Nexus 5 Speakers and Buttons Get Small Update in New Hardware Revision

Many owners that have recently bought a Nexus 5 are noticing very small differences between their model and the first batch of Nexus 5 units that launched earlier this fall. Namely, users are noticing larger speaker and microphone grilles, as well as improved buttons that no longer rattle.

Of course, users have had to find this news out by themselves, as LG and Google have remained quiet about hardware improvements made to the phone, but it’s not surprising considering how trivial the updates are. At least this means, that if your Nexus 5 unit breaks and are looking for a replacement, you’ll most likely get one of the newer versions with the slight changes.

The changes are so trivial, in fact, that you probably won’t even notice the difference looks-wise without putting a new and old model side-by-side, but they should bring some big improvements function-wise, as the larger speaker holes on the bottom should let more sound through, as many users have complained about low speaker volume with Google’s new handset, although we’re not sure that will be the case; the HTC One’s speaker holes are tiny, but the speakers sound fine, leading us to believe that larger speaker holes most likely won’t do much for the Nexus 5, but we’ll have to wait and see.

This isn’t the first time that Google and LG have changed the design just slightly of a Nexus device. The previous Nexus phone, the Nexus 4, received a small upgrade that put small rubber nubs on the back of the phone to prevent it from sliding around on desks and countertops, since the glass back was prone to such slippery-ness when met with a flat, smooth surface.

With that said, we shouldn’t be too surprised that Google and LG are doing the same thing with then Nexus 5 and making the phone just ever-more-slightly better with a few hardware changes. However, the rest of the phone is the same; same processor, display, etc., so don’t think that you’re being cheated out of a better device if you ordered yours on launch day. Even the “old” model is still a great device and well worth the $350 off-contract price tag.