The official Nexus 5 thread.

[jimv1983]

I have to agree with Brian, that this phone is probably the most 'calibrated' out of the box that I've seen in a while, and not just in the Android-sphere.

Then mine must be defective.

What I see as red(like the Netflix loading screen) on most other displays appears very pink on my Nexus 5.

What I see as royal blue on most other displays looks closer to sky blue that royal blue on most other disp on my Nexus 5.

What I see as a deep green on most other displays appears closer to a lime green on my Nexus 5.

I think I am going to swap it under warranty.

 

[kevinsbane]

I don't think it will make much difference. It's hard to say a priori that just because one doesn't think it looks right means that it's defective. By any chance, are you using a wide-gamut monitor like U2410 or 3008wfp?

If you want my subjective opinion on the pictures you describe,

the Netflix logo is not a very saturated red; it's a bit of a dull red at the top, fading to a reddish brown near the bottom.

The grass field is not very green at all; though obviously green, it's not a green which would clash with the background light blue of the forum posts. Not that it's bluish, but it's definitely not a deep green.

If you compare that to the colours on a wide-gamut monitor or display (such as a U2410 in aRGB/uncalibrated mode, or Ultrasharp 3008WFP, or GS2) then yes, the N5 will look faded in constrast.

 

[zerogear]

I am running Netflix on the Nexus 5, however, it is definitely not "pink-ish", it's definitely red, but slightly brighter than the logo you showed. (At least in comparison to what I am seeing on my Surface Pro screen.)

If you are seeing lime green on that photo, definitely get it replaced, because it does not show up as such on my screen (Nexus)

 

[kevinsbane]

I am running Netflix on the Nexus 5, however, it is definitely not "pink-ish", it's definitely red, but slightly brighter than the logo you showed. (At least in comparison to what I am seeing on my Surface Pro screen.)

If you are seeing lime green on that photo, definitely get it replaced, because it does not show up as such on my screen (Nexus)

Is your surface pro calibrated? It's pretty bad when it isn't calibrated, and even when it is, it does have some problems with 100% saturation.

 

[jimv1983]

I don't think it will make much difference. It's hard to say a priori that just because one doesn't think it looks right means that it's defective. By any chance, are you using a wide-gamut monitor like U2410 or 3008wfp?

If you want my subjective opinion on the pictures you describe,

the Netflix logo is not a very saturated red; it's a bit of a dull red at the top, fading to a reddish brown near the bottom.

The grass field is not very green at all; though obviously green, it's not a green which would clash with the background light blue of the forum posts. Not that it's bluish, but it's definitely not a deep green.

If you compare that to the colours on a wide-gamut monitor or display (such as a U2410 in aRGB/uncalibrated mode, or Ultrasharp 3008WFP, or GS2) then yes, the N5 will look faded in constrast.

The monitors I have at work are Viewsonic VG2428vm. My monitor at home is an LG although I don't remember the model number.

I think the grass is closer to deep green than a lime green.

I didn't notice an brownish color in the Netflix logo at all.

I am running Netflix on the Nexus 5, however, it is definitely not "pink-ish", it's definitely red, but slightly brighter than the logo you showed. (At least in comparison to what I am seeing on my Surface Pro screen.)

If you are seeing lime green on that photo, definitely get it replaced, because it does not show up as such on my screen (Nexus)

If your Nexus 5 is not showing the Netflix loading with a pink-ish look that makes me think mine is defective. The grass picture doesn't show as lime green just much closer to lime green than on any other display(my work monitors, home monitor, Apple cinema display(co workers monitor) and my Galaxy SII).

 

[ElFenix]

anyone had success getting google voice to integrate? i had it on my old phone but so far its not integrating with the nexus 5.

i'm going to try deactivating and reactivating and see if that works

edit: deactivating and reactivating worked. of course now my phone has kicked itself off the data network so much computer is ringing instead of my phone.

