Nexus 5

Although something was bothering me ever so slightly about KitKat, found this, as the fella says you won’t be able to “unsee” it

You just made me check my Jelly Bean phone. All line up nicely on there 🙂

just put 4.4 on my old Nexus (Maguro), that’s 300 quid saved 8)

just put 4.4 on my old Nexus

From an official update, or a ROM?

From an official update, or a ROM?

I gave Slimkat alpha a try as I was updating anyway. Not worth doing for its own sake I don’t think.

Just picked mine up from carphonewarehouse. Paid £295 for the 16gig delivered to the store. £15 cheaper than google with the delivery charge.

Mine arrived yesterday, first impressions are good.

There’s obviously a plethora of Google apps on there that I’m never likely to use (G+, Hangouts etc). I’m going to root the phone, so when I’ve done it can I just remove them?

Hangouts is your SMS app.
I personally wouldn’t get rid of it!

I wouldn’t be too hastey, G+ is good for backing up photos for free and hangouts is a decent Skype and texting alternative.

G+ is a pretty horrible bit of software but as above there are two useful bits to it.
Group video calls (hangouts) can only be run through it, even if you do a one-to-one vid call using google-talk, you need G+ to vid chat with more than one. I use it all the time for work.

Ive just started using G+ for auto backup of phone pics. Previous attempts at third party apps was not successful so this works well, except you cant turn of the notification that it has made a backup – id prefer it just chuntered away in the background.

ANyway, Im looking forward to getting kitkat on my N4. And in the new year I will probably buy an N5 and give my N4 to mrs S.

Hmm, have now watched some video reviews of the N5 and it looks a decent bit of kit for the money, even more so as it’s available for free on most (all?) tariffs.

My iP4 is on its last legs but I still need convincing about switching back to Android.

Does anyone have any seductive ownership experiences thus far?

Google and android just work for me. I have a PC running chrome and android integrates with it seamlessly. I also like playing with phone software and there are loads of custom versions of android to play with which is something the iPhone lacks.

there are loads of custom versions of android to play with which is something the iPhone lacks.

Yep, that’s something I liked about my HTC Hero 4 years ago. I purposely avoided all the iOS uberhype until one day I gave it a go and realised how slick it was. That was it: bye bye green alien, hello fruity love ship.

Might be able to handle reverting back as I know I can create an iOS style launcher and icons etc.

Reviews of the N5 imply battery life is erratic, the camera is pants and will at some point receive s/w update, plus Hangouts/Messaging is clunky in a non-unified way. Not sure if either is really an issue for me as I reckon I’ll buy a new camera anyway (from the money saved on not buying an iP5S).

EDIT: fairly comprehensive Tracy and Matt unboxing/summary[/url] IAII

I’ve switched over from iOS to android, in my opinion it has pretty much caught up in terms of slickness. Kit kat is a vast improvement even from Jelly Bean

I’ve been using my N5 for a couple of days now and I’m enjoying it. I guess phones are a personal thing but I’m not an iPhone fan at all. Hangouts seems fine, not had any problems but just using it for SMS. You can change your default SMS application if you want as this setting is now build into the os. The camera seems a bit slow to focus but it’s a step up from what I’m used to in the past. There is also no infrared. Loving it for the money though.

Actually, I have just found a bit of an issue with it. The ring volume is stupidly quiet! Hope I can sort it out because it’s a bit of a problem for a phone.

The ring volume is stupidly quiet

Which reminds me: is the call volume loud enough for outdoor use? Some reviewers say it’s pretty poor.

I think Hangouts is pretty good, free multi person conferencing, free screen share, stuff you have to pay for with Skype.. Only downside is it takes a bit of setting up, as many folks aren’t on Google+/Gmail.

it takes a bit of setting up, as many folks aren’t on Google+/Gmail

Agreed. When a load of us starting checking out the Google+ launch we decided we couldn’t be faffed with duplicating all our Faceache stuff.

I think you and friends/family just need a Gmail account and download the Hangouts software to use. You don’t need to be participating in Google+

Which reminds me: is the call volume loud enough for outdoor use? Some reviewers say it’s pretty poor.

I am finding it useless outdoors or even in a cafe. The ring tones are fairly mellow so that maybe the problem. I think some playing around is required, which seems is the idea of a nexus device. Hope I can short it as I am liking it otherwise and call quality seems OK. Don’t know what it sounds like at the other end yet.

I am finding it useless outdoors or even in a cafe.

That’s pretty sh1t. Used to be an issue with phones 3-4 yrs ago, but no excuses nowadays.

