I was fooling myself thinking I could resist upgrading to the N5.
Battery life is definitely better. I got 5 hours 40 minutes of screen time, with screen on full and LTE on as well. That was with light use, but the phone was not idle (half hour playing Candy Crush, an hour of book reading, and some email and IMing). This is on stock.
LOL...I hate to burst your bubble (not being sarcastic...I was expecting a big improvement too) but I have Kit Kat on my Nexus 4 right now. I installed the factory image. The UI has the cool transparency features...it does look like the Nexus 5. But it still does not have Nexus 5 smoothness and no, the camera is NOT better. I took some test shots in low light, and there the difference is especially apparent. Lots of grainy mess in the Nexus 4 still. The OIS on the Nexus 5 keeps it noise free, even without HDR. hardware matters.
The ideal solution IMO is just to have removable batteries...then people can upgrade or not themselves. Google is still being obstinate about this and I don't expect it to change at this point. The G2 really is better in every way. Too bad it has a fugly case and crappy UI/skin. It is like cooking the perfect steak and then dropping it on the floor heh heh.
I have both phones. No, it is not as bad as the Nexus 4. It is comparable to the Moto X according to several users on here who have both. As with any phone, battery life depends on use though.
- Better camera (significantly better for lowlight and flash)
As an N4 owner, and someone who really loved the N4, I can tell you I don't regret buying the N5. It is like what the N4 would be if google fixed all the major things I didn't like about it.
The difference was a lot smaller for me, because I had rooted it and installed the Franco Kernel, so I could fix the awful calibration the stock Nexus 4 had. Once I did that, the display looked a lot better. Still not as good as the N5 though.
Nexus 4 does have HDR on Kitkat. No, it does not really help.
Good, good. *wrings hands in a malevolent manner*Well, volte-face.
I broke down an ordered the international version of the N5 last week. I wasn't fully committed to purchasing it yet as the wait time was showing 4-5 weeks. I just wanted to get my order in the queue and decide later. But today, one week after ordering, I received notice that my order had shipped! And I've decided I'm going to keep it.
The additional reviews that came out since I originally made this post that tipped the scales for me are:
-Alex Dobie's and the AC team's report that the N5's battery is close to the HTC One. That does sound like a step-up from the N4.
-Very positive comments about the improvement in the N5's screen over the N4. I didn't expect this with all the talk on how people really can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p screens. But a lot of people commented on the crispness of text on the N5, and I do a ton of reading on my N4 so this is a big potential benefit.
-OIS and HDR+ do seem to make the camera a step-up, and per the The Verge's report that Google is working on a software fix I have faith it will get even better. Although it's not clear to me whether the N4 will also get HDR+? Still, OIS and the larger BSI sensor are probably worth it.
-Reduced battery drain when listening to music. I use my smartphone for music a lot so this could also really help battery life.
-Having a noticeably lighter phone will be nice.
-LTE, while not an option for me right this second, is just around the corner and I know I'm going to want that.
Bottom line: I have a serious weakness for Nexus phones.
I did a direct comparison here:
And it must have just about killed Google to admit that 8 gigs isn't enough for a phone. They don't want us using local storage.
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