 

[soccerballtux]

I'm getting about 15-18 hours of stand by time with about 4 hours of screen on time. I wouldn't call it great but it's very acceptable and far better than my crappy Galaxy S II.

install faux123 kernel max freq to 1.573ghz turn off google now, background wifi location scanning
5.5-6hrs no problem

 

[jimv1983]

install faux123 kernel max freq to 1.573ghz turn off google now, background wifi location scanning
5.5-6hrs no problem

Background scanning is already off, I like Google Now and I don't want to take the risks of rooting and installing a custom kernel. My battery life is very acceptable as it is. Why mess with that?

 

[lopri]

So to say that colors are "accurate" to that sRGB "standard" might very well be true but that doesn't mean the colors are truly accurate. It just means that the "standard" is flawed.

Jim, there is no "truly accurate" colors. Rough estimates put ~10% of human population living with some sort of color blindness. Even for those with the very average vision, colors are always relative due to bazillion factors that affect our perceptions - not only the environments but also a person's physical condition matter.

Our eyes possess an incredible adaptability and are capable of recognizing colors in context. That is why we can recognize the same objects (colors) in daylight and in darkness alike, despite the objects reflecting different lights in some absolute scale.

I do share some of your skepticism against sRGB purists, not least because whatever controlled environment they measure the accuracy is not likely duplicated in real life. (e.g. the moment they leave the lab the same color becomes a different one) And I especially detest the argument that "designers intents" are only thing that matters when it comes to colors: Whatever the intents of a designer or an artist, once their work leaves their hands it's open to interpretation of observers. An artist cannot control what an audience think of her/his work. Moreover, as you have said, sRGB is not something represents the real world. It is an artificial standard that industry decided on in the past and won over competing standards.

Which brings us to the point - sRGB is not something "natural" or "true," it is borne out of necessity. The necessity is none other than communication. You may not like its limited nature, but nevertheless a standard is necessary so that when you talk about a color on a screen the person listening to you can identify it on a different screen. We can analogize this to musical scales as well. Modern pianos have 88 keys, comprising 7 octaves and a few more notes. Each octave have 7 white keys and 5 black keys. (Tellingly, it's called "Chromatic scale") Do they represent all the sounds or even notes that humans can perceive? Of course not. Had that been the case we would not have needed any other musical instrument than pianos.

Your preference of deeper, more saturated red (which might as well be more representative the red on a flag, for example) is subjective thing. There is no wrong or right about it. I would go even further and say Ef' the designers' intentions - you are the judge of your perception and sensation when it comes to colors. However, as we have discussed, if you were to communicate with others using colors, we need a means, a language/grammar, or a standard. And sRGB is currently the best that we've got for that purpose on mobile devices.

Will the standard change in the future so that deeper colors that please your eyes will be someday called "accurate"? No doubt. It is a matter of when, not whether. But until then, having a standard is better than not having one at all. It's not only practical but also egalitarian.

 

[lopri]

Does anyone see pixel grids when the phone is off? You have to look very closely. Yah of course they are there that's how pixels work, but the grids are more readily visible on the Nexus 5 than on the Nexus 4 for whatever reason. I know it makes no sense considering that N5 has much higher PPI than the N4 but that's what I see.

I wonder if that (and the backlight) has anything to do with the rather unusual characteristic of the N5's display. Do others see pixel grids on the N5 when the screen is off? You may have to look at the screen from an angle.

 

[jimv1983]

Jim, there is no "truly accurate" colors. Rough estimates put ~10% of human population living with some sort of color blindness. Even for those with the very average vision, colors are always relative due to bazillion factors that affect our perceptions - not only the environments but also a person's physical condition matter.

Our eyes possess an incredible adaptability and are capable of recognizing colors in context. That is why we can recognize the same objects (colors) in daylight and in darkness alike, despite the objects reflecting different lights in some absolute scale.

