Fixed storage Nexus 5 smartphones hacked by an owner to increase the storage capacity to 64GB
Google’s Nexus 5 is a very popular Android smartphone. In fact, it was one of the best sellers for 2013 when it was launched. However, one of the limitations is that the Nexus 5 comes with a limited storage space, in either 16GB or 32GB variant.
One brave soul decided that enough was enough and managed to increase the memory of his Nexus 5 from 16GB to 64GB. The Nexus 5 owner from Ukraine decide to physically hack his smartphone to install a 64GB memory.
What he basically did was to buy a 64GB eMMC 5.0 module which retails for about $30 and replaced the storage on his phone. The end result is a Nexus 5 with twice as much storage capacity and read/write speeds that are up to twice as fast as they were with the original eMMC 4.5 storage.
The hack is pretty difficult than a similar Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge hack which we reported earlier. It involves physically hacking into the smartphone insides and soldering. Nexus 5 ball grid array mounting makes it doubly difficult.
The entire hack is documented on this XDA Forums thread . Remember, if you try this at home, you may very well end up with a bricked Nexus 5. The hack involves modifying the partition tables in Nexus 5 so that your Android smartphone recognizes the additional capacity.
Though we appreciate what KApetz2 did with his Nexus 5 smartphone, if you really need that extra storage, you should buy a newer Nexus 6p or Samsung S7. Even without the upgrade, the Nexus 5 is a pretty great phone to own.
