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Nexus 5X Review: AWESOME Software, So-So Hardware…

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Nexus 5X Review: AWESOME Software, So-So Hardware…

Google and LG team up for another Nexus effort. Here’s our verdict on the Nexus 5X

Google’s Nexus line of phones has always been capable of grabbing headlines, but it arguably wasn’t until LG stepped on board as a manufacturing partner that the brand found commercial success. The Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 were both solid hits, with the latter being held up as the most accomplished offering yet, delivering decent specifications at a mid-range price point. After a minor slip-up last year with the massive Nexus 6 – a phone which, if rumours are to be believed, was rushed to market after the collapse of Google’s premium-focused Android Silver concept – it’s service as normal this year. LG is back in the saddle (alongside newcomer Huawei, which is producing the larger and more expensive Nexus 6P) and has created the true successor to the Nexus 5. Does this sequel hit all the right notes, or is it little more than a futile exercise in nostalgia? We’re about to find out.

Nexus 5X Review: Design & Display

Back when the original Nexus 5 launched, the idea of an all-plastic smartphone wasn’t unusual – in fact, in the Android arena, it was practically the norm. What a difference a couple of years makes. Metal-clad Google phones are now more common, with the likes of Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony all incorporating the premium material into their phone designs. Consumers seem to view metal-cased phones as a more premium proposition, and even last year’s Motorola-made Nexus 6 mixed metal and plastic to pleasing effect.

While the Nexus 6P – made by Huawei and the sister phone to the 5X – boasts a lush metal frame, LG’s 2015 Nexus is an all-plastic affair. The front of the phone is black and largely featureless save for the front-facing camera, two grilles (one for the earpiece, one for the speaker) and an LED notification light (hidden in the bottom grille and curiously turned-off by default), while the back, non-removeable panel comes in either “Carbon” (black), “Quartz” (white) or “Ice” (light green). On the rear you’ll find the camera, LED flash, fingerprint scanner and that oh-so-familiar Nexus logo. The power and volume buttons are on the right-hand side of the device, while on the bottom there’s a USB Type C port and the 3.5mm headphone socket. The left-hand side houses the Nano SIM tray.

The fact that the Nexus 5X is fashioned from plastic isn’t an issue in itself, it’s just that more Android users than ever before have become accustomed to metal phones, and this makes LG’s handset feel a little cheap in comparison. Of course, plastic does have its benefits – the Nexus 5X can take a bump or two and it’s very lightweight for its size. In terms of pure design it’s understated but appealing; while it won’t turn heads like the flagship handsets of rival firms, you’d have to be incredibly mean-spirited to call it ugly – functional is a more accurate description.

The USB Type C port is going to be quite a talking point – you’ll be seeing more phones with
this connector in the future as the industry is adopting it as standard, putting the Micro USB port put to pasture. The benefits are worth the painful upgrade process; not only does the connector work both ways round (like Apple’s Lightning connector), but it also delivers faster data transfer and quicker charging. The bad news is that you’ll need to invest in additional cables in the short-term, as none of your existing leads will work. Also, unless your laptop already has a USB Type C port on it, you won’t be able to link up your phone unless you buy an adapter, which in turn means you won’t benefit from the increased transfer speed. Give it a few years and USB Type C will be as ubiquitous as Micro USB is now, but for the time being, you’ll have to remember to carry the charger and cable around with you when you’re travelling – you can’t rely on using someone else’s cable any more.

The IPS LCD screen is slightly larger than the one on the original Nexus 5, measuring 5.2 inches from corner to corner over the 4.95 inch panel on the earlier model. In terms of quality, it’s very similar to the previous model – it even boasts the same resolution of 1080 x 1920, which is, in our opinion, the most pixels you really need on a device of this size. Anything above that is practically unnoticeable and simply gives the processor more work to do. Clarity and sharpness are excellent, but colours do look a little washed out compared to the punchiness of the AMOLED screens seen on other Android smartphones. It’s covered by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 with a special Oleophobic coating to reduce the impact of fingermarks.

The Nexus 5X uses the same “Ambient Display” feature which made its debut on the Nexus 6, which, when enabled, allows notifications to flash up on the screen in black and white even when the device is idle. It’s a neat touch but the fact that the phone doesn’t have an AMOLED screen means that the entire display lights up (black pixels on AMOLEDs are effectively turned off and do not emit any light). As a result, it’s a little more distracting than it was on the Nexus 6 (especially when you’re in a dark room), and you might want to turn it off if you’re keen to preserve your battery.