Just playing with mine on the train now, do to speak. Seems okay.

I’m on the N4 and love it…. but I’ll update if I can get 50% of the cost of the 4 back. Looking on eBay that seems very straightforward. I’ll leave it another month though.

Is KitKat much different to 4.3? It sounds only very small changes but smoother and smaller.

Is KitKat much different to 4.3? It sounds only very small changes but smoother and smaller.

I’ve only had mine two days, but the seems to sum things up from a user expirience point of view.

The biggest change is certainly behind the scenes as google aim to make KK available on older devices

Has anyone found anything useful in Google Now, I understand that in America there’s lots of useful stuff and there’s also some changes happening soon

But the stuff Google says is coming November 13 is the real gravy, and it’s a shame it isn’t already ladled on. One one those things is the ability to ask you questions — so you might say “text Jennifer” and it will reply “which Jennifer,” and then ask you to dictate the message. It’s also going to get the ability to search inside applications, and launch them to complete tasks for you. So, you might search for a restaurant, and an option in the results shows up for OpenTable, which you’ll be able to fire up and make a reservation. It’s also going to use location cues to drop cards into Google Now, even more so than it does currently. At Yellowstone it will show you geyser times, for example. Sadly, none of this stuff was lit up yet, so I wasn’t able to test it. I’m not dinging the phone for that (and it’s not getting any extra credit), but given how interesting these features are, it’s kind of crazy the phone launched without them.

From Wired review[/url]

But just seems to rinse my battery for no real benefit

I’ve found Google now quite useful for commuting. I imagine it would be good when traveling somewhere I don’t know. It seems to be coming up with more useful suggestions as I use it more.

Okay, one thing I don’t like, there’s no way to add folders to the home screen. My previous Sony could do it, wonder if it was a Sony thing.

Just hold and drag one app onto another, a folder is created automatically.
On older devices you would long press a spare area on the home screen and it would give you the option to create a folder, no need any more.

for those worried about the quality of the camera – I’m no David Bailey but I think it will be good enough for me!

The HDR setting is really amazing, it copes with alsorts of high contrast situations which previous phone cameras wouldn’t have been able to do.

Looks good – real improvement on Nexus4 I feel..

hmm HDR is a software setting

Q: so will it also be available on the Nexus4 with the KitKat update (does anyone know?)

Nexus 4 is fine, but camera is a bit meh.. after all. But then after the initial play aren’t all phone cams (Nokia crazy pixel job excluded)?

Spent a good bit of time transferring the lady of the house’s iPhone to my now ‘old’ Nexus 4. Just an iPod to go and I’m Apple free!

There’s a fuller (glowing) review on the Guardian now: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/11/nexus-5-review-google-kitkat-android-smartphone

I wish I didn’t have 12 months left on my current contract. Will be switching to SIM only on Giffgaff when this contract’s up, and buying a Nexus 5 (or similar) handset.

daveh, how did you transfer across? I’ve been looking, but the texts and contacts doesn’t appear to be straight forward without paying for some software to do it.

daveh, how did you transfer across? I’ve been looking, but the texts and contacts doesn’t appear to be straight forward without paying for some software to do it.

Contacts is fairly straightforward, you just need to sync your contacts with your google account on the iphone (be prepared to do a lot of deleting) and when you sync on the nexus the contacts will then appear. I don’t know of a way to transfer the texts across without using one of the paid software options though.

Mike check out some of the Three sim only plans. Really good value IMO and once it rolls out (could actually be timed about right with your contract ending next year) as LTE will be available at no extra cost.

I had a little bit of fun and games (mainly because of Apple!), but in the end it was pretty straight forward. Couldn’t sync the iphone to gmail so used Bump instead – Bump! and they were transferred. The Nexus then synced them to Gmail and I used Gmail to clean them up (the iphone had both mine and the missus’ contacts on as it had been my phone before the Nexus 4). As for sms, no need to spend money (though i did donate), you need 2 apps: iSMS2droid and SMSBackup&Restore. Instructions[/url]. Happy days.

Tis a git that the 32Gb isn’t yet shipping on contract. No one seems to have any ideas of a time frame either.

There’s a fuller (glowing) review on the Guardian now:

Pretty much spot on that review.

This looks ace for £135 and should get KitKat very soon: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/13/google-motorola-moto-g-android-budget-smartphone

I wonder how it compares with my Galaxy Nexus…

This looks ace for £135 and should get KitKat very soon: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/13/google-motorola-moto-g-android-budget-smartphone

Wow. that looks ace for the money. Anyone know where I can buy it now without contract or SIM?