I do share some of your skepticism against sRGB purists, not least because whatever controlled environment they measure the accuracy is not likely duplicated in real life. (e.g. the moment they leave the lab the same color becomes a different one) And I especially detest the argument that "designers intents" are only thing that matters when it comes to colors: Whatever the intents of a designer or an artist, once their work leaves their hands it's open to interpretation of observers. An artist cannot control what an audience think of her/his work. Moreover, as you have said, sRGB is not something represents the real world. It is an artificial standard that industry decided on in the past and won over competing standards.

Which brings us to the point - sRGB is not something "natural" or "true," it is borne out of necessity. The necessity is none other than communication. You may not like its limited nature, but nevertheless a standard is necessary so that when you talk about a color on a screen the person listening to you can identify it on a different screen. We can analogize this to musical scales as well. Modern pianos have 88 keys, comprising 7 octaves and a few more notes. Each octave have 7 white keys and 5 black keys. (Tellingly, it's called "Chromatic scale") Do they represent all the sounds or even notes that humans can perceive? Of course not. Had that been the case we would not have needed any other musical instrument than pianos.

Your preference of deeper, more saturated red (which might as well be more representative the red on a flag, for example) is subjective thing. There is no wrong or right about it. I would go even further and say Ef' the designers' intentions - you are the judge of your perception and sensation when it comes to colors. However, as we have discussed, if you were to communicate with others using colors, we need a means, a language/grammar, or a standard. And sRGB is currently the best that we've got for that purpose on mobile devices.

Will the standard change in the future so that deeper colors that please your eyes will be someday called "accurate"? No doubt. It is a matter of when, not whether. But until then, having a standard is better than not having one at all. It's not only practical but also egalitarian.

You make some really good points.

When it comes to my Nexus 5 I have done several comparisons using the same images across many different displays that are using a sRGB color profile. While none of them were professionally calibrated I did notice more of a consistency on the non-Nexus 5 displays for my test images.

I think there should be 2 main goals of a color standard.

1. To get as close as possible to reproducing the color seen by at least the "average" human eye. As you said there is a level of subjectivity to that but I still think it would be closer than sRGB.
2. Provide a consistent color experience across displays.

My Nexus 5 doesn't meet either of those two goals. It doesn't provide what I would call "realistic" colors. See my previous post with the green grass image. The biggest problem with my Nexus 5 is #2. It is quite a bit off from every other sRGB display I compared it to. All the displays I have compared on(again, not professionally calibrated) besides the Nexus 5 show the colors of the images as mostly consistent. There were only slight noticeable color differences. However, on my Nexus 5 the color differences were VERY noticeable compared to the other displays.

The only comparison I've done with a calibrated display was video between my Galaxy S II and a calibrated Samsung F8500 plasma. The colors of the Galaxy S II were reasonably close to the colors on the F8500 but my Nexus 5 is pretty far off from my Galaxy S II. I'd really like to go back to the Magnolia store with the calibrated F8500 and compare video as well as some stills with my Nexus 5.

Based on the colors and constancy on every other sRGB screen I have seen I'm thinking that although they weren't professionally calibrated they were probably pretty decently calibrated right out of the box. Although sRGB doesn't provide quite the "realistic" look I would like I would still be thrilled if my Nexus 5 could at least reproduce sRGB like any of the other displays I have looked at. My Nexus 5 just doesn't do it. All of my previous posts, test images and side by side color comparisons have been trying to convey that point.

Does anyone see pixel grids when the phone is off? You have to look very closely. Yah of course they are there that's how pixels work, but the grids are more readily visible on the Nexus 5 than on the Nexus 4 for whatever reason. I know it makes no sense considering that N5 has much higher PPI than the N4 but that's what I see.

I wonder if that (and the backlight) has anything to do with the rather unusual characteristic of the N5's display. Do others see pixel grids on the N5 when the screen is off? You may have to look at the screen from an angle.

Yes, I have noticed the same thing.

