Nexus 5x: Second Impressions

Here's a follow-up to last week's Nexus 5x: First Impressions post.

What I've liked so far

Basically, it's all the same stuff that impressed me at first—mainly the camera and the fingerprint sensor.

What's bothered me so far

While this list may look long, it doesn't mean I'm not enjoying using the phone, but I do have some nitpicks, so here they are:

  1. Even though the double-tap on the power button launches up the camera no matter where you are (great!), you'd think (as it did on the Moto X after a double-twist) that the phone being already unlocked would return you to an unlocked state after you launch up the camera. Nope. Whether the phone was unlocked or not before you launch the camera with the power button double-tap, it will be relocked after you're done with the camera. Sure, you can unlock it again quickly using the fingerprint sensor, but in terms of usability and user expectations, there's no reason launching up the camera should change the phone from an unlocked state to a locked state.
  2. Google will prompt you to enable Google Now cards and Google Now on Tap. That's fine. That's what I expect them to do. But even after you click to enable them and then decide to disable them again, there will still be a prompt, when you hold the home button, to enable them. Advertise once, please. Once I've seen it, I don't need to see it again. I opted out. Don't bug me.
  3. If you plug your Nexus 5x in to a computer, it will always default to charging only and not to transferring files. There is no way to change this default. The behavior is even more bothersome if your main computer is a Mac, because Android File Transfer (the Mac program you have to use to transfer files to/from Android) will automatically launch up when a phone is plugged in, but since the phone isn't set to transfer files, Android File Transfer will think the phone is just locked and give you an error message, which means you have to temporarily (again, no way to permanently change this setting) set the phone to transfer files and then re-launch Android File Transfer.
  4. When you first set up the phone, it asks if you want to require a password every time the phone boots up. Two issues with this—if you select to require a password, there's no way to change it back without factory resetting your phone; and even if you select not to require the password, it will still require a password!
  5. Apps aren't all updated to work with Marshmallow yet. Not exactly the fault of the phone, but just something to keep in mind. I tried using Firefox with Adblock. and it would constantly cause the phone to reboot (Chrome and Opera operate just fine). VolumeNext doesn't work to skip forward with a regular auxiliary cable (not headphones) but can skip backwards—didn't have that issue with lollipop. Those are just two examples. There will probably be others for other users. After a while, the app developers will update their apps to be more compatible with Marshmallow.
  6. The camera aspect ratio defaults to 4:3 instead of 16:9. The phone is advertised at having a 12 megapixel camera, but if you change it to 16:9, it drops to 8 megapixels. It may be fine to have 4:3 for Instagram, but when you look at your photos in the Photos app, there will be black bars (because the phone itself has closer to a 16:9 aspect ratio). I've changed it to 16:9, and it seems to be much better. I don't believe the drop in megapixels adversely affects the quality of the photos.

Do I still recommend this phone?

Hell, yes! As I mentioned before, those are tiny nitpicks people should be aware of, but the day-to-day use of the phone is great. Still a bit too large for my tastes, but there is no 4.3-inch screen on a new Nexus phone, so it's at least smaller than the 6p.

2 comments

  1. If you enable Developer options, you can change the default USB connection mode (untested, but the option for it is under the Developer section in Settings).

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