Google Nexus 5 by LG Users Thread!

[HTCandroid]

I am glad to have found this thread/website. A LOT of good info and peoples here 

 

I received my shipping email from Sprint at 1:10am 'today' for my Black 16g N5 ordered on Nov. 3

 

It shows as UPS 2nd Day Air® and had a Scheduled Delivery: Monday, 11/11/2013, By End of Day at 6am this morning when I checked again

 

Now it shows Scheduled Delivery: Friday, 11/08/2013, By End of Day !!

 

w00t!!

 

Nothing like being able to play with a new phone over the weekend.

 

I will be comparing it to my Droid Razr Maxx HD on Verizon LTE

 

I happen to live in an area where both Verizon and Sprint show a low to medium, 2 to 3 bar coverage for LTE

 

I will be deciding on many factors on which phone and service to keep

 

The Maxx has done very well for me in all areas except screen size is a tad small and tapping and touching is hit or miss sometimes

Call quality, speed, build, wifi, 4g, camera, 32gig on board and 64gig sdcard, and of course battery life are all amazing.

 

BUT the desire to have a much 'nicer' phone, bigger screen and whatnot just may negate the 'shortcomings' of the same: 16gig on board, no sdcard, charging once a day vs every 4 or 5 days, paying Verizon $40 a month for service on our family plan, or switching myself to sprint for $90 a month. In some ways it seems like a no brainer but it is actually going to be a tough decision :-/

 

btw.....does anyone know if I can slap a Tmobile sim in at anytime and it will just work ? 4g too ?

 

or do settings need to be tweaked ?

 

and do I need to activate the phone thru sprint first or will a Tmo sim work right outta the box ?

 

Thanks in advance

 

First off,    There is a lot of good people here with a lot of knowledge providing a lot info ALL for nonprofit.

 

(*hint *hint *donate* hint* hint*) -get access to more forum sections with additional info and progress of Network Vision and coverage maps.

 

To activate on Sprint you will need a Sprint sim and call/chat/in-store to get the phone active similar to Verizon. On T-Mobile all you have to do is pop in your active T-Mobile sim and you should be good to go.

[though]

I had such a bad time trying to get my phone to activate, I thought I would post it in case anyone else ran into the same issue.

 

I got my phone before I got the SIM and being antsy, I turned it on and set it up.  Thinking that I would just put the SIM in and activate and everything would be happy.  WRONG.  I put the SIM in and it would not connect to Sprint network.  I tried doing SCRTN and reseting my MDN and MSID and would still not get my phone to activate.  I finally gave up and decided to reset to factory image to see if skipping the initial boot with the SIM would fix it.  I boot into the bootloader(I also unlocked my bootloader as soon as I got the phone) and went to boot into recovery...... No Command with a little sad Android Icon.  I had to download the image from Google to reset back to factory, and then it worked with no issue.  Took about 5 hours to figure that out.  Hopefully I save someone some time if this is widespread.  I have the White 32GB.

 

i also had a HELL of a time to get it to activate.  i set mine up via wifi last night before getting the sim today.  my fix was to go into mobile network settings and change it from LTE to 3G.  then hit auto activate and away it went...

[GregSmoov]

Black 32GB activated no problem here in NY.

Enabled all bands and set band 25 to the lowest priority but still only getting LTE on band 25.

 

The phone seems to be hunting for the other bands because after it boots it takes a little while to fall back on band 25.

Too bad you can't disconnect band 25 and leave the other bands active.

I got connected to 1x800 though according to SignalCheck.

[Dsmking]

Do what I did, go to a Best Buy and first see if they have Sprint SIM Cards. They wont' be free, mine cost 29.99. Before I made the purchase, I contacted customer care to see if they would be willing to credit me the amount. after explaining the full situation and difficulty in obtaining the card to activate my new phone, they were willing to credit the amount. It may or may not work for you. I might have been that lucky person.

 

(I hope this doesn't violate the rules, if it does, then I have no problem with the post being edited)

 

I may end up doing that depending on how long it takes for the SIM back order to come in.  Actually it might work as they are already crediting me $13 for the overnight shipping.  I was very surprised today when I called to correct an order # typo (my fault, I wrote 5 instead of 7) - they immediately offered to get the supervisor before I said a word as the call system showed that I called 11 times in the last few days.  Actually 2 multi-hour phone calls which had lots of internal conferencing and transfers between Support, International, and Telesales as they tried to figure out what to do.  Not one bit of it was I doing the angry customer or demanding a supervisor.

 

I am less charitable about my attempts to talk with the local corporate repair stores.  I talked with two and visited one and got indifference, misinformation, and an rude brush-off.  The one I visited this afternoon didn't even know when Sprint's Nexus 5 was going to arrive (sometime in the next week or two) and had not read any of the Sprint info posted on this thread last weekend.  They did say that the only SIM cards they had were for iPhone activation which they tried and did not work. 

[cosplaygirrrl]

What's interesting is that when active Verizon SIM is inserted in Nexus 5, you can only toggle LTE Only, and 3GPP technologies. It will not allow toggling 3GPP2 at all. But then again, I'm not successfully attaching to Verizon which could explain this behavior carrying over previous (T-Mobile) settings. 

