord gets in the way and you often have to brush the cord aside, no such issues if it comes out of the bottom.

- When mounted in the car and connecting to the stereo via lead. Coming out of the bottom means the screen is never obscured, as opposed to the top where it flaps about and gets in the way.

- Placing your phone into your trouser pocket when listening to music. If you're normal, you place your phone into your pocket bottom side up. Thus the logical place for the headphone jack is the bottom of the phone.

What would be great is if the specific specs could be ordered, at least within some limits. Placement of the jacks; the LED; the speaker; whether stereo or mono; the colours; the position of the camera; and so forth.

Some companies are looking at that kind of stuff with these modular phones where you can replace/upgrade certain parts, e.g. http://www.projectara.com

 

[Deleted User]

Do you have a picture of this? I have never seen a Nexus 4 with the LED at the top!!!

Maybe he holds it upside down...

Funny you should say that. I called him up, and although he doesn't have the N4 any more(he has a Moto X), he said that he used to keep it upside down in his belt holster. I stand corrected on that point.

 

[Deleted User]

Afraid not. I had a Nexus 4 before the Nexus 5 and the LED was most definitely on the bottom. There was a single model of the phone for the entire world unlike the Nexus 5 which has two versions. Galaxy Nexus LED was also on the bottom. Not sure about the Nexus S though since I didn't have that one. Nexus 4 also did have LTE if you were on T-Mobile or various Canadian carrier, but it took some modding in order to get it to work.

Perhaps waiting on the Google Edition of the upcoming HTC One will be the better option in order to get roughly the same OS experience as a Nexus with the hardware and build quality of the HTC One.

I think that the current HTC One(M7), rooted, and "googled out", may be my best option right now. As much as i want one, the N5 is just too light weight for me, even with a TPU case.

 

[Deleted User]

lol yet you own one of the most plastic phones out there, an s3

I think the matte finish on the n5 is excellent, plus the weight of it is amazing. From my experience, when people hold it for the first time , most think the battery is missing or something.

My S3 does have too much plastic, which is why i want to get rid of it. The N5 isn't too far behind the S3, when it comes to plastic. When i held the N5, i thought that the whole bottom half of the phone was missing, including the battery!

 

[jj14x]

What would be great is if the specific specs could be ordered, at least within some limits. Placement of the jacks; the LED; the speaker; whether stereo or mono; the colours; the position of the camera; and so forth.

It should be possible on-line with virtually no change in price, considering today's automated robotic factories.

I'm not sure you fully understand the complexity of moving anything around on a compact device like a smartphone. Almost all peripherals (jacks/speaker/LED/speakers, mic etc) are soldered onto the mainboard. So, to move anything around would require either wires (no space for that, plus interference issues), or a redesign of the mainboard. And re-deisigning the multilayer boards that are used for difference preferences of users is really not cost effective.

 

[Paddy Landau]

I'm not sure you fully understand the complexity of moving anything around on a compact device like a smartphone…

Not as simple as changing a car's specifications, then! Yes, you're right, I hadn't appreciated the complexity.

I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Perhaps one day we'll all have 3D printers, and it'll be a matter of downloading a phone plan — of a type very different from today's phone plans!

 

[MartinS]

I'm laughing at the ideas that there are "correct" choices for the lights and jacks. (I presume that you're writing tongue-in-cheek.)

What would be great is if the specific specs could be ordered, at least within some limits. Placement of the jacks; the LED; the speaker; whether stereo or mono; the colours; the position of the camera; and so forth.

It should be possible on-line with virtually no change in price, considering today's automated robotic factories.

I personally prefer the headphone jack at the top, because it doesn't get in the way when I'm charging.

No chance. Modern phones are practically stuffed in to their casing, there's no way that components can be moved around to suit.

 

[Hadron]

Actually any but the most minor redesign will require a new FCC certification. So no, I don't see "dial up where you want your connectors" flying.

 

[Paddy Landau]

Actually any but the most minor redesign will require a new FCC certification.

I don't live in the USA, but that sounds like bureaucracy gone wild!

I presume that the FCC must have its reasons for its inflexibility, but as technology improves, the FCC will have to find a way to certify generic designs. This sort of thing will become important for all kinds of technology, not just smartphones.

 

[GuitarG20]

Couldn't they approve all the components? Wouldn't this intently imply approval of a device built with the components?

 

[Hook]

When Google sold Moto, they kept Project Ara specifically to explore doing this kind of thing.

Google’s modular smartphone, Project Ara, could go on sale next year for $50 | ExtremeTech

 

[Paddy Landau]

When Google sold Moto, they kept Project Ara specifically to explore doing this kind of thing.

Google

 

[Hadron]

I don't live in the USA, but that sounds like bureaucracy gone wild!

I presume that the FCC must have its reasons for its inflexibility, but as technology improves, the FCC will have to find a way to certify generic designs. This sort of thing will become important for all kinds of technology, not just smartphones.

I don't live in the US either. But changes to the circuitry can change the RF performance, including emissions, and some of the things you suggested would require different main boards (or a more complicated, redundant design).

The modular Ara concept is very interesting.

 

[Paddy Landau]

 

[Stealthman]

I don't see the need for SD cards anymore.

I like hangouts as the sms app, works well.

 

[thisISjoel]

I would have liked sd card support to store more music etc but I can live without it and new before hand (did my research) that I wasn't going to have it and made my peace with that.

I also have no issues with hangouts, it does the job no worries.

 

[Omar Days]

I also have no issues with hangouts, it does the job no worries.

And even if people dont like hangouts, there are plenty more options to choose from in the playstore. I just don't get the annoyance some people have at hangouts being the default sms app.

 

[jhawkkw]

And even if people dont like hangouts, there are plenty more options to choose from in the playstore. I just don't get the annoyance some people have at hangouts being the default sms app.

I know there were some issues in the beginning dealing with MMS, but I think it's mostly been cleared up by this point.

 

[Stealthman]

And even if people dont like hangouts, there are plenty more options to choose from in the playstore. I just don't get the annoyance some people have at hangouts being the default sms app.

Me either, it works better than most 3rd party text apps I've tried

 

[Hook]

I don't have any problem with Hangouts being default. I just prefer other apps and, since I don't use a lot of Google services, I prefer having apps that are free of the G+ hydra. So no annoyance here. I do use G+, by the way, but only when I want to use it.

 

[Paddy Landau]