[primo44]

No Android 7 on my Nexus 5 might just be what pushes me to iOS. I've gone from being an Android evangelist to being an Android apologist ("Yeah, battery life sucks. Google has failed to fix it after X years") to now being, frankly, pissed off that my expensive phone is going to be left behind.

[luma]

> my expensive phone is going to be left behind.

You bought a $350 phone and received updates for 3 years. I think you're in for a surprise when you price out a new iPhone.

[bicx]

This. Battery life on my Nexus 6P is just fine, at least equal to my friends with their iPhone 6 Pluses. My Note 4 also had solid battery life before that. For the most part, modern Android phones are much better than their predecessors in terms of battery. The UX is also quite nice as well.

[r00fus]

My Nexus5 has great battery till I use it like my iPhone. Video, LTE, Webex? Lasts maybe a half hour under duress.

This was the case from day one, which is why it never became my daily driver. Good to keep up on what's going on with Android, though.

[gtaylor]

I had a Nexus 5 as well. Big improvements with the jump up to the 5X. I'd hope that this year's model will continue the trend.

[sirtastic]

This. My 6P lasts over 3 days with regular camera use while backpacking and all day with heavy use.

[adamors]

The iPhone SE is similarly priced and iOS devices receive updates for more than 3 years. iPhone 5 for instance got and runs fine iOS 9, 4 years after release.

[tdkl]

> Phone 5 for instance got and runs fine iOS 9

It runs, but far from fine compared to iOS it shipped with with basically no added value.

[72deluxe]

Security updates ===== no added value?

[tdkl]

If the updates would contain only security measures - but they don't. So I rather have an "insecure" device instead accepting an update that makes me want to throw the previously satisfactory device into the wall.[1]

But this is also not an option on iOS, because of the apps support and you have to update eventually.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J6R0NnqOzc

[drusepth]

iOS 9 runs hilariously badly on the iPhone 5.

[adamors]

It runs just fine on my iPhone 5 and it's my daily device.

[laingc]

Same for me, although there is some slowdown compared to iOS 7. I am extremely impressed with the longevity of Apple phones in general, and my 5 in particular.

[rimantas]

iOS 9 runs and runs fine on iPhone 4S.

[ktta]

depends on what your definition of 'fine' is. I also use an iPhone 4S with iOS 9, and looked at how fast iOS 9 runs on iPhone 6S and iOS 8 on a friend's iPhone 4S. I don't think I'd call it anywhere close to fine.

I'm numb to the slow response times, but the crashing applications make me want to ditch this for a 50% cheaper android phone which runs faster, and doesn't have planned obsolescence[0] (the link talks about planned obsolescence in iPhone 4S and iOS 9 )

Now I'm okay with most of the stuff apple does with it's walled ecosystem, and appreciate some, but this is going directly against a consumer.

[0]: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-4s-planned-obsole...

[vbezhenar]

I agree. Especially considering the fact that it's possible to revert to iOS 6 with iPhone 4S. That's what "fine" looks like. I don't want to blame Apple, but iOS works fantastically bad on old devices, and hard to impossible downgrade doesn't add much love either. I bought iPhone at the time because it was responsive and Android was laggy. Guess it's reversed now.

[jamroom]

I have an iPhone 64G and iOS 9 runs just fine. In fact it runs so well I've not seen any reason to upgrade.

[andrewblossom]

The Nexus 5 (16gb - $349, 32gb - $399) was released nearly three years ago for a fraction of the price of the comparable iPhone at the time (iPhone 5s: 16gb - $649, 32gb - $749). I think you got a hell of a deal. Upgrade to the 5x for another $350 be happy with another few years of support. Or wait for the new Nexus phones to come out this fall...

[mscrivo]

The only thing I'd add here is that unfortunately the Nexus 5x is not an upgrade over the 5 in terms of performance. It might even be a downgrade (I own both). Because the 5x uses a 64-bit arch, it uses more RAM than the 5x (and both only have 2GB). Also, the SD808 (2GHz) cores in the 5x are hardly a step up from the SD800 (2.2GHz) cores. The only real upgrade the 5x gives you is the camera.

[mderazon]

Best new features for me are fingerprint sensor, USB-C and and quick charge.

