Every Tuesday this month, Vergecast co-host Dieter Bohn is hosting a series of discussions diving deep into tech review season, each focusing on a specific product.
This week, Dieter talks with Judner Aura, aka UrAvgConsumer on YouTube, about how the recently announced Google Pixel 5 shares some common ground with an older Google smartphone project: the Nexus 5.
The Nexus 5 came out in 2013 at an affordable of $349 and eventually became a much-loved device among tech enthusiasts at the time. Made by LG, the phone had a 5-inch 1080p display, supported LTE, and ran on Android KitKat. Here’s what Dieter had to say about his first impressions in 2013:
“The Nexus 5 is as surprisingly inexpensive as its predecessor. Unlike its predecessor, though, it manages to actually support LTE, a complete necessity in this day and age. But releasing a flagship-caliber phone at that price comes with trade-offs, and Google had to pick carefully what it could and couldn’t compromise with the new Nexus.”
The sentiment is similar with Google’s Pixel 5, which was announced last week at $699. The price is competitive with other flagship phones, but there are some trade-offs in specs you make with that lower price. Though the phone now supports 5G, it features a Snapdragon 765G processor, whereas the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE at the same price has the Snapdragon 865 processor, same as the top-tier Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Dieter and Judner have yet to review the Pixel 5, but they offer some insight with their long history of reviewing phones to analyze Google’s current smartphone strategy and compare it to the Nexus 5’s place in the market at the time.
You can listen here or in your preferred podcast player to hear the full discussion.
