Nexus 5.

iamnotarobot · 18 Sept 2018, 09:27

The Nexus 5 appears to be the reference device (perhaps with the Oneplus One), and yet it was discontinued in March 2015. This is 3 1/2 years ago. As every new day dawns it becomes ever older and therefore ever less reliable, a shrinking cohort. How is ubports going to grow?

libremax · 18 Sept 2018, 09:48

@iamnotarobot Porting is in progress for more devices via halium : https://docs.halium.org/en/latest/supplementary/devices/index.html

HTC10 or OPO5 could be the next supported. In 2019, UT should also be available on librem 5: https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ .

Stefano · 18 Sept 2018, 11:25

@libremax Eagerly awaiting the port for Oneplus 5. I'll be awesome with that hardware.

iamnotarobot · 18 Sept 2018, 12:53

@stefano yes, that would be good. i want it now

arubislander · 18 Sept 2018, 15:59

@iamnotarobot Great to hear that! Now: What part of the effort to having it "now" will you be contributing to?

elastic · 19 Sept 2018, 06:39

What's wrong with a nexus 5? It's a decent device with decent camera and a good size. Plus you can get nearly every spare part you might need.. Can't say that for any other device (ex fairphone 2) out there... Only issue is the bad battery performance...

If your os runs smooth on your device, where is the need for posh hardware?

Have a look at lineage stats, there are loads nexus 5 devices out there and running

Cheers

advocatux · 19 Sept 2018, 07:46

Only issue is the bad battery performance

@elastic that was an issue in vivid but in xenial the battery life has been improved a lot

A Former User · 19 Sept 2018, 08:08

I agree, @elastic I my N5.

In this season of new device releases, it's important, I think, not to get swept away by OEMs who work hard to - and throw a lot of money at - getting people to upgrade every year or so, turning perfectly good hardware into e-waste.

I do wonder though if a more capable device might be needed when x-org apps are running in a container... Some of those programs need a serious amount of grunt.

(I can't say that I've noticed significant battery life improvement with Xenial, @advocatux. )

advocatux · 19 Sept 2018, 08:21

@3arn0wl I'm sorry to hear that. I only can say that for me it's way better now.

A Former User · 19 Sept 2018, 09:30

Perhaps my battery's getting tired, @advocatux

advocatux · 19 Sept 2018, 09:37

@3arn0wl you can try to let your battery discharge completely, then make a full charge (until the 100% icon turns white, not when it's green), and monitor how many hours it lasts until it's discharged again.

That could calibrate the battery. Of course it could be that your battery is EOL, but the good thing is a new one is pretty cheap and easy to replace (I changed my N5's battery some months ago).

A Former User · 19 Sept 2018, 10:12

Good tips, @advocatux. Thx

negations · 7 Apr 2019, 20:10

@3arn0wl Sort of related to all of these and as a supplement. I bought myself a second hand N5 as I needed it for personal stuff. My main phone is a BQ4.5 which I have used for over 4 years now with my job. The N5 I bought lasted a month before the screen went doollaly (technical term I believe). I really liked the phone, so it was sort of a test. I then bought a "boxed new one". I figure that as my BQ has been good for 4 years, so will the N5 be and the advantage, as mentioned above, is that it is easy to fix. The "old" one I thought I would work on as a back-up for my kids. I bought a new battery (£6) and a new LCD digitiser (£17). There are loads of videos on how to replace this. It was easy to replace it and of course install 16:04. I now have 2 very usable N5s. The unboxed one, as I can replace any broken bits, should see me good for a decade.

elastic · 19 Sept 2018, 11:02

@advocatux I didn't mean under ut - it's the general battery performance caused by the undersized battery... It's been bad with every os I tested so far (android, cm, lineage, sailfish and Ubuntu) and with every replacement battery so far - but if you can handle this it's a great device...

iamnotarobot · 19 Sept 2018, 11:24

@arubislander ouch. so you think the N5 is good enough to be a reference handset? I've read that the screen is "dim", the battery poor, the camera not really up to the mark. I wonder how many were sold, and how many of those are still in use? the number is not going to increase. I use a Pixel 1 XL and a Xiaomi MIA1. Neither are 'the latest thing' but will last for quite some time (the Pixel has Android 9 and will receive security updates for another 12 months, the Xiaomi is Android One and so should also be good for support going forward).
I just feel that the best opportunity to 'showcase' UT would be to pair it with a higher profile handset. The OP5 would be a good platform to display the best of UT. Just my POV. I do wonder how many influencers (tech journalists) have a Nexus5 to hand.

advocatux · 19 Sept 2018, 11:26

@elastic yes, N5 is sadly famous for its battery but what I mean is that, since running xenial, I really can use this phone as a daily driver

advocatux · 19 Sept 2018, 11:35

@iamnotarobot porting UT to other devices is WIP, and HTC10 and OnePlus 5T are pretty close to be the next big thing.

BUT N5 is more than good enough to be a reference device, specially for things like this

Yes, that's a N5 in convergence mode

(Thank you Milan for the picture!)

joe · 19 Sept 2018, 13:45

@advocatux said in Nexus 5.:

@elastic yes, N5 is sadly famous for its battery but what I mean is that, since running xenial, I really can use this phone as a daily driver

Same for me. With OTA-4 (new kernel fixes?), I can say that battery is much more acceptable than before, which was almost unusable. Deep sleep has be improved. However, while using the device I can still see the battery count down almost in real time... :S

Another hack that I saw somewhere was to kill a service that prevents deeper sleep:

sudo pkill -9 hciattach

Not sure if it actually does anything. Seems harmless though?

Side note: Best battery life device I have used is the OPO. Sadly the sim tray is broken on the one that I have

arubislander · 19 Sept 2018, 14:04

@iamnotarobot: No, I agree with you that it would be very desirable to have a more up to date phone to showcase UT on, but at the moment the N5 is one of the few devices on which one is able to showcase all the things that make UT stand out.
But I have this feeling that things could be way different by the end of the year.

Full disclosure: I don't and never have owned a N5 device.

stefwe · 19 Sept 2018, 15:08

@joe said in Nexus 5.:

@advocatux said in Nexus 5.:

@elastic yes, N5 is sadly famous for its battery but what I mean is that, since running xenial, I really can use this phone as a daily driver

Same for me. With OTA-4 (new kernel fixes?), I can say that battery is much more acceptable than before, which was almost unusable. Deep sleep has be improved. However, while using the device I can still see the battery count down almost in real time... :S

Another hack that I saw somewhere was to kill a service that prevents deeper sleep:

sudo pkill -9 hciattach

Not sure if it actually does anything. Seems harmless though?

Side note: Best battery life device I have used is the OPO. Sadly the sim tray is broken on the one that I have

Battery life of my mx4 was ok with 15.04. I have 16.04 since yesterday on this device and my first impression is that the battery life is also better on this device with 16.04.