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Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P Reviews Arrive (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A few weeks ago, Google announced its new Nexus phones — the 5X built by LG, and the 6P built by Huawei. The phones are starting to ship, and reviews for both devices have landed. So far, they're largely positive. Ars Technica calls them the Android phones to beat, though criticizes them for having fairly large bezels and no wireless charging. Android Police says the 6P's form factor is an improvement over the Nexus 6, being slightly narrower and taller. Meanwhile, most publications report that the 5X does a good job at carrying on the legacy of the excellent Nexus 5. It's their lower end phone, and most reviews mention that it feels that way in the hand — but battery life is reportedly excellent. The Nexus 6P's battery is capable, but doesn't last as long. Fortunately, the worries about overheating with its Snapdragon 810 chip seem overblown.
Android devices might be absolutely, ecstatically awesome, but I'm never buying one again. The manufacturers and carriers guaranteed that my first Android device would be my last, by failing to allow me to upgrade to the latest, most secure version of the operating system.
Samsung wants to sell me an $800 tablet, but won't let me upgrade operating systems when critical security flaws are found? Screw them, and screw Google for allowing this type of ecosystem.
I'm sticking with Apple devices from now on.
So, how long will a $400-500 phone last us?
Google supports Nexus phones with major updates for "at least two years" now, and security updates for "the longer of three years from initial availability or 18 months from last sale of the device via the Google Store," which is better than any other Android OEM out there. After the Stagefright vulnerability cropped up, Google instituted a monthly security update schedule, and so far Nexus devices have gotten OTAs in August, September, and October, right on schedule.
It's good to see this stated up front. I'm hoping that this becomes a trend in the industry. The expected lifetime of the phone is going to be a very important factor when deciding on my next one.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Sure you can. You can put in a SDcard slot, so people can upgrade the memory to whatever they want.
But since they didn't bother doing this, because they want everyone to store everything in "the cloud" and pay high data-access fees to get to it, I for one won't be buying one of these devices.
The missing sd slot is the only thing that keeps me from buying this phone.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
And Sony, at least on the Xperia Z5. I know Sony isn't popular around here, but I like the fact they also offer a compact version for people who want a pretty decent spec phone that will actually fit in a pocket.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.