Nexus 5X Review: Hardware Specifications

Next year will see the introduction of the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset and the processing power standard will once again increase. However, Google and LG clearly aren’t playing that game with the mid-range Nexus 5X – it comes equipped with the less potent but still dependable Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, a revision of the 810 chipset which fell foul of much-publicised overheating issues a short time ago.

It contains a 64-bit hexa-core processor with each core clocked at 1.8 MHz, while an Adreno 418 handles the graphics processing. There’s 2GB of RAM on-board, which will come as something of a disappointment to those of you who keenly follow technical developments in the Android arena. Most leading handsets in 2015 came with 3GB, and some even packed 4GB – a ludicrous amount for a phone to ship with. Still, more RAM means smoother performance and we noticed more times than we’d like that the Nexus 5X seemed to hang or
struggle with certain tasks. That’s hardly a shock when you consider that it has the same amount of RAM that the original Nexus 5 had two years ago; an additional 1GB would have surely resulted in better performance overall. That’s not to say that the 5X is sluggish – in fact, when navigating around the UI it feels smoother than the more powerful Galaxy S6 – but there’s clearly a bottleneck when lots of processes are occurring at once.

Benchmark tests confirm that while the Nexus 5X is no slouch in processing terms, it not quite at the cutting edge of the Android sector. Antutu benchmark returns a score of 52475, which places the phone behind the likes of the HTC One M9, Galaxy S6 and Xperia Z4, but ahead of the LG G4, Nexus 6, Moto X Style and Note 4. Geekbench is slightly less kind, and the phone’s score of 3538 puts it head of aging handsets like the Galaxy S5 and (unsurprisingly) the original Nexus 5, but behind pretty much every leading handset from 2015. Again, it’s worth stressing that this isn’t a top-tier flagship and costs around half as much as some of the leading Android handsets out there.

Nexus 5X Review: Software & User Experience

The Nexus line exists to showcase the power of “pure” Android – it gets updates first and offers a completely unsullied version of Google’s OS, free from the bloat and modifications that third-party manufacturers regrettably indulge in. For this reason, hardcore Android fans are usually prepared to accept shortcomings in the hardware, and that’s very much the case here – while the tech under the hood might not be cutting-edge, the software certainly is. The Nexus 5X and 6P are the first phones to ship with Android 6.0, also known as Marshmallow. While the visual differences between this and Lollipop – the previous version – are slight, there are plenty of under-the-hood optimisations that enrich the experience dramatically.

The most notable addition is fingerprint security, which has been featured on Samsung’s phones for well over a year now. However, Google has now baked it into Android itself, so you can use it to pay for items on the Google Play store or – when it eventually launches in the UK – make contactless payments in shops with Android Pay. Dubbed “Nexus Imprint”, the fingerprint recognition in Android 6.0 is arguably the best available right now, effortlessly outpacing Apple’s TouchID when it comes to speed and even bettering Samsung’s latest take on the tech, which impressed so much on the Galaxy S6.

Setting up a fingerprint is a breeze – the software even asks you to adjust your finger during the setup process so it can be read from different angles – and once it’s done, the scanner “learns” and gets better at detecting your print. During our review period it worked fantastically, certainly much better than the already-brilliant scanner on the Galaxy S6. The only issue is that the scanner itself is located on the back of the device, so you can’t use it to unlock the phone when it’s resting on a flat surface. However, because of the placement, it means it’s easier to unlock the device when you pull it out of your pocket. It’s personal preference, but after a week we found we were more comfortable using the scanner on the Nexus 5X than the front-facing scanners on other phones.

Elsewhere, Android’s new “Doze” feature helps conserve battery life when the phone is idle, only allowing priority notifications to come through and shutting down all the other unnecessary processes that sip away at your battery. The best time to test this feature is when you set your phone down at night; we noticed that the battery level only dropped a few percent, whereas previous Android phones would have shaved off around 10 to 20 percent of their stamina during the same time period.

Another big change is how Google Now works. It’s not just consigned to the left of your home screen anymore – it can be activated from anywhere in the UI, bringing up pertinent information instantly. Get an email which contains a famous person or place you’re not familiar with? Hold down the ‘Home’ command and you’ll trigger Google Now On Tap, which searches the page for keywords and suggests possible weblinks or apps. It’s a genuinely useful addition which we’ve used more times than we can count.

