Nexus 5 Already Sold Out On Google Play

When Google announced the Nexus 4, it had an awful lot of trouble keeping up with demand. Despite the phone's October 2012 release, it wasn't readily available until the calendars clicked over to 2013. Now, it looks like folks eager to get their hands on the Nexus 5 are facing similar disappointment.

Though the Nexus 5 was only announced a couple of hours ago, the phone is already sold out on Google Play. That is, both the 16 GB and 32 GB models in both black and white are no longer available. The Google Play Store instead asks customers to check back for inventory later. It's not a total lost cause, as the phone seems to come "back" in stock sporadically, so you can still get one if you're willing to spend time watching the Play Store. It's possible that as folks cancel orders, their unit is thrown back on the virtual shelf. All we know is that the Tom's news team was able to secure four units just by flicking through the color and capacity options until the 'Add to cart' button showed up. This solution secured us two 32 GB white models, a white 16 GB model, and a black 16 GB model. We were also able to cancel orders fairly easily.

Google hasn't commented on whether this is an issue with the Play Store or the phone really is selling out in a matter of hours. However, the device will be available through Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack, so Google Play isn't your only option.

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 changing, 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, 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 bew camera shortcut on the lockscreen, support for third-party cloud storage in the Gallery application, and hands-free voice search. Read more about KitKat here.

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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.