5.96” - A phone just under 6". This is possibly the biggest disappointment about the phone. Its simply too large for the average user. The nexus 5 was already quite difficult to reach the top corners with one hand in my opinion with its 4.95”.
you get over 24 hours of use from a full charge. - too many times I have heard this phrase from other smartphone manufacturers and its never true. Since this phone is made by Motorola(which I think is a great company that builds good products)there is hope but that screen is going to be a battery drainer. Motorola had their [0] Motorola Droid Maxx which held a 3,500mAh battery and its at least kind of true for that statement above.
If they had put the 3220 mAh battery (or larger) in a 4.7" - 4.9" phone, I would gladly pay for that. Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
All the goodie features like Google Now and other location hungry services completely drain your battery in a short time. All I want is a smartphone that can last for at least one day on one charge.
Lastly the price. The nexus line is known for the competitive price/performance being greatly competitive. If this phone asks for more than £350, does it really have the nexus characteristics anymore?
I hope there will be android phones still produced with 5" or less screen size in the next 4 years. A significant portion of the population don't have unimaginably big hands (or pockets) to carry these so called "mobile" phones.
> Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
I think it's quite bold to speak in such factual terms when talking about the "average" consumer or the market. Your opinion does not necessarily apply to everyone, or even the majority of the users. Not that I disagree with you, mind.
It seems to me that these manufacturers are a lot better at knowing what their market wants. I'm saying that because these companies employ a lot of people to figure out what people want to buy. You might be tempted to project your own opinion and common sense onto how the market should behave, but I think these companies are doing a better job at figuring it out. They have to.
I don't think these companies are either stupid or not listening. It really seems to be the case that a large screen increases sales, and longer battery life doesn't. That might seem mystifying to you and me, but that really seems to be the case.
Similarily, you can make phones from plastic, with confusing and slow software on it, sell them for premium price, and own 80% of the Android market in many countries. That is also mystifying to me, but that's what Samsung has accomplished.
EDIT: People are replying to my post as if I said that phones with large screens are a good thing. I didn't.
Or, it's just that battery life is not something you realize when you're in the shop. You see the device, the screen, how responsive it is, but until you've lived a few days with the device you don't really know what the battery life is.
I moved from a Galaxy Nexus to LG G3, which is smaller than the Nexus 6 and I find it incredibly hard to use. Can barely use it with one hand and it doesnt fit in my shirt pocket, sticks out, cant put it in my pant pockets, because it will break. Its very inconvenient size wise. awesome phone though and excellent battery life.
Galaxy Nexus was so small I could put it anywhere on me and it would be just fine. Awesome to hold in one hand.
Google just excluded itself from a large market and is competing only in phablet space.
I guess with Moto X staying in the more average size space, they want to get in to phablet space, which is fine.
I moved from a Galaxy Nexus to an iPhone 5s, and was sorely disappointed with the smaller size. I plan on pre-ordering the Nexus 5 and selling my iPhone as soon as it arrives.
As a previous owner of a Galaxy Nexus and owner of a Nexus 5 (for a year). It's like comparing a rotten apple with a big nice Orange. The Galaxy Nexus was nice until it got the 4.2.x release imho, after that was pure trash. The Nexus 5 is an amazing device, the camera is not bad as people say, it's very fast and the screen is nice (GN was better for my eyes). And KitKat was the first release at the same level or better than iOS in terms of usability and quality. You won't be disapointed with the N5. Just make sure you buy a case, the back is very slippery and the device it's big :)
As for iOS devices i had a iPad 3, which was the worse device Apple made due it's slow processor. And also I got it 1 month before the iPad 4 release. So really bad timing.
> Can barely use it with one hand and it doesnt fit in my shirt pocket, sticks out, cant put it in my pant pockets, because it will break. Its very inconvenient size wise. awesome phone though and excellent battery life.
I mean this in all seriousness, how small are your pants? When I got my Note, the first thing I checked was to see if it would fit in my pants pockets. No problem with a single pair. I keep seeing this complaint and the only conclusion I can come to is that people who complain about this really buy tight pants with tiny pockets.
If I can't fit my entire hand comfortably into the pocket of whatever pants I'm buying, I'm simply not buying them.
But I'm getting to be an old fart, and maybe the fashion you kids wear these days demands useless pockets you can't carry anything around in. But I've never understood this issue.
Even women, who have next to useless pockets in their pants buy this size phone in huge numbers.
Most of my jeans have pretty small pockets (biggest thing I've noticed with higher end denim is the pockets are much smaller than levis, etc). An iPhone 5 sized device is about the max that will fit in there, a 6 (4.7 inches) borders on too large. But those pockets are plenty large for a phone, keys, wallet in my back pocket, and a few other small items. There's a difference between "useless pockets you can't carry anything around in" and useful pockets you can't carry a tablet-sized device in.
So yeah, it's definitely an issue for both sexes. You may not buy pants that don't have large enough pockets, but I won't base my wardrobe around my phone and won't buy a phone that I can't easily fit in average sized pockets.
I always associated massive phones as being marketed towards women seeing as, at least in western culture, they're generally the demographic that is able to conveniently carry them. Most men don't have the pocket space to carry a 6 inch phone, and I've heard a lot of complaints around the new iPhone screen size (the smaller, not the 6-plus) from both genders as being too large to conveniently carry.
> I keep seeing this complaint and the only conclusion I can come to is that people who complain about this really buy tight pants with tiny pockets.
