Coming from vz Galaxy Nexus... how's it look?

[Jomero]

So I have been unhappy with Big Red for a while now. I really disliked how they handled Google and their Nexus phone 2 years ago. I've been waiting to jump ship for almost a year now, but with T-Mobile's "We'll pay your termination fees!" deal, it was too good to pass up. Especially since they were the carrier I've been eyeing since the Nexus 4 was brand new.

I've heard mixed reviews about the Nexus 5, so wanted to get the best info from the best source I know: you guys! Would you say that this phone is the correct phone to move to?

Here is what I do and don't care about:

- I DO care about having pure, unbloated, vanilla Android OS.

- I DO care about getting updates from Google on Day 1. (this and the above are highest priority above all others)

- I DON'T care about having a super-awesome camera (I am having my first baby in March, so I suppose this may change).

- I DO care about battery life, but only to the extent that it doesn't run out on me at the end of the day. I am not a heavy user, so my screen time is usually around 2 hours a day.

- I DO care about decent gaming performance.


I appreciate all comments!

 

[Hook]

So I have been unhappy with Big Red for a while now. I really disliked how they handled Google and their Nexus phone 2 years ago. I've been waiting to jump ship for almost a year now, but with T-Mobile's "We'll pay your termination fees!" deal, it was too good to pass up. Especially since they were the carrier I've been eyeing since the Nexus 4 was brand new.

I've heard mixed reviews about the Nexus 5, so wanted to get the best info from the best source I know: you guys! Would you say that this phone is the correct phone to move to?

Here is what I do and don't care about:

- I DO care about having pure, unbloated, vanilla Android OS.

- I DO care about getting updates from Google on Day 1. (this and the above are highest priority above all others)

- I DON'T care about having a super-awesome camera (I am having my first baby in March, so I suppose this may change).

- I DO care about battery life, but only to the extent that it doesn't run out on me at the end of the day. I am not a heavy user, so my screen time is usually around 2 hours a day.

- I DO care about decent gaming performance.


I appreciate all comments!

Looks to me like the N5 hits all your highlights.

On the updates on day 1. Understand that Google rolls out updates in batches over a short period of time. In part, I think they do that so that if there is some uncaught bug, they can pause the rollout and address it and it, thus, won't hit everyone. So your N5 will be eligible on Day 1, but it might not be exactly Day 1 when you get it. It isn't a simultaneous rollout to all devices. However, it will be *nothing* like waiting on Verizon.

 

[Jomero]

Looks to me like the N5 hits all your highlights.

On the updates on day 1. Understand that Google rolls out updates in batches over a short period of time. In part, I think they do that so that if there is some uncaught bug, they can pause the rollout and address it and it, thus, won't hit everyone. So your N5 will be eligible on Day 1, but it might not be exactly Day 1 when you get it. It isn't a simultaneous rollout to all devices. However, it will be *nothing* like waiting on Verizon.

If it's not exactly Day 1, that's fine. It really should read "I want the latest version of Android as fast as possible, even above other branded phones."

Verizon's Galaxy Nexus was a TERRIBLE experience for newest android updates. I didn't see some updates for 6+ months after release. 4.4 is still not available for Galaxy Nexus, for example (and my guess is that it never will).

Thanks for the reply!

 

[vanack]

I'm pretty much like you with your wants for the N5. I had the GNex with Verizon and after that contract ended I bought the N5 from Google, jumped to Straight Talk BYOP $45 ATT plan and haven't looked back. N5 is a great phone imho.

 

[LaFlavor]

So I have been unhappy with Big Red for a while now. I really disliked how they handled Google and their Nexus phone 2 years ago. I've been waiting to jump ship for almost a year now, but with T-Mobile's "We'll pay your termination fees!" deal, it was too good to pass up. Especially since they were the carrier I've been eyeing since the Nexus 4 was brand new.

I've heard mixed reviews about the Nexus 5, so wanted to get the best info from the best source I know: you guys! Would you say that this phone is the correct phone to move to?

Here is what I do and don't care about:

- I DO care about having pure, unbloated, vanilla Android OS.

Check

- I DO care about getting updates from Google on Day 1. (this and the above are highest priority above all others)

You'll get them faster than anyone else.

- I DON'T care about having a super-awesome camera (I am having my first baby in March, so I suppose this may change).

I've had a pretty good experience with the camera. It always took pictures that look really nice (to my untrained eyes), and since the update the autofocus is pretty quick.

- I DO care about battery life, but only to the extent that it doesn't run out on me at the end of the day. I am not a heavy user, so my screen time is usually around 2 hours a day.

I have less than stellar signal at work, and they won't let us use the wifi with our own devices. That being said, I can finish a day with 40-50% battery left (7 AM to 5 PM) with between 1 and 1-1/2 hours of screen time, plus 30 minutes or so of Pandora through bluetooth in the car.

I've heard people claim to get 3-4 hours of screen time, but that seems like a stretch from what I've seen with my phone. Bear in mind that I don't do anything special to conserve battery, other than use the BatteryGuru app. I let the phone auto-adjust the brightness, and I let everything sync whenever it wants.

- I DO care about decent gaming performance.

This phone will be at or near the top of the heap on that category

I appreciate all comments!

I'll just add that this is the quickest phone I have ever used. I've had multiple android phones in the past, and I use an iphone 5S for work. This phone blows them all out of the water in responsiveness. I CANNOT get it to lag or stutter in any situation.

