Nexus 6P review

Nexus 6P

PROS

• Looks the business
• Impressive camera, even in low-light
• Fast performance
• Not super expensive

CONS

• USB-C might annoy until more common
• HDR processing could be quicker

  

   KEY FEATURES

• 5.7-inch, quad-HD display
• Snapdragon 810 processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB/64GB/128GB internal storage
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• USB-C
• 3,450 mAh battery with rapid charging
• Gorilla Glass 4
• Manufacturer: Google
• Review Price: £449.00

NEXUS 6P – LONG TERM REVIEW

We're gearing up for the launch of the next Nexus, or are we? Rumours point to the next phone from Google to come with a new moniker. Google could use the Pixel branding this time around, and here's everything you need to know about Pixel and Pixel XL.

The Nexus 6P was the first phone I ever scored a perfect 5/5, and at the time I said it was the best Android phone you could buy. It’s about 7 months later now, and I’m still confident in saying this is one of the best phones out there. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10 scored 5/5 and 4.5/5 respectively and are both great phones, but if you’re looking for something with a bigger screen I would still highly recommend Google and Huawei’s 6P.

The Snapdragon 810 and 3GB RAM is still a fine combination and it makes for a fast phone. While the Nexus 5X seems to have suffered some performance issues, the 6P is as smooth and quick as it was on day one.

There have been a couple of updates to the camera – it’s much faster now – and you’ve of course got Android N (which we’ll hear more about at Google I/O) coming at some point towards the end of the year.

My one quibble about the longevity of the Nexus 6P comes with its build. I’ve been using a silver model and it’s fine, but I have seen a couple of black models with much of the back paint coming off. This leaves an ugly finish, and not something you’d expect from a pricey phone.

That aside, everything else still gets the thumbs up. The screen is great, camera reliable and the battery will easily make it through the day. It struggles to go two days though, but then so do most phones of this size.

I noted in my original review that USB-C was something of an annoyance simply because it wasn’t widely adopted but I feel that issue has subsided somewhat. A lot of the 2016 flagships have USB-C – LG G5, Huawei P9 and HTC 10 – and it’s becoming more and more common in laptops too.

NEXUS 6P – LONG TERM VERDICT

I still love the Nexus 6P. It’s easily the best phone Google and Huawei have ever made and it seems to stand the test of time very well. Considering Google often has it on special offer, it can be even more of a bargain.

Read my original review below...

WHAT IS THE NEXUS 6P?

The Nexus 6P is the follow up to the poor Nexus 6 and the second pure Android device we’ve seen from Google this year after the mostly impressive Nexus 5X. It's made by Huawei, and it's fantastic.

It’s the first Nexus that doesn’t make any compromises and offers buyers a stunning metal design, high-end specs and an unadulterated version of Android. It's pricier than the 5X, but it's clear to see where the extra money has gone.

Armed with these perks the Nexus 6P impresses in every area and is, along with the Samsung Galaxy S7, the best high end Android smartphone you can buy right now.

NEXUS 6P – DESIGN

Apparently the ‘P’ in the 6P stands for ‘premium’. Premium is a word overused in reviews but, as much as I hate it, it’s the best way to describe the overall design of the Nexus 6P.

And, that shouldn’t really be a surprise. Even though Huawei’s own phones always fall down due to overbearing software, the Chinese firm has been excelling in design for a while now. This year’s Mate S being the best yet.

Related: Best Android phones

Just like the Mate S, the Nexus 6P has an all metal design, with heavily chamfered edges leading into a Gorilla Glass 4 coated display. The antenna bands are cleverly hidden, while the flat sides and ever so slightly curved back make it a thing of pleasure to hold.

Along the sides you’ve got a well placed standby button just above a nice, clicky volume rocker. That power button is slightly textured, so you can easily jump straight to it. This is a small touch, but the details are important.

Flip the phone over and the Nexus branding is stencilled in vertically with the circular fingerprint scanner sitting just above. Google is calling this Nexus Imprint – I’m not sure why it needs a name – and it’s up there with the iPhone 6S and Xperia Z5 in terms of speed.

