Google Nexus 6P
When Google launched the Nexus 6, it wasn’t the upgrade that Nexus 5 owners had been looking for. The 5.96in screen made the Motorola-built phone too big and heavy. In 2015, Google has decided to adopt Apple’s strategy and launch two phones, with the aim of appealing to a wider audience. There’s the 5X (page 37), the true successor to the Nexus 5, and the 6P, which we look at here, with a 5.7in screen.
Design
The 6P is the first all-metal Nexus flagship smartphone. It’s made of CNC-machined aeronautical-grade aluminium, which Google says is “really nice”. And it is. It’s slim and sleek for a big phone, and looks very much the part.
It feels lighter than you expect, too – it’s similar in size to the iPhone 6s Plus, but weighs around 20g less. Recently, videos have been posted showing how ‘easy’ it is to break the Nexus 6P in half. It may not be the strongest phone out there, but as long as you don’t grab it with both hands and try to snap it in half, then it’s probably going to be fine. More worrying is the small number of reports of the glass panel covering the rear camera spontaneously cracking or shattering.
Aside from this controversy, the phone looks better in the flesh than in pictures. Although the black strip of gorilla glass looks ugly, it’s not that bad when you see it for real, and the very slight bulge helps you work out which way is up by touch alone. If we’re being really critical, we don’t like the plastic panel that sits at the bottom of the rear side. It doesn’t match the aluminium in colour but – as with the top strip – hides antennas. The huge CE markings (not shown in the photos here of an early sample 6P) seem a bit unnecessary, though.
Compared to the Nexus 6, the 6P is much more manageable to hold with one hand. It’s thinner by 3mm and the bigger screen-to-body ratio makes all the difference. While it’s not going to slip easily into a pocket (especially in a case) it’s going to be a lot easier to live with.
Around the back – just as you’ll find with other Huawei phones such as the Mate S – is a fingerprint scanner, called Nexus Imprint. This will come in handy for Google Pay and – eventually – third-party apps, although there’s still no confirmed launch date for Android Pay in the UK. You can register five fingers and there’s no need to wake the phone before using it.
Your index finger almost falls naturally on to the sensor when you pick up the phone – it’s something we quickly adjusted to. Like the iPhone 6s, the scanner is very fast, recognising your print almost instantaneously, and waking and unlocking the phone.
At the front are stereo speakers and there are three mics – two on the front and one on the rear. Compared to phones with speakers at the back or on the bottom edge, the sound quality is excellent and there’s plenty of volume.
To add to the disappointment of non-expandable storage, there’s an irremovable 3450mAh battery. Google says the support for fast charging gives you up to seven hours of use from only 10 minutes of charging. However, you’ll need to use the included charger. When we hooked up to our in-wall USB charging plate, we saw the battery go from 7- to 28 percent in 30 minutes. That’s no quicker than an iPhone 6s Plus charges.
But with the official charger, the phone charges from 15- to 30 percent in a little over 10 minutes and 15- to 90 percent in just over 30 minutes. Fast charging is most effective when the battery is very depleted, though.
Display
If you like big screens, you will love the 6P’s 5.7in AMOLED display that’s protected by Gorilla Glass 4, which is fitted flush into the aluminium frame. The resolution – as you’d expect of a premium Android flagship – is a quad-HD (2560x1440). It’s by no means the first to have this resolution, but it looks gorgeous, with eye-popping colours and detail. Viewing angles, of course, are very wide and contrast is fabulous.
The high resolution also helps when taking photos and videos as its much easier to see when things are in focus (or blurry). Look as close as you like: you can’t see the individual pixels that make up the screen.
The screen looks good at any screen brightness including when dim – something other AMOLED phones fail at. The tech also offers battery-saving potential. When you pick up the 6P, notifications are shown in mono and only the necessary pixels are lit up. Off-centre it’s possible to notice
a rainbow effect – like an oil slick that covers the screen – but for the majority of time you won’t see it.
Hardware
The 6P is powered by a Snapdragon 810 v2.1 octa-core processor (as also used in the OnePlus 2). It has Adreno 430 graphics and is backed by 3GB of RAM. As you can see in our graphs (right), it’s not the quickest by any means. In use, it’s more than fast enough but we were frustrated by the odd moment of hesitation when using certain apps or changing certain settings.
A handy feature is being able to double-press the power button to launch the camera app, which starts quickly and means you can take a photo almost as soon as the phone is out of your pocket. Thoughtfully, the button has a rough texture, so your finger can differentiate it from the volume rocker below.