While the Nexus 5X isn’t packing the most powerful specs in Android history, it’s worth pointing out that the user experience is rarely less than fantastic. Everything is (generally) buttery-smooth, with pauses and stutters being rarer than they’ve ever been on Android – in fact, we found that in terms of moving around the UI, opening apps and performing general tasks, the Nexus 5X feels smoother and faster than the Galaxy S6 – a phone which, according to benchmark results, is much more powerful. This is almost certainly down to the lack of bloatware on the device; you’re getting pure Android here, with no third-party UI skin over the top or duplicate processes performing the same tasks as Google’s own suite of apps. That means a faster, more pleasurable experience overall, and that’s precisely why Android fans gravitate towards Nexus phones despite the lack of bleeding-edge internal tech.

Nexus 5X Review: Camera

One area where the Nexus range has always struggled is photography – the hardware has always been decent enough but Google’s software leaves a lot to be desired. The story isn’t quite the same this year, but there are some caveats to consider. On the plus side, the 12.3 megapixel sensor boasts 1.55-micron pixels which allow more light to enter, meaning the camera performs better in low-light situations. As standard, Google’s camera app offers HDR support, panoramic shooting, lens blur and Photosphere, and in terms of video there’s a 4K recording mode and slow-motion, which allows you to capture footage at 120 frames per second.

Photo quality is decent enough, with snaps displaying a large amount of detail and faithful colour replication. The laser auto-focus also means that unlike previous Nexus phones, the 5X can lock onto your subject quickly, ensuring that you don’t miss a shot. That’s the idea, at least – we found that blurry images were commonplace (there’s no Optical Image Stabilization included here either, which surely contributes to this issue), and sometimes the camera wouldn’t actually take the shot until a second or so after we’d tapped the button.

Having seen how amazing a camera on an Android device can be thanks to Samsung’s amazing snapper on the Galaxy S6, it’s disappointing to discover that Google can’t make the same leaps and bounds with its own handset. The Nexus 5X is an improvement for sure, but a bit more work is required to make it truly satisfactory from a photographic perspective – the bare-bones camera app in vanilla Android being the prime candidate for an overhaul.

Nexus 5X Review: Memory and Battery Life

Shockingly for a phone launching in 2015, the entry-level Nexus 5X has just 16G of storage, with the 32GB model costing a little more. While the iPhone’s recent refresh also begins with 16GB, this amount of space on a leading phone is quite stingy in this day and age. 32GB is the entry level for other phones – the Galaxy S6 included – and even some of the cheap and cheerful handsets coming over from China from the likes of Xiaomi are shipping with 32GB as the perceived norm.

It’s annoying – especially as there’s no way of adding in more storage via MicroSD cards – but it’s not a deal-breaker, especially if you choose to fully embrace the many cloud-storage options available to you. Google Music can store tens of thousands of tracks free of charge, and Google Drive comes with loads of space for gratis. Third-party alternatives can also be used – such as Dropbox and Box – should you find yourself running out of room.

The 2700mAh battery inside the Nexus 5X is another example of LG cutting cost to keep the price low – a 3000mAh power cell would have been welcome, but we still managed to get a full day of moderate use out of the device before it required charging. The Doze feature in Android 6.0 certainly helps stamina – if your set you phone down for large portions of the day you can expect the battery life to extend by quite a bit. The inclusion of a USB Type C connector means that it doesn’t take long to top up the battery – you can get around 5 hours of stamina from a 10 minute charge, and to totally fill the battery you’re looking at around an hour and a half on the wall socket – not as fast as the Turbo Charging on last year’s Nexus 6, but still decent enough.

One thing worth noting is that wireless charging – something that was present in both the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 6 – is absent from this device. It’s an odd choice given how much Google pushed the feature over the past two years, but not a disaster – the USB Type C connection charges much faster anyway.

