My Nexus Journey

I’m now on my fourth Nexus phone, the LG-made Nexus 5X. Up until the Google Pixel, the Nexus phones (and tablets) have all been designed and developed by OEMs (such as LG & Motorola) and are meant to be the flagship Android experience.

Nexus 7

In Aug 2012, I bought a Nexus 7 tablet. Just the Wifi 16Gb version for £199. And actually, it’s still in use today. But it’s terribly slow, even after a factory reset.

I’d been reluctant to get any sort of smart phone and I thought a tablet would suit me better at the time. In theory, if I downgrade it to KitKat 4.4.4, it’ll run quicker again.. I barely use it, but one day I might get around to doing the downgrade.

Nexus 4

This was my first Android phone. £279 from the Play store in March 2013. The main reason I purchased this, is my Sony Erricson 810i had finally given up the ghost.

Unfortunately, this phone took a 1-foot tumble onto a laminated wooden floor, and that appeared to be enough to shatter the screen and make the digitiser unusable. So just over six months of use for this one.

Nexus 5

December 2013 I upgraded to a Nexus 5 for AUD$449. I was looking at prices in the UK and it was more expensive there for some reason. Normally Australia is pricey, but something was a bit screwy here, so I was happy enough to wait until I got back down under.

This phone was amazing and I’d still be using it today if I hadn’t totalled it. This time is came out of my pocket while playing on a slide with my daughter. No drop-damage, but the phone refused to turn on after this, so was a bit of a loss.

Nexus 6

November 2015 and it was this time a $590 eBay purchase to get my next Nexus. I ordered a Nexus 6 package that came with a 32Gb MicroSD. Yeah… None of the Nexus line have MicroSD slots, so it was a bit of a research failure on my part. Why the seller offered both together, who knows!

I originally thought that the bigger screen would be great, but really it just made it too cumbersome to use one-handed. I actually preferred the smaller form factor of the Nexus 4/5.

That said, this phone lasted the longest. I’d had a couple of cases, but the wallet one fell apart after a year, and the other plastic one became brittle and started coming apart too. And it just happened on a particularly clutzy day, I managed to drop this phone twice. Both times damaging the screen. It’s still usable, but only the screen protector holds the glass of the digitizer together now.

After saving everything off of it, I ended up resetting and rooting it, then installing Debian/NGINX. I thought it’d be a fun little web server to play with. Not sure what exactly I’ll do with it yet, but it’s got a great UPS.

Nexus 5X

After damaging my Nexus 6, I thought it was time for another upgrade. I’d tried my old windows phone, as well as a loaner Nokia Lumia 920 which at least supported Windows 10. But that was a very painful few days. Yes, it had a beautiful camera and it’s a beautiful bit of kit. But Microsoft definitely lost the mobile OS war. I’d seen two friends with their 5X’s and both were very happy with them. Also, neither experienced any slow-down, which until now, seemed a ‘feature’ of the Nexus phones I’d owned.

An AUD$333 eBay purchase and my phone arrived from Hong Kong in just a few days. And you know what? It’s pretty much perfect, so far… The fingerprint reader is great for unlocking, the screen is the perfect size. So far, I’m really impressed with the camera. And Oreo came down within a couple of weeks of its release, so it’s on a fairly cutting-edge release which is something that annoyed me about the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact that I had, coming with various Sony cruft that I couldn’t stand and being so far behind on OS updates it wasn’t funny.

I’ve also got a couple of decent cases that should protect the phone if I have another clutzy day… We’ll see how long it lasts this time!