From Nexus 4 to S5

CoMoNexus

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I love my Nexus 4 except for the battery life, which has been mediocre since day one and is now getting worse. If Lollipop's Project Volta components don't provide a noticeable boost, I'll probably get a new phone.

The Nexus 6 has great specs, but it's more than I'm willing to pay, and it seems a bit big. One reason why I'm leaning toward the S5 is the removable battery. My next phone must be unlocked, which means I'll have to pay the unsubsidized price. So I want to hang on to it for a few years, and I don't want the battery to be the reason why I replace it prematurely.

I'd like to hear from anyone who's owned an N4 and an S5. I'm particularly interested in how they compare in terms of battery life, call quality and photo quality, but any other comparisons also are welcome. For example, are the apps and other stuff that Samsung loads atop Android handy or annoying?
 

salmanahmad

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The Nexus series of phones, primarily the Nexus 4 and 5, didn't have great battery lives. But Google does promise improvements with Android L in both the interface and applications, stay tuned for that.

As far as the rest of the things goes, there is no competition. The Galaxy S5 will beat the Nexus 4 in most aspects(except maybe performance) and since the Galaxy S5 does cost twice as much, and for the extra price you get a better screen, better camera and all the usual goodies.

But don't feel bad about your Nexus 4, it is still a stellar device and if battery life gets fixed you can stay with it for another year or two.
 

P_Devil

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The S5 beats it in terms of performance too. But as you said, it's in a different price category all together. Of course it will offer benefits over the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 offers vanilla Android but compared to the S5, that's the only benefit it really offers. The S5 has a better camera, better battery life, better display, better performance, and more features (fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, SD card compatibility, water resistance).
 

salmanahmad

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The S5 beats it in terms of performance too. But as you said, it's in a different price category all together. Of course it will offer benefits over the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 offers vanilla Android but compared to the S5, that's the only benefit it really offers. The S5 has a better camera, better battery life, better display, better performance, and more features (fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, SD card compatibility, water resistance).

In PhoneBuff's iPhone 6 vs Galaxy S5 performance test video, the S5 practically couldn't keep any app in the RAM and had to reload everything!

I'm pretty sure a Nexus 4 will be a few seconds slower in app startup but will make up for it with much faster all around performance and multitasking, because nothing beats Vanilla Android when it comes to speed.
 

CoMoNexus

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How are Android updates handled? For example, Sprint decides whether and when its S5s get a new version. With the unlocked version, the updates would come directly from Samsung, right? If so, how long has it typically taken to push updates with the S5 and its predecessors?

And how long does Samsung typically go before it stops updating a device? One year? Eighteen months?
 

salmanahmad

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How are Android updates handled? For example, Sprint decides whether and when its S5s get a new version. With the unlocked version, the updates would come directly from Samsung, right? If so, how long has it typically taken to push updates with the S5 and its predecessors?

And how long does Samsung typically go before it stops updating a device? One year? Eighteen months?

Samsung has an "okay" history with updates, they do usually deliver but delay the update by quite a few months.

If updates are what matter most to you, I would recommend picking up a Nexus again.

I'm not completely sure about carriers, I don't have any in my country selling phones but Samsung itself has a very long wait for updates.
 

Greg C

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I love my Nexus 4 except for the battery life, which has been mediocre since day one and is now getting worse. If Lollipop's Project Volta components don't provide a noticeable boost, I'll probably get a new phone.

The Nexus 6 has great specs, but it's more than I'm willing to pay, and it seems a bit big. One reason why I'm leaning toward the S5 is the removable battery. My next phone must be unlocked, which means I'll have to pay the unsubsidized price. So I want to hang on to it for a few years, and I don't want the battery to be the reason why I replace it prematurely.

I'd like to hear from anyone who's owned an N4 and an S5. I'm particularly interested in how they compare in terms of battery life, call quality and photo quality, but any other comparisons also are welcome. For example, are the apps and other stuff that Samsung loads atop Android handy or annoying?