Well, yes, lots of guys wear tight pants. It's not really the size of the pockets that's the issue, it's just that the pants follow the curve of your outer thigh, so you can't put a big flat device in there.
I used to have a Note 3, and I found it annoying to carry around. The problem with my pants was not necessarily just how tight they were, but the depth of the pocket. Without really deep pockets the likes of which I don't seem to have on any of my pants, the Note jabbed me in the hip when I tried to sit down or climb stairs.
I swear when I read issues like this I think I must be an absolutely gargantuan man with vast pockets of holding (I'm not and I don't).
I mean really, if I can't fit my own not-very-large hand up to the wrist in pants I'm trying on I consider them defective and don't buy them. Turns out my Note is about the same size as my extended hand w/r to length and width and about 1/3rd as thick, so if I can fit my hand in my pants I can fit my phone. It also means I can fit my hands in my pockets when it's cold and to get stuff in and out of them.
iPhone 6 Plus generally fits in to US size 38 or larger jeans. However the word "fits" here begs a fine print. Once you put that in pocket, you can't put anything else. Also it really "sticks" out and whenever you sit or stand up, you will fill its presence. Even if you solved pocket issue somehow, the fact is that human hands are not made for this kind of size. You really can't type with one hand. On a long phone calls, it's pain to hold on.
The big screen craze is mainly because of people who want to have one device and avoid buying tablets. They are willing to take on pain in exchange of savings for extra money on tablet. However people who can afford having both, iPhone 6 is really the max size where "world in your pocket" ends and "requires a purse or carry bag" starts.
38 or larger? That sounds huge. I don't have any numbers to quote but my guess is that the average for adult men here in scandinavia would be 34. I guess I have to gain some weight so that I can buy new pants for my phone, if it just barely fits in 38 maybe 42 is a good size to aim for.
I'm also an old fart who wears relaxed fit jeans pretty much all the time, but some of them have much smaller pockets than others. And I'm 6'3", with a 38" waist, so it's not a matter of my tiny pants.
However, it's not just a matter of "will this rectangle fit into this opening". Even my smallest pockets fit the phone. But even with my Nexus 5, if I have headphones plugged into the phone, walking up stairs feels precarious -- like I'm one wrong move away from snapping the headphone jack.
I don't want to just fit my phone in my pocket. I want to be able to, for all intents and purposes, forget it's there if I want to. I don't think I could do that with a Nexus 6.
I tried to post a point but got deleted by the Apple mafia on HN. The fact is I have seen large number of small handed users (asian females) comfortably carry and use large format phones like Galaxy Notes.
The problem for the male dominated tech media and HN users is that they mostly do not carry a shoulder bag and cannot conceive of a device which does not fit in a pocket being useful.
Add a bejewelled hello kitty pocket book case and carry it in your shoulder bag and a large phone is just fine. It is also great for people who use their phone mainly from their desk and carry a briefcase or backpack. A tradie will not be climbing on roofs with a Nexus 6 in their pocket. But it is a big market and there is room for differentiation.
Funny enough, when I'm in Korea, normal people there have phones that dwarf the Notes of the world (like 7") and being fashion conscious wear fitted trousers yet somehow have managed to figure out how to get along in their day, a seemingly impossible conundrum for the audience here.
How do they carry these bricks? There is a research paper [1] that says 60% of men prefers to carry phone in their pocket and 13% with belt clip. This was old however and may be it's changed now?
Easy to explain: Users don't really know what they want. Nobody likes the idea of changing their ways before finding a good reason to do so.
Every male that I know that has a Note-sized smartphone said, before having one in their hands, that those things where too big for them. Now, none of them would go back to small screens.
To give a counterpoint, I have been unhappy with each successive size increase of my phone for the reasons listed. I'm sure there are people who are happier with a larger device, but I don't think the issue is so cut and dried.
>That might seem mystifying to you and me, but that really seems to be the case.
It's not mystifying. A larger screen looks cooler in the store, and most people won't realize what a pain in the ass it is until they've already bought it and been using it for a few days. And, few people will ever make the connection that that enormous screen is why their phone is dead before they leave work to go home in the evening.
It just means that increasing sales does not necessarily correlate with increased user satisfaction. Too much of a disparity there, for too long, and the market will eventually just collapse - no one will want to buy new phones anymore.
(FWIW, I might be already there - I love my Nexus 4, was waiting for the Nexus 6, but now it looks like I won't be getting it after all.)
Considering Apple's main phone is under 5 inches, I think that statement is at least somewhat true. Sure some people will want phablets, but I'm sure Apple at least did their research for making more iPhone 6s than 6 Pluses.
We shouldn't use screen size as our only measure though. The iPhone 6 is a 4.7", but is quite a bit bigger than the 4.7" Moto X 2013, and about equal in size to the 5" Nexus 5 [1].
Apple uses a bit more bezel on their phones, so in physical dimensions they are closer to some of their Android competition than you might think based on screen size.
Using screen-size as a measure of physical size let Apple pull off a pretty epic PR coup. The iPhone 6 is essentially the same size as modern 5" Android phones, but has a significantly smaller screen.
I can echo what he says. The iPhone has absolutely enormous bezels, so much so that the iPhone 6 Plus is definitely larger than my Galaxy Note 3 despite its having a 5.7" screen. That was the first thing I noticed when I held them side by side at a store a few weeks ago.
People tend to hold their phones in "portrait" mode, rather than "landscape". So, width would typically refer to the second largest dimension when talking about (most) phones. Additionally, given that phones are 3d objects, interacted with in physical space, the "feeling" of width would also include the phone's thickness, to some extent.
