Nexus 5 hardware tweaked to improve usability

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Android By Russell Holly Dec. 13, 2013 9:30 am
It would appear as though not all Nexus 5 smartphones are created equally. Some users receiving replacement handsets are discovering subtle differences in the construction of the smartphone compared to the one they had previously.
It’s a common enough notion today that the*Nexus 5 is a good phone “for the money,” implying that the low quality speaker, lackluster camera, rattling physical buttons, and various software flaws were excusable due to the cost of the phone. It turns out Google disagreed that the Nexus 5 was good “for the money” because they addressed the camera and software flaws via an Android system update six weeks after the phone was launched.
Now, according to a handful of users who have recently received replacement Nexus 5 units, the changes to the Nexus 5 are not stopping with just software.

Users on the XDA forums have noted that any Nexus 5 from a batch marked “311k” on the box have a few small physical changes. The speaker and microphone grill on the bottom of the device has larger holes, the ceramic volume and power buttons don’t rattle when you tap the top left corner of the phone, and the device lacks some of the flaws around the screen and SIM tray not being properly seated.
Now, that last bit could just be the result of a lack of quality control during the manufacturing process, but the vents on the bottom of the phone and the ceramic buttons are clearly different between the 310k batch and the 3llk batch.
This isn’t the firs time a Nexus phone has seen hardware updates without any kind of noise from Google to announce it. The Nexus 4 had hardware changes made to it after the device launched, which added tiny rubber nipples to keep it from sliding as well as adjustments being made to the seating of the optics.
These small changes go unnoticed unless you’re holding two versions of the phone side by side, but it would be very interesting to see what if any effect the enlarged speaker holes had on the sound quality produced by the Nexus 5.
Now read: Google’s Nexus 5-only Experience Launcher gets tablet support



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