But...
...can I put Windows on it?
Google’s latest Nexus smartphones, the 5X and the 6P, were announced last month, and while there's a lot to be said for the upgrades, there's some unfortunate omissions. It has been five years since the first Nexus smartphone was unveiled, and since then the Chocolate Factory (and assorted hardware partners) has used the brand …
Its like who cares what Google makes if its only for people who never travel, but always stay in their little high bandwidth area between work and suburbia...
I travel, so I can largely only buy Japanese or Chinese phones now: Dual SIM, Micro SD slot. Useful stuff.
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And weren't all the pundits obsessed with metal? The entire retarded hall of mirrors was calling for Samsung to get rid of that "tacky plastic", even though Poly-carbonate kinda beats metal when it comes to your phone surviving a drop. In the process, Samsung lost its trademark features people were buying those things for.
But not a word of complaint against this tacky plastic Nexus? It does look like something you bought at Target or Walmart. Cheap.
So its neither technically useful, nor does it make a decent accessory. Sit down, Google, thanks for playing.
Sorry, but you are an idiot. You don't try and sync every bit of digital stuff you have ever owned onto a SD card. Not only is that increasingly impossible, it's also a REALLY bad idea, lose your phone, give out a copy of everything you have ever owned.
The smart way, is only sync the stuff you want locally. You put all your stuff in the Google Cloud (using 2 factor authentication of course, so nobody can get their mitts on it), and then SYNC (pin, whenever you want to call it), the bits you want to access offline.
For me this means I have about 20 music playlists (including the everything rated playlist), and a few documents and gmail flags.
a 32GB nexus is more than ample for me, I travel all the time with my work, longhaul and shorthaul. I am gold status with both Oneworld and StarAlliance. I have NEVER felt I was disconnected, but then I spent a little bit of effort upfront organizing things to work this way.
What were you expecting?
These are devices in the Google Nexus line. They don't have external storage, and haven't done since the Galaxy Nexus at least. If that's a problem for you, then the Nexus line isn't for you.
Personally I'm more annoyed that they've dropped the wireless charging - if I decide to replace my 5 with a 5X, I end up with a wireless charger with nothing to charge.
Greg,
I'm rather mystified as to why you first berate me for bemoaning the lack of a particular feature then proceed moan about the absence of another particular feature ?
I'd very much like to buy a pure android experience phone that has decent update support (without ROM faffing) however Google's rabid Appelesque stance of not including SD storage prevents that.
As for lack of wireless charging, why don't you heed your own advice and the Nexus is not for you ?
Just saying.
> I'm rather mystified as to why you first berate me for bemoaning the lack of a particular feature then proceed moan about the absence of another particular feature ?
Presumably because the 5 and 6 actually had wireless charging, as opposed to not a single Nexus having a memory card slot
I'd like to think I wasn't berating :) Just observing that lack of an SD slot is pretty much a given with a Nexus - it would almost be more worthy of comment if they were to suddenly introduce one now...
Wireless charging was a feature on the previous generation of handsets that has now been removed, as opposed to a non-feature continuing to be absent. I may well decide it's not for me on that basis, haven't decided yet.
Also just saying.
I got a Nexus 6 as my newest phone and like it just fine. I looked up the spec on the 6P when I first saw ads for it and realized pretty quickly that it is a new release in the same line and not an upgrade (much as the model number would suggest). The 6P has some features the 6 does not and vice versa, but neither is clearly better than the other. As far as I can see, the choice will come down to which feature set works best for the prospective customer. Providing more choices in the same line of phones seems like a good idea from Google's point of view as they might be able to attract people for whom the 6 would not have been as desirable without having to do a complete product redesign.
That's only really true of the 6/6P though, the 5X is still priced in the mid-range.
I agree that 16GB is cutting it fine (in fact I'd go so far as insufficient), but there is also a 32GB 5X, and the 6P goes up to 128GB - just as a high end phone should.
Just to clarify something - I'd love it if the Nexus range had card slots, but Google made a very clear statement back in 2012 that they weren't going to, and I haven't heard anything since to suggest that might change. That's one in the "cons" list for every Nexus, and when looking at a new phone that gets weighed up, alongside any others, against the "pros". Personally I can live with no SD on a 32GB phone, and I've never yet come close to running out of space. YMMV.
Absolutely agree. Both my N5 and N7 have wireless charging ability, and I have a couple of wireless pads sitting in strategic places around the house so I can simply drop either of them on it when I'm nearby. It's extremely convenient and ensures that my devices are always topped up. "Charge early and often" as suggested by the article is a fine idea, but without a handy way to do so will be hard to attain. No wireless charging is likely a deal breaker for me. A shame, as I was looking forward to one of the new ones. I may just have to pick up a spare N5.
So it'll screw up the hardware/firmware design sufficiently that it'll mishandle the flash memory that the entire device will become landfill-worthy slowness in just a couple years? Like they did with the original Nexus 7 tablet.
Nexus scum!!!! They owe me a new tablet.
"If you're going for Android, go to the source" <- BS. The Nexus brand is *rubbish*.
For every one person that cries about this non issue (my 32gb Nexus 5 is still really fast and ample free space), I hear way more moaning about having to move stuff between internal storage and external SD card.
