Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 – Finally Official

We talked about it frequently, in recent weeks, in expectation that in many ways was even more charged with that given to Apple. After all, Google was intended to answer the offensive Cupertino company, with an eye to what continues to churn out the binomial Nokia / Microsoft. The Nexus 5 is now official and ready for sale.

Developed as the previous one in collaboration with LG, the new ” Googlefonino ” is characterized by a rather simple design, hard plastic, weight and thickness were respectively 130 grams and 8.59mm. The most visible frill is used in ceramics for the only physical buttons present, that power / lock and volume.

The display is an IPS from 4.95″ to Full HD resolution, surrounded by a frame rather thin on the sides so as to contain the inevitable increase in size than the Nexus 4. At the heart of it all is a System-on-Chip Qualcomm 800 Snapdragon 2.3 GHz, with integrated graphics Adreno 330, and the RAM is 2 GB as in the 2012 model.

Dual camera, 1.3 megapixel front and rear 8 equipped with optical image stabilization, HDR mode and LED flash. recording video at 1080p. Present mono handsfree speaker, dual microphone, microUSB port, SlimPort for video output jack and 3.5 ” for the headphones. T

here are also accelerometer, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS and light sensor / proximity, but also in terms of connectivity, we are faced with a truly comprehensive: LTE and Wi-Fi 802.11ac standards are the first major failure of the Nexus 4. The integrated battery is 2,300 mAh, declared with use of up to 7 hours of surfing on 4G networks and possibilities of wireless charging.

Now for prices and availability. Two colors, black and white. Two cuts of non-expandable memory, 16 and 32 GB. The excellent news for all concerned (and here we are with each other) is the immediate presence in US thanks to the local version of the Play Store Devices inaugurated last September: the 16 GB version costs $349, more if you want the maximum capacity.

Again very competitive prices for the product directly managed by Google, with the pleasure of seeing the boot also participate on day one and not a little more than a month later (all reference to Apple is NOT purely coincidental.)

Of course, it is also of interest to the operating system that is bringing this Nexus. KitKat is pre-installed Android 4.4, bringing with it, many improvements and a much more care than in the past. As we can see from the image just above the status bar, and the three soft buttons Back / Home / Multitasking are totally transparent, no more dividing lines between the various elements that make up the interface.

Similar to iOS, Android now also on the lock screen shows the covers of the songs being played. A new full-screen mode when reading books and watching movies complete the rest, hiding the top bar buttons and software to leave space to the content, for whoever should require, just a swipe to make them reappear.

The new UI (User Interface) has been developed in a global context of improving the performance of Android, designed to make it more streamlined and easy even at the low end, where it has historically been limping when placed in direct comparison with Windows Phone (fact it is a point on which we beat very key when reviewing the Lumia 520). If for older devices, which have remained in many cases, if not 4.0 to Gingerbread 2.3, there will be very little to do with the 2014 dual-core processor and 512 MB of RAM base will benefit from this optimization. Added to this are a multitasking faster and lowering the latency of the touchscreen, which is the period that elapses between the touch and action, to give a smoother experience in switching between apps.

Much work has also been done on speech recognition. Saying, ” Ok Google ” on the home screen or within Google Now, you can activate with one voice many features, from research on the Internet to play music. The book management has been improved by a method based priorities contacts felt more frequently, and you can also search directly from there the contact details of nearby places as well as of people present within your Google Apps domain in business contexts.

These features are also exploited when receiving calls to try to identify numbers not in your address book. Completing this part relating to the communication centralized management of messaging Hangout and support for Emoji characters on the default keyboard.

The cloud plays a very important role in KitKat. The system functionality previously available in the app Cloud Print has been integrated directly into the operating system, allowing wireless printing from any application; Android 4.4 also gives support to all the other cloud services to third-party printing, such as HP.

With regard to the storage in the cloud, the apps can access more easily to the files stored on Google Drive and platforms to it competitors like Dropbox. One of the first software to enjoy what is described QuickOffice is now officially present in the Play Store with other Google products and not as a separate item as previously.

These are the main innovations in the latest version of the green robot, but the list is much longer, including e-mail client and redesigned download manager. Subtitles supports, Closed Captioning, running applications in the sandbox to increase the security to the system, new payment system using NFC, pedometer, and more. In addition to 5 on the Nexus, Android 4.4 will be available soon for Nexus 4, 7 (both 2012, 2013) and 10 as well as for models, Google Edition of Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

Nothing instead for the Galaxy Nexus, which ends its run at 4.3. A shame, considering that with its own hardware now falling at the low end of the market could be just the encouragement ideal for promoting the improved performance of KitKat.

Their owners can still find comfort in unofficial ROM that will soon arrive. For all other devices, such as Galaxy with TouchWiz, with the HTC Sense, the non-LG and Sony Xperia Nexus, will remain the responsibility of the individual manufacturers usually announce and distribute the release.