Nexus 5: Dispelling the Myths

[Adranalyne]

And according to your own experiences, it still sucks, right? So that test would have been an accurate measure for you.

"History with battery life on high-end smartphones tells us that the phones with smaller battery sizes typically are pretty awful on battery life. In late 2013, 2300 mah isn't exactly a large battery when compared to the 2600 mah of the Galaxy S4, 3000 mah of the LG G2, and the 3200 mah battery of the Note 3. More specifically, the Nexus 4 last year shipped with a 2100 mah battery, making the Nexus 5 only a modest increase in battery size. Adding LTE, a 1080p 5-inch screen, and a higher-clocked CPU would tend to make one think that the battery probably won't be that big of an upgrade over the Nexus 4. So with that said, there's a lot of "Nexus 5 has terrible battery life" lines out there, from forums like this to reviews from tech sites. The truth? It's not terrible at all. In fact, it's actually above average."

It doesn't suck. It's just not as good as you claim it to be. Which isn't surprising considering the source, but oh well. That was the whole point of this thread; dispelling the myths. In your case, it's the exaggerated positives.

 

[clevin]

Based on that rundown test, I would have never bought the Nexus 5 because, in comparison, it's battery life sucks.

I think you are confused about your own standard of buying a phone here. In most posts, you argued the standard for purchase is "Nexus 5 has enough battery", in this quote, you argue the standard is "nexus 5 has longest battery".

From the run down test, and standby test, GSM arena clearly stated talk time, video time, web time. They clearly show that the phone can have 5-6 hour screen one time with web+video mix, and it can last 40 hrs if you do 1 hr of talk+1hr of web +1hr of video each day.

If you are clear about your own usage habit, you would have no problem doing the simple math and reach the conclusion that even those its battery sucks (which it is) comparing to others, it is "enough" for your usage.

I do prefer the approach taken by gsmarena, because the results can be simply adapted for any usage habit, yours included. AC's approach of giving a "vague feeling" cannot help anybody for a informed decision.

 

[Adranalyne]

I think you are confused about your own standard of buying a phone here. In most posts, you argued the standard for purchase is "Nexus 5 has enough battery", in this quote, you argue the standard is "nexus 5 has longest battery".

From the run down test, and standby test, GSM arena clearly stated talk time, video time, web time. They clearly show that the phone can have 5-6 hour screen one time with web+video mix, and it can last 40 hrs if you do 1 hr of talk+1hr of web +1hr of video each day.

If you are clear about your own usage habit, you would have no problem doing the simple math and reach the conclusion that even those its battery sucks (which it is) comparing to others, it is "enough" for your usage.

I do prefer the approach taken by gsmarena, because the results can be simply adapted for any usage habit, yours included. AC's approach of giving a "vague feeling" cannot help anybody for a informed decision.

There's a reason this site (and a lot of others) actually share their usage as opposed to doing rundown tests. It's just smarter because rundown tests don't simulate actual usage and don't account for variables (camera use, tethering, etc.) that people use. "Actually mileage will vary". And I've remained consistent on this topic. It has better battery life than advertised, but not nearly at the level some of the Nexus 5 "enthusiasts" claim. Simple as that.

 

[EnigmaticPsychotic]

For the love of god stop fighting. Won't someone think of the children?!?!?!

 

[clevin]

There's a reason this site (and a lot of others) actually share their usage as opposed to doing rundown tests. It's just smarter because rundown tests don't simulate actual usage and don't account for variables (camera use, tethering, etc.) that people use.

i guess you didn't get anything i said above. This will just lead to parallel discussion with no benefit. I will just leave it at that and let others read it.

 

[badbrad17]

No, its not, you can make it so, if you go out and count unique problems, how fast they are fixed, how does update affect numerical number of complains.

However, it sure is reasonable to assume updates do fix problems and reduce complains, which applied basically to every phone. Just to be sure separate hardware and software issues. Software problem can be fixed, hardware issue may be improved, but cannot be completely fixed.

We may be trying to make points for no reason here. All I am trying to say is that some people get a Nexus phone and can complain about issues with the phone when it is simply because of an early adoption of the early software upgrade and problematic apps, not the phone itself. Many posts I see complain about their new Nexus when it's just a software issue. This could also happen to any Samsung or HTC GE phones as well. But doesn't typically show up on phones that are upgrading later on. Ie: people who have a Galaxy S4 that is getting an update to 4.3 will have fewer issues than the Nexus 4 that got the updates months ago.

We can debate whether this is scientific or a myth but I think it is worth noting to people who are considering a Nexus device.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[megakony]

It feels too big and most of the time I feel that Nexus 5 is more beautiful =)

 

[Scott7217]

I do prefer the approach taken by gsmarena, because the results can be simply adapted for any usage habit, yours included. AC's approach of giving a "vague feeling" cannot help anybody for a informed decision.

GSM Arena seems to do a lot of testing. The way they present their findings reminds me of how the EPA gives a breakdown on gas mileage for cars. For example, maybe a particular car has an EPA rating of 36 MPG highway and 32 MPG city. I may not actually get those numbers when I'm driving, but it helps me in deciding which car to buy.

In any case, I don't really like it when tech websites say that a phone will give you "about a day" of battery life. That doesn't really tell me anything.

On a slightly different note, I've been hearing that some people get more wakelocks than others, which may explain the huge differences people get in battery life. I don't know if that's true, but I'm sure a lot of people will be installing apps to monitor their wakelocks now.

 

[mrsmumbles]

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[craZDude]

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

Woah, is that with wireless radios on?!

Edit: never mind, I see that they are not on now. Still, very impressive!

 

[krouri]

This is a great point. If you're one who likes the look of an LED HDTV with out of box settings, then you'll be happier with a Samsung phone and it's overblown, unnatural screen settings. This phone will look "dull" in comparison. I love the Nexus 5 screen though!

And if you like Plasma TV's like me you'll love the screen on the N5 IMO.