Let's take a look at the Nexus 5 hardware.
So the first thing that you'll notice is this gorgeous
5in screen on the front which is IPS
1080p and it just looks
absolutely fantastic. It really is up there with the best of the screens that I've used and that
includes the Galaxy S4
and the HTC One which both screens in my opinion offer slightly different
experiences but both
truly excellent displays. And even looking at something like the Sony Z1
released at the start of the year even that screen is fantastic
really benefits from the Bravia engine
but ultimately the Nexus 5 display is very crisp,
beautiful colour reproduction and just looks great.
Camerawise on the back we've got an 8-megapixel shooter
which is optical image stabilization as well.
Now that basically means that if you are shooting in low-light conditions
if you happen to be someone with shaky hands or if the object is moving quite quickly
optical image stabilization will just help the image settle down a little bit more
allowing the camera to lock onto fast-moving subjects or subjects that are
shrouded in darkness and you know, like I say if you happen to just have a little bit of shake in your hands, the
wind's blowing, you're on uneven ground, or what have you, then that optical image stabilization
means you'll be taking less blurry pictures and more
perfectly focused and sharp ones. Interestingly
there's an IMEI sticker slapped on the back there lovely
and everything is indented
so it's very much using the Nexus fabric as it were,
this polymer that just feels great in the hand, it's not too slippery.
It does leave kind of smudge marks off your fingers a little bit but those kind of
disappear. It's almost like it has a coating on there. On the bottom
we have the speakers as well as the
micro USB jack. Volume rocker
is on the side here. Power on this side
and also your SIM. Now the SIM tray,
now the SIM tray is really easy to get out. You get a tool in the box
and all you need to do is pop it into the side and pop the tray open. You don't need
to faff around with pins
or paper clips or anything like that like good old Apple did
not so many years ago. Quick and easy to get the SIM in and out
and it goes home snugly and it doesn't leave
any kind of raised area, raised edge there.
It's perfectly flat, which is quite nice. Power button again just there
and it is slightly raised up, quite easy to hit. On the top
we have a 3.5mm jack and a noise cancelling microphone.
And I believe there's probably another noise cancelling microphone floating around somewhere as
well not that I can
spot it. Appears to be only one noise cancelling microphone on this but we'll
see later.
We also have the LED flash on the back as well,
no word yet on the quality of that, I'll be giving that a
full test run through later. But overall the hardware
is quite exceptional. It's certainly one of the fastest on paper devices.
that has ever been released. It's the Snapdragon 800 at 2.3Ghz.
It's not quite 2.3
it's actually clocked at something like 2.78 or something, but, you know, we love rounding
numbers up.
It's backed up with the Andreno 330
GPU running at 450 mHz which is certainly no slouch.
It's going to be very interesting to see how this stacks up against something like
the Galaxy Note 3.
Now the screen like I say is a 1080p screen,
it's actually 4.95in, they call it a 5in display
but that's running at 445 ppi which is
pretty high. It's probably one of the highest in fact, and it's also got Corning Gorilla
Glass 3
which is a key differentiator and this is the
lighter Corning Gorilla Glass it's also a lot tougher as well.
Really is their third evolution of that particular manufacturing process for glass screens
and by all accounts it's incredibly tough. Overall
there's not a lot here on the hardware side to get really excited about
it's not necessarily the fastest overall package of hardware that's ever been
put in a mobile phone,
that probably right now goes to the Galaxy Note 3 but
what it is, is an incredible price point to hit £300, £295 for the handset
with an 8-megapixel shooter 1080p screen,
the latest and greatest Snapdragon 800 processor, the fast Android 330 GPU
and just overall for that price point
an incredible package and you're getting the latest and greatest Android 4.4.