Nexus 5X Review: Conclusion

The Nexus range has always been a curious mixture of amazing software tied to hardware which is lacking in some way, and we’re sad to report that hasn’t changed this year. The Nexus 5X isn’t a bad phone and has some stand-out features – the fingerprint scanner is best in class – but the processor lags behind some of 2015’s most notable handsets, the screen is practically the same as the one which launched on the original Nexus 5 and the camera –
while vastly improved over past efforts – simply can’t compete with the very best the Android sector has to offer. The plastic casing also feels very cheap, especially as so many other Android phones are now offering metal frames. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that the 5X is aiming for the mid-range with its £340 price point, so something had to give.

Not that any of this will matter all that much to hardened Android followers, of course. The fact remains that the Nexus line is where Google drops its latest versions of Android, and furthermore, it gets pure and unmolested updates, free from the irksome additions of third-party phone makers. This is Android as Google intended, and the end result is a smooth and hassle-free experience free from the horrors of duplicate apps, manufacturer sign-ins and alternative app stores which offer a watered-down version of the Google Play storefront.

While it’s not a complete success, the Nexus 5X is still the best option if you feel the Nexus 6P is simply too large and you crave the “pure” Android experience, and at £340 it won’t break the bank, either.

Thanks to mobilefun.co.uk for supplying the Nexus 5X used in this review.

Typical Price: 
£340.00
Pros: 
Pure Android, Decent specs for the price, USB Type C, Excellent fingerprint scanner


Reviews

Cons: 
Camera still needs work, Only 2GB of RAM, Case feels a bit cheap


Damien McFerran

Verdict: 
The Nexus 5X is another case of the software leading the hardware – this is a decent phone for the price but it doesn’t make the striking impression the original Nexus 5 did two years ago


14:13, 3 Nov 2015

Google and LG staff up for some other Nexus attempt. Here's our verdict at the Nexus 5X

Google's Nexus line of telephones has all the time been able to grabbing headlines, however it arguably wasn't till LG stepped on board as a producing spouse that the logo discovered business good fortune. The Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 have been each forged hits, with the latter being held up as probably the most finished providing but, turning in respectable specs at a mid-vary worth aspect. After a minor slip-up final yr with the huge Nexus 6 - a telephone which, if rumours are to be believed, used to be rushed to marketplace after the cave in of Google's top class-targeted Android Silver idea - it is carrier as commonplace this yr. LG is again within the saddle (along newcomer Huawei, that is generating the bigger and costlier Nexus 6P) and has created the real successor to the Nexus 5. Does this sequel hit all of the proper notes, or is it little greater than a futile workout in nostalgia? We're approximately to determine.

Nexus 5X Review: Design & Display

Back while the unique Nexus 5 introduced, the theory of an all-plastic telephone wasn't abnormal - if truth be told, within the Android area, it used to be virtually the norm. What a distinction a few years makes. Metal-clad Google telephones at the moment are extra not unusual, with the likes of Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony all incorporating the top class subject matter into their telephone designs. Consumers appear to view steel-cased telephones as a extra top class proposition, or even remaining yr's Motorola-made Nexus 6 combined steel and plastic to appealing impact.

While the Nexus 6P - made by way of Huawei and the sister telephone to the 5X - boasts a lush steel body, LG's 2015 Nexus is an all-plastic affair. The entrance of the telephone is black and in large part featureless keep for the entrance-dealing with digital camera, grilles (one for the earpiece, one for the speaker) and an LED notification gentle (hidden within the backside grille and interestingly became-off by way of default), whilst the again, non-removeable panel is available in both "Carbon" (black), "Quartz" (white) or "Ice" (gentle inexperienced). On the rear you'll be able to in finding the digital camera, LED flash, fingerprint scanner and that oh-so-acquainted Nexus emblem. The energy and quantity buttons are at the proper-hand aspect of the tool, whilst at the backside there is a USB Type M port and the 3.5mm headphone socket. The left-hand aspect homes the Nano SIM tray.

The undeniable fact that the Nexus 5X is formed from plastic is not a topic in itself, it is simply that extra Android customers than ever sooner than have transform acquainted with steel telephones, and this makes LG's handset really feel a bit of reasonable compared. Of direction, plastic does have its advantages - the Nexus 5X can take a bump or and it is very light-weight for its measurement. In phrases of natural layout it is understated however interesting; at the same time as it would possibly not flip heads just like the flagship handsets of rival companies, you would need to be extremely imply-lively to name it unsightly - practical is a extra correct description.