I’m a big fan of the fingerprint reader being on the back. It’s the natural place my finger reaches for when I pick the phone up and it takes just a slight touch to zip past the lockscreen and plonk you right on the homescreen. Pair it with the super fast set-up process – it takes about 20-seconds, whereas the iPhone can take over a minute – and Marshmallow's baked in fingerprint scanner support and you’ve got a fantastic security package.

Now, if there’s one Nexus 6P design choice that’s caused a bit of a stir since the leaked images first hit the interwebs it’s the glass covered hump running across the top.

This houses the camera, flash plus a bevy of sensors. Others might disagree, but I like it. Unlike the smaller humps on the iPhone 6S or Galaxy S6, having it across the whole width means it doesn’t wobble when I use the phone on a table and the periscope-like design is nicely eye-catching.

It’s far from the ugly, eyesore some refer to it as, and if it makes the camera better then I’m even more for it. But, if you’re still against it, I would suggest grabbing the black model as it hides it better than the white or silver versions.

Related: Nexus 5X vs Nexus 6P

With a 5.7-inch screen, the Nexus 6P is a big phone. But, phones in general are getting bigger and it doesn’t feel anywhere near as cumbersome as the Nexus 6. It’s slimmer and lacks the monstrous width that ruined the 2014 Nexus.

Thanks to the almost non-existent side bezels the whole phone isn’t much bigger than the 5.4-inch screen toting Blackberry Priv and it’s slightly smaller than the 5.5-inch iPhone 6S Plus.

It could be smaller too, but Google and Huawei decided to have dual front-facing stereo speakers flank the display. Again, they made the right choice. Proper sounding speakers are always better than a few weedy holes on the back.

My only criticism about the Nexus 6P, and this is ridiculously minor, is I would prefer the headphone jack to be on the bottom, rather than on the top.

This is by far and away the best looking Nexus yet, and its use of metal, glass and eye-catching design choices put it right up there with Samsung’s Note 5 and Apple’s iPhone 6S when it comes to visual allure.

NEXUS 6P – DISPLAY

The Nexus 6P's 5.7-inch display features a Samsung AMOLED panel, with a pixel-dense quad-HD resolution and boy, is it good.

While the Nexus 6 suffered with poor viewing angles and whites that almost looked pink, the screen on the 6P is rich in accurate colours and has nicely inky blacks. As it’s AMOLED, whites can look a little muddy but really, come on, that’s a small sacrifice I can live with.

Colours have a vivid punch – blues, reds and oranges pop out, but they’re still accurately shown, while the green shades in Marshmallow’s stock wallpaper look exceptional. Some might say they’re too saturated, but I’d disagree, especially when you compare it to those truly over-saturated panels Samsung used a couple of years ago.

If you prefer things a little more toned down, Google has sneakily added an sRGB display mode deep inside the Settings menu. It cools the colours down a bit, but I prefer the original mode.

Viewing angles are fantastic, as is outdoor visibility. I’d like a slight hint more brightness though, and the screen's auto setting is a bit dodgy. It judders noticeably as it changes, but i've found this an issue on most Android phones.

Ambient Display is another bonus that comes from the AMOLED panel. Pick the phone up, or wave your hand over it, and a brief black and white view of the time or any current notifications will pop-up. It’s great – handy if the phones on your desk and it doesn’t use as much battery as lighting up the whole panel.

NEXUS 6P – CAMERA

Poor camera performance has been a constant issue on past Nexus devices. Slow focusing, even slower post-production, blurry results and unresponsive apps were all common. Thankfully, the camera experience on the Nexus 6P is really good. It might not quite match the Note 5 for sheer all-round pictures, but it certainly makes a strong go at it.

The Nexus 6P comes loaded with a 12MP sensor, complete with laser auto-focus – as opposed to the phase detection method preferred by Sony – and larger 1.55µm pixels that let in more light than your average megapixels. That last point is important, because the Nexus 6P doesn’t have OIS (optical image stabilisation).

A double-click on the standby button takes you straight into the new camera UI, it’s been spruced up a bit and it’s very fast – both in opening and focussing – but it does lack the suite of manual settings LG and Samsung users have gotten used to. A third-party app – Camera FV-5, is one of the better ones – sorts this problem out though.

