Nexus 5 Packs 2.3Ghz Snapdragon 800, 5-inch Display

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

Google has finally put us out of our misery and confirmed the Nexus 5.

After countless leaks, Google has finally made the next phone in its Nexus line of handsets official. Instead of holding a big, glitzy event, Google decided to announce the phone via a blog post published on its official Android blog.

Thanks to the numerous leaks we've had over the last month or so, the Nexus 5 and its specs come as no surprise. The Nexus 5 is an LG made phone and Google says it's the slimmest, fastest Nexus phone yet. It packs a 4.95-inch 1920x1080p full HD display (though Google is calling this a 5-inch phone), a quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU clocked at 2.3 GHz, support for 4G/LTE and dualband WiFi, wireless charging, a 2300mAh battery, and an 8-megapixel camera with Optical Image Stabilization. There's also a 1.3-megapixel camera up front for video calling.

Of course, the big news is that the Nexus 5 will ship with Android 4.4, also known as KitKat. KitKat packs improvements to the phone application, as well as a new Hangouts app, a new camera shortcut on the lockscreen, support for third-party cloud storage in the Gallery application, and hands-free voice search.

What is surprising is that though rumors pointed to a November 1 launch, the Nexus 5 is actually available today. Priced at $349 off contract, those living in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea can buy the phone right away.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Jane McEntegart
22 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pinhedd
    2300mAh battery powering a Snapdragon 800? This thing is going to have a 1 hour battery life
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    It's going to have a longer battery life than the phone I'll be upgrading from, which is a Galaxy S 1, with a 4g chip in it. It gives me about 20 minutes of talk time with a completely full charge.

    I've been dealing with this rather awful thing for a long while now, waiting for the Nexus 5. It's going to be a nice upgrade.
    Reply
  • airanp
    The 800 is actually more efficient than previous models as it can scale each core as needed independantly. The real drain is going to be the 1080p ips display. The spec sheet is stating somewhere in the ballpark of 7 hours of use though on LTE which is something I'll be interested in seeing when some battery drain tests start popping up.
    Reply
  • typicalGeek
    "It packs a 4.95-inch 1920x1080p full HD display (though Google is calling this a 5-inch phone)..."

    Seriously, you're saying this as if the screen is noticeably short of being a full 5" diagonal measure. The 0.05" (less than 1.3 mm) that the author seems to have a problem with Google's rounding up is less than the thickness of a dime. Not really a big marketing ploy on Google's part.

    Now, if you're fishing with a buddy and the 19" fish he caught is described as "about two feet long" then you've got a bit of a meaningful rounding error.
    Reply
  • cmi86
    $350 off contract ??? I want.
    Reply
  • redeemer
    Just scored a 32GB white Nexus 5 $467 inc taxes/shipping here in Southern Ontario Canada
    Reply
  • Pinhedd
    11832349 said:
    The 800 is actually more efficient than previous models as it can scale each core as needed independantly. The real drain is going to be the 1080p ips display. The spec sheet is stating somewhere in the ballpark of 7 hours of use though on LTE which is something I'll be interested in seeing when some battery drain tests start popping up.

    The Snapdragon 600 in my Galaxy S4 already gets uncomfortably hot and drains the battery in a few hours. It 2600mAh and lasts long enough for my purposes but I wouldn't want anything that drains faster.
    Reply
  • razor512
    Seems they forgot to design it with a user replaceable battery, and sd card slot.

    Reply
  • house70
    11833245 said:
    11832349 said:
    The 800 is actually more efficient than previous models as it can scale each core as needed independantly. The real drain is going to be the 1080p ips display. The spec sheet is stating somewhere in the ballpark of 7 hours of use though on LTE which is something I'll be interested in seeing when some battery drain tests start popping up.

    The Snapdragon 600 in my Galaxy S4 already gets uncomfortably hot and drains the battery in a few hours. It 2600mAh and lasts long enough for my purposes but I wouldn't want anything that drains faster.

    Not quite. My SGS4 GP Edition lasts about 2 days on it's old battery and 3-4 days on an extended battery. It's all in the software optimization, and pure Android devices (like Nexus, or GP phones) are pretty good at that.
    Reply
  • Nada190
    I want one so bad but AT&T is EVIL.
    Reply