After weeks of leaks and teases, the Nexus 5 — Google’s first smartphone — has been revealed. Apple’s newest venture into the land of pocket computers, the iPhone 5S, has been available for around one month at this point. If you’re on the fence about grabbing Apple’s latest and arguably greatest smartphone in the hopes that something better might come along, here’s how the Nexus 5 fares in comparison.
Each numerical suffix in the Nexus line doesn’t denote the amount of Nexus devices that came before it, but rather, describes the size of the screen. In this case, the Nexus 5 should technically be called the Nexus 4.95, but that doesn’t have a great ring to it. The 1920×1080 display packs 445ppi underneath a protective layer of Gorilla Glass 3. That display is packed into an 8.59mm-thin body that weighs about 130 grams. Apple’s iPhone 5S sports a four-inch Retina display with a 1136×640 resolution that packs 326 pixels into every inch. This display is set into a 7.6mm body that weighs 112 grams. The iPhone 5S will take up less room in your pocket, but at the cost of a larger screen.
As for power, the Nexus 5 packs the oft-used Snapdragon 800 under the hood clocked at 2.3GHz, while the iPhone 5S uses the new 64-bit dual-core A7 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, along with the M7 motion coprocessor. The Nexus 5 comes in 16GB and 32GB models, as does the iPhone 5S, but the Apple offering reaches up to a 64GB model as well. Both smartphones sport Bluetooth 4.0, and both phones offers dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, but the Nexus 5 also supports 802.11 ac.
The Nexus 5 also features 2GB of RAM, doubling the RAM offered in the iPhone 5S. Both Google and Apple claim their phones will last for around 10 hours of use, but we all know that number really depends on how you use the phones. If you’re running cutting-edge mobile games that regularly connect to the internet, your battery won’t last very long on either phone.
Both phones have an 8MP camera. The Nexus 5 also has a 1.3MP front-facing camera, while the iPhone 5S has a 1.2MP front-facing camera.
As for software, we know what Android and iOS gives us by now, and that choice will more or less come down to personal preference. Apple’s OS runs a little more smoothly and has more top-notch games available, Google’s OS is more open. The Nexus 5 will be running the new, candy branded Android 4.4 KitKat, but considering Apple recently released the new iOS 7, neither operating system will feel old, and the choice will largely come back to personal preference.
The last aspect that comes down to personal preference is pricing. Off contract, the 16GB Nexus 5 will sell for $349, and the 32GB will sell for $399. The 16GB iPhone 5S sells for $199, the 32GB sells for $299, and the 64GB sells for $399; however, the Apple prices are with a two-year contract. If you’re going to purchase the phones on contract, though, The Verge points out that one carrier, Sprint, will be pricing the Nexus 5 at $199 on a two-year contract, which makes it the same price as a subsidized iPhone 5S. However, Sprint will be offering a $50 mail-in rebate for the time being.
Overall, the Nexus 5 is arguably a more powerful phone with the higher CPU clock speed and twice the RAM, and it also has a larger screen with more pixels per inch. However, the iPhone 5S employs that M7 motion coprocessor, has a larger storage capacity option, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. If you’re in the market for a new Android phone, the Nexus 5 appears to be the best one currently available. If you’re more into Apple’s slick operating system and wider range of apps — and letting the phone scan your fingers instead of having to type in a password — the iPhone 5S would be the way to go. In the end, the two phones aren’t really different enough to make anyone jump ship, and both are a fine choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment