Not A Real Flagship Contender

On Tuesday, Google released its newest phone, the Nexus 5X. While by no means is this handset a flagship, people keep calling it that by mistake.

On Tuesday, Google released its newest phone, the Nexus 5X. While by no means is this handset a flagship, people keep calling it that by mistake, and I want to know why.

Don’t get me wrong, the 5X is checking all the boxes. After all, it has a 5.2-inch (but a real contender would be 5.5-inches) display with 1080 pixel resolution, with a pixel density of 424 pixels per inch (but let us remember that 2K phones are in the making now). It has a hex-core Snapdragon 808 chipset (which we all know is the ugly step-sister compared to the octa-core 810), alongside 2GB of RAM (but seriously, we need a minimum of 3 to take you flagship serious), and the internal storage is either 16GB or 32GB with no option to expand (which is absurd).

So what does the Nexus 5X really have to offer? Well, it’s obviously showcasing Google’s new Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

The camera has a 12.3-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture. It doesn’t have optical image stabilization though, which makes this barely passable. The selfie shooter has 5 megapixels with the same aperture.

The battery is also depressing, only 2,700mAh. There is only one front facing speaker, which is also a bummer.

It’s 2015, so it has to have a fingerprint sensor and a USB Type-C port, but again, it’s 2015 and who doesn’t have these features?

So what does the Nexus 5X really have to offer? Well, it’s obviously showcasing Google’s new Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Otherwise, though, it has the same rubbery-back as its predecessor and actually, could easily be confused if not for the larger camera lens.

So for me, this device is put firmly in the mid-range category, it’s just an overly qualified mid-ranger.

So for me, this device is put firmly in the mid-range category, it’s just an overly qualified mid-ranger. There is no way Google or LG was expecting this to compete with the iPhone (but don’t misunderstand me, some of these specs are better than the iPhone’s). There is nothing extraordinary or inventive, but it’s definitely cementing Google’s place in the world.

The Google Nexus 5X is already available for pre-ordering, comes in Carbon, Quartz, and Ice, and will be available in the US, UK, Japan, Ireland, and South Korea. It starts at $379.99 for the 16GB variant.