Nexus 5: No Longer Available from Google Play But Still A Great Phone

Image from Google Play

Well, after such utter frustration with my Samsung Galaxy S3, I decided to sell it, and trade in my Moto G (1013) too for something better. The S3 was often rebooting itself because of overheating and I was getting tired of Cyanogenmod. I just wanted an affordable, powerful and decent stock or near stock phone. The Moto G was a good stop-gap phone for me, and I loved Lollipop on it, but it was really lacking in the camera department. I considered a first gen Moto X but I heard it had quite a few problems and many have not received Lollipop yet. Some have also complained about the camera and a decent camera was on my list of essential requirements. I also considered an LG G2 but although it has a decent camera, I don't consider it close enough to stock and I did not want the inconvenience of rooting and ROM'ing straight away. In the end I decided the best route was to buy a Nexus 5 as it's totally stock, fairly decent spec, including a decent enough camera, easily available and affordable secondhand.

How things have changed: My LG Optimus 2X alongside my Nexus 5

I bought a secondhand 16GB black Nexus 5 a couple of days ago and so far I am very happy with it. It has a beautiful 1080p screen, nice rubberised back that keeps the phone from sliding around and of course it feels super quick compared to the S3. I did have a slight wireless issue at first but I solved it by enabling Airplane mode, shutting down then starting up again, and has been fine ever since. The only other thing I'm having to get used to is quite excessive battery usage, (compared to the Moto G) which hopefully should be fixed when it receives the 5.1 Lollipop update. It currently runs 5.01. Admittedly I did kind of hammer the battery on the first day of using it, with setting up and testing things out. I really like Lollipop's look, overall feel and notifications and I won't ROM this phone until it no longer receives updates and maybe not even for awhile after that.

 


The only other minor criticism is the back is coming away very slightly from the phone, but it does not bother me much. I find the size of the phone is just right for me, it's large enough to comfortably browse the web and watch youTube on but not too large to be unwieldy. I can see why some might find the Nexus 6 to be a bit too much of a handful, it's a shame the N5 is now no longer available from Google Play. The Nexus 5 also seems durable enough to me that I do not want to ruin the design or feel with a bulky case. I would like to get a QI wireless charger for it, so if anyone has any recommendations, please leave them in the comments.

So overall so far, I am very pleased with my Nexus 5, even with a few minor niggles, it is still the best phone I have had so far. I'm looking forward to testing it further and doing some Photospheres with it, since I haven't been able to do those for awhile, as the Moto G lacked a gyro and Google Camera always crashed on CM11 on the S3. The Nexus 5 is still a great phone and is now an affordable secondhand purchase.