It's extremely frustrating not to be able to utilize this great Cat 4 UE on Verizon's 20Mhz B4 that's active here.

 

wait, what ?! I thought Verizon wouldn't work on this phone at all.....

 

holy carp, my brain is mush from all the searching and reading and now even more ? yikes

[Oakley707]

I have Sprint Nexus 5s sitting in my cabinet at my Best Buy.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Any chance you guys are going to price match the Play Store?  I purchased my last two phones from Best Buy with their buyback program, but refuse to pay an extra $100 just because...

[cosplaygirrrl]

First off,    There is a lot of good people here with a lot of knowledge providing a lot info ALL for nonprofit.

 

(*hint *hint *donate* hint* hint*) -get access to more forum sections with additional info and progress of Network Vision and coverage maps.

 

To activate on Sprint you will need a Sprint sim and call/chat/in-store to get the phone active similar to Verizon. On T-Mobile all you have to do is pop in your active T-Mobile sim and you should be good to go.

 

 

thanks and will donate when I can

 

all my $ went into this N5 actually, I am going thru a divorce so funds are almost non existent

[JohnHovah]

Is there a way to sync to the PC with this unit. SG3 had Kies!

Kies?  You actually used that?

[fuunkychicken]

I'm at work at the moment which has B41 and B25 LTE. What's interesting is that my device isn't connected to either. It's on eHRPD.

 

On the way to work it would not connect to LTE after a few miles on the freeway.

 

I can hypothesize that when this device is in a B41 area it will not connect to LTE on any band.

 

I will see if it connects when I get back home.

 

Toggling airplane mode allows LTE to show briefly, then it falls back onto eHRPD.

 

Any ideas on what to try?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[imt3rrified]

I'm at work at the moment which has B41 and B25 LTE. What's interesting is that my device isn't connected to either. It's on eHRPD.

 

On the way to work it would not connect to LTE after a few miles on the freeway.

 

I can hypothesize that when this device is in a B41 area it will not connect to LTE on any band.

 

I will see if it connects when I get back home.

 

Toggling airplane mode allows LTE to show briefly, then it falls back onto eHRPD.

 

Any ideas on what to try?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

This sounds like the exact same thing that is happening to me. It seems that traveling away from a connected LTE tower somehow disallows other towers to successfully connect to LTE. That's the best way I can describe it at least 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

I may end up doing that depending on how long it takes for the SIM back order to come in.  Actually it might work as they are already crediting me $13 for the overnight shipping.  I was very surprised today when I called to correct an order # typo (my fault, I wrote 5 instead of 7) - they immediately offered to get the supervisor before I said a word as the call system showed that I called 11 times in the last few days.  Actually 2 multi-hour phone calls which had lots of internal conferencing and transfers between Support, International, and Telesales as they tried to figure out what to do.  Not one bit of it was I doing the angry customer or demanding a supervisor.

 

I am less charitable about my attempts to talk with the local corporate repair stores.  I talked with two and visited one and got indifference, misinformation, and an rude brush-off.  The one I visited this afternoon didn't even know when Sprint's Nexus 5 was going to arrive (sometime in the next week or two) and had not read any of the Sprint info posted on this thread last weekend.  They did say that the only SIM cards they had were for iPhone activation which they tried and did not work. 

 

I went to a local Coprorate store and they were oblivious, the Second store was in a better neighborhood, and they knew what I needed when I said UICC simm. 10 minutes later I was leaving all activated from that tech.

[lilg740]

Shouldn't you be saying "I have Nexus 5s..." instead since the phone shouldn't be branded in any way?   

 

 

It is just you! I don't have my nexus 5 yet....   

Maybe Sprint has some that have boxes branded for Sprint and include a Sprint SIM Card.

[QWIKSTRIKE]

Kies?  You actually used that?

 

 

I did and it worked flawlessly....wifi, and usb worked very well for synching and backing up data. I have lost of music files to transfer brom my emeory card.

[QWIKSTRIKE]

thanks and will donate when I can

 

all my $ went into this N5 actually, I am going thru a divorce so funds are almost non existent

 

 

Sorry to hear that, been down that road, but it does get better. Welcome aboard, and good luck. This phone is the best phone to have because of what it offers for such a low price. Sure the camera may not be top rated, and it has a 2300mAh battery, but my GS3 had a 2200mAh battery. Best of all I get tri band Sprint Spark, and can go to any other carrier or use any other carrier simm minus Verizon with no contract issues. 

 

I want a triband Note 4, then maybe on to a Windows phone at some point.

Edited November 8, 2013 by QWIKSTRIKE

[fuunkychicken]

This sounds like the exact same thing that is happening to me. It seems that traveling away from a connected LTE tower somehow disallows other towers to successfully connect to LTE. That's the best way I can describe it at least

The interesting thing is my device doesn't have an issue handing off from LTE tower to LTE tower south of Tacoma, WA. While traveling in my home area my device will connect to LTE to LTE or LTE to 3G back to LTE just fine.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[cosplaygirrrl]

Sorry to hear that, been down that road, but it does get better. Welcome aboard, and good luck. This phone is the best phone to have because of what it offers for such a low price. Sure the camera may not be top rated, and it has a 2300mAh battery, but my GS3 had a 2200mAh battery. Best of all I get tri bad Sprint Spark, and can go to any other carrier or use any other carrier simm minus Verizon with no contract issues. 