I had a Nexus 4 before switching to the S5. My carrier is AT&T. The battery life on the S5 is considerably better than the Nexus 4. I do miss the pure Android experience the Nexus line offers, but I use Nova Launcher with my S5 and I actually prefer it. I just wish I didn't have TouchWiz taking up space. Samsung has alot of bloatware... unlike a Nexus, but I disabled most of it. The main reason why I switched to the S5 is the display. Hands down the Super AMOLED 1080p HD display on the S5 is better. I was amazed at the difference.. like night and day. The S5 is a tad larger than the Nexus 4, but it's not a hassle to use with one hand. I thought about getting the Nexus 5, but I couldn't get past the blandness of it. I am very happy with my decision to go with the S5.
 

P_Devil

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I'm pretty sure a Nexus 4 will be a few seconds slower in app startup but will make up for it with much faster all around performance and multitasking, because nothing beats Vanilla Android when it comes to speed.

Graphically hungry games will run smoother on the S5 as well. It's all a series of trade-offs as the S5 has the superior hardware but the Nexus 4 has the superior software experience (not including Samsung's Knox but that is being implemented in Android 5.0 anyway).

And how long does Samsung typically go before it stops updating a device? One year? Eighteen months?

Updates for Nexus devices come from Google, that's why they are the first to receive new updates. There are carrier updates too (like when a network is upgraded) but OS updates come from Google. It's not the same with phones from LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc. They all receive the update from Google, skin it, test it on their supported devices (or devices that they are going to support), give it to the wireless carriers, and they are the ones who distribute it. Motorola is normally pretty good as they don't mess with Android all that much but LG, HTC, and Samsung all usually take longer.

Samsung has actually been doing better with the S5 than their previous smartphones. Mine came with Android 4.4.3 when I purchased it in June of this year. Android 4.4.4 was released a week after I purchased my S5 and it took Samsung and Verizon two months to get that update out to my phone. That's not too bad. It looks like the S5 is going to receive Android 5.0 here pretty quick as well, possibly as soon as the end of October or sometime in November. Samsung released a video of an S5 running Android 5.0 with TouchWiz weeks before Google's last conference. So it should be rolling out soon. At this point, it might only be 2-4 weeks longer than Nexus and Motorola phones. Keep in mind that my experience is through Verizon. at&t pushed Android 4.4.4 to the S5 a full two months after I received the update on mine (early October). So I guess it's more the combination of Samsung and Verizon. I guess at&t wanted to sit on the update for a while.

From what I have heard, LG is the worst offender at this point. Their G3, which shipped with Android 4.4.2, looks like it won't be getting Android 4.4.4 for a while. It was rumored to roll out at the end of September but that has come and gone.
 

CoMoNexus

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Samsung has an "okay" history with updates, they do usually deliver but delay the update by quite a few months.

If updates are what matter most to you, I would recommend picking up a Nexus again.

I don't mind waiting a month or two for an update as long as I know it's coming. In fact, I wait a week or two before installing an update on my N4 so I can see if other users are having any problems.

I just don't want to wind up with an orphan, as was the case with the HTC Evo.
 

CoMoNexus

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Samsung has alot of bloatware... unlike a Nexus, but I disabled most of it.

But you can't uninstall it, right? That was another reason why I replaced my HTC Evo with the N4: I couldn't uninstall the crapware that Sprint and HTC added, and I was always short on memory as a result. If Samsung's bloatware can't be uninstalled without rooting, then I have to think twice about the S5.
 

CoMoNexus

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There are carrier updates too (like when a network is upgraded) but OS updates come from Google. It's not the same with phones from LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc. They all receive the update from Google, skin it, test it on their supported devices (or devices that they are going to support), give it to the wireless carriers, and they are the ones who distribute it.

Right, but do unlocked S5s get updates straight from Samsung because they're not tied to a particular carrier?
 

P_Devil

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Right, but do unlocked S5s get updates straight from Samsung because they're not tied to a particular carrier?

