The original Nexus 6 was a mammoth, and not just in size. It was a lovely combination of well-designed hardware and stock Android software, which made a huge phone finally feel right. How do you top the original? With a gorgeous aluminium body.
The phone is 7.3 mm thick and has a 5.7-inch WQHD AMOLED display. For those of you who don’t speak specification, that’s 2560 x 1440 or the same resolution as top phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6. As you can see in the image above, the phone has very narrow bezels, so in theory, it should feel like a smaller phone than that 5.7-inch display implies.
And yes. It means the Nexus 6 is smaller than the original. That’s not the usual direction these things go!
Google joins the push towards USB Type-C connector, which while not yet universal is definitely the future standard.
The phone runs Android 6.0, and amongst the most important additions there is universal support for the phone’s fingerprint sensor. Google’s calling this “Nexus Imprint” on this phone. Interestingly, Google’s opted to put the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, in exactly the same spot that the comfy finger dimple was on last year’s Morotrola Nexus 6. And the great news is that you can use it in any app — not just a s a specialised way to unlock your phone.
Additionally, the phone has a 12.3-megapixel Sony image sensor (and an 8 megapixel front-facing chip, but who cares about that). It’s uncommon to call out the chip manufacturer for phone image sensors, but it shouldn’t be at all surprising that the sensor comes from Sony. It’s one of the world’s biggest image sensor manufacturers. It also bodes well for the camera’s image quality because Sony is dope. Google brags that the phone has larger photodiodes than the competition. That’s important because larger diodes capture light more light more efficiently, and as we all know, light is the key to photography.
The phone shoots at up to 240 frames per second in video mode — I’m assuming that’s 1920×1080 HD video. It also supports 4K capture at 30 frames per second.
And of course, Google is using the new Nexus phones as an opportunity to plug its fledgling Fi carrier service. It launched earlier this year, the company launched the hybrid, piggyback carrier on the Nexus 6. And that might be an enticing version to jump on a Nexus phone because, it turns out to be pretty good on first inspection. I imagine it’s only going to get better.
It will be available for pre-order today in the US, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer in Australia. The US pricing is $US500, $US550, and $US650 for the 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB versions, and will likely be higher than that locally.
So what do we make of all of this? Well, with a new hardware partner — Huawei — there are a lot of things that could go wrong here, but it seems that the success of the phone will ultimately hinge on that whole fingerprint reader on the back concept. We’ll let you know what we find out!
Nexus 6P Specs
- OS: Android Marshmallow 6.0
- CPU: 2 GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 v.2.1
- Display: 5.7-inch WQHD AMOLED
- PPI: 515
- Memory: 3GB
- Storage: 32GB / 64GB / 128GB
- Cameras: 8MP front / 12MP rear
- Battery: 3450mAh
- Weight: 178 grams
- Footprint: 6.27″ x 3.06″
- Thickness: 7.3mm
- NFC: Yes
- Fingerprint Reader: Yes
- Notable Extras: Project Fi, Fast Android Updates, USB-Type C
- Price: $US500 /$US550 / $US650 (US pricing)
- Availability: TBA
[Google]