Google Nexus 5 Review: A Fast, Affordable Phone With LTE For All

Last year was an important one for Android. We saw the platform shift from around 50 percent market share to over 80. Meanwhile, the leading Android-based devices enjoyed big improvements to performance and functionality. Google's Nexus 5 seems to be the very embodiment of Android's progress.

Indeed, this is a very progressive device. Priced at just $350 off-contract for the 16 GB model, the Nexus 5 (made by LG) really does seem unbeatable. A lot of that is attributable to the phone's formidable specs, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 at 2.3 GHz with Adreno 330 graphics (450 MHz) and 2 GB of LPDDR3-1600. As far as performance goes, that's a very modern platform on which to build a phone, and we've already seen it used in much more expensive devices like Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and LG's G2 (on which the Nexus 5 is mostly based). Oh, and take note that both of those phones sell for approximately $650 off-contract.