Google Nexus 5 vs. HTC One: Price, Availability, Specs, and Features Reviewed

Google launched the newest addition to its Nexus smartphone lineup on Halloween, along with the latest Android OS, 4.4 KitKat. The Mountain View giant's flagship is hitting a crowded market of top-level smartphones, including the HTC One. Let's see how the Nexus 5 fares against HTC's critically acclaimed phone.

Display 

Google's Nexus 5 is the first full 5-inch smartphone in the Nexus line. It doesn't skimp on resolution with the new, larger screen, featuring a 1920 x 1080p resolution, packing an impressive 445 pixels per inch. To give you an idea of how big of an improvement that is, the previous Nexus 4 only had 318ppi on a smaller screen.

However, because of the smaller screen, the HTC One's 4.7-inch display achieves a slightly greater pixel density with the same Full HD 1920 x 1080p resolution, with 469 pixels per inch - making it one of the most brilliant displays in current mobile devices.

Power (Processor and Battery)

Neither smartphone will feel draggy or slow for a long, long time. The Nexus runs the cutting-edge quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 at 2.3GHz with 2GB of RAM. Meanwhile, since the HTC One was released earlier this year, it's one generation behind, with the quad-core Snapdragon 600, clocked at 1.7GHz with 2GB of RAM. The difference between the two won't be perceptible in most common tasks, but perhaps the Nexus 5 is a little more future-proof.

Neither smartphone will black out too early on you through the day either. The Nexus 5 sips power out of a 2300 mAh battery, giving you up to 17 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby time, while the HTC One manages about 18 hours out of the same sized battery, and about 480 hours of standby.

Camera and Storage

The Google Nexus 5 offers an 8-megapixel camera - a surprisingly mid-range feature on an otherwise top-tier smartphone. However, the camera has a built in gyroscope for Optical Image Stabilization, meant to eliminate blur in photos from small hand movements.

Optical image stabilization is also featured on the HTC One, which took a different route for its camera. The One sports a 4-megapixel "Ultrapixel" camera that has a larger pixel size, giving you better low-light photography with or without flash.

Neither phone offers microSD expansion of their internal storage, which seems to be an unfortunately vanishing feature for smartphones. Without it, you'll have to rely on cloud storage for expansion, which both Google and HTC offer through Drive and Dropbox, respectively.

The Nexus 5 comes with a maximum of 32GB, while the HTC One goes up to 64GB internal storage.

Release Date, Price and Availability

Google unveiled and released the Nexus 5 at the same time on the Google Play store, so it's available to order now, although stock amounts of the new hot smartphone have been low at times, leading to higher delivery times than normal. However, it appears Google is resolving the issue, so you'll get the Nexus 5 in good time.

The Nexus is priced as an unlocked phone, meaning that you can use whatever LTE service you'd like with no contract (with the unfortunate, and notable, exception of Verizon Wireless). The 16GB version costs about $350 and the 32GB version costs $400.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has been available for a long time now, even on Verizon, which dragged its feet on adding the phone to their lineup. Because its been out for so long, you can get the HTC One for as little as about $100 with a two year contract from some carriers, with the standard price being about $200 with an agreement. On its own, unlocked and contract free, the HTC One can run you about $600 or more.