Review: Google Nexus 5X

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Nexus 5X would have been the perfect follow-up to the Nexus 5 a year ago and in its current price point. It is still a great and attractive Nexus device in 2015. The list of affordable alternatives, however, is growing more compelling.

Two years after the original Nexus 5 won the hearts of the Android faithful, LG has once again created the ‘everyman’s Nexus’ device. The thin, light and well-seasoned Nexus 5X is an impressive mid-tier smartphone at  CAD $500 unlocked, but is it more attractive than the competition?

There’s a lot to like about the Nexus 5X, the first being that it has been readily available online while the more premium Nexus 6P has not. While encased in a plastic enclosure, the 5.2-inch Nexus 5X offers a bigger canvas for Android than the Nexus 5 did. Nexus 5X is available in 16GB and 32GB variants but anyone considering a phone these days should really opt for as much capacity as possible.

New this year are a 12-megapixel camera and the Nexus Imprint fingerprint reader. Nexus Imprint has been the most impressive fingerprint sensor technology this year. It is faster to setup that Apple’s Touch ID and seems to be just as quick to deploy.

The placement of the sensor in the rear also makes good sense. You can quickly access your phones’ apps in one swift gesture as you take the Nexus 5X out of your purse or pocket.

In terms of design, we get a plain but well-sculpted variation of the Nexus 5 although the materials are decidedly cheap in look and feel. I accidentally dropped my Nexus 5X from around 4 feet into linoleum and while there were no dents or scratches, the impact had nearly opened the rear backplate. While it was easy to coerce the backplate back into place, a case for this phone is still recommended.

In terms of performance, the Nexus 5X delivers and manages to run Marshmallow like a dream. Multitasking is fluid, the new Google On Tap feature (which gets additional info for whatever you’re looking at on screen) works well. The 1080p full HD display is clear and bright although not as stunning as some recent LG displays, it is commensurate to what you’d expect in this level of phone.

The camera manages to take well exposed and accurate photos but is excruciatingly slow. Framing your picture requires one to two seconds before a photo is taken and when you’re trying to capture your three-year-old’s first Trick or Treating adventure at dusk, it’s a blurry mess. If nothing is moving and you're holding the camera steady, then you will be rewarded by detailed accurate photos and videos.

This 12-megapixel shooter on the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P are the best cameras we’ve seen on a Nexus device, and while supposedly identical, the performance on the more expensive Nexus 6P is perceptively faster (not to mention that flagship has Optical Image Stabilization, a must has feature for taking video). The 5-megapixel selfie cam is similarly much improved and will yield great photos and videos.

Battery life for this thin and light Nexus device is outstanding. Thanks in part to a larger 2700 mAh battery as well as built-in Marshmallow features like Doze, which put the device in a deep sleep mode and cut out vampiric apps and you can easily get up to 14 hours of mixed use on a full charge.

Should you need a quick top-up, the USB Type-C charger should enable Quick Charge feature which can give hours of use with 30 minutes of charging. This is ideal for those situations, like between catching flights in airports, when constant power is needed.

USB Type-C cables and chargers are hard to find and the ones Google sells aren’t cheap (the Nexus 6P ships with two, the Nexus 5X only has one, cheapskates!) but you need to stock up on these if you are fully invested in the Nexus devices. This means getting one for home, one for office and one for your car if you commute a lot. Otherwise, your only option is carrying your one cable and charger with you wherever you go, which increases the risk of losing it altogether.

Conclusion

The Nexus 5X would have been the perfect follow-up to the Nexus 5 a year ago and in its current price point. It is still a great and attractive Nexus device in 2015. The list of affordable alternatives, however, is growing more compelling.

Aside from the elusive OnePlus devices, we now have some solid devices coming from Motorola which are better built, have more impressive performance and features plus have more character and customization that can satisfy consumers. Open minded buyers might also look at the latest products from ASUS, ZTE, Alcatel OneTouch and others which are slinging many flagship features at a midrange price and with similar unlocked options.

Nexus loyalists will likely pony up the extra dough for a Nexus 6P which is the handset that really showcases the very latest that Marshmallow has to offer on the best available hardware. Those that choose the Nexus 5X and who are satisfied by what it offers are getting a very good 2^nd generation version of the most popular Nexus device ever shipped, and that’s definitely not a bad thing.

Rating: 3.5 out 5