I have gone back to using an Android from ten years ago: this is how it has been to return to the Nexus 5

It wasn’t the most premium. It was not the one with the best camera, and it was not the most outstanding high-end in its launch year either. Despite this, the Google Nexus 5 is one of the phones that has marked me the most in these more than 10 years of walking through the technological world. In October of this year, 6 months from now, He will be a whopping ten years old.

With the somewhat cracked screen, the rubbery plastic with some wear over the years, but with the desire to continue working, this Nexus 5 comes back to life to show that Android phones do not have to suffer more than necessary with the passage of time… as long as things are done right at the software level.

Technical sheet of the LG Nexus 5

Gummy plastic has something to say 10 years later

The rubbery plastic of the Nexus 5 was called into question a lot, although direct rivals like the Galaxy S5 they hadn’t even made the jump to the glass yet. Years later, I have to say that it was a good decision. After a little cleaning, this Nexus 5 looks (almost) like the first day. Barring a couple of scuffed corners, the phone is still just as iconic (and bland) as it was on day one.

The front, featuring two huge frames, gives it a unique personality. It makes it clear that it is a mobile from past generations and they are not even symmetrical, but it was a different mobile on its front. Today, most high-end phones are clones: 6.67-inch curved screen, minimal frames and central hole.

But build materials are a completely secondary thing on the Nexus 5, the key is its dimensions. A weight of… 130 grams! A height of 13.4cm and being able to use it with one hand without any problem. What times those in which mobiles were mobiles, and not pocket tablets.

Related to the dimensions is the panel, “only” 4.95 inches. It already had Full HD resolution, although its technology was IPS. The panel was never the strong point of the Nexus 5, neither in color rendering nor in final quality. Despite this, 10 years later, there are no light leaks, deteriorated areas or noticeable wear. According to The Numbersthe latency of the panel is only 75ms, the same as the iPhone 5s.

The maximum brightness is only 450 nits, so it suffers when we see it in the sun. Despite all this, it is a panel relatively similar to the one we find in current entry-level phones (some, even 10 years later, still have HD+ resolution).

Performance that stands the test of time

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. The beginning of a legend. The ‘8’ family, predecessor of the current 8 Gen 1 family, arrived like an elephant in a china shop. Personally, your server is a staunch defender of always, always, buy high-end processor phones. This is the best life insurance so that the phone can withstand the passing of the years.

How is this processor 10 years later? Its manufacturing process of 28nm!, its 4 Krait 400 cores at 2.3 GHz and its Adreno 330 do not give much, and any current mid-range sweeps it in performance. Despite this, having opted for the best processor of its generation has served it to age more than dignified.

Beyond the benchmarks, the Nexus 5 It is a phone that is still functional as a device for basic use. WhatsApp, multimedia content, some low-calibre game. Despite having almost 10 years behind him, he continues to move the applications with ease. As soon as something weighs more than necessary, lag and jerks begin to appear, but you can’t ask for much more from a 2013 phone. I have little to say about autonomy. The 3 hours of screen that he did in his day have been reduced to just over one. This phone is crying out for a battery change to keep coming, at least, to the afternoon.

The software was the strong point of this phone. It was a Nexus for something. It currently has Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, the latest version to which Google updated it. It is the ROM that I used for this retro-review, but my Nexus 5 has TWRP installed. What does this recovery allow? Update the Nexus 5 to Android 13the latest stable version available from Google.

The Nexus always stood out, for better and for worse, for having a very simple ROM, with no added applications other than Google’s, and with a simple and somewhat sparse interface. It is surprising how, to this day, this stock ROM with several years behind it moves more fluidly than the occasional heavy layer on current entry-level mobiles. Google Now Launcher is still working on this device, despite being completely outdated. An ideal device for play with roms and learn to grope deep an unbreakable Android.

A camera that we owe a lot to

To the Nexus 5 we owe one of the most important software solutions of the Pixel: HDR+. The Nexus 5’s camera wasn’t the best of its generation, but it did deliver. Only 8 megapixels did not go far, as well as the f / 2.4 aperture. There is no ultra-wide angle sensor, much less telephoto, it was other simpler times.

Despite this, it is still an usable camera. We cannot expect a great amount of detail, but it does show a certain naturalness that we have been losing with the passage of time and the advent of computational photography.

Android phones can also have a good life cycle

Not only iPhones age well. The Google Nexus 5 is living proof that Android phones can have a more than decent life cycle. For obvious reasons this is not the phone I would use in my day to day. It lacks battery, it is not capable of moving the most demanding games from the Play Store and it does not have the camera that I would like on my vacations.

But how fun it is to use it. How good it feels to try it to see how Android has evolved over the years, and what a good job both LG and Google did to create a device that, although it drew attention in its day, is almost 10 years later when it evokes us. the memory of an Android legend.

Image | xataka

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