Android KitKat and the Nexus 5: everything you need to know

Google has released the Android 4.4.1 update that brings dramatic improvements to its Nexus 5 camera. The company says the new software "improves the camera with faster focusing, especially in low light, faster white balancing, for truer colors, the ability to pinch-zoom the viewfinder in HDR+ mode and less shutter lag." We had some time to test out the update to see just how true those claims are, and came away rather impressed with the results. If you rely on the Nexus 5 to snap your photos every day, you'll want to install Android 4.4.1 as soon as possible. Google says the update will be "rolling out today" to customers, but if you're not willing to wait, the software can be downloaded right now directly (.zip link) from the company's servers.

As if weeks of extravagantly detailed leaks hadn't told you already, Google's new Nexus 5 handset is based on LG's excellent G2. A few of the specs have been trimmed down in the transition to a lower price point — most notably the smaller 2300mAh battery and lower-resolution 8-megapixel camera — but much of what makes the G2 such a compelling device has been retained. The display remains crisp, sharp, and wonderfully accurate, with awesomely deep blacks that are shown off by the Nexus bootup animation. The processor is still the top-notch Snapdragon 800, and you still get LTE connectivity as with LG's original.

The biggest change, other than the Android KitKat heart beating within the new device, is in the aesthetics. Google's Nexus 5 opts for an austere matte cover and conventionally placed volume and power buttons on its shoulders. That's a marked departure from the glossy patterned back of the G2 and its centrally mounted physical keys. Many will consider the Nexus 5 look and feel an upgrade, though there's still enough about the G2 to attract power users to its more aggressively specced and designed chassis.

Sprint will begin selling Google's Nexus 5 starting November 8th. But whereas Google likes to highlight the device's relatively low $349 unsubsidized cost, Sprint is predictably sticking with its typical two-year contract pricing. The Nexus 5 will be $149.99 with a new agreement — and that's after a $50 mail-in rebate. So essentially, you'll be paying $199.99 out the door. Sprint says the Nexus 5 comes out to $18.75 per month with its monthly Sprint One Up financing plan, but buying the device directly from Google Play seems to be the way to go right now. We've reached out to Sprint for information on how much the Nexus 5 will cost at full retail.

As for T-Mobile, the carrier is only saying that it plans to offer the Nexus 5 "in the coming weeks" and "at an affordable price." Last year, the company priced the Nexus 4 significantly higher than Google Play's MSRP for customers who purchased it off contract. Since T-Mobile is now aggressively pulling away from the traditional wireless model, it will be interesting to see how the carrier approaches pricing this time around.

To go along with the just-introduced Nexus 5, Google and LG are offering up a few new cases for the flagship device. Rather than go with another bumper-style case like it did for the Nexus 4, Google is offering a full-protection case in black, red, grey, and yellow for $34.99. Confusingly, the company still calls it a bumper case, though it covers the back as well as the sides. Google says its made of a hard exterior and a soft rubber lining — we'll have to see how it works in practice, but there's no doubt its an expensive accessory.

Even more expensive is LG's $49.99 QuickCover case — it's similar to the new bumper case but includes a front cover, as well. It's similar in design to Apple's full-protection iPad cases, and opening the front cover will automatically turn on and unlock the Nexus 5. Sadly, color options are limited to only black and white for this case. Perhaps the best feature of these two new cases is the fact that you don't need to remove them to work with Google's new, magnetic, wireless charging pad. While you will certainly be able to find cheaper cases, these are your official options, and they're on sale now in the Google Play store.

Google's Nexus program has a simple goal: make the best, purest, most perfect Android phone. And, beginning with last year's Nexus 4, Google did all that at a remarkable price, charging with no strings attached what most carriers and manufacturers would charge with a two-year contract. The Nexus 4 had a few issues — its missing LTE support chief among them — but overall it was an excellent phone, a refined and usable example of Android's prowess and possibilities.

That's why Google's new device, the Nexus 5, has been so remarkably hyped. It's been leaking for months, speculated about for much longer — and today Google's finally pulling the veil all the way back on the device that it hopes will show the world what Android can really do. The Nexus 5 is here.

