I'm Feeling Phabletulous

Blog Post by Jay Morrison

I love my Nexus 5. I love the stock Android experience and the battery life. I love the customizability, the weight of the phone and I love the way it fits in my hand. The camera quality is well above what I would consider usable, and the screen; with its 5-inches of 1080p resolution is crystal clear. Or at least it was, until I pulled it out of my pocket last weekend and revealed a small spiderweb pattern in the glass flowing from the top right corner outward. (spoiler alert; the spiderweb is still growing and has now encompassed 60% of the screen as I write this)

I was left uttering the same words as 30,000 Cards Against Humanity customers who recently received and opened their Black Friday purchase.

So it was decision time. Should I attempt a time consuming self repair to replace the screen with a digitizer/glass combo off of ebay for $50 that I can only hope will work? Pay LG the $150 flat rate “sale” price for them to repair it, but be without it for a few weeks? Or just buy a new phone. 

Unfortunately, with free time running on the short side due to a hectic work and personal schedule this month and next, it looked like my best bet was going to be to bite the bullet and just drop the cash on a replacement. Okay, what are my options? I want to stick to vanilla or close to vanilla Android, as I like the simplicity and customizability of the OS. I would prefer to stick to unlocked phones, as I tend to switch between carriers when I find good deals on rate plans (this also means no contract deals, I want to purchase outright). 

That left me with 4 choices.

1. Buy a new Nexus 5 @ $399 CAD in the Google Play store
2. Buy a One Plus One @ $406 CAD from their website
   
   or cash in on a $350 credit that I happen to have with Telus and
    
3. Buy a Moto X @ $250 from Telus and pay them $50 to unlock it
4. Buy a Nexus 6 @ $400 from Telus

Because I have a work phone that I use for 10 to 12 hours per day, 5 to 6 days per week as a “do nothing but make phone calls” phone, my personal phone rarely gets used as an actual “make phone calls” device. It’s more of a text message, whatsapp, hangouts, facebook, web browsing, reddit lurking, media consuming, replace my laptop while avoiding person to person interaction in the evenings device. Plus, I have owned every iteration of the Nexus devices since the Nexus S. Taking that all into consideration, I decided to make the jump.

I am soon to be a phablet user. 

Stay tuned next week for my first impressions of the new nexus 6 after it arrives!