The camera also does a good job at not overblowing skies

The laser assisted focus system locks onto targets quickly, and it does a good job at finding the right point in macro shots. Sometimes in lower-light situations it can take a bit longer, but I’ve yet to find a phone that doesn’t.

Picture quality is fantastic, right up there with the Samsung Galaxy S7, iPhone 6S Plus and LG G4. It might posses less megapixels than the Sony Xperia Z5, but the the faster interface means I tend to get better shots with the Nexus 6P.

Colours are accurate, the sensor doesn’t overexposure and detail is off the charts. The auto HDR mode also does a great job, though processing of HDR snaps takes marginally longer and there’s a bit of background action going on after you’re done.

I’m impressed with the daylight results, but the low-light performance is even more surprising. Yes, the lack of OIS does mean you have to try a bit harder to keep the phone still, but pictures look ace. The night sky is dark, bright spots don’t ruin the whole image and more times than not I get a really good shot using the 6P in low light.

4K video, predictably, looks sharp – again you need to keep extra still to compensate for the lack of OIS – and 240fps slow-mo footage (the Nexus 5X can only capture 120fps) is just as smooth as the iPhone.

The fantastic package is rounded off with one of the finest selfie cameras on the market. The 8MP sensor produces crisp, well-lit snaps in all sorts of conditions.

The Nexus 6P easily has the best camera ever seen on a Google phone, and it doesn’t fall too far behind the high-end competition. Maybe OIS would have improved the set-up even more and the HDR mode is a little slow, but they’re my only complaints.

NEXUS 6P – SOFTWARE

Nexus devices were never really meant to consumer products. They were there to showcase developers the latest version of Android, and all the new fancy things it can do. That vision has changed slightly, I see a lot of Nexus 5’s around the place, but they’re still the best place to experience Android how Google intended it.

The Nexus 6P runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. We’ve got a full review of it linked below, but the TL;DR version is that it’s the most complete version of the operating system yet.

Related: Android Marshmallow review

Thanks to Doze, standby times – those hours in the day when your phone is just sitting idle on a desk – are much improved and the updated permissions system adds much needed privacy controls to Android.

Google’s fantastic Siri and Cortana rival Now has been improved too, with Now on Tap scanning your screen for interesting news and information when you hold down the home button. It’s not perfect yet, but I think it could be the next big Android feature.

There are loads of other tweaks and changes littered across Marshmallow, all of which make it the most user-friendly version to date. It also downright beats iOS when it comes to looks, something I wouldn’t have been saying a few years ago.

Marshmallow, however, is no longer than latest version of Android. Google has now announced Android N, which could be version 6.1 or 7.0. It's only in a developer preview at the moment, but should start hitting Nexus device later in the year.

The biggest addition is split-screen multitasking, but there are improvements to Doze and a rejigged notification panel.

NEXUS 6P – PERFORMANCE AND SOUND

After using the Nexus 6P for just a few hours I noticed something – it doesn’t have any of those moments of slowdown and stand-stills that even the most powerful of Android phones have always suffered.

The slight pause when you tap on an app icon or the judder after a keyboard press has been completely killed. It didn’t, in any way, ruin those other phones, in fact it was something I just got used to, but it’s noticeable now it’s gone.

Running the Nexus 6P is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 CPU paired with 3GB RAM. It’s a common combo for 2015 flagships, but it excels here. It's not as fast the 2016 flagship CPU, the 820, but it's speedy still.

I’ve experienced none of the overheating problems that previously plagued the 810 chip – the only time the Nexus 6P gets warm to the touch is either when it's fast charging or installing a whole load of apps – and it’s an absolute performance beast.

Lag is nowhere to be seen, which makes for smooth gaming whether you’re wasting a couple of minutes with Monument Valley and getting deep into a round of Asphalt 8.

In some ways, it feels just as fast as the iPhone 6S Plus. I’m not talking about in terms of specs or benchmarks, but in real life day-to-day actual use. It’s like Google and Huawei have managed to perfectly optimise the software experience with the chipset.

I didn't notice any disparity in performance between it and the Note 5 or OnePlus 2, despite the fact the Nexus 6P features 3GB, not 4GB of RAM. Jumping between apps, even beefy games, doesn’t cause any problems and keeps your current state saved for a surprisingly long amount of time.