In this context, the iPhone 6 is actually smaller than the Nexus 5, by about 20%.
I have a 4S still around as my "iPod touch" and it does fine compared to my 5 in terms of usability for apps and music. Remembering back, I didn't somehow feel when I got the iPhone5 and later my Nexus5 that my 4S was "inadequate". I did feel that it weighed a lot compared the iPhone5 however, and was very glad for that.
When thinking about a smartphone, I care more about it's usability as a phone, then as a music/podcast player, and only finally as a media device. Am I out in left field here?
A bit, yes. My phone (n5) is used more as a web browsing device and video consuming device than it is as a music player. It is definitely the screen size. My previous phone (HTC Desire, about the same screen size as an iPhone <6) was pretty much a phone plus ipod.
I think the demand for screen size is also due to the fact that we probably have some ways to go before getting good at designing things for small screened devices.
I am still in 2 minds about my iPhone 6. It is much nicer in most ways than the 5. The extra screen real-estate really helps but at the cost of single-handed operation and comfort when bending at the hips.
As the issue with bending phones demonstrates, plastic is hardly a failure of imagination in design and Samsung pretty clearly have that issue well understood.
Good points, I guess I did make a sweeping generalisation on the "average user" part and I guess this is how the market will always work but it just slows down innovation dramatically for the sake of making that extra penny. Sigh.
Well, again, I get the feeling that you're perhaps unknowingly defining "innovation" to mean "improving the things I like".
For one, I do think that these larger phones bring about new use cases that leave room for innovation. There is much more you can do with a large phone, such as having more immersive games & apps, make a phone viable for note taking and media consumption, use multiple apps at the same time (if you are so inclined), and all sorts of other new things that would be finnicky at best on smaller phones. Not that those are all self-evidently good things, but at least they seem to be innovative.
Whereas a longer battery life doesn't get you anything new. It means you can do the same things, but now you can do the same things for two days instead of one. That's a good thing, sure, but it's not innovative.
As a side note, bigger screened phones really do tend to have much longer battery life. These two things aren't opposed, they seem to go hand in hand.
I have an iPhone 6. So does everyone in my office. All but one of us pine for our 5/5s - they were, in our opinions, far superior in usability for a one-handed device.
The thing is, we could just go back to them, but then the 6s will come out, or the 7, and eventually, you have to either move to a new platform (Android maybe, but the options in high-end devices in smaller screen dimensions are limited if available at all, and we prefer iOS the operating system, so it's impractical) or suck it up and endure the ever-forward march towards bigger screens.
Consumers don't necessarily want bigger screens as an absolute. Having multiple sizes available is great, but the baseline being so big is not necessarily "what consumers want."
When talking about "what consumers want", the opinions of the people in your office really shouldn't indicate that much. Especially not if they just started using their big phones two weeks ago, and still need to get used to different usage patterns after using small iPhones for (I presume) a long time. Nobody disputes that larger phones are used differently than smaller phones (large phones have advantages and disadvantages), but "different" does not necessarily mean "worse". Although that's what people often think.
You can just easily argue the other way - recently I've switched from N5 (5") to Z3C (4.6" hovewer with small bezels) and I couldn't be happier. In fact, I would happily go under 4" if there was a flagship so small.
Again, I didn't say larger phones are better. If you tried a larger phone for a while and didn't like it, good for you. What I'm pointing out is that you cannot honestly say "I don't like large phones" without actually using them for a while. I'm also pointing out that personal anecdotes don't have any value in discussions about what the market really wants.
You voted with your wallet for a large screen phone, as people in the past voted with their wallet for large screen phones. You could have purchased the Z3 compact or some other device targeting the small device niche market, but you voted against it. Good job!
If he wanted an iOS phone, he had little choice, which was the point of his post. The only thing he could've done is forgo buying a new phone altogether; this is what I've chosen to do, I will stick with my iPhone 4S until it dies, then purchase a 5S and do the same.
I still can not see, much can be achieved with bigger screens. Google glass approach at least sounds better than this, by separating power to smaller devices will let people interact with real world better than trying to hold this phone with 2 hands.
Bigger screen allows me to sketch more easily on my iPhone 6 plus, and use iA Writer in a more satisfying way. Just two examples of what a bigger screen achieves (for me). A smartwatch coupled with this will perhaps fill the one-handed (and voice activated) use case rather well.
I don't understand your comment. Are you saying people who prefer thinner/lighter phones over longer-lived phones are misguided? Maybe they have different priorities than you.
I don't see how this relates to regulating a child's junk food intake. Do you think companies should decide what we can buy?
I think the point isn't that companies should decide what you can buy, that makes no sense...
I think the point is more that just because people seem to prefer a product at first glance/first use doesn't mean that that's the product they will prefer in the long run.
Something like the pepsi challenge ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Challenge ), if people are given a sample of pepsi and a sample of coke and not told which is which, they generally prefer pepsi if they just take one sip because of the extra sweetness, but if they drink a whole can of each then coke (the less sweet beverage) is usually preferred.
This reminds me of what a very wise person (a business owner I used to work for) once told me. In an answer to the question "Isn't the customer always right?", he told me "No, not always. And when they are wrong, it is our job to convince them otherwise. If successful you will have a customer for life."
It won't be a hundred years though, it'll be one or two years and then that new increased battery life will sell another phone. So if screens increase sales now, it might make sense to focus on them with the knowledge that battery life or something else will be the next feature that drives sales.