Quick charge is a game changer. Less pressure to make the battery bigger if you can make the phone charge way faster.

[jchendy]

> Best new features for me are fingerprint sensor, USB-C and and quick charge.

For me, USB-C is the worst part. Nobody else ever has a charger I can use, and when I plug into anything other than the wall adapter that came with the phone, it's always "charging slowly."

[piyush_soni]

I keep this in the small key pocket of my jeans all the time (though my 6P battery life is around 1.5 days with heavy use):

https://www.amazon.com/adapter-Adapter-Convert-Connector-One...

[igravious]

I'll be upgrading my 5 to get USB-C, that little connectivity feature for me is the upgrade clincher.

[mscrivo]

I guess, but I prefer the wireless charging of the Nexus 5 to the USB-C connector of the 5x. Of course it would be nice to have both. Hopefully this year's versions bring back the wireless charging.

[EspadaV9]

I was really disappointed since the Nexus 5. I'm not sure why Qi charging was removed. Quick charging doesn't replace being able to just put your phone down to charge.

[ac29]

>the Nexus 5x is not an upgrade over the 5 in terms of performance

Isnt it [0]? A 10-100% gain in performance is about what I'd expect from a 2-year smartphone cycle, and we'd be lucky to continue to get such gains.

If you can present data that actually shows no performance difference between the 5 and 5X, I'd be interested to see it.

[0] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/nexus-5x-and-nexus-6p...

[blisterpeanuts]

The Nexus 5X has no wireless inductive charging. My nice little Yootech charger sitting on my desk is useless with my wife's 5X. Those cool "charging tables" at Starbucks and other such places are suddenly useless, as well.

Also, 5X uses the USB-C connector, so you have to update all your cables and adapters on your desk and in your car. A real pain. When you're out in the world and need a charge-up, you'd better be carrying a USB-C cable, because no one else will have one.

I consider the 5X a side-grade and not of any particular value if you already have a 5. The 6P is at least a larger handset with a larger battery so it's got that going for it.

[GCA10]

The good folks at Anker make thumb-size adapters that graft onto a USB-mini connector and turn it into a USB-C. These are easy to carry around and cost all of $5.99 on Amazon. Takes most of the hassle out of traveling in a mini-world.

You do have to remember to collect them when you're done, but the penalty for forgetting every now and then is not ruinous.

[voltagex_]

Anker have made a silly deal with some distributors that means that outside of the US and UK, genuine Anker products can be hard to get.

(Local distributor here has a minimum 1.5x markup plus a very very limited range)

[JohnTHaller]

Wireless charging is so much slower than wired. I played around with it with my old S4 (same launch year as the Nexus 5) via a receiver you could throw in the case. USB-C (easy connections and more reliability) plus fast charging make wireless charging seem like a quaint idea that couldn't catch on. Don't get me wrong, it'll come around eventually, but it's not really there yet. Once it's faster and a single standard, then we can talk.

[ewoodrich]

Slower, sure? That's a given.

But being able to simply set my phone on my desk and keep it fully charged is a convenience I won't soon give up. I now buy phones with that in mind.

In theory, plugging in a cable isn't time consuming, but in practice, I only actually keep my phone charged during the day if I have a wireless charger nearby.

YMMV.

[pavanky]

> Nexus 5

> Expensive phone

Really ? That phone costed less than half of what an iphone costs and you can easily get a well supported ROM if you wish to.

Granted the situation sucks, but Google has been upfront about their support timeline.

[benzor]

FWIW, I've deliberately kept my Nexus 5 on Android 4.4.4 and it runs as well as the first day I bought it 2.5 years ago. Multi-day battery life, no compatibility issues (because no OS updates), all the latest apps still run on it, etc. Not to mention it was an affordable phone even when it was brand new. Very happy with it overall; I can easily see it lasting me another few years.

[Maultasche]

There has to be some nasty security vulnerabilities lurking on that phone. There have been a lot of security patches to Android over the past 2.5 years to fix various exploits. I'm sure it does run great, but I would personally be uncomfortable missing out on so many security fixes.

I don't pay a lot of attention to the Android OS, but I do recall there was a nasty exploit discovered about a year ago (called Stagefright) where a specially-crafted text message with a picture or image can cause malicious code to be run on the phone the moment the phone receives the message.