 

[soccerballtux]

Background scanning is already off, I like Google Now and I don't want to take the risks of rooting and installing a custom kernel. My battery life is very acceptable as it is. Why mess with that?

because

I'm getting about 15-18 hours of stand by time with about 4 hours of screen on time. I wouldn't call it great but it's very acceptable and far better than my crappy Galaxy S II.

apparently I stopped reading before seeing you said it was "very acceptable"

 

[soccerballtux]

Does anyone see pixel grids when the phone is off? You have to look very closely. Yah of course they are there that's how pixels work, but the grids are more readily visible on the Nexus 5 than on the Nexus 4 for whatever reason. I know it makes no sense considering that N5 has much higher PPI than the N4 but that's what I see.

I wonder if that (and the backlight) has anything to do with the rather unusual characteristic of the N5's display. Do others see pixel grids on the N5 when the screen is off? You may have to look at the screen from an angle.

that's not the pixel grid

 

[zerogear]

anyone had success getting google voice to integrate? i had it on my old phone but so far its not integrating with the nexus 5.

i'm going to try deactivating and reactivating and see if that works

edit: deactivating and reactivating worked. of course now my phone has kicked itself off the data network so much computer is ringing instead of my phone.

In terms of what? For Visual Voicemail? If so, mine is working fine.

 

[zerogear]

Running Franco kernel undervolted to -75mV for all speeds, getting around 6 hours on-screen time now.

 

[lopri]

that's not the pixel grid

Oh? What are they, then? On a second look, the lines only appear horizontally when the phone is held in upright position.

 

[lopri]

1. To get as close as possible to reproducing the color seen by at least the "average" human eye. As you said there is a level of subjectivity to that but I still think it would be closer than sRGB.
2. Provide a consistent color experience across displays.

You have to remember that sRGB was conceived first and foremost with printing in mind. Yes, we now know that sRGB doesn't mirror the naturally occurring colors let alone human brain capacities, but prior to mobile revolution what mattered most in color reproduction was how to accurately reproduce what is seen on screen on paper. The combination of display technology and printing technology (their limitations, to be accurate) at that time was primary engine for an industry standard. (Ironically, today's high-end inkjet printers can produce quite a bit more colors than sRGB)

Going forward, your criteria seem very unobjectionable and reasonable - technology permitting. It will be a while though because sRGB now is firmly entrenched on mobile displays and software. There are two big points of consideration in defining a color space if we assume no technological barriers.

1. Colors that naturally occur in environments (in nature and human civilization)
2. Colors that human brains can perceive

As you noted, sRGB falls kinda short on both. How 4K displays and the newly proposed color space (Rec. 2020) will be adopted, especially on mobile, remains to be seen. Remember, though, that hardware capability is only half of the equation. OS level support is the other half. (Android, iOS, Windows Phone)

My Nexus 5 doesn't meet either of those two goals. It doesn't provide what I would call "realistic" colors. See my previous post with the green grass image. The biggest problem with my Nexus 5 is #2. It is quite a bit off from every other sRGB display I compared it to. All the displays I have compared on(again, not professionally calibrated) besides the Nexus 5 show the colors of the images as mostly consistent. There were only slight noticeable color differences. However, on my Nexus 5 the color differences were VERY noticeable compared to the other displays.

Perhaps your N5 is defective. I didn't notice that much of difference when I compared the N5 and the Note 3 which sports AMOLED display.

 

[lopri]

Running Franco kernel undervolted to -75mV for all speeds, getting around 6 hours on-screen time now.

I am getting pretty satisfactory battery life as well. My N5 at this moment is at 93%, and that's with 40 minutes of screen time and 20 minutes of talk time during the course of 13 hours. Granted the phone was using mostly Wi-Fi for data but at this point I have a zero complaint on N5's battery for my usage.