 

[bjrosen]

I moved from the Verizon Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 5 a couple of weeks ago. I'm on AT&T, T-Mobile has practically no coverage outside of big cities so I didn't consider them (their map says that they are 2G in my town). The N5 is a much better phone then the GN and AT&T has a faster network (I've been running Speedtest in a lot of locations and I'm seeing between 20 and 41MBits most places, I've had my business partner run Speedtest on his Verizon S4 at the same time and the N5 on AT&T is always faster, usually much faster).

The screen on the N5 is significantly easier to read then the GN. I didn't think that 1080p vs 720p would be noticeable on 5" screen before I got the N5, but I'm a convert, it's much better.

The WiFI is tremendously better. The GN was only able to do 35MBits on WiFI. The N5 get's my full FIOS speed, 160M down, 65 up, and when I run iperf to my Linux boxes I get 270M. (You'll need an 802.11AC router to take advantage of this).

The battery life is much better than the GN but that's a pretty low hurdle to clear. I'm at 69% after 8 hours of very light use today.

The camera is great, the picture are very sharp. The camera on the GN was awful so I'm delighted to have a camera that works.

 

[Wrend]

So I have been unhappy with Big Red for a while now. I really disliked how they handled Google and their Nexus phone 2 years ago. I've been waiting to jump ship for almost a year now, but with T-Mobile's "We'll pay your termination fees!" deal, it was too good to pass up. Especially since they were the carrier I've been eyeing since the Nexus 4 was brand new.

I've heard mixed reviews about the Nexus 5, so wanted to get the best info from the best source I know: you guys! Would you say that this phone is the correct phone to move to?

Here is what I do and don't care about:

- I DO care about having pure, unbloated, vanilla Android OS.

- I DO care about getting updates from Google on Day 1. (this and the above are highest priority above all others)

- I DON'T care about having a super-awesome camera (I am having my first baby in March, so I suppose this may change).

- I DO care about battery life, but only to the extent that it doesn't run out on me at the end of the day. I am not a heavy user, so my screen time is usually around 2 hours a day.

- I DO care about decent gaming performance.


I appreciate all comments!

Yeah, the Nexus 5 sounds just about perfect for you then.

Pure optimized newest Android combined with the highest-end performance hardware in this kind of device. (Or at the least it's in the top tier.) Can't go too wrong with that, but the fun doesn't end there. :thumbup:

The battery is more than capable enough for your usage needs. However, keep in mind that if you load up this high-end CPU/GPU combo with more demanding than average type games, it's going to chew through the battery pretty quickly. I should know; I have a lot of these kinds of games.

To avoid repeating myself too much, and because I'm feeling a little lazy, you might want to check out this post of mine in a similar thread (it has a benchmark I ran on my Nexus 5 in it - good luck getting that kind of a score on other phones) and the link I have in that post as well: http://androidforums.com/nexus-5/819733-how.html#post6393004

Cheers

 

[Crude]

I think you'll be very happy with a nexus5, T-Mobile on the other hand....
You'll find a great Dev community, fast updates, a fantastic screen and a great camera. The three things I've noticed that could use improvement are:
1. I've noticed the phone has problems going in and out of signal range. I often have to put my phone in airplane mode to get it to reconnect to the network. This may be an app I have installed since I haven't heard anyone else mention it.
2. The speaker is loud but not very clear. It's only slightly worse then the average phone and besides, it is just a phone speaker. It's not meant for audiophiles.
3. The battery. It's really not a bad battery, but I am a heavy user. I would gladly see a 1 mm thicker phone for an extra 500mAh battery. For the average person this isn't a big deal however. It will easily get you through the day.

 

[MartinS]

The Nexus 5 is great. I was a big fan of the GSM G Nex at the time though.

My only complaint as a father of a young lad is the camera. Even with the update which made it better, you will still get the occasional focus issue (where nothing is in focus) in low to medium light.

I still can't believe it's hardware only as far as the camera issue goes but I don't understand why the N5 can't take reasonable instant photos like the N4 and GNex did.

Other than that, it's a fantastic device. I would consider the Moto X but it arrives too late in the UK.

 

[Jomero]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Definitely appreciated.

I have the N5 in hand, and I love it. Many times faster than my GNex. My GNex also had problems staying connected to my home's WiFi (which I thought might have been a router issue), this one is solid like a rock. Battery life is also much improved.

As for T-Mobile, it's a vast improvement for both me and my wife over Verizon. I like to stream music to my car on the drive to and from work, and it's full of non-4G spots on Verizon. And, as everyone knows, Verizon 3G is horrid. I have zero buffering problems with T-Mobile.

And my wife? She works in a place that is also a very bad spot for Verizon. At work, when on a break, she was lucky if she could get .5 Mbps. She sent me a speedtest of TMo with her new S4, and it's sitting pretty at 20 Mbps. Tmobile may not be the best carrier for some, but it definitely is the right one for us.

 

[Rxpert83]

Glad you like it!

IMO its an improvement on the gnex in every way (as it should be, as mobile tech has made some large strides in 2 years)

 

[DMajor239]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Definitely appreciated.

I have the N5 in hand, and I love it. Many times faster than my GNex. My GNex also had problems staying connected to my home's WiFi (which I thought might have been a router issue), this one is solid like a rock. Battery life is also much improved.

As for T-Mobile, it's a vast improvement for both me and my wife over Verizon. I like to stream music to my car on the drive to and from work, and it's full of non-4G spots on Verizon. And, as everyone knows, Verizon 3G is horrid. I have zero buffering problems with T-Mobile.

And my wife? She works in a place that is also a very bad spot for Verizon. At work, when on a break, she was lucky if she could get .5 Mbps. She sent me a speedtest of TMo with her new S4, and it's sitting pretty at 20 Mbps. Tmobile may not be the best carrier for some, but it definitely is the right one for us.

Glad you're enjoying it man!