[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Zorachus:
This is just my opinion, with a couple hours of hands on with the Nexus 5, compared to my S4. I am not starting a flame war, or saying one is way better than the other, just my thoughts between these two great phone.

I have had my ATT S4 for a couple months now. And my brother just got his Nexus 5 this past week.

I dropped and broke my Nexus 4 back in September, and couldn't wait for the Nexus 5 release, so I find a killer deal at Best Buy for new S4's @ $49ea. Was bummed at first, I wouldn't be getting the new Nexus, and had to settle with just a plain Galaxy phone, but I am so happy now that I did.

Quick opinions;

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Screen;

Maybe I am used to the Plasma deep blacks of my HDTV at home, but call me crazy, I actually like AMOLED, and love my S4 screen, the reds and blues just pop, and blacks are deep, and viewing angles are great. Where as the Nexus 5 looks washed out, with terrible viewing angles, just like my Nexus 4. I guess the bright whites on the N5 look better, that's about it.

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Performance;

I know the benchmarks tell the story, the Snapdragon 800 blows the S4 out of the water. But in real world performance, using both phones side by side for two hours, I could barely tell a difference in speed, just messing around with the phone. But we both have Nova launcher installed, with same settings. I guess the N5 was a hair snappier, but honestly so hard to tell much of a real world difference.

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Battery life;

My brother had the phone for maybe 5 days at that point, and he said battery life was ok. He said heavy use would drain the battery down pretty quick, but that standby time was excellent. He said on average was getting like 3.5h to 4h On Screen time. On my S4 I get 5.5h to 6h On Screen time, and my phone with extreme heavy nonstop use lasts 14 to 16 hours, and on light days goes 24+ hours easily. My S4 I know gets better battery life.

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Haptic Feedback;

For some reason, I never really like the haptic feel on my Nexus 4, it felt strange compared to other phones I owned. Same feel with the N5, just a weird vibration or cheep rattle feel. My S4 feels more solid when vibrating or using haptic feedback.

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Build Quality;

I know the Galaxy S4 is no Lexus, it's still all plastic, but even my Brother commented that the feel of my S4 felt more premium than his N5. He said the volume and power button on my S4 felt solid, and more machined accurately, with a better pressing feel. He said his N5 buttons felt very cheap.

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Bottom line;

My Brother is coming from a Galaxy Nexus, and he said to quote "Going from the EVO 4G to Galaxy Nexus felt like a night and day massive upgrade, but going from the Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 5 now, doesn't feel nearly as a big an upgrade" He likes the Nexus 5, but said it just doesn't totally wow him, or blow him away. He said the N5 is cool, he'll keep it, mainly due to the price, and he would never spend over $350 for an off contract phone anyways, so no way would he spend $650 on a flagship phone out of contract. He's on Straight Talk ATT with the N5 by the way.

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Vanilla Android vs TW;

I am a big stock Nexus fan, I like pure Android the best. But on my S4, I am running Nova + Kit Kat icon pack, plus Wanam Xposed Framework, and several other rooted tweaks, so my phone doesn't even really like a TW device anymore. I really couldn't tell a massive difference OS wise between both phones.

IMO, I am happy with my Galaxy S4, and I am a big Nexus guy. After playing with my brother's N5, I wouldn't even do an even-Stephen trade for a brand new Nexus 5 over my two month old S4. I like my screen better, I have better battery life, plus i have gotten pretty used to the bottom middle button to press and turn the screen on, I really like that.

Oh well, this is just my opinion. I think the phone for me in 2014, will be a Galaxy S5 Google Play Edition, if they make one.