Google Nexus 5X: Another Budget Flagship Smartphone

We’ve been speculating on the possibility of a replacement for the Nexus 5, which was one of the original budget flagship smartphones, as Google suddenly cut the options from 3 colors to just one and then completely removing the Nexus 5 from the store so that you can’t even purchase one anymore from Google. This week, Google announced the replacement this week: the Nexus 5X and it promises vast improvements over the original Nexus 5 for a comparable price. Let’s dive in!

Looks

For a budget smartphone, I rather like how the Nexus 5X looks. It’s tame, cute, peaceful. No sharp edges, no stunning metal, no flash but still appealing in a puppy dog kind of way. For me, this matters because while the Nexus 5X may not stack up to the iPhone 6 or HTC One (M9) build quality, I’m not losing much when I inevitably slap a case on it. It’s a factor I wish I would’ve considered when buying my phone because for all the metallic gleam, I’ve ended up hiding it for about 99% of the time I’ve owned it.

Either way, the Nexus 5X is sure to be a well built device as it’s made by LG and backed by Google so rest assured in that regard. Of course, all of this means nothing if the Nexus 5X can’t hold its own among similarly priced devices.

What It Does

Frankly, the Nexus 5X really impresses me. It’s set at $379 for the 16GB version and includes a bunch of nice features you won’t find in other comparable devices. For one, the Nexus 5X will always get the latest updates to Android and actually runs the brand new Android 6.0 Marshmallow software out of the box. Then there’s the brand new Google fingerprint recognition software and sensor called Nexus Imprint. It claims to be faster and more secure than Apple’s TouchID which is a lofty and sweet claim to make.

Running all of this is a top end processor and a decent amount of RAM. The camera has upgraded and fine tuned; expect pretty great photos from the Nexus 5X as mobile camera sensors have been improving massively over the past year. There’s also a new type of charging port: USB-C. The first mention of this for most of us was on an Apple product but Google has decided to include it on the Nexus 5X for the reversibility of the cord and the quick charging capabilities. All in all, a very solid device and I’m considering preordering one myself.