This screen size is so, so disappointing. I'm an iphone 5s user and was eagerly awaiting the new Nexus to make the switch to Android. But 6" is a tablet that can make calls, not a phone. I WANT to switch to Android/Nexus for hundreds of reasons but this screen size is a deal break.
I need a phone I can use like... a phone.
I've tried the iphone 6 plus in person and it's a monstrosity to use, definitely not a one hand device. And the Nexus 6 is even larger?...
And I'm a man – I have pretty large hands. I can't imagine how it must feel in my wife (or many other women)'s hands.
My recommendation to you would be to get the Moto X 2nd generation. You'll get the second purest android experience after the Nexus 5 and now the 6. Phone size is almost identical to Nexus 5 or iPhone 6 (just about right in my opinion). OS updates are typically available within a month, and the phone build is very solid.
I had Nexus 5 for a little less than a year, then the iPhone 6 came out with its larger screen so I decided to give it a second chance, and kinda wish I didn't. Once you get used to Android, it becomes very difficult to use (or go back to iOS). I put the iPhone on eBay, and currently waiting for my Moto X to arrive on Friday.
Looks like the Xperia Z3 Compact is available for purchase (in the US at least) directly from the Sony website[1] via the "Buy Now" button.
Although, with the recent announcement of Android Lollipop, the inevitable next question will be "when is the update going to be rolled out to phone [X]".
It's ridiculous. I thought I remember someone saying the iPhone 1/3/4 size was designed to be perfect for the human hand and I agree. It's easier to make things larger, it's hard to make them small, how are we regressing?
I can second this recommendation. I recently got one and it's a perfect format for me who thinks pretty much all current phones are too large. I want my phone to fit in a pocket and this one absolutely does. It's supposed to be water protected as well but I haven't dared to try that.
Weird, I'd actually be fine with having a big phone if I were making calls. It's really easy to hold a large phone against your head with one hand. What's not so easy is to try to text someone with one hand or browse the web with one hand. I suppose browsing the web isn't actually very difficult but it's just much easier to drop the phone when it's hard to hold.
> What's not so easy is to try to text someone with one hand or browse the web with one hand.
I've used phones of all sizes, and I've never found one where it is easy to browse the web or text with one hand. Sure, on a phablet, its too big to hold comfortably and do that, but on a tiny old iPhone, its too small to type accurately one handed, have enough of a viewport to see enough of a webpage to be worth browsing on, or accurately hit links one handed. So, even with a tiny phone, it ends up only really being convenient to do those tasks two-handed, and then what's the benefit of the miniscule screen?
> I'm an iphone 5s user and was eagerly awaiting the new Nexus to make the switch to Android
I highly recommend that you borrow an Android phone from a friend before making the switch and spending some time with it.
Also, check the permissions on most of the apps on Google Play[1] (scroll down and click view permissions) and ask yourself if they're justified[2].
Once an app is installed there's no controlling of the individual permissions. You do not get prompts asking you to authorize an app to access your contacts, location etc. It's an all or nothing approach.
Some people will tell you to root/flash the phone and install an app to allow you to do what should have been a default OS behavior.
I switched from Android to iOS about 2 years ago, and will never go back until Google fixes up the permissions system.
> A phone just under 6". This is possibly the biggest disappointment about the phone. Its simply too large for the average user.
Quite a large portion of the people I know with phablets like the Galaxy Note series are petite women -- people with smaller hands than "the average user". While the line you present is the exact line that Apple kept trotting out while they were in denial about the market demand for large phones, I don't think there is much support for it. Its true that there are usage patterns that work for small phones and not for larger phones, but I don't think the evidence from actual consumer behavior supports the argument that these are as important to what people are looking for in smartphones as the people who keep trotting out the "too big" argument like to believe.
I think it has to do with one-handed use with smaller hands. A phone would have to be really small (i.e. iPhone 3 & under)) to be useful, but you lose screen area.
In contrast, phablets are a convenient mini-mini tablet that can also do calls and 4G data without additional costs of "tablet LTE".
Right, I think the threshold for one handed operation is actually closer to the iPhone 3 and once you go past that threshold you might as well go big or go home. People seem to be missing that. And I agree with the GP, you see a lot of girls with Note 3s because they just stick it in their purse or bag.
Isn't it slower to type or navigate apps one-handed, and isn't it more likely to result in dropping the phone (even one as small as an iphone 3)? How many coffee accidents has one handed phone use (while carrying coffee in the other) caused?
It might feel like using a phone one-handed is productive, but I rather doubt it. I also wonder if larger iphones have higher applecare profit margins (given identical hardware costs) because of a reduction in phone-drop accidents.
It does seem to be the majority, from all the anecdotal evidence of that being what people complain about.
Maybe I'm weird. I don't care at all about one-handed use. For me the difference is being able to put it into my pocket without snapping off the headphone jack trying to waddle up a flight of stairs without bending at the hip.
Regarding size, keep in mind the changes in Android will make it easier to use the phone with one hand despite the larger size.
The floating action button in material design places important, frequently used action within thumb's distance.
Android's use of the back button is also beneficial for larger screens, since back is an extremely common action and keeping at the bottom of the screen reduces reach distance.
There will definitely be cases when it will be inconvenient to have a large screen (in fact personally I'm disappointed it's > 5") but the problems can be alleviated by software.
You can see it today by switching back and forth between Android and iOS. iOS design has not yet adapted to the larger size and is more inconvenient to use one handed (for example, the swipe to go back gesture is not universal and exiting dialogs often requires hitting a "Done" button at the top of the screen.) But as the software changes the size will become more acceptable.
