iPhone 5c will it topple the Nexus 5 in sales?

The Nexus 5 has the iPhone 5c beaten in almost every way, in terms of screen display: a five-inch screen size (an inch larger than the iPhone 5c) and a 445 PPI (pixel per inch) pixel density, compared to the iPhone 5c’s 326 PPI pixel density.

This leaves the iPhone 5c with a 640×1136 resolution and the Nexus 5 with a superior 1080×1920 resolution. In terms of display technology however, the iPhone 5c offers a retina LCD and the Nexus 5 offers a IPS LCD–the superior display in that regard is generally consumer-dependent.

Design

As far as design and portability go, the Nexus 5 is slightly better, weighing in at two grams lighter and .25 millimeters thinner than the iPhone 5. It may be worth mentioning, though, that the Nexus 5 only comes in black and white, the iPhone 5c comes in blue, green, yellow, pink, and white.

Camera

The two phones have nearly identical cameras: eight megapixels with an F2.4 size aperture and an LED flash. A few features present in both products tip the scales either way, such as the iPhone 5c’s ability to take picture during video capture or the Nexus 5′s self-timer, but the camera is basically the same in both models.

Battery Life

With the Nexus 5′s 2300 mAh (milliamps hours) battery and the iPhone 5c’s 1507 mAh battery, it seems like the Nexus should have the iPhone squarely beaten in this category. And it does, for the most part, with the Nexus 5 boasting seventeen hours of 3G talk time compared to the ten hours with the iPhone 5c. However, it’s worth noting that the Android method of multitasking and the larger display screen allow for a faster potential battery drain than the iOS design.

OS

A schism that has divided smartphone users for years, the iPhone 5c runs on Apple’s iOS (iOS 7) while the Nexus 5 uses Android (Android 4.4 KitKat). While the objectively better operating system remains yet to be determined, between Android’s implementation of Google Now, its Flash and Java browser compatibility, and open sourcing, and iOS’s stable and generally lag-free performance and iCloud compatibility, the “better” OS is generally decided by the consumer’s personal preferences.

Pricing

As is typical for Apple products, the iPhone 5c sells for a whopping $549 compared to the Nexus 5′s considerably cheaper $349. That said, the Nexus 5 is relatively costly bundled with a carrier contract at $199, while the iPhone 5c is only $99 in that situation.

In Conclusion…

Technically speaking, the Nexus 5 is the better phone. And it shows, with other online reviews showing higher reviews than the competing iPhone 5c. The question is, how much better, and how much higher? The answer is… not much. In reality, these phones are more or less comparable in terms of quality and usability, and buying one or the other, for any reason (including plain bias and brand loyalty), would be just as good of an investment as buying the other.

GH