[rwp-review id=”0″]
Those who know me, know my unconditional love for Apple products, specially iOS and iPhone, yet here I am reviewing Google’s latest Nexus 6 and giving it a perfect score – well nearly perfect, minus the humongous size.
So what happened? How did Google manage to impress an Apple fan? What did they do right?
For starters, I personally think that it’s Lollipop that led me to like the Nexus 6, more than the actual phone itself. Yes, 6 years later, Google managed to release a version of Android that might actually create a dent in Apple’s iOS world.
Why do I say “might”? Primarily due to the fact that most people using Android on non Nexus devices won’t really enjoy the beauty of this OS in its pure version; they would only be getting a partial glimpse of lollipop, skinned with UIs such as Samsung’s TouchWiz (Dreadful), or HTC’s Sense (less dreadful).
What’s gotten into me
Browsing online, I came across the Nexus 6 and naturally, iSaid to myself: You’re a geek; geeks need a dose of new tech every now and then… and the Nexus 6 was NOW. So I placed the order and waited, 3 days later the man in brown (UPS) <= (Product placement of the company I work for 😛 ) appears with the package in hand.
The Phone, sorry Phablet
The Phone is HUGE, but beautifully made, more or less identical to the Moto X but enlarged. The overall build design is sturdy with a metal frame and high quality plastic back.
There’s really no middle ground here (hardware-wise), and no, the whole “You’ll get used to it” won’t really work. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it. Although it’s somehow comfortable to hold, specially with the Motorola logo dimple where you can rest the index finger (which was supposed to be a fingerprint scanner), the Nexus 6 is is one of the bulkiest phones around; a phablet. It is 10.4mm thick at its thickest point and goes down to 6.2mm at the edges and weighs in at 183g. In a nutshell, it’s slightly bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus! (Sigh) and definitely requires a 2 handed usage. Oh and if you think using Google’s swipe keyboard makes it any easier to type, think again, you still need to use 2 hands.
PS: sliding it in your front jeans pocket is not advisable, you know, the whole “Is that a rocket in your pocket or are you just happy to see me” thing.
The Display
What impressed me is that the Nexus 6 manages to have a beautiful Quad HD 6 inch screen (5.96in to be precise) at a whopping 1440×2560 resolution. The AMOLED screen is gorgeous and offers amazing viewing angles, popping colours giving Android Lollipop’s colour palette the recognition it deserves, all while being a bit larger than the 5.5in iPhone 6 Plus. Watching Video on this device was an absolute pleasure, specially with its dual front facing speakers.
The Performance
Performance-wise, the Nexus 6 is a beast with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 SoC powering it up. Performance is excellent pretty much across the board and Android Lollipop runs smoothly. From gaming to multitasking and pretty much anything else the Nexus 6 didn’t disappoint.
I’m not a gamer, but I did try playing Asphalt 8: Airborne, to test the Nexus 6’s capability to handle the graphics. It did not disappoint!
The battery life
You’d think that the the days of running out of juice with a smartphone packing a huge battery were over. Well you’re wrong.
Let’s start by the pros, the Nexus 6’s included Turbo Charger is pure awesomeness. I always used to miss iPhone’s fast charging time when I used an Android device, but with the Nexus 6 turbo charger, that is no longer an issue. I was able to get around 5 additional hours of battery life from a 15 minute charge which normally takes around 40 minutes.
The Nexus 6 performs decently when idle but not so well (considering its battery size of 3220mAh) when being used. The reason? I would go with the QHD display which sucks the life out of the device. Don’t get me wrong, The Nexus 6 can get through a full day on medium usage (email, texting, social media), but once media usage and gaming starts, it’s just not gonna hold.
Achilles’ Heel: The Camera
The Nexus 6 comes with a 13MP rear facing camera and features optical image stabilisation and a dual-LED ring flash with the ability to record 4K videos at 30fps.
I’ll make this short, during the day, with clear lighting conditions, the Nexus can take good photos with nice colours, but images taken in decent light are above average I’d say and sometimes a bit noisy too. Auto-focus is noticeably slow as well. I also found a lot of inconsistencies in results, which shouldn’t really be the case from a premium priced smartphone.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a major upgrade from the Nexus 5, but still not on par with other flagship devices out there.
That’s my 2 cents on the camera.
The Software
Having stock or ‘vanilla’ Android has always been the selling point of Nexus devices, and it was one of the main things that attracted me. Android just nailed it this time with Lollipop.
Lollipop’s Material Design, arguably Android’s biggest revision to date looks and feels great on the AMOLED Quad HD screen of the Nexus 6, and as I mentioned before, it gives it justice.
Lollipop is a very flat yet colourful OS compared to previous Android versions. Some might say that Google went a little overboard with its color usage, but I disagree; the colours are beautiful and add a nice feeling to the look of the OS. Animations also add another nice touch to the overall usage and are super fluid.
One thing the Nexus 6 lacks is landscape mode. Although Lollipop does work in landscape orientation for tablets, it just doesn’t on the Nexus. (This point goes to the iPhone 6 Plus).
Notifications have always been one of Android’s strongest points and Google took things further with Lollipop with the introduction of lock screen notifications, allowing users to have a preview without having to actually unlock your device… just like iOS (Sorry had to slide that in :P) Emails, appointments, text messages and other notifications will appear on the lock screen and grab your attention through Lollipop’s “Ambient Display”. The Ambient Display setting will also light up the screen when you pick the device up, similar to the Moto X’s Active Display.
Google has removed the “Silent” mode from Lollipop and replaced it with “Priority Mode” and “None”. Priority mode allows users to assign alerts based on importance and using the urgent mode means that only alarms will disturb you. There’s also a “do not disturb” mode baked into the OS….just like….ok fine, I won’t.
These are few features on lollipop which attracted me as an iPhone user. There are a lot more improvements under the hood.
Verdict
The Nexus 6 is a pretty solid all-round performer in my opinion, the camera and battery do not really affect my choice if I was to use this device as my daily driver. But size does. I couldn’t handle the size although I have fairly big hands.
The Nexus 6 is a massive smartphone and is most likely too big for most people. What do you think? do you agree?
