I started using Nexus 5 three weeks ago after not feeling satisfied with Nexus 7 (2013) LTE as my first device to experience Android again after few years. Nexus 5, in many ways, is better than Nexus 7 (2013). Probably because pure Android as an operating system is designed with smartphone first mindset. A lot of third party apps are also designed for smartphone screen and their “tablet version” is basically just stretched out design. Only few apps (from the ones I regularly use) actually provide a dedicated user interface design for better experience in larger screen.
It’s nice that Nexus 5 is basically (almost) the same size as my iPhone 6, so I don’t need any extra time to adapt new habit. I can easily put Nexus 5 in my pocket and use it as my (temporary) primary phone. Generally this phone works fast and smooth for most apps I frequently use.
Even after 3 weeks, I still can’t get used to pressing a button on the side to turn on my phone. Every-time I pulled out Nexus 5 for use, I subconsciously press the bottom of the front screen, which has nothing and will not activate the phone. I tried using pattern for my lock screen and quickly decided I don’t like it. Then I choose to use PIN to protect my Nexus 5. It works better, but I still don’t like that the number that I press is displayed on the screen for about 1 second before it turns into a dot. If someone is nearby and intentionally trying to peek at my PIN, he would surely get it. Of course I can always use my other hand to cover my screen, but that would feel very awkward.
The notification in lock screen is nice to have. Especially after I set it to hide sensitive notification content. I especially like that we can put owner info to be displayed in lock screen. This is something that iPhone should learn. I tried the trusted face feature and somehow couldn’t get it to work properly. Not sure where I went wrong though. I know I can probably do some Google search, but if a feature is not intuitive enough to use straight away and we need Google search to use it, then that feature is probably not worth using.
Android’s (Lollipop) notification center is good looking and easy to read. I still need to do extra step to turn my WiFi on (and off) because swiping down will initially show notifications first. Then we can either pull down once again or tap on the user icon to show the quick control menu to toggle WiFi, flashlight, Bluetooth, airplane mode, location and cast screen. Still get the job done, but require one extra action.
In 3 weeks, I only experience one crash coming from a third party app. And it doesn’t bring the entire phone non-responding. This is pretty impressive as my previous experiences with Android devices has far worse track records.
There are at least 2 apps I can only get in Android: first-party (Google) Calendar app and Firefox app. Yes, iPhone is compatible with Google Calendar, but it always have issues especially when I try to set up exceptions within repeating entries. As expected, first party calendar app from Google handles this better. Next is Firefox app. Firefox is my main browser in desktop computer (with Chrome as my backup browser) and I really want to have it in my mobile device. I have waited so long for Firefox for iPhone, and I already lost hope.
Battery is a weak spot of Nexus 5. It was already not-so-good in Android 4.4.4 and Android 5.0, then it got worse after I installed 5.0.1 update. I guess it’s too much to expect that a revision OS actually fixes bugs without introducing new ones.
Overall, I consider Nexus 5 a reasonably ok phone. My final verdict is to keep is as secondary phone. It’s good enough for occasional use, but not good enough to replace iPhone as my primary phone.
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