The battery will last a day with general use. It’s the same story as for other flagships: use it lightly and you’ll get a day and a half, but hammer it (with games and shooting 4K video) and you will be reaching for the USB-C cable at dinner time.
But Android Marshmallow brings new power features to the table: App standby and Doze. The former closes down apps that haven’t been used, which helps a little, but Doze is superb. When your phone is in standby and not moving, it kicks in automatically and shuts down whatever it can. You don’t need to enable it as it’s part of the operating system. Only high-priority alerts will get through, such as text messages. Others, like a reply to a Facebook post, won’t.
What it means is that your 6P’s battery won’t drain overnight if you forget to put it on charge: our sample went down only a couple of percent in nine hours.
In terms of connectivity, there’s dual-band 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS and LTE. And along with the fingerprint sensor, there’s an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and hall sensor.
Cameras
In previous Nexuses, the camera has been a bit of a sore point. LG, Motorola and others haven’t
managed to put in a camera worthy of the ‘premium’ tag. However, the 12.3Mp Sony sensor in the 6P changes all that.
It may not have the highest resolution, but anyone that knows anything about cameras will know that larger pixels - bigger receptors – capture more light and therefore more accurately capture colours. It’s not always true, but this is most certainly the best camera on any Nexus phone.
The pixels are 1.55 microns in size – compared to 1.22 in the iPhone 6s Plus, for example. (The 6 Plus had 1.55-micron pixels, but was only 8Mp.) This help indoor photography in particular, where there’s much less light.
You also get slo-mo video, at 240fps in 720p, and you can select the section of video to slow down in the Google Photos app. A burst mode shoots at 30fps and you can then choose your favourite later from a selection of eight. The phone can also make an animated GIF from these, which is highly shareable unlike Apple’s new Live Photos.
In our tests, the main camera performed admirably. For the most part the laser autofocus did its thing, working quickly and accurately. There were still around 10 percent of blurry shots, some of which shouldn’t have been as nothing was moving in the frame.
But the other 90 percent were largely spectacular. Images are processed – obviously – and the sharpening and saturation may be overdone for some tasted, but we loved it. Flowers, foliage, grass, fur: everything is sharp and detailed.
Macro shots are great too, and the ability to tap the screen to set a focus point, then use the volume buttons to take the shot instead of stabbing the onscreen button and wobbling the camera is great.
In low light, the 6P does a great job of retaining detail, albeit seemingly at the expense of colour noise. In the photos below, it’s clear the 6P’s image is too saturated compared to the iPhone 6s Plus. But the 6s Plus’ effort lacks detail - the smudging effect is likely a result of the noise reduction system.
The Nexus 6P’s videos are excellent, too. 4K footage has the expected detail, along with vibrant colours. The speedo icon in the native camera app makes it easy to flip between 30-, 120- and 240fps (changing resolution as you go) but there’s no support for 1080p/60. We hope this is added in an update.
But the camera app is well designed and sensibly defaults to the highest resolution for photos on both front- and rear cameras. There’s also tight integration with Google Photos, which is both a great app and a great service. For example, you can turn off ‘creations’ in the c bust mode settings.
The app also supports HDR, panoramas and photo spheres (the latter of which stitches photos so you can explore the full 360 degrees of a scene).
Let’s not forget the front camera in all of this. The 8Mp sensor is also capable of great photos: sharp and with lots of detail. It’s ideal for selfies and has a wide-enough field of view to get two people in the shot at arm’s length. It will also record 1080p video at 30fps. Panoramas (or wide selfies) aren’t currently supported in the app, though.
Software
Out of the box, the 6P has Marshmallow – Android 6.0. It comes with several new features. Now on Tap allows you to get context-sensitive information ‘cards’ by holding the home button. That might not sound all that different from Google Now in Lollipop, but the difference is that it will work within apps, offering information relevant to that app. In many other ways, Marshmallow looks very similar to Lollipop, with minor tweaks here and there. The are individual volume sliders for media, notifications and alarms, for example.
Verdict
Originally, Nexus phones stood out for being excellent value at a low price. They weren’t an alternative to flagship handsets, but they had the advantage of running stock Android and getting the next version more quickly. The 6P, though, is not only a flagship, but is arguably the best Android phone on the market. It won’t suit everyone due to its size, nor those looking for a phone with dual-SIM slots or a removable battery. But the excellent screen, front-firing speakers, quick charging, great cameras, speedy performance and Android Marshmallow add up to make this a phone that’s a pleasure to use. And yes, it’s also cheaper than its rivals.