Nexus 5 vs Nexus 5x
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Hello,
Am planning purchasing Nexus 5 or Nexus 5x. The latter is new, has a better camera. Does anyone have an opinion on which is better for flashing Touch? Or other ideas?I have been using Ubuntu Bionic Beaver for a few months now on my Win7 pc.
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@jjconstr Nexus 5X does not have a working Halium port yet. Not sure if it ever will. Nexus 5 works well. You' might be better off getting a Nexus 6P. It Mostly works except cameras and call audio at the moment. UbPorts god of programming is working on that. Otherwise it works really well.
Or try another device. Here's the list of currently working ports other than the officially supported devices:
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Thank you for your reply. How important is having a phone with support, ie; fairphone, one plus one or Nexus 5? I know little about technology. I did look at the non-supported device list.
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@jjconstr Those devices are the only ones that so far will work with UBports no other devices will. I would look at one of the newer devices on that list if you can and as you have little tech knowledge with as many working features as you can get. Take a little time and check out the status and availability of each device first and feel free to ask as many questions here as you wish.We are all here to help you.
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@jjconstr If you don't know a lot about technology, very important. Otherwise, you'll not know what to do when something does not work right. With the unsupported devices, you are the mechanic.
With the supported devices, you only have to wait for a fix and maybe file a bug report. So, it's an easier way to get your feet wet and start learning what you can and want to do with your devices and how far you want to go down the rabbits hole.
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@jjconstr You also probably only want to go with one of the devices that runs the installer, unless you know your way around the command line.
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Thank you for your reply. It's a help. I do need to take the easiest route here to achieve Linux freedom in my phone. I'll stick with the Nexus 5 since it is mature, supported and available.
Thanks again -
@rocket2nfinity
Thank you for your replies. They give me direction in these uncertain times. I tried to use the command line when installing Ubuntu side by side on my Acer Win7 laptop. The instructions seemed clear enough but I failed miserably and repeatedly. Yes, the Installer and support are imperative. I made a small donation via PayPal when first discovered this site. Now I'll go back and make a larger donation. This is such good work and so needed. It's very important to keep it going.
Thanks so much! -
@jjconstr The Nexus 5 is a great phone, soon to be better with a halium upgrade. The main complaint about it is finding a good replacement battery. I've tried a couple and found the best battery is from a German company - PolarCell Battery for LG Google Nexus 5 D821 D820 BL-T9 EAC62078701 2450mAh. It is available on eBay if you are not in the EU.
It's a good quality after market - which means new, not old stock sitting on a shelf for half a decade, nor is it a cheap knock off rebranded. I've had it for a year now and still holds a full charge just like it used to when I bought the phone from Google.
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@rocket2nfinity Agree on battery, that's the one I went for too.
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@rocket2nfinity
Thats great info. It will save me frustration and expense, for sure. I was about to order one after ordering the phone. Now I know right where to go. Does Nexus 5 have a model 780? If so, would that take the Polarcell battery? -
@Lakotaubp I did the Nexus 5X battery mod and that worked really well - until the wife dropped the phone and broke the screen. I didn't want to have to go through all that effort again to modify a new screen. And I've tried many OEM and Chinese after market batteries to find them disappointing and short lived.
But I've been very happy with the Polar Cell one.
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https://www.ebay.com/c/1239828136
Other sellers have it at different prices. But that's about right when international shipping and tax is included.
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@rocket2nfinity
Thanks for the confirmation. I tried some higher capacity batteries for a Moto e5 Play. got them from China of all places! Li-ion 4750mAh by Sporting Persistence. Instructions said they must be conditioned 2-3 times by charging 12 hours and fully discharging before recharging 12 hours each time. they didn't fully charge in 12, had to go another 12 and repeated the process 5-6 times. Now they work well, drain slowly in use. Maybe this is common knowledge for tech savy individuals. -
@Lakotaubp
Thanks for your confirmation. Simple things like battery selection can be like reinventing the wheel if unaware of others' research. Thanks for keeping it simple! I'll go get one of those now. -
@jjconstr That is a common trick that may or may not be worth it to recondition old batteries that have been sitting on a shelf (or in a device) for a long time. The problem with that though is that the chemicals degrade and dendrites form as the batteries age. That drain, charge, drain can help to coax a battery back to life, but how long it lasts after that is highly variable.
It's always best to get as new a battery as possible.
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@rocket2nfinity
Does that apply to new batteries, as I think they were?
The new batteries I got for my Acer Aspire were supposed to wake but never did. What do you look for in battery ads to find new stock for old devices? -
@jjconstr The batteries all have manufacture dates on them. Newer is better.
But even a new battery will need to be cycle charged like that if it's been on the shelf in a warehouse for a year or more. It's getting less and less of a problem with each new generation of battery, and you generally don't have to worry about dendrites in a new battery. So less chemical settling or fires these days. But lithium ion batteries still have a settling/dendrite problem. At least they don't have a memory like the NiCads did.
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@jjconstr And occasionally, even new batteries can have a defect out of the gate. Chances are, it was just defective.
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Need to note that the 5x is famous for failing with a "boot loop". In fact, one disgruntled owner has a annual holiday livestream of his 5x endlessly bootlooping.