I have no idea about that. I would imagine that unlocked phones get their updates for whatever carrier they are on. The reason why carriers sometimes sit on updates is that they are different. Android 4.4.4 for my Verizon S5 is a little different than Android 4.4.4 for an at&t S5. I would imagine that updates come directly from the carrier the phone is connected to unless Samsung changed the update process to access their servers instead. Right now, when someone updates their carrier-locked phone, it goes through a carrier specific process. I select System updates from the Settings menu but it accesses Verizon's servers for Verizon's update process. It lists previous updates from Verizon Wireless, even the update from Android 4.4.3 to 4.4.4 is listed as a Verizon Wireless update. So, unless Samsung changed that process to go through their servers, the update may come from whichever carrier the phone is currently activated with. Someone else will have to answer that question as I have no idea, I'm just making educated guesses at this point.

But you can't uninstall it, right? That was another reason why I replaced my HTC Evo with the N4: I couldn't uninstall the crapware that Sprint and HTC added, and I was always short on memory as a result. If Samsung's bloatware can't be uninstalled without rooting, then I have to think twice about the S5.

Some of it can be uninstalled but most can only be disabled. Mine came with Samsung's app store, S Voice, Samsung's messaging app, a slew of other Samsung apps, and a bunch of Verizon apps (their own messaging app, voicemail, NFL, a ringtone manager, their navigation software, etc.). I was able to uninstall 3, maybe 4 of the pre-installed apps. The rest had to be disabled so they are still technically taking up space on the S5's internal storage. Seeing as how it comes with 16GB of storage space, and that apps can be installed on the SD card, I don't think it's a big deal. I slapped a 128GB microSDXC card in my S5 and use it for photo, music, and video storage. I have about 80 some odd additional apps all installed on my S5's internal storage with about 5GB of free space. I don't think it's that big of an issue.
 

GS5TR

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From Nexus 4 to GS5 is a great step! :) Its like moving from a iPhone 6 to an GS5, They compared the N4 and iPhone 6.. a lot of same things.
 

P_Devil

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That reminds me of another problem I had with my Evo: The Sprint and HTC apps couldn't be moved to the card, and many apps I downloaded couldn't be moved to the card, either.

It's all dependent on the app, not the OS. Apps have to support being installed on an SD card and so far, all of the ones I have downloaded from the Play Store (and tested) have that option enabled. The Verizon apps don't and neither do the built-in Samsung ones but others do. Either way, since the S5 comes with 16GB of built-in storage (and using an SD card for media storage), it really isn't that big of a deal unless you plan on installing and actively using 200+ apps.
 

CoMoNexus

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Apps have to support being installed on an SD card and so far, all of the ones I have downloaded from the Play Store (and tested) have that option enabled.

Good to know. I haven't checked since getting the N4, whose lack of an SD card makes it a moot point. Sounds as if devs are getting better about allowing their apps to be moved to memory cards. There used to be some concern about the effect on performance, but I never found that to be the case.

Either way, since the S5 comes with 16GB of built-in storage (and using an SD card for media storage), it really isn't that big of a deal unless you plan on installing and actively using 200+ apps.

I have about 130 apps on my N4 but actively use only the ones on my home screen. The rest get used maybe once a month -- just enough that need to keep them around. For example, I have two bank apps that I use once or twice a month for remote deposit. When I ordered the N4, I thought 16 GB would be enough, but photos and music are the real hogs. Periodically I have to delete some to shut off the low-memory alert.
 

Greg C

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But you can't uninstall it, right? That was another reason why I replaced my HTC Evo with the N4: I couldn't uninstall the crapware that Sprint and HTC added, and I was always short on memory as a result. If Samsung's bloatware can't be uninstalled without rooting, then I have to think twice about the S5.

To remove it you would have to root your phone.
 

P_Devil

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When I ordered the N4, I thought 16 GB would be enough, but photos and music are the real hogs. Periodically I have to delete some to shut off the low-memory alert.

I think it's enough when paired with an SD card. That way you store all of your music and photos on the memory card and keep apps on the phone's internal storage. You can even program the camera app to write directly onto the SD card so you don't have to worry about moving things over at a later time. I would completely agree that 16GB isn't enough if that's all the phone had. That is barely enough for a couple of albums, some photos, some apps, and maybe a movie. But media storage on an SD card really helps out, it allows that 16GB to be fully stretched out when storing apps.
 

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