The "double soft-tap" on the 6/6p home button will bring those halfway down the screen for you. Not ideal, obviously, but a decent workaround until people get used to the new UI metaphors.
"was already quite difficult to reach the top corners with one hand"
This is such a red herring.
I switched from a smallish phone (a Nexus) to a Note 3 (which is just a fraction smaller than this) and it's absolutely amazing how millions of years of evolution equipped us to do things using both hands and how quickly we can accommodate ourselves to doing what nature intended. We even evolved walking upright just so we could accomplish this amazing feat.
I even have smallish hands and have had zero trouble accommodating what apparently is a freakishly large phone so big I could serve dinner for six on it.
Astonishingly it fits just fine in the front and rear pants pockets of all my pants and shorts, in my shirt pocket fine (if I'm wearing a shirt with a pocket), in my suit jacket pockets just fine, my hoodies are great with it.
Bonus, I can actually read what's on the screen without having to hold it up next to my face. In fact it's smaller to carry around than my old moleskine notebooks which I also kept in my pocket until I got this phone, and now thanks to being big enough to keep a sane size pen and provide a reasonable writing surface has completely replaced. From larger touch targets to larger speaker for the speakerphone to more battery, the tremendous effort of just using two hands is far outweighed by all the benefits of having a larger phone.
It's so useful it's even replaced me dragging along my tablet on trips for reading. I just took two trips and my phone was the only device I needed to bring along with me, large enough to comfortably type on, watch some shows on, battery life for all day hassle free use, I can comfortably read books on it in bed!
It's so compelling a size that just on showing it to my friends and letting them handle it half of them went out and bought a phone in that size range. They "got" it only after using it for a bit.
In practice you just use it like a small tablet that also happens to be a great phone.
> If they had put the 3220 mAh battery (or larger) in a 4.7" - 4.9" phone, I would gladly pay for that. Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
Absolutely agree. In fact I'm almost thinking of getting this
I agree that I think I would prefer a 5" phone to a 6" phone. That said, there's no law requiring the keyboard to scale with phone size. For example, this[0] iOS (software) keyboard only fills the screen where it is easily accessible by your right or left thumb. Now if you're stochastically ambidextrous, well... I don't know what to tell you!
Yeah sure, I understand that use case. I personally wish Apple had kept the 6 at the original form factor and made the larger phone as-is to give real choice. The way they did it was "go bigger" or "go biggerer" and I get that there are people who really do just want the smaller form factor for whatever reason.
Okay, so I did have a moment the other day where I wanted to text somebody but one of my hands was full and so I made the extremely difficult decision to wait 5 minutes until I was in a better place to do what I wanted. There was another case a couple weeks ago that was similar, but I just used the speech recognition to type the texts out for me (a pattern I'm getting more and more into even when I can comfortably type anyways).
You can't use speech recognition on public transport.
And this line "so I made the extremely difficult decision to wait 5 minutes until I was in a better place to do what I wanted" sounds a lot like "you're holding the phone wrong".
I think there are software improvements that you can make though. Apple's Reachability feature is a step in the right direction. But not enough.
> You can't use speech recognition on public transport.
Sure, that's why I just waited the 5 minutes instead. It wasn't all that long ago that people waited weeks or months for responses to a correspondence, waiting a few minutes isn't the end of the world, somehow humanity got along just fine waiting a little. I already don't answer my phone if it's not convenient (it's why they invented voice mail).
There's some keyboards I suppose I could hunt around and install if I really need to text that very second.
While I'm at it I suppose I could just get a subvocal mic so I can talk to my texting app while on a bus.
If the phone is in "letter" orientation the keyboard would be entirely reachable... Do some of us want to respond to a text message with the phone/keyboard in landscape mode with one hand? That would seem a bit tough with any recent smart phone.
> If they had put the 3220 mAh battery (or larger) in a 4.7" - 4.9" phone, I would gladly pay for that. Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
Because consumers reliably shell out more for larger screens and thinner phones than they do for bigger batteries?
About battery, I get one full day of charge on my Nexus 5 (unless I'm travelling using the GPS navigation and play music along, it finishes in half a day). With the Nexus 6 having AMOLED screen and not LCD, it's supposed to save more battery (with dark pixels not lit at all), plus Android L which is supposed to save up to 36% more battery just by the software (compared to Kitkat), plus the bigger physical battery itself - all three things might save you much more than the Nexus 5.
Why is reaching every corner of the phone such a big deal anyway? Speaking for myself, one of the biggest reasons I like large screens is that reading and viewing content is so much easier - I don't have to squint when I'm watching a video, or deal with awkward reflowing. Interface designers don't have to use the new real estate just because it's there, they can design touch areas that are well within reach, while using the new extra space for other visual elements.
>Why is reaching every corner of the phone such a big deal anyway?
It's a big deal because the upper left corner is where Android places notifications and thus you're likely to perform this operation frequently and in a number of contexts. Whenever you get a notification you're very likely to want to evaluate it (and possibly take action) as quickly and reliably as possible. On my Nexus 5 I can easily unlock, swipe down and swipe left or tap with one hand and very quickly as well. On my OnePlus One unlocking is fine, but getting to the top left corner is tricky, slow and unreliable when I'm using one hand, and two hands is not always desirable or practical depending on the context.
On my Galaxy Nexus you can swipe down on the entire top edge of the phone to bring down notifications. On the home screen you can actually swipe down anywhere to bring it down.
