Nexus 4 vs Nexus 5 - DESIGN

Hey t3chsmashers! Today I'm doing something new. Don't normally do comparisons but something inspired this blog..I wonder what..(MM?) lol.

To start this off, the main difference is the shape and size of the phones. The Nexus 4 is slightly smaller and more rounded than the Nexus 5, while also being a little bit thicker. In addition, the black vs white Nexus 4, has the exact same materials and design with just the different colour on the back whereas the black vs white Nexus 5, uses different materials for the different colours. The white Nexus 5 uses a matte back with a slightly harder feeling material, glossy sides and a white earpiece and the black nexus 5 uses the soft-touch matte back, matte sides and a black earpiece.

So now we are going to move around the phone. Firstly we'll deal with the back, then the sides, then the front.

BACK:

If we take a look at the back of these two devices, we notice they are very different. Once has a glossy, glass back panel while the other has a matte back panel with a soft touch feel. I find both of these devices to be very attractive but my personal preference is the Nexus 5 because of that elegant, simple look(aesthetically speaking). The main downsides of the Nexus 5 when compared to the Nexus 4 is that the matte back can attract oil and dirt rather easily (but the same can be said for the Nexus 4 and fingerprints on the glass).

The speakers are also differently placed which makes a huge impact on use. The Nexus 4's speaker is on the back and would definitely be affected when lying on a surface. The Nexus 5's speaker however, is on the bottom and while not being affected when lying down, it is definitely affected when the phone is held in a landscape position for games, videos and normal media consumption.

SIDES:

The top device shown here is the Nexus 4. It has a rounded chrome bezel running around the entire device which matches the colour of the power and volume buttons. The Nexus 5 on the other hand (bottom devices) has a glossy black material running around the sides with ceramic power and volume buttons. On the black Nexus 5, this glossy material is replaced with matte, soft-touch plastic.

FRONT:

Both of these devices, when off, shows a completely black slate. However, their earpieces are shaped differently makes the "black slate" look, different on each device. The Nexus 4's earpiece is wide and along the top border of the phone giving it a more clean, edge to edge look while the Nexus 5's earpiece is a circular ridge in the glass. This circular ridge takes away from the "black slate" look but it doesn't look bad. On the white Nexus 5, the earpiece is white and stands out a lot more than the black. This, however, is a look that I prefer personally and that's why I opted for the white Nexus 5. When the displays are lighted up to reveal themselves inside the "black slate", the Nexus 4 will provide you with a (resolution aside) 4.7" display and the Nexus 5 will give you a 4.95" display. The bezels on the sides of the screen are smaller on the Nexus 5 and this makes it just as easy to hold and use as the Nexus 4 because of its entire width. One interesting aspect though, is on the Nexus 5, the status bar and navigation bar are both transparent and makes the display look much larger as compared to the Nexus 4 where they are solid black. This can however be customized on the Nexus 4 with special apps that require root permissions.

In conclusion, both are great, very powerful devices and the design that you prefer all comes down to personal preference. There are also many different accesories such as "Slickwraps", "DBrand" and much more that provide skins that can replace the colour of your phone with a new colour or even a pattern such as Carbon Fiber.  However, when comparing specs, its an entirely different story.