The USB Type A port goes to be relatively a speaking aspect - you'll be able to be seeing extra telephones with
this connector at some point because the business is adopting it as same old, hanging the Micro USB port placed to pasture. The advantages are well worth the painful improve procedure; now not most effective does the connector paintings each tactics spherical (like Apple's Lightning connector), nevertheless it additionally grants quicker knowledge switch and faster charging. The dangerous information is that you'll be able to want to spend money on further cables within the brief-time period, as none of your present leads will paintings. Also, until your pc already has a USB Type M port on it, you will not be able to hyperlink up your telephone until you purchase an adapter, which in flip way you will not have the benefit of the greater switch velocity. Give it a couple of years and USB Type H can be as ubiquitous as Micro USB is now, however in the intervening time, you will have to remember that to hold the charger and cable round with you if you end up traveling - you'll be able to't depend on the use of any person else's cable any longer.

The IPS LCD display is rather greater than the only at the unique Nexus 5, measuring 5.2 inches from nook to nook over the 4.95 inch panel at the in advance type. In phrases of high quality, it is similar to the former style - it even boasts the similar solution of 1080 x 1920, that is, in our opinion, probably the most pixels you in point of fact want on a tool of this measurement. Anything above that may be virtually unnoticeable and easily provides the processor extra paintings to do. Clarity and sharpness are very good, however colors do glance a bit of washed out in comparison to the punchiness of the AMOLED monitors noticed on different Android smartphones. It's coated through Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 with a different Oleophobic coating to scale back the have an effect on of fingermarks.

The Nexus 5X makes use of the similar "Ambient Display" function which made its debut at the Nexus 6, which, while enabled, lets in notifications to flash up at the monitor in black and white even if the software is idle. It's a neat contact however the truth that the telephone does not have an AMOLED display signifies that all of the show lighting fixtures up (black pixels on AMOLEDs are successfully became off and don't emit any gentle). As a outcome, it is a little extra distracting than it used to be at the Nexus 6 (particularly if you end up in a gloomy room), and you may need to flip it off if you are willing to maintain your battery.

Nexus 5X Review: Hardware Specifications

Next yr will see the advent of the Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chipset and the processing energy same old will as soon as once more building up. However, Google and LG obviously don't seem to be enjoying that recreation with the mid-vary Nexus 5X - it comes supplied with the fewer powerful however nonetheless unswerving Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, a revision of the 810 chipset which fell foul of so much-publicised overheating problems a little while in the past.

It accommodates a 64-bit hexa-center processor with each and every center clocked at 1.8 MHz, at the same time as an Adreno 418 handles the photos processing. There's 2GB of RAM on-board, so that it will come as one thing of a sadness to these of you who keenly apply technical trends within the Android area. Most prime handsets in 2015 got here with 3GB, and a few even packed 4GB - a daft quantity for a telephone to send with. Still, extra RAM approach smoother efficiency and we spotted extra occasions than we might like that the Nexus 5X looked as if it would grasp or
fight with sure duties. That's rarely a surprise while you believe that it has the same quantity of RAM that the unique Nexus 5 had years in the past; an extra 1GB may have without a doubt ended in higher efficiency general. That's to not say that the 5X is slow - in reality, while navigating across the UI it feels smoother than the extra tough Galaxy S6 - however there is obviously a bottleneck while numerous procedures are going on without delay.

Benchmark checks make sure that at the same time as the Nexus 5X isn't any slouch in processing phrases, it now not relatively on the chopping fringe of the Android sector. Antutu benchmark returns a rating of 52475, which puts the telephone at the back of the likes of the HTC One M9, Galaxy S6 and Xperia Z4, however in advance of the LG G4, Nexus 6, Moto Y Style and Note 4. Geekbench is fairly much less type, and the telephone's rating of 3538 places it head of getting old handsets just like the Galaxy S5 and (unsurprisingly) the unique Nexus 5, however at the back of just about each and every prime handset from 2015. Again, it is value stressing that this is not a most sensible-tier flagship and prices round part up to one of the most top Android handsets in the market.

Nexus 5X Review: Software & User Experience

The Nexus line exists to show off the facility of "natural" Android - it will get updates first and gives an absolutely unsullied model of Google's OS, loose from the bloat and changes that 3rd-birthday party producers unfortunately bask in. For this explanation why, hardcore Android lovers are frequently ready to simply accept shortcomings within the hardware, and that is the reason very so much the case right here - at the same time as the tech underneath the hood may not be state of the art, the device definitely is. The Nexus 5X and 6P are the primary telephones to send with Android 6.0, often referred to as Marshmallow. While the visible variations among this and Lollipop - the former model - are mild, there are many beneath-the-hood optimisations that improve the revel in dramatically.