Sadly, even though interface designers don't have to use the new real-estate, they still do. Even Google is guilty of this - Google Maps has interface controls at the top and bottom of the screen. This is aggravated by the fact that Maps is one of those apps people tend to use while walking (or driving), specifically when two-handed use is most inconvenient (and just plain unsafe).Folks don't care as much if Facebook or Mail takes two hands because you're far more likely to be sitting down (or at least standing still) operating them.
The nexus 5 will continue to be produced. It was a part of their Nexus 6/9/Player landing page this morning, and it was showing running android L.
They're introducing this to appeal to a broader market. Also, Nexus phones more recently track "value" rather than "price". That is to say that they always deliver solid value, and probably will still continue to in relation to the much more expensive Galaxy Note and iPhone 6+.
Indeed. People need to remember the number refers roughly to the size. It's entirely possible we'll see a Nexus 5 2015 edition with updated specs, once they've milked the Christmas market with the 6.
Battery life and camera could stand to be improved. I can't think of anything else the device needs, I'd pay $650 for a nexus 5 with a camera in the class of other phones at that price and a battery that can last all day without fail.
This will probably sound like a troll as I understand windows phone isn't popular here but my Nokia 630 lasts over 48 hours of medium usage EASILY on a tiny 1830mAh battery, has a perfectly sized 4.5" screen, has navigation that doesn't shit itself in the countryside and costs £99 SIM free off Amazon.
The camera is shit but I tend to lug around a DSLR anyway if there's anything worth taking a photo of, so the phone is used for taking photos of where I parked so I can appeal tickets. Less pixels (480x854) means less power usage and I can't say I notice the difference that much compared to the wife's Moto G.
But everyone goes "fuck windows phone" and walks away from such things...
If I only wanted to use the core functions of the phone (browsing, calls, etc.), I would definitely buy a Windows Phone. It's just lacking a lot of fun, useful apps.
To be honest I only use Here Drive, ebay, weather and the built in apps (which are fantastically good) so you may be right however all the major names are there now. The mail client and search destroys all other devices if you ask me.
I considered the Nokia 630, but only having 3G is a deal breaker for me.
I just got the Sony Z3 compact, which is smaller than the 630, has LTE, and a bunch of other advantages (better specs all round, front-facing camera, etc.).
I've owned a Sony android device (Xperia SP) Never again. Total bag of crap. Sold it and got a Moto G which was crap too. Neither devices could handle more than three tabs open without losing one and refreshing. The 630 can with half the RAM. I think NT scales down better than Android on handsets.
I'd have got the 830 if I wanted a camera phone but I lug a Nikon D3100 around.
> I think NT scales down better than Android on handsets.
Any idea why? My only guess is because so much of Android is built on a garbage-collected, JIT-compiled environment (Dalvik), whereas much more of the Windows Phone stack relies on manual memory management and reference counting, and even .NET apps are AOT-compiled on Windows Phone. In that case, the new Android Runtime (ART) might address half the problem.
1. NT is very small. A 66MHz / 24Mb system can still throw up a desktop.
2. The UI is entirely hardware accelerated WPF.
3. You're right about the AOT which is done off the device. It still does GC on the device for most apps which are CLR based but core WinRT stuff is manual management. NT doesn't do overcommit or mmap stuff either. Also the CLR GC runs concurrently.
4. The ecosystem isn't fragmented making centralised compilation and optimisation a reality. There are very few hardware combinations to support.
5. Better native type support in CLR. There are better unsigned and binary types in the CLR making micro-optimizations possible.
Comparing to android, Dalvik is damn slow. It seems to defer all GC until an inconvenient time and suck up lots of RAM in the process. If they get that ART compiler in there then it might be getting somewhere but I suspect from my experiments with my Moto G that the compiler has a different set of performance penalties.
If people knew that Google finally works under IE mobile in version 8.1, I think they'd re-consider Windows Phone. But that's not necessarily the HN crowd pleaser here ;-)
We did not get proper, modern-looking iPhone-style touch-optimized mobile search results from Google for well over 20 months while Windows Phone 8 was fully capable (thanks to not using IE6) of displaying such touch-optimized CSS. I know, Googling or using Google services was IMPOSSIBLE on my incredibly modern Lumia 920 in January 2013. They just never bothered to optimize for any touch whatsoever and treated the platform as many companies did, like Windows Phone 7, and not something modern and new.
It wasn't until Windows Phone 8.1 that IE11 began pretending to be an iPhone -- and oh look, search finally works (design-wise) if you use other providers than Bing! I re-tested before performing the 8.1 upgrade -- to this day, they still think Windows Phone 8 has not evolved from Windows Mobile days.
I have an HTC One M8, which is really tall because of the dual speakers. I also have large hands. That said, there are a few things I don't or can't use my phone for because the screen is too small, but there is almost nothing I can't do because the phone is too big. Yes, it's more comfortable in a pocket to have a smaller device, and it's better UX to be able to reach the top corner with your thumb, but I have started thinking that phablets are the future of smartphones, small tablets are going to disappear, and we'll end up with three categories of devices: 1) small screen feature phones (which are actually perfectly competent smartphones, just with reduced hardware specs) like the Moto G), 2) 5.5-6.5" high end smartphones/phablets, and 3) large tablets (9"+). There will be outliers, of course (Sony Z3 Compact anyone?), but it seems apparent that with apps & advertising being the primary revenue stream, the bigger the screen the more money to be made.
If I had a 6" phone I'd get rid of my 7" tablet. With a 5" phone I can't say that.
