Without holding a grand launch event, Google still gave us a great gift on Halloween day: the Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 is equipped with a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a 5-inch 1080P full HD screen, and naturally comes pre-installed with Google's latest Android 4.4 operating system. The official lowest price for the Nexus 5 is $349 (approximately RMB 2130). As always, its high cost-performance ratio and pure lineage continue to attract a lot of attention, and many netizens have been asking how they can get their hands on a Nexus 5.
For certain reasons, the Google Nexus family has never been sold officially in mainland China. However, there are still some roundabout ways to get one. Let’s take a look at these options together.
**Overseas Shopping**
There are two ways to purchase via overseas shopping. One way is if you have a trustworthy friend in a country where the Nexus 5 is available, then you can ask them to send it by courier or bring it back personally. Another way is through an overseas forwarding company—when purchasing the Nexus 5, fill in the address of the forwarding company. Once the forwarding company receives the goods, they will forward it to you. Both methods will incur some costs; the first method means owing someone a favor, and of course, this depends on how close your relationship is. The second method involves the forwarding company charging a certain handling fee and transit postage.
If you want a friend to buy it for you but don't happen to have any American friends, you can use Google's official inquiry system to check if your friend's country sells the Nexus 5:
If you choose to use a forwarding service, we recommend using an American forwarding company as the fees are lower and the market is more mature, making it more reliable.
Of course, no matter which method you choose, if you want to place an order yourself, you will need to prepare a foreign proxy server (commonly known as "climbing the wall") because otherwise, you won’t be able to log into the Nexus 5 purchase website from within China due to situations like this:
In simple terms, it says: "Oops, sorry, we don't sell this in your country. If you want to buy, wait."
**Domestic Gray Market Dealers**
If you find all this too troublesome, another option is to directly purchase from domestic gray market dealers. For channels, you can try Taobao, or visit electronics distribution centers like Zhongguancun where you can find many physical stores. To avoid appearing promotional, we won’t provide screenshots or specific store recommendations here.
However, please note that if you choose to buy on Taobao, there are quite a few pitfalls such as price traps and word games, so it's important to carefully select based on reputation and sales volume before making a purchase. If it's too cheap, it's probably not very reliable since sellers also need to make a profit. With physical stores, you can inspect the device on-site. Generally speaking, newly launched devices are less likely to be misrepresented, but due to higher operating costs, the final transaction price may be higher than what you'd find on Taobao.
Currently, all domestic gray market dealers are in a pre-order state for the Nexus 5. If you want to buy, you'll need to pay a deposit first. Personally, I would suggest not rushing into it. Wait and observe until the goods arrive, then proceed with a cash-on-delivery transaction. It is preliminarily estimated that it will take at least two weeks for the Nexus 5 to enter the domestic market in bulk.
**What Price is Worth It?**
Although the Nexus 5 has excellent specifications and a reasonable price, in reality, the final price domestic users will pay will be much higher than the listed price of $349. Let's do some math to see why.
Firstly, due to different tax systems, Google's listed price is only the pre-tax price. Taking a purchase in the United States as an example, if you really want to buy it, you will also have to pay about 9% consumption tax. Additionally, Google charges for shipping, so Americans end up spending around RMB 2400 for a Nexus 5. If a friend brings it back for you and you don't treat them to dinner, then RMB 2400 is the cap. If you choose to ship via a forwarding company, you will need to pay an additional RMB 200-300 to the forwarding company, bringing the conservative estimate to RMB 2600.
Therefore, if you buy from a domestic gray market dealer, we can use RMB 2600 as a benchmark. If the price is around this figure, it can be considered relatively worth it. Of course, this price can also help determine if the merchant is reliable. A price marked at RMB 2200 or lower is almost certainly a scam. In fact, currently, several reputable dealers on Taobao have set their pre-order prices between RMB 2500 and RMB 2800.
**Is it Worth All the Trouble?**
Looking at it this way, despite the attractive cost-performance ratio from the official pricing perspective, after doing the math, not only is the actual purchase cost over RMB 500 higher, but it's also not very convenient to buy, requiring a lot of patience waiting and waiting.
Do you still want to buy the Nexus 5?