Over the past year and a half Google's steadily added new features and cards to its predictive search assistant, Google Now. With Android 4.4 KitKat and the new Nexus 5, the company's taking the opportunity to upgrade Google Now and search on mobile with the goal of "bringing apps and the web together," as Android and Chrome OS chief Sundar Pichai said in a meeting with press today.

Search has always been closely tied with Google Now, and it's receiving some much-appreciated attention today. Search results no longer ignore the apps on your phone. Google is now crawling through mobile apps to find their content and bring features directly to the fore, just like the company has done for years on the web. For example, a simple search for a restaurant will offer a link directly to that restaurant page in the OpenTable app if you have it installed, allowing you to set up a reservation. Or a recipe search will bring you to the result directly inside of the AllRecipes app — rather than the mediocre mobile website. Pichai says the new feature will be rolling out by mid-November with a select number of apps, and an API that will allow all developers to enable their apps will be available "in the coming months."

Google and Verizon haven't had the closest relationship in recent years — the Verizon-specific Galaxy Nexus was held back by the carrier's long software review process, making it feel like a second-class citizen in the Nexus family. And, of course, the Nexus 4 didn't support LTE and only worked on GSM-based networks, leaving Verizon customers out in the cold. Unfortunately, that's still the case with Google's newest flagship: senior VP of Android Sundar Pichai told us that "the Nexus 5 will not be on Verizon." Somewhat surprisingly, the Nexus 5 will run on Sprint's network — the carrier is listed as one of Google's official retail partners, making the phone's lack of compatibility with Verizon a bit surprising.

This comes after Google and Verizon locked horns earlier this year around the new Nexus 7 — Google showed off Verizon support for the tablet when it was announced at I/O 2013, but the carrier said it wasn't a supported device and refused to activate the tablet after it launched. Verizon then quickly said it would be supported "soon," but we haven't heard anything since.

When you step back and look at just how powerful smartphones have become, there's one important tool that's been criminally neglected: the phone dialer. At least that's what Google thinks. "Smartphones have been getting smarter and smarter, and yet the dialer seems to be stuck in a feature phone world for some reason," said Google engineer Dave Burke, who moments later unveiled a new dialer that's debuting with Android 4.4. According to Burke, KitKat brings with it a modernization of the dialer — a utility that's obviously essential to voice calls, but one that's rarely gotten much attention throughout Android's evolution. That's all changing today. "We applied some Google smarts to the problem," he said.

At its event in San Francisco, in the midst of flashing some new hardware, Google also unveiled version 4.4 of Android, the long-awaited KitKat. It's much more than a marketing gimmick, or an excuse to make limited-edition candy bars in Paris — it brings some real change to Android, and some much-awaited integration among Google services.

Most immediately obvious are a handful of design tweaks to the OS, which make Android cleaner and simpler than ever before. The status and notification bar are now translucent, and they disappear completely when you're in a fullscreen app; there's less chrome across the entire OS, and more space on the Nexus 5's five-inch display for whatever you're doing. There's a new launcher, a new condensed version of Google's Roboto font, and a generally lighter and cleaner look to Android. It's not nearly as stark a change as iOS 7 was, and generally speaking KitKat still looks a lot like Jelly Bean, but the design directions feel very similar.

Android 4.4 KitKat isn't just an advertising coup. According to former Wall Street Journal reporter Amir Efrati, it will also be Google's latest attempt to make cheaper Android devices attainable, and prep the mobile OS for wearable computing.

Alongside the photo, Evleaks is teasing a date of November 1st for the device, though it's unclear if he's suggesting that this will be its unveiling or availability date. Though it's always worth taking leaked dates with a large grain of salt, this week will mark exactly one year since the announcement of the Nexus 4. With so much detail leaking out lately, it wouldn't be too surprisingly to see Google's new device officially unveiled sometime soon.

As if the cacophony of leaks around the Nexus 5 weren't enough, here's the most official yet: Google's latest flagship phone has appeared on the Play store. The listing appears to have been made in error, as the phone cannot be bought and no details are available but the most important — a starting price of $349 for the 16GB version. While that's a higher barrier to entry than we saw with the Nexus 4, which also cost $349 at 16GB but had a $299 8GB model, it's still an attractively low price for what appears to be a more than capable device. Google's tagline for the LG-made phone is "Capture the everyday and the epic in fresh new ways."

