Terrific display, powerful processor, decent camera, Android 5.0 Lollipop
Kinda bulky, no expandable memory, no IR blaster, not cheap
As Google's first plus-size phablet, the Motorola-made Nexus 6 comes with a host of high-end specs and a price to match. But has it got enough to distinguish itself among some pretty impressive competition?
It's a big phone, and Google isn't interested in disguising the fact. The casing is curved at the back and measures 10mm at its thickest point. Not so bad, but at 160x83mm and weighing 84g this is a big ol' pocketful and not a particularly comfortable fit in one's trousers.
Screen & Chassis
Still if you can find a place for it, the Nexus 6 has plenty to offer, starting with a stonker of a screen. It's an ever-so-slightly-less-than 6-inch AMOLED display that delivers an impressively high resolution of 2,560x1,440 pixels (493ppi) -- well above the iPhone 6 Plus or OnePlus One's 1,920x1,080 for instance. Colours are bright and vivid, with nice, deep blacks, and if the whites perhaps err a little towards a slightly warmer, yellowish hue than pure white, we're not complaining.
The latest Android Lollipop 5.0 is on board of course, including the new Material Design interface, which combines a flat, functional look with eye-catching animations and understated styling. It marks a distinctive evolution from previous Android styling and for the moment is still fairly rarely seen, although it will be rolling out to virtually all Android handsets soon enough.
Software & Processor
The Nexus 6 packs a powerful engine in the form of a quad-core 2.7GHz processor, backed by a full 3GB RAM. It's in that group of high achievers that all respond pretty much as quickly as you can think, with no sign of stress or delay. It's this lightning reaction time that really makes the best handsets a joy to use -- more so than the quality of the screen or casing. Our AnTuTu benchmark test gave it a very high score of 53,346, making it our current record holder ahead of other powerhouses like the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Sony Xperia Z3 Compact.
Photography
The Nexus 6's 13-megapixel camera includes auto-focus and a dual LED flash, as well as some rather attractive animated onscreen controls. There aren't a lot of settings to play with, although you do get the option of HDR and lens blur, which helps centred objects to stand out, plus panorama and photo sphere effects. Other than that there's not a lot to tinker with, but Google does offer a large ranges of tweaks and filters in its separate photo-editing suite. Picture quality proved to be pretty good overall, with accurate colours and a good level of detail, even in less than ideal lighting conditions.
The 2-megapixel camera on the front for video calls isn't terrible, but looks decidedly unimpressive next to front-facing camera on recent phones like the OnePlus One or Microsoft Lumia 535 which have 5-megapixel selfie snappers.
There's no slot for a microSD card, but you've a choice of 32GB and 64GB models. The latter will set you back an eye-watering £549.
The battery held up pretty well, despite the powerful processor and big, bright screen, comfortably delivering close to two days of fairly heavy use.
Conclusion
The Google Nexus 6 is a big beast but as your portable media companion rather than merely phone, it ticks the boxes for superior display, processing power and a decent camera to boot. Shame about the hefty price tag though, which fails to take account of similar specs offered by rivals for considerably less.
Software: Android 5.0 Lollipop
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