[pjmlp]

And almost no one got those updates other than Nexus and a few high cost mobiles.

I can still buy 4.4 phones as new on my city.

[david-given]

I have an Android ADP1 --- one of the original development phones, the HTC Dream with the custom paint job. It's got 192MB of RAM and a single-core 528MB ARM11. It ran Cupcake, aka Android 1.5 (although I've since upgraded it to,

If you ignore the hilarious security bugs --- like the fact that, as shipped, they forgot to disconnect the keyboard from a root shell, so that if you typed 'reboot' into an email hilarious things happened --- it actually runs rather well; it's smooth and perfectly satisfactory to use.

...holy crap Cupcake would run well on a modern phone.

[vetinari]

I also had ADP1 - and I think that the latest official update was to Donut, aka Android 1.6.

Not that it matters much today...

[david-given]

Yeah, I've got Donut on it now.

Unfortunately its https library uses some obsolete crypto technique --- TLS 2? --- and as a result it can't connect to anything on the internet, not even to fetch updates from the App Market (not the Play Store!). I can't even log in to Google.

I did have Gingerbread on it at one point but it was very unhappy.

I found a partial Debian port but there's still not really enough RAM for that. I wonder if there's a NetBSD port...

[vetinari]

Yeah, I also tried Cyanogenmod Eclair and Froyo on it, but it was an excelent way to waste a lot of time watching things happen in slow motion. So I flashed it back to Donut and few weeks later got another phone, that ran Froyo properly.

I didn't know that the App Market doesn't work anymore - about 18 months back, my brother was still using it (as a backup phone, obviously).

[tdkl]

Classic "don't fix it if it ain't broken". How have you manage to disable the System update annoyance ?

Shitty Lollipop made me sell the Nexus 5 last year with its bad battery life and memory leak (and they still didn't fix the mobile radio wakelock), but when downgrading to 4.4 it was next to impossible to block the notification. I remember methods used at time just caused the Google Play Services to hold the wakelock, since the update checker became a part of it.

[infinityplus1]

Press and hold the notification, select App Info, disable notifications. That has worked for me very well.

[tdkl]

On the Nexus? I remember that checkmark being disabled for the update notification.

[jdc0589]

That phone was eons better than my 5x, and cheaper. Only got rid of it due to physical damage.

I'm really not impressed with the Nexus 5x at all compared to every other Nexus phone Ive had (2 others), both from a price and general performance perspective.

[plttn]

The alternative is the iOS update process, which has the result of non-techies complaining that their iPhone 4 is now slow after the update, and the techies they know pleading with them not to update even though the number gets bigger.

[xorcist]

Another alternative would be to keep releasing security updates. If open source projects can manage more than three years support, it's not out of the question for Google to do it, at least for the major versions.

[moosingin3space]

I'm using a Galaxy Note 3 with CyanogenMod 12.1 (Lollipop) and I get each month's security updates. So it appears as though Google does release security updates for existing major versions.

[kartickv]

You mean issue security updates for multiple major versions, like Marshmallow, Lollipop and KitKat?

That's an overhead to code, backport and test. These resources could be spent elsewhere.

[saint_fiasco]

Do old versions of iOS receive security updates?

[kalleboo]

iOS 6 got an update for goto fail even after iOS 7 was out, but that's the only time they've done it I think. I think in that case it could have been because they still had in-warranty devices that didn't support iOS 7

[telesilla]

Unfortunately this also forces me away from the Nexus family. I just can't handle the size of the Nexus 6 - being a fairly petite female a large phone is just unwieldy. I'm not sure the phone developers ever take physical size into consideration. If anyone can recommend a small replacement phone that supports running the original Android OS instead of a OEMified mess?

[codedinosaur]

The Nexus 5x should be great for you. It's a 5-inch screen and may have a couple more years of new Android versions left in it. Or better yet, wait for the new Nexus phones set to be released this year. Should add another year of Android support from Google.

[jaxondu]

Nexus 5X is listed at Google support site ( https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705#nexus_device... ) to have "No guaranteed Android version updates after September 2017". You might want to wait for the new Nexus according to rumours will release in September.

[ewoodrich]

The Nexus 6(p) is the phablet line. The Nexus 5(x) is a normal form factor.