 

[lopri]

I am beginning to think Jim may have been right all along. At least on some colors. Can you guys check the colors on your Nexus 5's on the following pages? At the very least the colors on the iPhone 5S and the Nexus 5 are very, very different. (I did a side-by-side at a mall today) Especially on mixed colors, such as pastel teal, not saturated primary ones.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7816543/how-to-create-pastel-colors-programmatically-in-c
http://www.greatpastels.com/color_chart4.html


Or any page from the search query: Pastel Colors

Examples:

 

[jimv1983]

Perhaps your N5 is defective. I didn't notice that much of difference when I compared the N5 and the Note 3 which sports AMOLED display.

I think you might be right. I have already requested a new one. They are letting me keep my current one until the new one comes. Hopefully it fixes my problem.

 

[lopri]

Well, this color thing started giving me headache so this is going to be my last post on this point. I had my friend come over with his Note 3 and compared the colors.

There is some obvious oversaturation on the Note 3 (esp. in the first column) but for the most part the difference isn't earth-shattering. I am thinking that iPhone 5S colors are off and inaccurate compared to the Nexus 5 or the Note 3. Or perhaps both the Note 3 and the iPhone 5S are oversaturated compared to the Nexus 5. I can't be sure how much more saturated iPhone's colors looked than the Nexus 5 now. (that happened in the afternoon)

P.S. And in any case, it can't be that both the iPhone 5 and the Nexus 5 are 99% accurate sRGB. My money is on the Nexus 5 though I wouldn't mind hearing rebuttals. Barring such, I would treat any evaluation/review that worships iPhone's color accuracy as "perfect" to be a sham.

 

[kevinsbane]

Well, this color thing started giving me headache so this is going to be my last post on this point. I had my friend come over with his Note 3 and compared the colors.


There is some obvious oversaturation on the Note 3 (esp. green and teal) but for the most part the difference isn't earth-shattering. I am thinking that iPhone 5S colors are off and inaccurate compared to the Nexus 5 or the Note 3. Or perhaps both the Note 3 and the iPhone 5S are oversaturated compared to the Nexus 5. I can't be sure how much more saturated iPhone's colors looked than the Nexus 5 now. (that happened in the afternoon)

Ambient light makes a huge difference to the human eye. How things look at home and how things look in a (very) brightly lit store will be vastly different. The 5s is actually better calibrated than the N5, but marginally so. Of course, when speaking of this, we speak of "average" calibration - an average of the DE (magnitude of "colour error"), so the N5 can be off on some colours but spot on on others, while the 5s could be right for some, but not so good on others.

 

[lopri]

I agree with everything you said, except for the part "The 5s is actually better calibrated than the N5, but marginally so." The reason why I cannot agree with that part should be self-evident.

 

[ElFenix]

Battery life on this thing is awesome so far. I'm at 2 and a quarter days, 20% left with only about an hour on the charger yesterday .

 

[jimv1983]

Battery life on this thing is awesome so far. I'm at 2 and a quarter days, 20% left with only about an hour on the charger yesterday .

If it was on the charger for an hour yesterday that doesn't really count. You can't say 2 and a quarter days and 20% left if part of that time was charging. An hour on the charger is close to 50% of your battery. That is like saying your car gets excellent mileage because you never "fill" the tank but you still but $5-10 in every other day. The only numbers that really matter are fully charging it and running it to almost 0%(going to totally 0% is bad for the phone if you do it do often) which your typical usage and then doing that a few times and getting an average. It also depends on how you use it. I could get 2.25 days on my Nexus 5 on a single charge if I hardly ever use it.


I can consistently get about 15 hours off the charger with 4 hours of screen on time and about 24 hours off the charger with about 3 hours of screen on time.

That is with Google Now (and hot word detection) ON, 60/40 between wifi(usually off when not in use)/mobile data(3G/LTE), Bluetooth on and connected for about 1.5 hours a day, Location Services and Location Reporting on with battery saving mode, screen brightness at about 1/3.

That is a much better test of battery life.