I have a friend interested in getting a Nexus for its being low cost/ good value, but since the battery isn't user replaceable he's worrying that all the savings would be lost the first time battery needs to be replaced. That may not be an issue if you get a new phone every year, but he keeps his phones for a longer time, same like me, upgrading every 2-3 years.

He'll be getting a phone from Canada, but living in Thailand there's no service centers that I know of that can work on this phone so the cost associated with battery replacement can be high?

The questions:

- Where would you take the Nexus phone in Thailand to get it repaired, etc... Can any LG shop work on Nexus 5 since it's made by LG?

- How much does it cost to replace a Nexus battery, if you've ever had one replaced?

- What are the frequencies that 4G will be offered on in Thailand? Will the North American Nexus 5 support Thai 4G networks? As you can see from the below insert, the NA supports a few additional frequencies but missing few other frequencies of the international model.

Nexus 5

4G Network	 LTE 700 / 800 / 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - North America version
 	         LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600

I don't know the answer to any of your questions but I've had a USA bought Google Nexus 4 for over a year and have not noticed much, if any, loss in battery charging capacity.

That's good to hear, a good battery should last longer than a year.

Are you with True by any chance? Wondering if you tried their new 4G service yet and if your Nexus 4 worked on 4G?

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I think both the D820 (North American version) and the D821 (Rest of World) support LTE/Band 1, so either/both would work on RealFuture (TrueMove H) 2100 MHz/LTE, and DWN (DTAC) 2100 MHz/LTE.

The NBTC may eventually auction 1800 MHz for LTE (Band 3), in which case you'd want the D820 variant, but I wouldn't base a purchase now on that possibility as that auciton will probably get delayed (again), and any deployments will be 2 ~ 4 years.

I think the U.S, Play Store sells the D820 variant exclusively, and the Thai localized LG N5 is the D821 variant, although you can probably buy either here as grey-market.

Personally I would buy the D821 variant - 3G is more than adequate here, but if you plan to use T-Mo/LTE or AT&T/LTE in the U.S. say during trips, the D820 variant would be preferred.

Not sure if LG/Thailand will service/repair a D820, even if you are paying, as they will not have the requisite spares/expertise, so you'd have to send it back to the U.S. or Canada.

The battery should be fine for 3 ~ 5 years, unless it is somehow damaged or defective.

Have a Nexus 5 (from Canada) and saw YouTube demo showing how to replace the battery. Not that difficult for anyone with a little dexterity. Nexus 5 comes unlocked and works with Thai sim cards 4G/Lte. BTW, it's a superb phone.

Thanks guys, superb replies.

Sent from my SM-N900 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

ifixit will have details on this. They show you how to open the phone and replace the battery.

I have a Nexus4 with a cracked back. Was told the LG service center in Chiang Mai could repair it. I am sure they could do a battery as well.

Sent from my Nook HD+ using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Wondering if you tried their new 4G service yet and if your Nexus 4 worked on 4G?

While the Nexus 4 has some inherent LTE support - which Google quickly suppressed - it can only be enabled with a hack/mod, and then only supports Band 4/AWS (1700x2100) which would only allow it to work on some T-Mobile/U.S.A., and a small number of AT&T AWS, 4G/LTE deployments. It ( the Nexus 4 ) would not work on LTE here.

Either variant of the Nexus 5 would work on LTE/2100 MHz (Band 1) here.