The so much extraordinary addition is fingerprint safety, which has been featured on Samsung's telephones for smartly over a yr now. However, Google has now baked it into Android itself, so you'll be able to use it to pay for pieces at the Google Play retailer or - while it ultimately launches in the United Kingdom - make contactless bills in retail outlets with Android Pay. Dubbed "Nexus Imprint", the fingerprint popularity in Android 6.0 is arguably the most productive to be had presently, simply outpacing Apple's TouchID on the subject of velocity or even making improvements to Samsung's recent take at the tech, which inspired such a lot at the Galaxy S6.

Setting up a fingerprint is a breeze - the tool even asks you to regulate your finger throughout the setup procedure so it may be learn from other angles - and as soon as it is performed, the scanner "learns" and will get higher at detecting your print. During our assessment duration it labored superbly, no doubt a lot better than the already-sensible scanner at the Galaxy S6. The most effective factor is that the scanner itself is situated at the again of the tool, so you'll be able to't use it to unencumber the telephone while it is resting on a flat surface. However, as a result of the location, it approach it is more uncomplicated to unencumber the tool while you pull it from your pocket. It's private choice, however after every week we discovered we have been extra at ease the use of the scanner at the Nexus 5X than the entrance-dealing with scanners on different telephones.

Elsewhere, Android's new "Doze" function is helping preserve battery lifestyles while the telephone is idle, handiest permitting precedence notifications to return thru and closing down all of the different useless strategies that sip away at your battery. The best possible time to check this option is while you set your telephone down at night time; we spotted that the battery degree handiest dropped a couple of %, while earlier Android telephones may have shaved off round 10 to 20 % in their stamina all through the similar period of time.

Another large amendment is how Google Now works. It's now not simply consigned to the left of your house monitor anymore - it may be activated from any place within the UI, mentioning pertinent knowledge immediately. Get an e-mail which accommodates a well-known individual or position you are not acquainted with? Hold down the 'Home' command and you'll be able to cause Google Now On Tap, which searches the web page for key phrases and indicates imaginable weblinks or apps. It's a if truth be told helpful addition which we now have used extra occasions than we will be able to rely.

While the Nexus 5X is not packing probably the most tough specifications in Android historical past, it is value stating that the consumer revel in is never not up to incredible. Everything is (in most cases) buttery-clean, with pauses and stutters being rarer than they have got ever been on Android - if truth be told, we discovered that when it comes to shifting across the UI, commencing apps and acting common duties, the Nexus 5X feels smoother and quicker than the Galaxy S6 - a telephone which, in line with benchmark effects, is a lot more tough. This is nearly indisputably right down to the loss of bloatware at the software; you are getting natural Android right here, without a 3rd-birthday party UI pores and skin excessive or replica methods acting the similar duties as Google's personal suite of apps. That approach a quicker, extra satisfying revel in general, and that is the reason exactly why Android lovers gravitate against Nexus telephones in spite of the loss of bleeding-part inside tech.

Nexus 5X Review: Camera

One space the place the Nexus vary has all the time struggled is images - the hardware has all the time been respectable sufficient however Google's tool leaves so much to be preferred. The tale is not rather the similar this yr, however there are a few caveats to believe. On the plus aspect, the 12.3 megapixel sensor boasts 1.55-micron pixels which permit extra gentle to go into, that means the digital camera plays higher in low-gentle scenarios. As same old, Google's digital camera app gives HDR improve, panoramic capturing, lens blur and Photosphere, and in relation to video there is a 4K recording mode and sluggish-movement, which lets you seize pictures at 120 frames according to 2d.

Photo high quality is respectable sufficient, with snaps showing a considerable amount of element and trustworthy color replication. The laser car-center of attention additionally signifies that in contrast to earlier Nexus telephones, the 5X can lock onto your topic temporarily, making sure that you do not omit a shot. That's the theory, no less than - we discovered that blurry photographs have been not unusual (there is not any Optical Image Stabilization incorporated right here both, which for sure contributes to this factor), and every so often the digital camera would not in reality take the shot till a 2d or so when we'd tapped the button.

