For Google Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat, the Key Word Is 'Integration'

For tech fans, Google gave out the best candy on Halloween this year, as it unveiled its new Nexus 5 flagship smartphone and Android 4.4 KitKat mobile OS on Thursday. The new Android operating system and flagship Nexus smartphone are all about broad access, low cost, high performance, and, most importantly, integration.

Nexus 5

First, the Nexus 5 smartphone, which is Google's most advanced and competitive flagship yet. The Nexus 5, manufactured by LG, comes out at a time when the best smartphones feature crazy-good high definition graphics on big screens, supported by faster and faster processors.

The Google Nexus 5 certainly fits the bill here, upping the size and resolution of its newest smartphone to 1920 x 1080p on a 4.95-inch screen, yielding a pixel resolution of 445 pixels per inch. This puts it in competition with the top Android flagships at the moment, like the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, and LG G2.

The Nexus 5 also features the fastest Qualcomm mobile chip at the moment, the quad-core Snapdragon 800, clocked at 2.26GHz with 2GB of RAM. While the Nexus 5 features only an 8-megapixel camera, compared, for example, to the Galaxy S4's 13-megapixel shooter, it comes with optical image stabilization, thanks to a gyroscope integrated in its lens.

The Nexus 5, as other Google Nexus smartphones, is available for a relatively low cost unlocked, at $349 for a 16GB variant or $399 for 32GB, and it will work on all carriers in the U.S. except for Verizon, which is a notable downside to the new Google smartphone. Sprint and T-Mobile will be carrying the phone, and AT&T supports the unlocked devices (and the Nexus 5 is compatible with worldwide GSM, HSDPA and LTE networks).

Android 4.4 KitKat

The most notable advantage of having a Nexus 5 is that it will run the latest Android OS, 4.4 KitKat. Some of the features that immediately stand out with KitKat on the Nexus 5 involve greater Google integration.

For example, the phone app will now incorporate a Google Maps-supported number search, so if you're trying to find a business phone number, it will bring it up from Google's search network right on the dialer. The phone app's caller ID will also scan Google's listed numbers for any matches if the incoming number doesn't already have a designation in your contacts list.

Google's new Hangouts App integrates online messaging, along with MMS and SMS, all in the same messaging app. Google also integrated Cloud Print so the Nexus 5 can print documents from any printer connected with Google Play apps or its cloud printing service.

Also, while the Nexus 5 doesn't have Moto X's "always-listening" feature (which requires a completely redesigned processor that Motorola put in its phone) there are fewer steps to get from the home screen to voice-activated Google Now. A swipe on the home screen and the voice command "OK, Google" gets you right into voice-supported Google search, along with other capabilities, like sending a text or getting Maps directions. Google says its voice recognition engine is about 25 percent more accurate than it previously was. 

Integrating Everyone Into the Latest Google System

Probably the biggest change with the Android 4.4 KitKat OS is not apparent on the surface. As most updates to operating systems require better and faster phones with more memory, Google carefully engineered KitKat to reverse that trend.

KitKat actually requires 16 percent less memory to install than its Jelly Bean predecessor, and it use the smartphone's hardware about 13 percent more efficiently.

With this redesign, Google is attempting to bring nearly everyone, including low-end or older Android smartphones, into the latest Google Big Tent. For example, smartphones with only a half a gig of RAM will be capable of running KitKat.

With KitKat, Google is reaching out to emerging markets and low-end Android device manufacturers, offering advanced features to a whole segment of smartphone buyers who have previously been stuck on outdated versions of Android. This might fix the ubiquitous Android fragmentation problem while simultaneously integrating and possibly engaging a whole slew of first time buyers.

Whether some manufacturers, like Samsung, who layer on their own user interface over Android, will quickly get on the KitKat train is yet to be seen. Samsung, for impatient Galaxy owners, seems to take its sweet time adding TouchWiz to updated Android systems, and might not take advantage of Google's new democratized system.