For those interested, the Nexus 6P picks up a score 4,245 on GeekBench’s Multi-core test. Meaning it’ll sit just below the iPhone 6S Plus (4417) and a lot lower than the S6 Edge + (5,014). I wouldn’t read too much into it, real world use is on easily on par with those devices.

The sound pumped out by the dual front-facing speakers is fantastic, for a phone anyway, though they don’t quite reach the quality set by Motorola’s Moto X Style. They’re on par with HTC’s Boomsound though, dishing out detailed noise even when cranked up. It makes such a difference whether you’re watching YouTube, listening to Spotify or just waking up to an alarm in the morning.

NFC support is here, important for Android Pay, as is Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. Call quality on Three’s UK network is excellent and the mics do a good job of blocking out ambient noise.

NEXUS 6P - BATTERY LIFE AND USB-C

The 3,450 battery tucked inside the Nexus 6P isn’t going to redefine how long phones can last for, but it’ll easily go the day and well into the next with general use.

Unplugging at around 7am, the phone can make it through the working day. By 6pm I’m at about 60%, and by midnight it’s sitting at 40%. Thanks to Marshmallow’s Doze feature, standby time is fantastic and overnight the phone only loses a couple of percent. It can then carry on the until the afternoon.

An hour of streaming Fargo on Netflix ate through 7% – which is very good – while a 30 minute Hitman Sniper session took it from 34% to 27%.

For a thin device, with such a high-res display, the battery life is what I would expect.

It was pretty much confirmed by Google during the unveiling of Marshmallow, but the Nexus 6P is one of the first phones to ditch the microUSB charging standard for the new USB-C port. Samsung decided against adding this to the Galaxy S7, but did the LG G5 does use it.

This is both great, and slightly annoying. It’s great because USB-C is the connection of the future. In a few years it’ll charge your phone, laptop and hopefully everything else. It’s also reversible, like Apple’s Lightning cable, which is a godsend when you’re fumbling around trying to plug your phone in at night.

But, it renders my entire drawer of microUSB cables useless and replacement USB-C ones are still a little pricey. If I forget my cable, the chances of something having a spare are very slim.

Google has also decided the included plug is USB-C to USC-C, and while I appreciate you get both a USB-C to USB-C and regular USB-A to USB-C cable, the latter is pretty small and probably best used as back-up. Left on your desk at work, perhaps.

As Marshmallow has proper USB-C support, fast charging is supported on the Nexus 6P. Though only if you use the included charger and plug. I can juice up fully in just under an hour, and it reaches 60% in about 30-minutes.

You won’t get any of the faster USB speeds if you plug it into your computer, as the port itself is still USB 2.0. In reality, this doesn’t make much difference. I don’t think i’ve transferred anything from my computer to my phone – or vice-versa – in a number of years so speeds aren’t an issue.

SHOULD YOU BUY THE NEXUS 6P?

If you want a large Android phone, you want the Nexus 6P. It’s the best phone both Google and Huawei have ever made, and it’s pretty much the best Android device I have ever used. If you want something smaller though, the Samsung Galaxy S7 is a great choice.

Whereas other Nexus devices have compromised in certain areas, this one doesn’t. The screen, battery, processor, camera, build quality are all as good as, if not better, than the competition.

Would I like wireless charging? Yes, but no metal phones currently have this. Would I like a microSD card? Yep, but again no Google Nexus device has ever had one and I don't think they ever will.

There’s also the price to take into consideration. The 32GB base model starts off at £449 an extra £50 bumps it up to 64GB and for £579 you get 128GB. That’s £210 cheaper than the corresponding iPhone 6S Plus. It’s great value, no doubt about it.

So, that’s all the boxes ticked. Well done Google and Huawei, you’ve made the best phone of 2015.

VERDICT

The first no compromise Nexus is a beautiful, fast and worthy canvas for Android Marshmallow.

SCORES IN DETAIL

• Battery Life9
• Calls & Sound10
• Camera9
• Design9
• Performance10
• Screen Quality9
• Software10
• Value9
  

5:04 PM