I prefer not having to deal with that nonsense. Nexus is by far the way to go.
"Huawei has managed to chop the thickness down from 10.1 to 7.3 mm, making it much easier to manipulate."
The Nexus 6 (like other Motorola phones) has a curved back, while it might be 10.1 mm thick in the centre it's much thinner at the edges, the result is a device that's much more comfortable to hold than a thin flat phone.
The only ones that seemed to have nailed the new generation phones so far seem to be Motorola with the new X.
I will be replacing my phone early next year. Sony has a real statement Phone with the upcoming Z5 premium, but they're Always lagging behind with the latest Android fixes, and now they've decided my Z1 is too old to qualify for the new Droid release.
Everyone else seems to be decidedly going for a Me-Too approach.
Let's hope the new year will bring some new models worth looking at. Snap 820 phones look like being at least 9 more months away before general availability.
The lumia 950 looks like a really good effort, but MS' new privacy politics (or lack thereof) don't inspire confidence. AND would require me to purchase around 100 Euro's worth of new apps.
Ah yes...and then there's the upcoming Blackberry Priv...
The Z5 and Z5 Compact have 20+Mp sensors which are said to be very good, though by default the phones save 8 Mp interpolated images - sensible enough. Some reviews say the Sony camera software is a bit slow, I don't know the effect of using any 3rd-party camera app.
"The Z5 and Z5 Compact have 20+Mp sensors which are said to be very good, though by default the phones save 8 Mp interpolated images"
Opposite of interpolated; interpolated means fake upscaling by creating extra false pixels which are the average of the ones on either side. Sony are doing the opposite, i.e. downscaling and using a summation of pixels to reduce noise. The Z1 does this, nothing new.
DxOMark rates the Z5 camera above the new iPhones, but I wouldn't buy one, due to the 810 SOC and the micro-USB. If there is a Z6, it may be the one to beat.
The z5 is the best phone you can buy. It's got the 810 but with Sony legendary design and build so no thermal issues. DXO rate it 10 places higher up the camera rankings than the more expensive iPhone 6s dickhead edition.
I also wouldn't trust this review, is stopped reading at the "The original Nexus 5 getting very long in the tooth by modern standards." Horsecrap. Mine is running really well on Android 6 thanks, and getting decent battery life still.
........in Win 10 (mobile or otherwise, Redmond should be ashamed of themselves).....
"The lumia 950 looks like a really good effort, but MS' new privacy politics (or lack thereof) don't inspire confidence. AND would require me to purchase around 100 Euro's worth of new apps."
........anyone claiming that Mountain View's os respects privacy to a greater degree than the latest iteration of Windows has clearly not been reading their memos. Just look at Android's system apps and what they do if anyone is in any doubt. They define the "ring home" concept.
A point very well taken, and compounded by the current google 'drive' tp prevent users from using add-blockers.
My point, however -admittedly badly made - is that switching to new ecosystem has been made very much more unattractive (to me at least) by removing one of the reasons I would consider the move in the first place.
Peter
Indeed. There I feel Redmond have shot themselves in the foot by following Google's model. My point really is not in conflict with yours since I can well understand people feeling "well, who the hell should I choose then"?! It is not a good situation to be in where one in practice has little choice available in the market regarding something as important as privacy. One is in practice in the position of having to ignore it as a criterium when evaluating a purchase and that is not a healthy situation for the customer.
Almost no phone requires unlocking for taking pictures. The assumption is that people want to take the picture now now now before little Johnny stops making that funny face, and unlocking goes in the way.
QR codes (that's what you mean, right?) are not decoded by the standard camera app; you just end up with a picture of a QR code and the phone does nothing with it. You need to use a different app for taking pictures of QR codes and having the phone follow the link.
You're perfectly right ... QR codes. I've just got Sandy Toksvig in my twitter feed. (taking over from Stephen Fry)
I do find myself wondering how long it will be before someone thinks they'll make life easier for people and build the feature in to the camera application. Hmm.....
>I do find myself wondering how long it will be before someone thinks they'll make life easier for people and build the feature [QR code recognition] in to the camera application
With all the superfluous CP/GPU power smartphones pack these days, it can only be a matter of time. Or, more sensibly, the phone's photo gallery app automatically scans photos for QI codes and places any URL into the photo's metadata... as a user option, of course.
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> The original Nexus 5 was the first handset to carry Android 4.4 (KitKat) back in November 2013 and is getting very long in the tooth by modern standards
In what way is it long in the tooth? It still has a 1080p screen. Still has 32Gb storage. Quad core, 4G, Bluetooth, 5Ghz WiFi, NFC, Qi charging, GPS, barometer. It also has marshmallow. About the only thing "average" thing by today's smart phones would be the camera (8MP and no stabilisation), lack of waterproofing and fingerprint.
It's contemporaries are iPhone 4s for perspective.
But I agree - the specs are more than enough, unless you are installing start clogging it up with crapps like water jug monitors (my brain doesn't work because I don't drink enough water) or fridge controllers (I ordered 500g of just caught salmon now I need to adjust the thermostat down by 0,1 degrees)
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