The official Nexus 5 thread.

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jimv1983

Member
Oct 14, 2013
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It is *precisely* what the movie industry uses. There is a very good reason why "movie mode" is the most colour accurate mode of the S4 and the note 3. A good TV will actually look similar to the N5 (or S4/note 3 in movie mode), because it would have been calibrated to sRGB. If it isn't and looks more like an GSII screen (ie, over saturated, more "punchy") it is by definition not a good TV.

Why would the movie editors bother to use anything other than sRGB if the overwhelming majority (more than 99%) of the world cannot reproduce the colour of their media if they used something like aRGB? Then 99% of the world would be showing the wrong colours.

I make the assumption that sRGB is correct because it is factual. There is no other standard used by the general public at this time in any significant number. Stuff is made in and made for sRGB. Take your beef up with the standard. Don't try to conflate what you think looks better with what actually is correct.

Then I guess the Panasonic VT60 and ZT60, Samsung F8500 and Sony's 4K TV(all rated very well on color) are by your definition not good TVs because their colors look much closer to that of my Galaxy SII than the Nexus 5. The colors on those TVs and any other high end TV don't look washed out and faded.

I wanted to post a side by side picture here of the two but the only camera I have available to do a side by side is my Nexus 10 which has a pretty bad camera.

As I have said just because it is a standard doesn't mean it can't be wrong.

The colors in most movie modes are pretty good and closer to an AMOLED like the SII than the Nexus 5. Also, for movie mode to be good the color temperature needs to be set to normal instead of the often Standard(on TVs with just one Cool setting) or the first Cool setting(if the TV has two Cool settings). The Warm settings look horrible.

I created some samples just to give an idea of what I'm trying to say. In the three color samples below imagine the left side as the true color that was intended by the original content creator.

A good TV, phone(like an AMOLED from GS II, III, IV), etc will show the colors as they appear on the left. An inaccurate and unrealistic display(like the Nexus 5) would show the exact same colors from the left as they appear on the right.

This is just for the purpose of comparison.

Blue.jpg


Green.jpg


Red.jpg
 
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tuan209

Member
May 9, 2004
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Then I guess the Panasonic VT60 and ZT60, Samsung F8500 and Sony's 4K TV(all rated very well on color) are by your definition not good TVs because their colors look much closer to that of my Galaxy SII than the Nexus 5. The colors on those TVs and any other high end TV don't look washed out and faded.

I wanted to post a side by side picture here of the two but the only camera I have available to do a side by side is my Nexus 10 which has a pretty bad camera.

As I have said just because it is a standard doesn't mean it can't be wrong.

The colors in most movie modes are pretty good and closer to an AMOLED like the SII than the Nexus 5. Also, for movie mode to be good the color temperature needs to be set to normal instead of the often Standard(on TVs with just one Cool setting) or the first Cool setting(if the TV has two Cool settings). The Warm settings look horrible.

I created some samples just to give an idea of what I'm trying to say. In the three color samples below imagine the left side as the true color that was intended by the original content creator.

A good TV, phone(like an AMOLED from GS II, III, IV), etc will show the colors as they appear on the left. An inaccurate and unrealistic display(like the Nexus 5) would show the exact same colors from the left as they appear on the right.

This is just for the purpose of comparison.

Blue.jpg


Green.jpg


Red.jpg

Wrong....most TVs you buy are not properly calibrated.

Go read up on TV calibration and why some pay professionals hundred of dollars to properly calibrate their TVs.

Most TVs have overly saturated colors out of the box and on show room floors because most people are initially wowed by it, but it does not necessarily mean they are accurate.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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2. The vibration intensity is VERY weak. With my Galaxy S II I could leave it on vibrate and set it on my desk and actually hear the sound it made by vibrating. That is almost impossible with the Nexus 5.
Have you updated to 4.4.1+? I believe they changed the vibration to be shorter and stronger in 4.4.1+. I know what you mean regarding Samsung's vibrate as I've had a Nexus S and GS2. I also have a Nexus 10 and all those devices behave similarly in terms of vibrate.

The Nexus 4 also felt like crap with its vibrate, and the N5 started with that too, but I believe since then they've fixed it up in 4.4.1. If you're rooted, you should be able to further tweak the vibration intensity.
 
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Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
10,197
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Is your location mode set to high accuracy? I only have noticed that when I have had that set to high accuracy.

I just switched to battery saver on that and must say, big increase in battery! I'd have the phone in my pocket with maybe an hour of screen time at work (breaks etc) and I'd leave with around 30%. It now leaves with around 60-70% (very weak/no signal through most of the building).
 
Dec 30, 2004
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It actually gets a little annoying indeed especially if you are used to a wider screen that shows more contents. In some apps I have to scroll down the screen to select an option or menu that used to reside at the bottom of the screen on the Nexus 4, and it quickly became a pet peeve of mine.

did you get rid of it/ go back to N4?