Having noticed how superb a digital camera on an Android software can also be way to Samsung's superb snapper at the Galaxy S6, it is disappointing to find that Google can not make the similar leaps and boundaries with its personal handset. The Nexus 5X is an development needless to say, however just a little extra paintings is needed to make it actually first-class from a photographic viewpoint - the naked-bones digital camera app in vanilla Android being the top candidate for an overhaul.

Nexus 5X Review: Memory and Battery Life

Shockingly for a telephone launching in 2015, the access-degree Nexus 5X has simply 16G of garage, with the 32GB type costing slightly extra. While the iPhone's up to date refresh additionally starts with 16GB, this quantity of area on a number one telephone is relatively stingy this present day. 32GB is the access degree for different telephones - the Galaxy S6 incorporated - or even one of the reasonable and pleased handsets coming over from China from the likes of Xiaomi are delivery with 32GB because the perceived norm.

It's aggravating - particularly as there is not any means of including in additional garage by the use of MicroSD playing cards - however it is not a deal-breaker, particularly if you select to completely include the numerous cloud-garage choices to be had to you. Google Music can retailer tens of heaps of tracks without spending a dime, and Google Drive comes with lots of area for free of charge. Third-birthday celebration possible choices can be used - equivalent to Dropbox and Box - will have to you end up operating out of room.

The 2700mAh battery within the Nexus 5X is any other instance of LG slicing value to stay the fee low - a 3000mAh energy cell phone might were welcome, however we nonetheless controlled to get a whole day of average use out of the tool sooner than it required charging. The Doze function in Android 6.0 definitely is helping stamina - in case your set you telephone down for massive parts of the day you'll be able to be expecting the battery lifestyles to increase by way of slightly just a little. The inclusion of a USB Type H connector signifies that it does not take lengthy to most sensible up the battery - you'll be able to get round 5 hours of stamina from a 10 minute price, and to fully fill the battery you are looking at round an hour and a part at the wall socket - now not as rapid because the Turbo Charging on remaining yr's Nexus 6, however nonetheless respectable sufficient.

One factor value noting is that wireless charging - one thing that used to be found in each the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 6 - is absent from this software. It's an peculiar selection given how so much Google driven the function over the last years, however now not a crisis - the USB Type H connection fees so much quicker besides.

Nexus 5X Review: Conclusion

The Nexus vary has all the time been a curious aggregate of wonderful tool tied to hardware that is missing by some means, and we are unhappy to record that hasn't modified this yr. The Nexus 5X is not a nasty telephone and has a few stand-out options - the fingerprint scanner is very best in school - however the processor lags at the back of a few of 2015's so much extraordinary handsets, the display is virtually the similar as the only which introduced at the unique Nexus 5 and the digital camera -
whilst hugely progressed over previous efforts - merely can not compete with the easiest the Android sector has to provide. The plastic casing additionally feels very reasonable, particularly as such a lot of different Android telephones at the moment are providing steel frames. Of direction, you have to take into account that the 5X is aiming for the mid-vary with its £340 worth aspect, so one thing needed to provide.

Not that any of this will likely topic all that so much to hardened Android fans, in fact. The reality is still that the Nexus line is the place Google drops its recent variations of Android, and moreover, it will get natural and unmolested updates, loose from the irksome additions of 3rd-birthday celebration telephone makers. This is Android as Google meant, and the outcome is a clean and bother-loose revel in loose from the horrors of replica apps, producer signal-ins and choice app retail outlets which provide a watered-down model of the Google Play storefront.

While it is not a whole good fortune, the Nexus 5X continues to be the most suitable option if you are feeling the Nexus 6P is just too massive and also you crave the "natural" Android revel in, and at £340 it would possibly not cost a fortune, both.

Thanks to mobilefun.co.uk for providing the Nexus 5X used on this evaluation.

Typical Price: 
£340.00
Pros: 
Pure Android, Decent specifications for the cost, USB Type H, Excellent fingerprint scanner
Reviews
Cons: 
Camera nonetheless wishes paintings, Only 2GB of RAM, Case feels a bit of reasonable
Damien McFerran
Verdict: 
The Nexus 5X is some other case of the tool best the hardware - this can be a respectable telephone for the cost however it doesn't make the hanging impact the unique Nexus 5 did years in the past
14:13, 3 Nov 2015
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