New Nexus 5 flagship will run new KitKat version of Android, costs £295 at Carphone Warehouse, and is available from 1 November.
Finally! After rumours a plenty and an agonising wait for Google diehards, the Nexus 5 has at last shipped.
Most prophecies about the device have rung true (no thanks to many ‘accidental‘ leaks), and the Nexus 5, manufactured by LG, is boasting a 4.95" HD screen, an 8MP camera and claims to offer up to seven hours of continuous battery life whilst on 4G.
The Nexus 5 also comes raring to go with Android’s brand spanking new operating system, Android 4.4 KitKat, which Android says is "designed to feel more premium."
Google said: "Nexus 5 is available today, unlocked and without a contract, on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India)."
Writing on the Google Blog, Android chief Sundar Pichai said: "The first thing you’ll notice about KitKat is we’ve made the experience much more engaging: the book you’re reading, the game you’re playing, or the movie you’re watching — now all of these take center stage with the new immersive mode, which automatically hides everything except what you really want to see."
Carphone Warehouse will sell the device for £295 or free on a £32 per month 3G O2 contract. Vodafone have said they will not be stocking the Nexus 5.
The official Google Play store prices the Nexus 5 at £299 for the 16GB model and £339 for the 32GB model.
"The slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made. Its design is simple and refined to showcase the 5" Full HD display. Nexus 5 also keeps you connected at blazing speeds with 4G/LTE and ultra fast wifi. The advanced new lens on Nexus 5 captures more light for brighter night and sharper action shots. And with optical image stabilization, you no longer have to worry about shaky hands and blurry pictures," said Sundar Pichai on the blog.
The new operating system also updates Google’s Hangouts software and the phone’s dialler, which will now identify incoming calls from contacts stored across a user’s various profiles and accounts.
The device will also feature the ‘hot word search’, which means it is always ‘listening’ for the phrase "OK Google", which can then trigger voice commands.
OK GOOGLE
The screen offers 445 ppi, while the device measures 69.17×137.84×8.59 mm and weighs 130g. As with previous Nexus models it also features wireless charging and NFC. It will be tough too, being made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Unfortunately, we haven’t quite got our hands on a Nexus 5 yet, but at less than £300, we can tell you for sure that it’s a bargain.
Performance is looked after with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 2.26GHz paired with 2GB RAM, and an Adreno 330, 450MHz GPU.
Connectivity in the UK relies upon dualband 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0, and 2G/3G/4G LTE cellular connectivity. In the UK that means GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8 and LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20. Wired connectivity includes microUSB and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack.
Sensors include GPS and a Gyroscope, and the Nexus 5 has two cameras: a 1.3Mp front-facing webcam and an 8Mp rear-facing main camera blessed with Optical Image Stabilization.
Finally Google says the 2300 mAh battery will offer up to 17 hours of talk time, and up to 7 hours on LTE. But you can’t afford that much data anyway. Wirless charging is built in as standard.
The alliance with Google has helped bolster LG’s fortunes even though, according to statistics from Gartner, it is still a long way behind rivals Samsung and Apple.
In the April-to-June quarter, the consultancy indicated 3.8% of all smartphones sold were LG handsets putting the South Korean firm in third place.
By contrast, Apple accounted for 18.8% of all sales and Samsung 29.7%.