I'm really bothered by how not-wide it is.
What's the LCDDensity of the N4? I think I'll try changing to that.
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
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did you get rid of it/ go back to N4?

I'm really bothered by how not-wide it is.
What's the LCDDensity of the N4? I think I'll try changing to that.

I have a Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. I like the slightly wider aspect ratio on the Nexus 4. But the Nexus 5 with it's larger screen ends up with the same physical width and the overall larger display and higher PPI make it a much more preferable screen.

Nexus 4 is 318 PPI, Nexus 5 is 440 PPI.
 

sweenish

Diamond Member
May 21, 2013
3,656
60
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Then I guess the Panasonic VT60 and ZT60, Samsung F8500 and Sony's 4K TV(all rated very well on color) are by your definition not good TVs because their colors look much closer to that of my Galaxy SII than the Nexus 5. The colors on those TVs and any other high end TV don't look washed out and faded.

I wanted to post a side by side picture here of the two but the only camera I have available to do a side by side is my Nexus 10 which has a pretty bad camera.

As I have said just because it is a standard doesn't mean it can't be wrong.

The colors in most movie modes are pretty good and closer to an AMOLED like the SII than the Nexus 5. Also, for movie mode to be good the color temperature needs to be set to normal instead of the often Standard(on TVs with just one Cool setting) or the first Cool setting(if the TV has two Cool settings). The Warm settings look horrible.

I created some samples just to give an idea of what I'm trying to say. In the three color samples below imagine the left side as the true color that was intended by the original content creator.

A good TV, phone(like an AMOLED from GS II, III, IV), etc will show the colors as they appear on the left. An inaccurate and unrealistic display(like the Nexus 5) would show the exact same colors from the left as they appear on the right.

This is just for the purpose of comparison.

Blue.jpg


Green.jpg


Red.jpg

You need to stop arguing facts with subjectivity.
 
Dec 30, 2004
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I bought my Nexus 5 on release day. My SIM tray is also flush with the phone. My buttons do rattle but only if I shake the phone and even then it is only minor and it doesn't have any impact on their function or solid feel while using them. Plus, who shakes their phone? I also had issues with the speaker being too quiet when I first got the phone but the 4.4.2 update has seemed to fix that.

There are really only a few things I would want to change about the Nexus 5 at this point.

1. AMOLED over LCD. I really miss the AMOLED of my Galaxy SII(although I don't miss much else about that phone which for the most part was a piece of shit)

2. The vibration intensity is VERY weak. With my Galaxy S II I could leave it on vibrate and set it on my desk and actually hear the sound it made by vibrating. That is almost impossible with the Nexus 5.

3. It is too big. One handed use is awkward(and no I don't have small hands) and comfortable pocketability is a thing of the past. Although this is really an issue with all current Android phones. I guess I'll just have to get use to not having comfortable one handed use and comfortable pocketability.

4. Battery life could be better. The overall battery life isn't bad but it isn't great either. It's just OK. However the fact that it has only a 2,300mAh batter with a 5" 1080p IPS LCD screen and still gets the battery life it gets is pretty impressive. Especially compared to my Galaxy S II that had only a 20% smaller battery and a 4.5" 480x800 AMOLED(which is a much better screen in terms of power usage). The stand by time is (at least most of the time) amazing.

how much battery life are you getting?
 
Dec 30, 2004
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I have a Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. I like the slightly wider aspect ratio on the Nexus 4. But the Nexus 5 with it's larger screen ends up with the same physical width and the overall larger display and higher PPI make it a much more preferable screen.

Nexus 4 is 318 PPI, Nexus 5 is 440 PPI.

sorry, LCDDensity as found in build.prop. It is a setting inside build.prop that determines icon size and screen real estate.
Nexus 5's is 480.
I changed mine to 400 and switched to Nova Launcher with 8x6 desktop grid. It is a bit tight but "power user" friendly. 440-445 (I have read N5 PPI is 445) looks more "normal".

I'm not sure what the N4's is.

Most people seem to like 340, 400, and 440 on the N5, about 50% of the users on 400 and 25% on 340 and 440, just from scanning http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2517311&page=3
You can change it with Jrummy BuildProp Editor or any other Build.Prop editor.

edit: interesting, the N4's stock LCDDensity is 320 (for actual screen PPI of 318), so the fact that the N5's is 480 (rather than to match the actual screen PPI of 440 or 445) is what's bugging us. So if it bugs you coming from the N4 and you change to 440 you should be set. I think. Though the aspect ratio is still different so I guess you would need to go a step down.
 
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Dec 30, 2004
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You need to stop arguing facts with subjectivity.