The image of the Nexus 5 on the Play store is small, but a Verge commenter has provided a high-resolution version; it displays some of the same Android UI tweaks found on press shots that leaked earlier today. The next version of Android, 4.4 KitKat, looks to employ translucency effects on elements such as the app drawer and on-screen buttons, and the blue accents used in earlier versions of the software appear to have been replaced with white. Some apps have received new icons, too, including the camera and phone, and the wallpaper features an abstract "5" design in much the same style as the new Nexus 7's.

Google is having little luck keeping its next flagship smartphone a secret. The so-called Nexus 5 has heavily leaked, and a new image today provides us with what's reportedly the first press renders of the device. The images, obtained by Mobile Syrup, are said to be from Canadian mobile carrier Telus. The screenshot shown in the images provides a clear look at some of the visual tweaks that are expected to arrive with Android 4.4 KitKat; notice the clear notification bar and a reworked app drawer button, as well as the new camera and phone icon.

Android users may soon see a redesigned Google Play Store, judging by newly leaked screenshots of an unreleased update. It's not what we'd call a drastic overhaul, but Google seems to be transitioning away from its current overlay menu system in favor of a slide-out navigation drawer. The company has shown a liking for this user interface style across its other Android applications, so it should come as no surprise to see it implemented in the Play Store. The leaked build is version 4.4, but whether the Play Store update will arrive ahead of Google's forthcoming release of Android 4.4 KitKat is unclear. Android Police reports that the new Play design is already being tested on Android 4.4 devices — presumably including the Nexus 5 — so at the very least it should accompany the new OS.

Android users will be able to choose third-party apps to handle their text messaging by default when the operating system's next big update, version 4.4 KitKat, eventually launches. On its developer blog, Google notes that many third-party SMS and MMS apps have already been made using workarounds to gain access to users' texts — a method that it doesn't quite condone. To remedy that, Google will begin supplying a proper way for them to be accessed in KitKat, alongside the option to choose a default app to handle them.

The details come amid rumors that Google will also begin bundling SMS and MMS messaging right into its Hangouts app, creating a competitor to Apple's iMessage. Android Police first reported the rumor and also has several screenshots of what it says is the combined app in action. It also reports that Google will do away with Android's traditional Messaging app, leaving Hangouts as the only built-in text messaging option for Nexus devices.

The Google Play Store will make a series of changes next month designed to make tablet-optimized apps easier to find — and to prod developers into rebuilding their smartphone apps for larger screens. Starting November 21st, anyone browsing Google Play on a tablet will see only tablet-optimized apps on the store's list of bestsellers. And to encourage developers to build apps that look good on 7"- and 10"-inch tablets, Google will begin labeling any apps that don't meet its standards for tablets as "designed for phones."

Google says more than 70 million Android tablets have been activated, but developers have been slow to build apps that take advantage of the larger screens. Twitter finally released a version for Android tablets last week, but made it a Samsung exclusive. It wasn't until earlier this year that Google even added a "designed for tablets" section to its store. The company says that thousands of apps meet its tablet criteria, but the majority of Android apps still do not. Tweaking Google Play to highlight tablet apps won't change that overnight, but it's a start.

With Google's stock of the Nexus 4 now officially depleted, the company's next flagship Android phone should be arriving within a matter of weeks — perhaps just days. We've already seen the so-called Nexus 5 in various FCC filings, leaked photos, and on Google's own Mountain View campus. And while we've got a fairly good sense of what to expect in terms of hardware, there's still plenty we don't know about the next major revision of Android, version 4.4 KitKat. So with the clock ticking down on a brand new Nexus device, we've gathered the most reasonable rumors together so you can set your expectations for when the fateful day finally comes.

What appears to be an internal repair manual for Google’s upcoming Nexus 5 flagship phone reveals pretty much everything there is to know about the device, filling in what blanks remain after an LG FCC filing went public last month. The draft document was leaked to Android Police, and between the schematics and disassembly instructions it contains a comprehensive list of the device’s specs. The 4.95-inch 1080p IPS LCD display is confirmed, as is LTE compatibility and the 2,300mAh battery. The document also reveals that the phone will have a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM, along with an 8-megapixel rear camera, Qi wireless charging, and NFC.

