Virgin Mobile has just launched its Nexus 5X – catching up with most other carriers in Canada. Pricing is $0 on the Premium Plan, $99 on the Gold Plan and $579 with no plan. The LG Nexus 5X was move in the right direction for Google and it is nice to see the device available all over Canada. With the dollar exchange, it is keeping the price of the Nexus devices higher than normal, but still a great bargain overall.
Last year’s Nexus 6 by Motorola really threw the Nexus world for a loop with its large size, high-end specifications and high price. It took many potential buyers off the radar and they either held on to their Nexus 5 (also made by LG) or moved on to another device. Getting Huawei and LG involved this year was a piece of marketing genius – a high-end Nexus 6P and a mid-range Nexus 5X. These two devices would make everybody happy – the consumers could have their choice and Google was able to flaunt its new Android 6.0 Marshmallow to the world on a first class device. In 2012, Google selected LG to build its Nexus 4 and it came in a low price point. It went over so well that Google tapped LG again for the Nexus 5, which also came in at a great price point. The next year was the Motorola Nexus 6 monster.
The LG Nexus 5X comes with a 5.2-inch FHD LCD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and 423 pixels-per-inch (PPI). It is a great size for most people to carry around as their everyday driver, but sacrifices a QHD display for the price. LG went with the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor with four cores running at 1.44 GHz and a dual core running at 1.82 GHz with an Adreno 418 GPU handling the graphics end. The Nexus 5X packs 2GB of RAM – probably enough for now, but it may prove to be a hindrance if you keep your device two years. You have a choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage with no means to expand. LG put a decent camera in the Nexus 5X – a 12.3MP Sony IMX377 sensor with laser autofocus and a dual-tome LED flash. The FFC is 5MP for selfies and video chatting and includes HDR. It is powered by a non-removable 2700mAh battery and uses a v2.0 Type-C reversible connecter for charging and data transfer. Its fingerprint sensor can unlock the device and be used for verification for Android Pay mobile payments.