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.