 

I want a triband Note 4, then maybe on to a Windows phone at some point.

 

why thank you

and

yes indeed on the price to spec ratio

2.2 quad core, 2gig ram, hd screen, slim and comfy, gorilla glass, ceramic buttons !

 

 

and I too want that future investment of sorts of being able to jump carriers at will (prepaid) and just still use the one very nice phone to do it, and easily

[aerxx]

Is there a way to sync to the PC with this unit. SG3 had Kies!

 

I was wondering this too, I actually not yet connected my N5 to my PC.

 

Kies?  You actually used that?

 

I used it all the time, especially when I wanted to flash back to stock and get rid of ANYTHING custom on my phone.

[Dsmking]

I went to a local Coprorate store and they were oblivious, the Second store was in a better neighborhood, and they knew what I needed when I said UICC simm. 10 minutes later I was leaving all activated from that tech.

 

They were both in well off areas in and near Boston, are reasonably good sized, and have repair sections.  One occupies around 50-60% of a former Borders bookstore so its rather large with a repair section.  I tried using the UICC keyword, the fact that its the same card as the S4 and HTC One, to no avail.  My other theory is that Boston's college techie crowd has already gone and cleaned these stores out.  I am going to try calling a few tomorrow morning when they open.

[Shortman]

On Sunday I was able to order 2 sim cards from the Sprint International support group.  They shipped them on Monday and I had them 3 days later, the same day my 2 32GB Nexus 5's arrived.

 

The sim cards were free with free ground shipping.  Overnight was available for~ $15.  They were shipped from Lexington, KY.

Just go to the website below and get a chat window.

 

Now I am fighting Sprint wanting a $36 activation fee for each phone.  Has anyone managed to get this fee waived?  I have been with Sprint for 13+ years and have been seriously considering switching carriers.  I can't believe that they would risk losing a long-time loyal customer over $72.

 

Contact us at
SWW@Sprint.com
1-888-226-7212 option 2
http://Sprint.com/swwsupport

[WiWavelength]

holy carp, my brain is mush from all the searching and reading and now even more ? yikes

 

Okay, if you are a "cosplaygirrrl," then you are probably Japanese.  And if you are Japanese, then your "holy carp" is koi.

 

Am I right?

 

 

AJ

[bill875]

I noticed last night that using WiFi tethering uses significantly less battery than it did with my GS3.  Sitting in the same spot with tethering running for 3 hours to my MacBook I went from 88% charge to 65%.  Using the GS3 in the same scenario I would lose about 50-60% battery life.  Not sure what component the difference can be attributed to (WiFi radio, LTE radio, etc) but it was a very pleasant surprise.

Are you using WiFi Tether from Google Play?  If so, do you have WPA2 enabled?  I cannot seem to get mine configured to work properly, however using it wide open works fine.  Would you mind sharing or PM'ing your settings?

[Mr.Nuke]

Now I am fighting Sprint wanting a $36 activation fee for each phone.  Has anyone managed to get this fee waived?  I have been with Sprint for 13+ years and have been seriously considering switching carriers.  I can't believe that they would risk losing a long-time loyal customer over $72.

Welcome to the board. I can't believe a longtime loyal customer would be upset about a $36 activation fee. Activation fees are a part of the U.S. wireless industry. The carrier may or may not waive them. If you switch carriers there is a pretty good chance you are going to pay an activation fee to them as well.

[optimummind]

Man, reading about all these LTE issues makes me glad I popped in the $30 T-Mobile SIM card first (once I get the S5, I'll sell the S4 and bring the N5 in to Sprint).

 

Maybe b/c it's GSM but my N5 LTE & voice experience on T-Mobile has been very smooth. I hope Sprint will fix their LTE issues soon.

[afazel]

I wonder if there will be some kind of update tomorrow with the G2 launch that might help with some of the LTE hand-off issues. Maybe even allow some connections on other bands?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[shifted]

I'm at work at the moment which has B41 and B25 LTE. What's interesting is that my device isn't connected to either. It's on eHRPD.

 

On the way to work it would not connect to LTE after a few miles on the freeway.

 

I can hypothesize that when this device is in a B41 area it will not connect to LTE on any band.

 

I will see if it connects when I get back home.

 

Toggling airplane mode allows LTE to show briefly, then it falls back onto eHRPD.

 

Any ideas on what to try?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Makes me curious what kind of LTE I have around me and where I work.  Your description of when LTE doesn't work is exactly my issue.  Only difference is I have not found a place where it will work at all yet.  The only sort of silver lining for me is that LTE on my GS3 used to work halfway to my job but would be weak and/or cut out which made data unuseable for a stretch.  Being stuck on 3G means data has worked the entire way to work...