What are the few things you can't/don't use your M8 for because of its "small" screen? I have the original One, with its 4.7" screen, and have never seen the need for more than that. I only see it as cumbersome. The One is still cumbersome at times as it is, but has its benefits. I think that around 5" is the maximum sweet spot of cost/benefit from a usability standpoint though.
Then again, I have never seen the need for tablets in general. My phone is perfect for everything on the go, and if I want to use a larger device for more complex/power tasks, my ultrabook does a much better job than a tablet/phablet on every front.
I much prefer a big tablet (currently a Nexus 10) to a laptop for several things, most notably reading-heavy tasks (RSS, Magazines). I usually use a Kindle for novels and the like, but I read technical books or illustration-laden books on the tablet as well.
If I were in a position to really have to sweat the $500 or so it takes to buy a good tablet, I doubt I'd say it's worth it just for the extra bit of convenience, but I do like it a lot, and as my Nexus 10 feels pretty ancient now, I'm going to preorder the 9 tomorrow.
Just as one example, Ankidroid is pretty unpleasant on a phone, especially searching for new decks. There are quite a few other apps, too, that are "tablet optimized" for larger screens than phones have, and use internal detection to change the UI/UX you're presented with. Web usage on sites that are menu or image heavy can be problematic, too, as is working with tabular data any time. I don't enjoy watching movies/tv on my phone, either (and the battery life is horrendous).
Screen size and battery capacity are not a tradeoff. The bigger the screen the bigger the case and the more room for a battery. From the long-lasting tablet batteries we've learned that battery capacity increases faster per increased quadratic[0] volume than the increased battery drain from the bigger screen area.
[0] Battery volume increases only quadratically because the manufactures insist on maintaining thinness. It would be interesting to understand how thickness could affect battery capacity.
You cannot discount the fact that so many customers want buy phablets these days, that even Apple thought it makes sense to deliver a phablet iPhone for these customers.
I had the same beliefs up until I bought the Note 2 a few years ago. Since then every single phone I bought for private use has been a phablet, and now I'm using an iPhone 6 Plus.
And yes, it's not only 24 hours you get, I get 2 days out of phablets, but I'm rarely playing video games.
But here's the good news for you: smaller phones aren't disappearing. If you don't like phablets, there are powerful high end phones with 4.5-5 inches from every manufacturer. So there's really nothing to complain about.
Apps that are running have a significant effect on battery life. One of the big problems with Android (vs iPhones) is that manufacturers and ISPs still have some control over messing with stock Apps. Also people might expect to be able to install any App they want and still get the same battery life.
Many of these Apps require ridiculous permissions and are obviously collecting information about you and your usage. As if that isn't bad enough it is obviously horrible for your battery life! My recommendation would be to only install necessary Apps (uninstall the ones you tried out but are not interested in) and try disabling unnecessary stock Apps/services (browse to the App in your settings and click "Disable"). The latter might have a negative effect on your user experience, but might also reduce power consumption; or it might have no noticeable effect whatsoever. Worth a shot though.
Have a look at your Battery Usage settings for which apps are prime candidates to remove. But I think you'll also find L does a good enough job at extending battery life for many Android handsets. Don't get me wrong, I still think my iPhone uses less juice, but given the slightly larger battery in the Nexus 5 compared to the iPhone 6, it can hold its own under L.
"Its simply too large for the average user". That's what iPhone users told. "Anything over 4-inch is too big". Now every one is happy with 5-inch and more. People just adapt given a choice. I know people with small hands just fine with 5.5 screens.
I agree the price is a too much though.
Re: battery, I have a Note 3 with approximately the same size battery and have no issues with battery life. It easily lasts a full day unless I'm using it very heavily.
I have Google Now notifications enabled and I also use Google's stock home screen/launcher with the Google Now integration.
> Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
Very true. These companies create some of the most complex products on the planet, and yet can't figure out that it's completely fucking brain-dead dumb that the device can't last through a day of normal usage. These are critical devices in our lives now, and Google et al could probably save millions in health care costs from stress-related problems caused by dead phones.
"The nexus 5 was already quite difficult to reach the top corners with one hand in my opinion with its 4.95”
Some people have more than just one hand. And maybe you don't need to touch everywhere. If you read an article or watch a movie, there is no need to touch everywhere.
"you get over 24 hours of use from a full charge. - too many times I have heard this phrase from other smartphone manufacturers and its never true"
I'll wait for reviews of the actual device. What is the point of this kind of speculation?
I have literally never heard anyone ever say, "I like this phone I bought, but after using it for a couple of weeks, the screen is just a little too big for my tastes."
Like, NEVER. In all the complaints I've heard about people's phones, over the seven years that we've had smartphones so far.
What I have heard is a lot of people pooh-poohing 4.7" screens, 4.9" screens, 5.2" screens, etc., and those screen sizes going on to utterly dominate smaller phones.
I'll say it. Been using the iPhone 6 for several weeks. Love it, but the screen is just a little too big for my tastes. It's awkward and I miss the smaller screen. It's enough of an annoyance I'm looking at other phones for the first time.
I agree. My iPhone 6 is too big. Not an iPhone 6, just a regular iPhone. I've had it since launch day, so I've had plenty of time to get used to it. Whenever I pick up my wife's 5S, it's like a breath of fresh air.
I've heard dozens of people say that about the iPhone 6 -- not necessarily about the 6 Plus though.
