Over the past years LG have had the rare chance to gather experience building Google Nexus Smartphones. The Korean company are the makers of the Nexus 4, but sharp tongues would claim that it was just a cut-down version of the Optiumus G. It might be that they were right, since LG have now made the Nexus 5, a high-end smartphone that sports a surprisingly reasonable price tag.
If you were to looking at LG’s lineup for a phone that the Nexus 5 could be compared to, then you might stumble upon the G2. This phone shares the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset (SOC) and the Adreno 330 graphics processor. Other than these two similarities, almost everything else is different. The Nexus 5 features a 4.95 inch display and the casing simply cannot be compared, not to mention it comes with the 'Pure Google Experience' afforded by the Nexus label.
[pagebreak]
Display / Specifications
LG chose to equip the Nexus 5 with a FullHD, 4.95 inch display, in the form of an IPS panel. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the contrast and viewing angles are both very good. Brightness is also very good on this display, when used in full sunlight we had no issues seeing and reading the display. On another note regarding the display, we found touch responsiveness to be excellent and the phone didn't misread any of the finger gestures. With regards to the SoC, there is nothing more powerful available on the market today than the 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800. The Nexus 5 is paired with it's 2 Gigabytes of memory, sure, more is always better, and no one would complain with more. I think LG have found a good balance with 2 Gigabytes. This coupled with the underlying hardware creates a buttery smooth user experience with plenty of horsepower for any app you might want to install on this phone. To round the package off, there is also an LTE module, which offers state-of-the-art on the go network speeds.
| LG Nexus 5 |
|
Software |
Android 4.4 |
|
Display |
4.95 Zoll, 1080 x 1920 Pixel, 445 ppi,
IPS, Gorilla Glass |
|
Input |
Touch Screen, Status LED |
| SoC |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 2.30 GHz,
Quad core |
| Graphics
Unit |
Adreno 330 |
|
Memory |
2048 MB |
|
Camera |
8 MP, 1080p, AF |
| Front
camera |
1.3 MP, 720p |
| GSM / UMTS / LTE |
Yes |
| WiFi |
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi Direct, Miracast |
| Bluetooth |
4.0 |
| GPS |
Yes |
| USB |
Micro USB 2.0 |
|
Infrared |
Yes |
| SIM
card |
No |
| SAR |
0.49 W/kg |
|
Battery |
2300 mAh |
|
Diemensions |
138.0 x 70.0 x 9.0 mm |
|
Weight |
130 g |
[pagebreak]
Design / Build Quality
We have already addressed that LG chose to create an entirely new case for the Nexus 5. The back as well as the edges received a rubberized coating, which makes the phone very grippy, I found this phone to be more stable in my hand, and I was much more confident walking around with it whilst typing than I would be with something like a hard plastic or metal backed phone. Other than the obvious grip benefits, it also gives the phone a nice soft touch, and is generally comfortable to hold. On the back of the device, there is NEXUS indented into the body in large letters. This is quite hard to miss, we think Google/LG wanted people to know this was a Nexus device - maybe. Overall the manufacturing quality is great and there is absolutely nothing to complain about. There are no gaps and even when you bend and squeeze phone you won’t hear the materials squeak.
Camera
One area that could seem strange with the Nexus 5 and it's apparent high end status, is it's camera. Sporting only 8 megapixels when phones like the Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z and even LG's own G2 all sport 13 megapixel shooters. This may seem like a drawback to many, but the Nexus 5 has something special up it's sleeve; Optical Image Stabilization. The camera features a 2 axis gyro that helps produce sharper crisper photos. Overall image quality is excellent when compared to any other 8 Megapixel camera. In good lighting, this phone doesn't fail to disappoint. Unfortunately, even OIS cannot produce completely blur free photos when there isn't enough light. When the lighting is turned down, the ISO goes up, this produces image noise, and it appears that the camera software has some kind of diffuser filter, which produces a slight blur to pictures instead of just a picture with a lot of noise. Using the flash shows some improvement and would be recommended in low light conditions. One last note to the camera and phone performance in general, the camera is very fast to start up and is ready to use in less than a second.
[pagebreak]
User Interface
The LG Nexus 5 is a Nexus device, a Google smartphone. This means
that it's one of those special devices to get the latest versions of Android
first. When this review was published, Android 4.4.2 – KitKat – was the latest
version. Compared to previous versions of Android, there are quite a few,
surprisingly radical changes. One that stands out, is the move away from Dalvik
to the new ART runtime. This is a fundamental change in the way that Android
handles and executes apps. For you, the User, this basically means a more
efficient use of ram, faster app startup times and a smoother experience
overall. When you start the phone for the first time you might also notice that
there are only two home screens instead of the usual five. The latest version of
Android only displays the home screens you’re actually using. If you want,
though, it’s possible to create as many home screens as you want, by simply
sliding an app or widget of the right or left border. Sliding to the left will
inevitably make you access Google Now, which shows things like weather and
provides you with status updates. Since the new KitKat surface is very colorful,
it’s surprising to see none of that made it to settings menu, which is not
necessarily a bad thing. The menu features the usual structure but the contrast
to the home screens is very well visible. One of the very first things we wanted
to do after arming the device with a SIM card was sending a text message.
When looking for the text messaging app, we were quite surprised to just find
“Hangouts”. Text messaging has basically been integrated into Hangouts and the
application has a more modern look and feel to it.
Battery life
We have read many times over that the biggest negative to the Nexus 5 lies with its smaller than average battery, which, on a side note, is also not removable. What we found, was actually a rather impressive power management system. We set the screen brightness to its maximum setting, turned wifi on and kept the screen on mainly with the web browser, and some idle time. I did this until the phone shut itself down. Total recorded 'Screen on Time' was 6 hours and 21 minutes. We were very surprised with this result! We also tested battery life in calls and found out that the phone will go for 8 hours and 47 minutes until it decides to power off (please don't ask us about our phone bills). Recharging was swift, and done with after only 2 hours and 17 minutes. Talking about recharging the Nexus 5, you can choose whether you want to do that via the supplied USB charger, or from your favorite induction (wireless charging) pad, the Nexus 5 comes equipped with all the internals for out of the box wireless charging!
[pagebreak]
Benchmarks
Sun Spider Javascript Benchmark 1.0
| iPhone 5S |
473.5 ms |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
656.8 ms |
| LG Nexus 5 |
763.7 ms |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
942.8 ms |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
1'083.0 ms |
Browsermark 2.0
| iPhone 5S |
3'032 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
2'919 |
| LG Nexus 5 |
2'807 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
2'515 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
2'448 |
Vellamo
| HTML5 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
2'853 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
2'515 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
1'800 |
| LG Nexus 5 |
1'653 |
| Metal |
| LG Nexus 5 |
1'222 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
927 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
840 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
743 |
AnTuTu Benchmark
| Total |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
27'351 |
| LG Nexus 5 |
24'468 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
23'901 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
22'621 |
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
| Total |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
15'575 |
| LG Nexus 5 |
13'427 |
| iPhone 5S |
11'413 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
10'478 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
9'148 |
| Graphics Score |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
16'962 |
| iPhone 5S |
15'296 |
| LG Nexus 5 |
15'145 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
10'385 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
8'463 |
| Physics Score |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
12'904 |
| LG G Pad 8.3 |
12'763 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 |
10'818 |
| LG Nexus 5 |
9'610 |
| iPhone 5S |
5'862 |
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
|
Overall |
|
+ |
- |
| With their Nexus 5, LG succeeded in
creating a convincing smartphone. What you get is a seriously quick
device, which features a surprisingly modest price. Other than that
build quality is great and the coating makes the phone very grippy.
Apart from that there is the fact, that Nexus phones are the first ones
to receive the latest Android updates from Google and this alone can
already be reason enough to choose the Nexus 5 from LG. |
|
- Performance
- Build Quality
- Price
- Update cycle |
|
| |
|
Design / Bild Quality |
|
+ |
- |
LG chose to make the Nexus 5 a high-end
device therefore it's important, that this smartphone features a well
thought and decent design as well as flawless build quality. The matte
finish looks just great and the fact, that this device received a
rubberized coating makes it very grippy, as we already mentioned. Since
the Nexus 5 is very well built there are no squeaking whatsoever even if
you bend the device. In case of the display, there is Corning's Gorilla
Glass, which makes it almost impossible to scratch it.
On a slightly different note: there is no headset inside the box, which
is one of the few spots, where LG was saving a few bucks in order to
achieve very competitive pricing. |
|
- High quality materials
- Gorilla Glass 3
- Finish |
|
| |
|
Performance / Battery |
|
+ |
- |
Since there is a Snapdragon 800 SoC
working inside the Nexus 5, there is definitely nothing to complain when
it comes to performance. Althought it was quite surprising to see, that
the phone started to throttle in for example 3DMark. Testing the phone
in the cold revealed better performance numbers. We would love to see LG
paying more attention to cooling the SoC and apparently this also shows,
that 2.3 GHz with this manufacturing process as well as with four cores
seems to be the maximum, which can be squeezed out of this formfactor.
When have a closer look at the battery we notice, that especially talking
time is rather high. Although it's not the battery with the largest
capacity, there is still plenty of juice. Overall battery life is on a
competitive level. |
|
- Overall Performance |
-
Throttling |
| |
| Display / Camera |
|
+ |
- |
| In case of the display there is a panel
that measures 4.95 inch diagonally. Since there is an IPS panel colors
are life-like and also contrast as well as brightness are really good.
One point where LG was saving a few bucks concerns the camera. There is
an 8 Megapixel sensor on the back of this phone. Nevertheless this
camera is everything but bad. One thing that is really practical is the
image stabilization feature. Especially, when there is bad lighting
conditions, this really help. Taking pictures outside in full daylight,
resulted in sharp images with rich and life-like colors. The same that
goes for foto functionality also applies to taking videos. They are
sharp and feature life-like colors. |
|
- IPS Panel
- Image stablization
- Life-like colors
- Sharp images |
-
Strong
noise under bad lighting conditions |
| |
| Recommendation /
Price |
|
+ |
- |
| The Nexus 5 from LG is a great and very
well built smartphone. According to Geizhals.at prices for this phone
are starting at 395 Euro within Europe. For that price, you get a
state-of-the-art smartphone, where the manufactuere had been saving a
few bucks by not providing a headset as well as putting an 8 Megapixel
camera into the case instead of a 13 Megapixel sensor. Should you be
looking for a new phone for under 400 Euro, then the Nexus 5 from LG
should definitely be considered. |
|
- Pricing |
|
| |
|
Rating |
| The Nexus 5 from LG receives very good 4.5 out of 5 stars. |
| |
Article in English
Artikel in Deutsch
Article en français
Articolo in italiano
