Ditch S4 over N5?

Ritvars · Aug 3, 2014

Hello, xda'ers!

I have a fairly simple question. S4 is my first smartphone and I love it. At first I hated it because of TW, but now I converted it to basically a GP edition with Danvdh's ROM. Very smooth, haven't seen any lag since the day I flashed it.

The only thing why I'm considering N5 is because of its future proofness. (SD800, A330 instead of S4's SD600 and A320). I consider myself between average and power user. I like to game here and there and so on.

-Non-removable battery
-No SD slot
-Smaller battery
-Weaker camera
+Way better specs
+Constant updates straight from Google
+Ability to flash Android L and better dev support (i guess)

It all comes down to this: I want N5 because of better specs, updates, dev support and that's it. I've read many articles on these both devices and haven't clearly decided yet, because most of them go for N5 even with all the cons I mentioned. For me, battery life and SD slot (if it's 16GB version) is the most important.

How many of you guys have ditched S4 over the N5? Could you please share your experience and whether if you regret it?

danarama · Aug 3, 2014

The specs aren't that much better. There's kind of half a generation between them. The One plus would be a more logical step up

Also we only have 9 months left of official updates on the N5. Not sure what you mean by "constant updates". It doesn't get constant updates. It gets fast updates. But not constant. It only gets the minor updates. E.g it got 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.4.4. It got nothing in between

It has good developer support but after 9 months when no one is officially updating the official drivers, its going to be like any other unsupported device.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

RedLedLight · Aug 3, 2014

I just suggest you to wait for a while

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Ritvars · Aug 3, 2014

How is your experience with the N5 so far? And battery specificly?

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danarama · Aug 3, 2014

Ritvars said:
How is your experience with the N5 so far? And battery specificly?

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Its fine. In every respect

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Ritvars · Aug 3, 2014

rootSU said:
Its fine. In every respect

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I have an opportunity to sell my S4. I'd rather go with OnePlus, but I can't get the invite.
What was your previous phone before N5?
Would you recommend me N5 over S4?

danarama · Aug 3, 2014

Ritvars said:
I have an opportunity to sell my S4. I'd rather go with OnePlus, but I can't get the invite.
What was your previous phone before N5?
Would you recommend me N5 over S4?

I had an S3

I cannot recommend any phone over any other phone to some one else as the things I like about it are completely subjective buy I will say for me, I would definitely not want an S4 and would prefer the N5

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jd1639 · Aug 3, 2014

Ritvars said:
I have an opportunity to sell my S4. I'd rather go with OnePlus, but I can't get the invite.
What was your previous phone before N5?
Would you recommend me N5 over S4?

Go to the s4, i337, general forum and look for index,, all things at&t........... Read that carefully. It'll give you a good indication what you can and can not do with the s4. If you like custom roms and like to mess around with your phone the n5 is a better choice. The s4 has a locked bootloader and you can only use safestrap as a recovery

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Ritvars · Aug 3, 2014

jd1639 said:
Go to the s4, i337, general forum and look for index,, all things at&t........... Read that carefully. It'll give you a good indication what you can and can not do with the s4. If you like custom roms and like to mess around with your phone the n5 is a better choice. The s4 has a locked bootloader and you can only use safestrap as a recovery

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I have international i9505 with unlocked bootloader.

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jd1639 · Aug 3, 2014

Ritvars said:
I have international i9505 with unlocked bootloader.

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Then that makes the decision more difficult. It's really up to you

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Ritvars · Aug 3, 2014

jd1639 said:
Then that makes the decision more difficult. It's really up to you

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Yeah... I just wish I could somehow get the N5 for a week (test it, etc.) to really decide which one is the one for me.

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GtrCraft · Aug 3, 2014

Ritvars said:
Yeah... I just wish I could somehow get the N5 for a week (test it, etc.) to really decide which one is the one for me.

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Ask someone who has a N5 if you can try it for a minute

spinninbsod · Aug 4, 2014

Yep the galaxy nexus is a great example Google doesn't support it so roms aren't as stable and my nexus 5 will be the same way although the nexus 5 will be a lot less laggy

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Doobski · Aug 4, 2014

My friend has an S4 (non-root). I would mess with it from time to time, it seems like a pretty good device, even if it is stock, so I wouldn't consider the N5 to be that big of an upgrade, concidering your S4 is rooted/bootunlocked (not sure how the dev support is over there though).