I'd say that 5" versus 6" is a qualitative difference. People don't buy a 6" phone thinking, "Eh, whatever". You don't hear a lot of people complaining that 6" phones are too big for the same reason you don't hear a lot of people complaining that Linux is too hard to use -- because you only got there by having already decided the answer to the question.
No, because the complaint you get is "I like this phone I bought, it has a great screen, but I can't reach the top half of it when I hold it, and my hand gets so tired, and I'm ending up with tendonitis or carpal tunnel all the time now."
These are all very real complaints - I've heard them from coworkers (who work at Google, so if they have a bias, it's in the other way) and family members, and I suffered from frequent tendonitis while I had my Galaxy Nexus that went away when I "downgraded" (in screen size, at least) to a Moto X.
Well, no, that's not the complaint either. Because I've never heard anyone say that.
I mean, I believe you when you say you have that complaint and you've heard it, but I've never seen anyone be anything but delighted when they've bought a larger size phone. (I say this as someone who has consciously avoided large phones and carries a 4.3" screen phone).
This is mostly a selection bias. Given the wide variety of choices on the Android side, and the very obvious effect screen size has on using the phone, you have to be reasonably sure you want a big screen phone to actually bite the bullet. (Other factors are less clear cut and can be harder to decide between.) Since there is a good selection of screen sizes to choose from, you can often find something you want.
Contrast that with the two iPhone 6 people already replying to your post saying they think it is too big. As an Apple user, if you want a current year phone, you may have to go bigger than you want.
Android choice, for the win!
(BTW, I want! I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love the Nexus 6.)
Actually, I just returned my iPhone 6 last week, and got a cheapo Moto G with LTE. Yes, it was too big for my hands, and I like using phones with one hand.
lots of people carry a bias into their opinion on purchased items. sort of like a buyers' remorse, but with the goal of getting others to make the same mistake in order to achieve some sort of normality with 'the pack'.
I've had the Droid Maxx for about a year now. I watch documentaries on YouTube, stream music over LTE and WiFi, and use Facebook/Quora/Imgur/Hacker News throughout the day and never think about the battery. I charge it maybe every other day.
I've never had a phone that actually delivered on its promised battery, but this one comes quite close.
Google and Apple both see the writing on the wall. We (affluent technophiles) will be using our watches as a primary interface and the "phone" category will evolve into mini-tablets for composing longer messages and web browsing.
The largest technical leap in battery life will come from looking at your watch 100+ times per day rather than your phone.
I don't want some honking monstrosity on my wrist pretending to be a watch. I want my Nexus One back with expandable storage and more than 200 Megs space for apps and a camera as good as in my 5. You know...a phone, smart, one each.
yep, a 5 inch HD display and 20 real (screen on, 10 apps running + Wifi/3G/GPS) hours of battery life - that would be perfect.
Having held an Xperia Z Ultra in my hand, I'm pretty sure I'll never want more than 5 inches of screen space, and double mega quad resolutions are useless at that size IMO.
> Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
I can tell you haven't been using the Android L Preview. I have, and the battery life extension is fantastic. Easily the equal to Nokia's. Basically, when it gets down to low power, it can shift into a mode where only foreground apps and activities are in use, and the battery can last all day easily. iOS, of course, prevents background activities overall and so uses less power continuously to achieve a similar battery life on newer phones. That said, the best way to get all-day battery life continues to be "don't use the phone so much" or the no-compromises "plug it in when you can" which I'm sure we're all familiar with. Phones recharge faster these days too...
I have an active social life and my Nexus 4 still lasts a day and a half when I don't plug it in. The people having trouble must be texting all day long. When I chat I use social media or chat programs, both of which are available on my computer. I would assume many users of HN use computers so I don't fully understand where the complaint is coming from.
I, too wish that batteries were better than they are. But currently you just can't expect to use a device which has power unthinkable 50 years ago. The size of 10mm x 6inches, to run all day from off of an internal battery. It's unreasonable.
Agreed. WTB a Nexus 4 with smaller screen size, and double thickness all taken up with extra battery. WTB 24 hours of heavy constant use, not just "use" aka 99% standby.
The Nexus 5 is amazingly thin and rigid, the engineers did a great job with it, but I'd be completely happy if it were twice as thick with all the additional room filled with battery only.
Agreed. iPhone 6 Plus is too big for me at 5.5" and I have big hands. These "phones" are getting out of control in terms of size. The sweet spot seems to be between 4.7" and 5". Apparently usability engineers aren't being utilized very much these days.
Apple messed this up as well, not releasing a new 4" version of their device. So the people who want a new 4" have to get a year old device without all the new features like Apple pay?
you get over 24 hours of use from a full charge. - too many times I have heard this phrase from other smartphone manufacturers and its never true. Since this phone is made by Motorola(which I think is a great company that builds good products)there is hope but that screen is going to be a battery drainer. Motorola had their [0] Motorola Droid Maxx which held a 3,500mAh battery and its at least kind of true for that statement above.
If they had put the 3220 mAh battery (or larger) in a 4.7" - 4.9" phone, I would gladly pay for that. Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices?
All the goodie features like Google Now and other location hungry services completely drain your battery in a short time. All I want is a smartphone that can last for at least one day on one charge.
Lastly the price. The nexus line is known for the competitive price/performance being greatly competitive. If this phone asks for more than £350, does it really have the nexus characteristics anymore?
I hope there will be android phones still produced with 5" or less screen size in the next 4 years. A significant portion of the population don't have unimaginably big hands (or pockets) to carry these so called "mobile" phones.
0. http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/16/motorola-droid-maxx-revie...