New Nexus 5X, 6P smarties: Google draws a line in the sand 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.
.
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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No SD is a big no-no for me.
I like to have a large music collection stored on my mobe. I spend a lot of time working down in the bowels of a data centre where phone signal and the company WiFi are non-existant.
I could go to the effort of cloud-syncing a playlist, playing ti and then repeating the next day - or I could put a big 64Gig SD card in and have more music than I could ever really want ready and waiting in my pocket.
I like the idea of a service plan which pays back for unused data etc - it's an interesting concept given that a lot of people I know pay for high end contracts, barely touch their limits and then won't downsize "just incase". This could see some real competition entering the service market once it hits the UK.
In the heart of a data centre but no data, hilarious.
Reasonable for security I suppose as long as memory sticks are also banned, and OTG/cables, and BT and...
A guy on a recent trip in Central America was using Google Fi, I couldn't catch the name properly but he said it was a new service, monthly payment, data/service in 120 countries.
He could roll into Guatemala City surfing the web and checking stocks (the reason he had the service) while the rest of us were wondering if the next rest stop had WiFi (they do).
He said it uses WiFi where possible (including non-open ones via agreements I presume) and service wasn't always good (or present) but he was paying $10/month and thought it was well worth it.
They are indeed since they host credit card data. No writable media whatsoever. Only readable allowed media is OS/Driver disks. No USB cables for phone charging etc. Internet is firewalled and is allow-by-exception for business pruposes only. No Wireless access points for security, no mobile signal because its 2 floors below ground and has reinforced walls. All by design - but I wouldn't expect anything else when my personal card data is stored there among others.
If only others were so good with their security...
>No SD is a big no-no for me. I like to have a large music collection stored on my mobe. I spend a lot of time working down in the bowels of a data centre where phone signal and the company WiFi are non-existant.
Two suggestions: 1, look at LG's offerings - they still have SD cards and swappable batteries, plus some models can play back native 24bit 192Khz FLAC files.
2: Your phone's battery will probably take a hit by searching for a cellular signal in vain, so ease the load by just buying a dedicated audio player with SD card support... the Sansa Clip springs to mind. Don't worry about the extra bulk; it's the size of a matchbox and is a convenient thing to wrap your headphone cables around.
Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. I will have a look at LGs kit next time I upgrade. Currently running an HTC M8 and love it :)
As for point 2 - flight mode :) just have to remember to turn it off when I get out the DC... which i frequently don't - but then I can charge it at my desk since I've got a plug point right next to me.
"Two suggestions:"
3: You probably could just shove an appropriately tiny USB stick into the phone's OTG connector and have it recognized as a removable mass storage drive (at any rate, the Galaxy S2 way back before the big bang could do it just fine). The exact logistics of connector type/cable/adapter/etc. and actual practicality remain a bit unclear though...
This works but it has a very big drawback compared to an SD card in that you have a large cable sticking out of the bottom of your phone which, if knocked hard, may completely break your phone.
I bought a Nexus 6 despite the lack of an SD card slot. It's less of a shag than I expected but it's still a shag. 64GB isn't that much these days and I too have a very large music collection (a lot more than 64GB). I miss the SD card slot on my previous Galaxy S4.
If you really need to carry several days worth of music around with you, then just buy a OTG cable for a few quid - problem solved.
What would you rather have a SD card slot or be first in line for updates?
SD card slots generally appear on phones where they have somehow contrived to make Android slow and ugly (ok, Touchwiz is a little nicer now but it's still slow compared to stock Android).
I have a cheap Moto-E 4G....it has an SD-card slot. I have 128GB of memory in it.
However, I am running lollipop (yeah *thanks* motorola/lenovo for screwing us with that), and so the SD card is *sort* of usable, but not seamless.
I will make a prediction that either a) memory in phones becomes much cheaper b) the next nexus will have a slot.
Oh and if you *don't* have slot, the sodding phone should be waterproof!!!!