Keeping with tradition, the new phone is more or less spec-for-spec identical with LG’s G2, save for the lower-resolution 8-megapixel camera on the Nexus 5, a slightly smaller screen, and a smaller battery. We thought that LG's flagship performed incredibly well but would have been better without the excessive software flourishes, awkward button placement, and lackluster case materials, so the idea of a redesigned G2 running stock Android is incredibly intriguing. So far, there's no official word on a Nexus 5 announcement, but with the Nexus 4 getting a late-October release last year, we wouldn't be surprised to see Google stick to the same timeframe this time around.

A forum post on MacRumors offers what could be the clearest glimpse yet of the next Nexus phone. Nearly a month after a Google employee appeared in a promotional video for Android Kit Kat holding what appeared to be a new Nexus, a single close-up image of a slate-gray phone has emerged. In response to questions from other posters, the author said the phone's back cover has a feel similar to the Nexus 7 and that its display is only "ok."

Days after the Kit Kat video went up, an FCC filing from LG described a phone believed to be the next Nexus. Notably, the device that surfaced at the FCC supports LTE, which could make it the first unlocked, Google-sold Nexus phone to do so. (The Galaxy Nexus 4G, from 2011, was the first Nexus phone to support LTE.) It is 5.19 inches tall, has a 4.96-inch screen, and uses a 2,300mAh battery, according to the documents.

Today it seems clearer than ever that LG will make the next Nexus device. New regulatory documents released by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal a trove of photos detailing a new smartphone that looks very similar to the device accidentally leaked in a video published by Google last week. A fully assembled version of the so-called Nexus 5 is detailed in the filing, and it exhibits the same large camera module as the device leaked in Google's video. The Nexus branding itself is missing from the device in question, however, but that isn't unusual for hardware going through testing.

As is often the case with smartphone leaks, the first one opens the floodgates to a wave of others. It looks like Google's next Nexus device, which most are calling the Nexus 5, will be no different. As discovered by S4gru, a smartphone manufactured by LG has appeared on the FCC's site with enough detail to associate it with the device that Google itself leaked in a KitKat promo video earlier in the week. The documents include a photo of the inside of the rear cover and its dimensions, including a very large hole for the camera, match up quite well. Unfortunately for people who need to swap batteries, the back is "not supposed to be removed."

More importantly, as Engadget notes, this device is being tested for a wide array of wireless standards, including support for LTE that should work on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint. It also supports the usual set of HSPA and GSM bands along with CDMA and EVDO Rev A. If this device pans out, that will mean that Google will have finally righted the wrong it made with the Nexus 4 — namely putting proper support for LTE on its flagship Android phone. With both T-Mobile and AT&T accepting unlocked devices on their LTE networks, it only makes sense.

After a Nexus 4 price drop and the introduction of the Moto X, a Nexus 5 may well be on the horizon. We've reached out to Google and LG to comment on the mysterious Nexus, and we'll update you accordingly.

Update: Google has now removed the video from YouTube, marking it private. But we obtained a copy and have republished it below:

On Tuesday Google announced that the next version of Android will be named "KitKat," after the ubiquitous chocolate bars sold around the world. It's the first time a mainstream operating system has been given a licensed name, and the deal with trademark owner Nestle took time to complete: the BBC reports that Google director of Android global partnerships John Lagerling first called Nestle about the name in late November of 2012, and that the deal was only finalized at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February of this year. "We decided within the hour to say let's do it," said Nestle executive vice president of marketing Patrice Bula.

There's no exchange of money involved, but there is a significant promotional element: 50 million KitKat bars in 19 countries will have prominent Android branding and offer buyers the chance to win a Nexus 7 tablet and Google Play gift cards. All those wrappers started production two months ago in secret so they would be ready for the promotion; not even Google employees knew about the new name. "We kept calling the name Key Lime Pie internally and even when we referred to it with partners," Lagerling told the BBC. Adding to the air of intrigue, Nestle is commemorating the partnership with 500 specially-produced KitKats in the shape of the Android logo that the company claims took "weeks" to create in "a secret location in Europe."