For all your conS on the N5; battery life, non removable battery, no SD slot, ect, try to think logically, lol. Eg. Look at battery life threads for the N5 and compare them to YOUR daily usage. See if 16/32gb storage would be enough for all YOUR needs. Ect ect.

For your pro, haha. The updates. The N5 is pretty old in technology terms, so who knows how many updates we'll see after L release. I would think the dev support for this phone would last for some time though.

Personally, I would wait a bit to see if something else catches your eye, or if the N5 price drops.

Tl;dr: Weigh the pros vs Con's with YOUR usage.

Ritvars · Aug 4, 2014

Doobski said:
My friend has an S4 (non-root). I would mess with it from time to time, it seems like a pretty good device, even if it is stock, so I wouldn't consider the N5 to be that big of an upgrade, concidering your S4 is rooted/bootunlocked (not sure how the dev support is over there though).

For all your conS on the N5; battery life, non removable battery, no SD slot, ect, try to think logically, lol. Eg. Look at battery life threads for the N5 and compare them to YOUR daily usage. See if 16/32gb storage would be enough for all YOUR needs. Ect ect.

For your pro, haha. The updates. The N5 is pretty old in technology terms, so who knows how many updates we'll see after L release. I would think the dev support for this phone would last for some time though.

Personally, I would wait a bit to see if something else catches your eye, or if the N5 price drops.

Tl;dr: Weigh the pros vs Con's with YOUR usage.

It seems like cons weighs more than pros, at least for me. Well, I might wait for the Nexus 6, but since I live in EU, the price will be super high (instead of $350, it will cost at least $500 in where I live) I have a chance to sell my S4 for 300 euros right now, and brand new N5 (16gb) costs from 277 here.

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krystyuc · Aug 4, 2014

-Non-removable battery -do you even need that(get a juice battery pack and done)?
-No SD slot -32Gb will be fine

how much can you put into a phone?
-Smaller battery -yes,but with custom per-app profiles

-Weaker camera -i like it,really fine pictures (my opinion)
+Way better specs -idk what to say here...i'm really pleased with the N5 in terms of gaming,smooth,stability.
+Constant updates straight from Google -for a long time
+Ability to flash Android L and better dev support (i guess) -there is already Android L developer preview

I had iphone before and Nexus was the only android phone that made me ditch the iOS for Android.Had a samsung for a few weeks(hate it) then tryed the Nexus and love it!
Go into a store and try the phone before buy.Idk what to say against S4 didn't used it for long time to give an opinion.

danarama · Aug 4, 2014

krystyuc said:
+Constant updates straight from Google -for a long time

Not constant. Only versioned updates. We don't get every fix when it is ready. Only when the version changes 4.4.1 to 4.4.2 for example.
Not for a long time. 18 months update cycle. Already 50% through that.

pajaSRB · Aug 4, 2014

I had S2,S3,S4 and must say all of this phones where very good (all rooted and on custom roms ). Them my wife got a present and its was a brand new nexus 5. To shorten my story> From that moment that I powered on nexus 5 I never took S4 in my hand ever again. Feels faster,more manly (i have black one), and battery is better or same as S4 + much more fun coz its much easy-er to go from one custom rom to another and it doesn't have that KNOX security sh1t.

Cheers!

surrealjam · Aug 4, 2014

rootSU said:
Not constant. Only versioned updates. We don't get every fix when it is ready. Only when the version changes 4.4.1 to 4.4.2 for example.
Not for a long time. 18 months update cycle. Already 50% through that.

Though Google only guarantee they will support their devices for 18 months, the Nexus 4 is already 20 months old and it looks very much like Google are developing an L release for it. Hopefully this a sign that they will go beyond the 18 months for the more popular Nexus 5, though this is of course completely up to Google's generosity.

danarama · Aug 4, 2014

surrealjam said:
Though Google only guarantee they will support their devices for 18 months, the Nexus 4 is already 20 months old and it looks very much like Google are developing an L release for it. Hopefully this a sign that they will go beyond the 18 months for the more popular Nexus 5, though this is of course completely up to Google's generosity.

Maybe, but I wouldn't rely on that.

Ditch S4 over N5?

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