I've owned both the 5 and 6, it's definitely a matter of preference. The Nexus 5x would probably be closer to what you are looking for.

[stormbeta]

Between the volatile battery life and Android OEMs almost entirely abandoning the non-phablet market, I'm about ready to move to iOS as well.

I still think Android's UX blows iOS out of the water these days, but the best UX in the world doesn't help me if the phone is dead, or too big to use one-handed on the go.

[iwintermute]

khm, expensive? IIRC nexus 5 had great hardware for it's price.

[Grazester]

Indeed. The Nexus 5 was not expensive relative to the iOS devices he is consider getting. 3 years worth of updates was just about worth the device's price.

On another note I hated the Nexus 5 and that LCD screen always felt washed out!

[piyush_soni]

I liked the screen for not being overly saturated like the others! And boy was that phone fast. Every once in a while when I try my Nexus 5 it feels faster than my 6P, for some reason.

[luibelgo]

N5 is very fast for that price, but camera sucks and plastic frame beaks easily. Not to mention how fragile are side buttons... And screen is quite hard to repair!

But hey, for 350 bucks, it's a good deal.

[zingmars]

Not sure if I agree with the screen being hard to repair/replace. I decided to do it a few months back and all it really took was taking all of the parts out, gluing the screen to the frame and putting the parts back in. Had I bought a screen with a frame, all I would've needed to do was transplant the parts from the old frame to the new one. Not difficult at all.

[tracker1]

I skipped from the N4 to OPO, but on a 6P as of a few months back... probably won't upgrade until the end of 2018.

[Shorel]

Heh, I just upgraded my Nexus 5 to Android 6 this week.

Been in 4.4 for ages, after testing the awful battery life of Android 5 and going back.

I find the battery life in 6 be about the same as 4.4, after installing xposed framework and Amplify & Greenify modules.

Besides a change in colors from dark to white, and the new lock screen notifications that I'm still thinking about disabling, I don't see a lot in actual improvements using Android 6.

[PascLeRasc]

There will definitely be some XDA fix for that. The Nexus 5 has by far the largest developer community. I agree about how it's become much harder to promote Android these days and I can't see myself getting another device after my G4.

[dingo_bat]

You really need to buy a flagship to compare with iPhone.

[microtonal]

But the update experience on flagships (except if you count the Nexus 6P) is absolutely terrible. I had an Android excursion: Nexus 4 -> Moto X 2013 -> Moto X 2014. Motorola was known at the time for quick updates. This meant in practice that they pushed out an extremely buggy Android 5.0 quickly, and then waited half a year to push out a release with fixes. On the Moto X 2013 I had to wait more than a year (!) for Lollipop, although at the time of release the phone was only released a year ago.

tl;dr Android updates on non-Nexus flagships are terrible. Updates are typically months late and stop after 12 or 18 months.

[dingo_bat]

> But the update experience on flagships (except if you count the Nexus 6P) is absolutely terrible.

I don't really agree. I have always got regular security updates on my Samsung flagship phones. Yeah I will have to wait ~6 months for Nougat but that's hardly of any concern. There is no feature in Nougat that I don't already have from Samsung. The only thing you have to care about is the monthly security patches and Samsung has been one of the fastest to issue those every month.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Battery life sucks on Android flagship phones because they are running so many peripherals and the devs don't bother with aggressive power management. That is not Android's fault.

Witness the $200 phones that get spectacular battery life on stock Android primarily because they aren't running hardware that mostly goes unused and are unburdened by poorly designed launchers written by enterprisey Java devs.

[philsnow]

> Battery life sucks on Android flagship phones

> $200 phones that get spectacular battery life on stock Android because they ... are unburdened by poorly designed launchers written by enterprisey Java devs.

Are you saying that there are launchers / home screens that are _better_ than stock android in some dimension? I'm interested to hear more.

[hobarrera]

Much as I like iOS (as a normal user, not a dev nor power-user), you'll be surprised how poor battery life is.

Coming from Jolla, with a huge battery life, I was really disappointed that iOS can't make it an entire day without recharging. Even with bluetooth and gps mostly off.

[akhilcacharya]

I saw this coming and the rumors of the headphone-less iPhone 7 so I took the plunge on the 6S. I miss quite a few Android features but the experience is still pretty darn good.