P.
Oh and if you *don't* have slot, the sodding phone should be waterproof!!!!
Amen!!!!
I've have an "old" Casio/G-Zone "Boulder" circa 2006/07 that's STILL water-PROOF not "resistant" It still (sorta) does what I need - Receive/Send Voice, (what ever that is...) texts, and takes some-what decent pix's... All being 40' underground in an electrical noisy environment. I deal with pump stations - either potable(fresh) or waste - with more magnetic interference from 1950's low-voltage starters to today's VFD's from 60 to 400 HZ's.
Saturday, after a long day, I recovered my phone in a 1/2 million gallon waste water tank,(granted, it was being pumped down after I got the pumps restarted) that was at 17 feet (about 6 meters for you metric users) when I was called. Plucked it out, with a basket-on-a-stick, in about 3' of muck. Hosed it off (literately), and got my other dozen or so messages...
Now, if Casio - if no one else - can make a (clam-shell) phone like that about 10 years ago WITH expandable (MSD to 32 g's), removable/replaceable battery, EITHER external charger AND/OR cradle charging, and STILL works as advertised, (I admit, I spent US $200 for it at the time) WHY can't anyone else do so?!
/end:rant
P.S. - this is my 3rd phone in my 40-some-odd-year lifetime.. 2nd was a Nokia (can't remember the model - old-timers disease ;-) ) mono stick, and 1st was a Panasonic LUGGABLE; 2-piece, with the FULL 3-Watt output in the late 80's - not the milli / micro Watt we have now...
If you're using for phone for Navigation whilst mounted on your dashboard then it won't be locked anyway.
And in all other cases, you shouldn't be using your phone whilst driving... :)
Fingerprint sensor on the back makes sense for one-handed use. You generally need two hands on a front mounted fingerprint sensor.
You can get unlimited mobile Internet in the UK for £18 per month (that's about $28). There are no caps except for tethering, but this is easily bypassed if you know how.
I hate to use the word disruptive in this context but the US definitely needs some new player in the mobile phone network game.
...Likewise - £20 pcm with Three and I get unlimited Data, 3000 SMS and 5000 mins incl free 0800's. It must suck to have to pay that sort of money - I can easily use 10-12GB per month over 4G and using it as a hotspot when out and about with my laptop.
Heh heh; I just took my 3 mobile on a three week trip to the US and used it for all sorts of 4G data goodness (apart from hotspotting - that's verboten) and paid absolutely nothing on top thanks to their feel at home service. I hate to say it, but I love 3; excellent data and call quality here in the UK and free roaming - what's not to like? I'm paying something silly like £18/month for 4Gb data etc with a 30 day contract.
As for the power and volume buttons being swapped to reside on the same side; about time say I - the one major irritation of the Nexus 4 and 5 was hitting the volume up with your "holding" finger whenever you access the power button. A real PITA.
Having said all that, I've just returned my third 5 to Google and got a full refund after successive problems with power buttons failing. Limping along on my old Nexus 4 whilst I await delivery of a Wiley Fox Storm...
Butt....
then, again, it's the Chock (minus the "h") Factory - while they're taking pic's, AND slurpin' WiFi, they have a DB of ALL the open networks around you. IF you HAVE to use THEIR precious data that THEY bought from your local providers, ya gonna pay... If your in down-town Manhattan - no problem, plenty of open sources. But if you're in the middle of B.F.E., (Bumm F. Egypt) ya gonna get it in the Bumm...
Our local cable co. has a similar deal for $20(subscriber) $40 for non.. but it also uses their (and, being a subscriber, YOUR) WiFi/data/ D/L speed..
The main advantage to me is getting updates on a sane schedule, instead of having to wait indefinitely or just being flat-out denied updates because the manufacturer's attention has moved to newer models.
Personally, I wish they'd move to a model more like the PC market: LG and co sell hardware, Google and co supply software to run on it. You don't get your Windows or Linux updates from Dell or HP, they come straight from MS/Ubuntu/whoever.
I'm quite interested in the new WileyFox handsets, the Swift and particularly the Storm: dual-sim support, SD card (though irritatingly, not both at the same time: at least one handset does support both, but not this one) and decent screen, camera and CPU. Pretty much everything I'd ask for in a handset, for £199! I just hope they stick to vanilla Android, so it can be kept updated easily for the long term.
When an iphone is released, you never see 'lack of SD card' in the list of cons. No one complains about it.
I travel a lot, for media consumption, I have a USB OTG cable (it cost £3 - THREE POUNDS PEOPLE!!!) and 32gb USB flash drive. Job done.
Google said the Nexus won't have an SD Card slot years ago. So why are people still bitchin? Stop looking for issues where they don't exist. I have an original Nexus 5 and since installing the new Photos app all my photos and videos over a month old are backed up and then deleted from the device. I have lots of space. What's the problem?
If you're looking for perfection, Nexus isn't for you (in fact no phone is perfect). But if you are looking for the fastest, slickest Android experience at a reasonable price as well as quick updates, then it's the best option out there.
When an iphone is released, you never see 'lack of SD card' in the list of cons. No one complains about it.
There is no IOS device that supports an SD card, so it's no surprise that an iPhone doesn't -- it's sad, perhaps, but not surprising. Android, though, runs on LOTS of devices with SD support, so it's annoying that Google (of all people) don't sell one.
There's also the fact that if you really want a lot of storage in an iPhone you can just go out and buy one with 128GB, but these Nexus devices are 16GB or 32GB only ... which is acceptable if there is also an SD card, but not so much if there isn't.
No Qi charging, no OIS, no Qualcom Quick Charge (only Google's version of fast charging, so your current fast chargers dont work), no removable battery, no SD card slot, no waterproofing and rip off pricing compared to the U.S. (even with taxes taken into account). Hmmm, make mine a Sony Xperia Z5.
Nice phones (especially the 6P) - although its just a bit too big for me.
The 5X would be a great phone were it not for some inexplicable shortcomings:
1) No QI charging
2) 16Gb/32 Gb (not expandable) storage options - come on its late 2015! good reception is not universal + data plans are not unlimited (mostly), so dont give me that everything in the cloud nonsense
3) 2Gb RAM. Most higher end phones come with at least 3GB now. I know it runs fine now with 2GB, but what about in 2 years time (afterall one of the main draws of a nexus is the long update window)
My 3 year old Nexus 4 has the same 16Gb ROM/2Gb RAM as the base 2015 5X (+ wireless charging) Doesn't seem a worthy upgrade to me!
Price: - 5X 32Gb (only one I'd consider) is £350 from some retailers.
In the same price range:
A new 32GB galaxy S6 can be had for around the same money. (And if you want to spend more you can get a bigger capacity one too)
A 32GB LG G4 can be had for around £300 new. That has expandable storage.
Both of those phones have better specs (and wireless charging - although with the G4 you need a replacement case) Decided the much better hardware in the G4 was a worthy tradeoff for having to wait slightly longer for software updates.
If you could manage 2 days off a nexus on marshmallow, I wonder how long you'll manage on a phone which comes with power saving baked in a selling point? (I'm thinking the sony Xperias here).
It's always worth noting what Google gets upto with the nexus line but only as a guide to what's coming to others manufacturers later on (though if you want the bleeding edge of Android software that's your choice to make by buying a nexus. I'm not saying it's not a valid choice, it's just not one I personally make).
What are you supposed to do with no SD card? For example I like to watch video on the boring train, but even in populated area like SE you could not hold a signal long enough to watch a film or episode which was streaming from gdrive or other cloud. In fact I doubt could even listen to one complete music track without it dropping out.
If I didn't have the 64GB card I would be reduced to carefully managing local copies on what's left of my 16GB, needing to keep on top of loading and deleting things all the time.
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