I think that's right, he must have taken 255,0,0 and mapped it to the sRGB spectrum. Those colors look representative of the N5's display.
I'm looking at them on my Soyo TopazS P-MVA panel'd display (full 8 bit/pixel not TN)
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
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Alright so I fixed the crazy ezm wakelock (which seems like it's passive location service) -- seems like Google Play services was corrupted after the 4.4.2 update -- went into the app and uninstalled all updates reverted to stock. Once that is done I did a dalvik cache and cache wipe. That seems to have fixed it. Going to keep an eye on it for a couple of days.
 

sweenish

Diamond Member
May 21, 2013
3,656
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So are you saying that my statement that the left and right colors are different is subjective?

You're not just saying they're different.

You're calling one out as inferior using nothing but your eyes and pre-conceived notions. With no tools or data or any kind of outside support that isn't "because I say so."
 

jimv1983

Member
Oct 14, 2013
172
0
0
You're not just saying they're different.

You're calling one out as inferior using nothing but your eyes and pre-conceived notions. With no tools or data or any kind of outside support that isn't "because I say so."

The way true red, green and blue(the primary colors) should look is not subjective. Do a Google search on primary colors. "Primary red", "primary blue", "primary green" and see how those colors are suppose to look.

Here is an example I got when searching for "primary red".
106.gif


This image looks PINK-ish on the Nexus 5 but not on any other display that I have tested.
 
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kevinsbane

Senior member
Jun 16, 2010
694
0
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The way true red, green and blue(the primary colors) should look is not subjective. Do a Google search on primary colors. "Primary red", "primary blue", "primary green" and see how those colors are suppose to look.

Here is an example I got when searching for "primary red".
106.gif


This image looks PINK-ish on the Nexus 5 but not on any other display that I have tested.
That's not pure red.... That is 204 red, 0 green 1 blue. And it shows exactly the same colour on my N5 as my monitor, which is calibrated.

Edit: this is a fully saturated red in sRGB (that is, if you have an sRGB monitor)
FF0000.png

2Q==
 
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jimv1983

Member
Oct 14, 2013
172
0
0
That's not pure red.... That is 204 red, 0 green 1 blue. And it shows exactly the same colour on my N5 as my monitor, which is calibrated.

Edit: this is a fully saturated red in sRGB (that is, if you have an sRGB monitor)
FF0000.png

2Q==

The image I posted is what I got when I searched "primary red".

Also, the red that you posted looks great on my work monitors. It looks very faded and pink-ish on my Nexus 5. I took what you posted as red and looked at it on my Nexus 5 and then tried to reproduce the same color on my monitor. The closest I could get on my monitor to match your "red" as it displayed on my Nexus 5 was Red: 255 Green: 80 Blue: 80.

Take my settings for "red" and the red you posted and compare them side by side on your calibrated monitor and it might give a good idea of how I see red on my Nexus 5 vs the same thing on most other displays.

I really wish I had the needed hardware and software to calibrate a display just as a comparison to see what you see. I would switch back to what I have now to have things look better but the comparison would be interesting.
 
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BigDH01

Golden Member
Jul 8, 2005
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The image I posted is what I got when I searched "primary red".

Also, the red that you posted looks great on my work monitors. It looks very faded and pink-ish on my Nexus 5. I took what you posted as red and looked at it on my Nexus 5 and then tried to reproduce the same color on my monitor. The closest I could get on my monitor to match your "red" as it displayed on my Nexus 5 was Red: 255 Green: 80 Blue: 80.

Take my settings for "red" and the red you posted and compare them side by side on your calibrated monitor and it might give a good idea of how I see red on my Nexus 5 vs the same thing on most other displays.

I really wish I had the needed hardware and software to calibrate a display just as a comparison to see what you see. I would switch back to what I have now to have things look better but the comparison would be interesting.

Posting this from my nexus 5. This red looks OK to me, but I don't have a calibrated monitor to compare it to.
 

jimv1983

Member
Oct 14, 2013
172
0
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Posting this from my nexus 5. This red looks OK to me, but I don't have a calibrated monitor to compare it to.

That's interesting. I guess it could just be my phone. Maybe I should have it swapped out under warranty. I did play with a few store models before mine arrived but as far as I could tell they didn't look any different either. Haven't done a side by side with mine and another one. Maybe I will do that.
 

guachi

Senior member
Nov 16, 2010
761
415
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Colors look fine on my Nexus5 and little different from my (mostly) calibrated 24" HP monitor.
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
24
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Other than whites, I've been pretty happy with the colors on my Nexus 5. My reds are red and look the same as what I see on my desktop monitor.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
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I'm generally very happy with my colors compared to my Dell U2410 (hardware calibrated to sRGB)
 

Radeon962

Senior member
Jan 1, 2005
591
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My Nexus 5 colors are very much in line with what I see on my Dell 2408WFP.

Try watching a HD movie from the PlayStore on it. I don't have any issues and really enjoy the picture as there are no buttons on the screen when playing as it goes into immersive mode to utilize the full screen. Looks as good if not better than my Panasonic TV.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
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I have to agree with Brian, that this phone is probably the most 'calibrated' out of the box that I've seen in a while, and not just in the Android-sphere.