Google Nexus 6 Review

[williamvw]

Is the Nexus 6 worth its premium price, or are there better options to get your Lollipop fix?

Google Nexus 6 Review : Read more

 

[idisarmu]

Nobody cares about the nexus 6 anymore... It's been months since it came out.

 

[Jonathan G]

Why wasn't the S6 used in this comparison?

 

[MobileEditor]

Why wasn't the S6 used in this comparison?

Primarily because of the difference in screen size. If someone is considering a 6-inch phone, they probably are not interested in 5-inch phones. Thus, we compared it to other devices with a 5.5-inch or larger screen (and the Nexus 5 just because it was the previous generation).

- Matt H.

 

[Desertlax]

I think there is a typo about price, the nexus 6 is listed as 649 and 699 on the play store, not "starting at $750".

 

[Tanquen]

I don’t know if Google lowered the price or when but it’s been $649 for the last week or so that I’ve been thinking of buying it. So I don’t get the repeated complaint that the price is $750 and too high. ???

 

[MobileEditor]

I think there is a typo about price, the nexus 6 is listed as 649 and 699 on the play store, not "starting at $750".

Thanks for pointing this out. The article has been updated to reflect the current pricing.

- Matt H.

 

[Stryfex]

Did I hit my head and go back in time by like 6 months? Why is toms hardware posting reviews of the Nexus 6?

 

[rtfizzel]

The Nexus 6 camera does have OIS. At least it is listed as a feature by Google and many other reviews.
https://www.google.com/nexus/6/

 

[rtfizzel]

My bad, misread. Apologies.

The Nexus 6 camera does have OIS. At least it is listed as a feature by Google and many other reviews.
https://www.google.com/nexus/6/

 

[Chillyblue]

I have owned my N6 since it came out. Unlike others, I ordered it on release date, and got it five days later.

By now long discussions about his big it is are redundant and moot. Those who purchase the phone known that, and like the screen real estate. Size is a preference they choose. If someone wants a smaller screen, they have unlimited options. To be honest, one become quite accustomed to the size rather quickly.Enough about size. Oh, it fits perfectly into my Levi Strauss jeans back pocket.

This phone since upgrading to 5.1 is a lightening fast. I run stock rooted with Franco Kernel. Antutu benchmark is 55,000 and Gerebench is 1200 single core, and 3600 multiple. I've run both encrypted and unencrypted... and frankly I csntvdetect any difference other than a faster boot time.

The build quality is excellent, the screen accurate and detailed, the camera gets the job donecwith clarity and definition....if you use a different third party camera app the results get better.

I've owned a HTC M8, and a Samsung note 3. Touch Wiz sucks, and bulild quality was toy like. HTC M8 offered excellent build quality and sense is far less intrusive then touch wiz.

Personally, pure Android, a bigger screen, faster updates, excellent build quality all make this phone a winner.

 

[Park Sung-Yong]

why didn't you test the device with 5.1? 5.1 resolved lots of battery and memory issues

 

[JOSHSKORN]

I would've sold my Note 4 and purchased this just to get a rootable phone, BUT no Micro SD is a deal breaker for me. Actually, it doesn't just break it, it kills it.

 

[Chillyblue]

why didn't you test the device with 5.1? 5.1 resolved lots of battery and memory issues

I would've sold my Note 4 and purchased this just to get a rootable phone, BUT no Micro SD is a deal breaker for me. Actually, it doesn't just break it, it kills it.

 

[Chillyblue]

Removable SD cards and replaceable batteries are dated dinosaurs technology. 64gb of storage and the cloud is enough storage.

Incidently, your phone can be rooted, so I have no idea what you're talking about in terms of that being any sort of difference maker.

The N6 of course has an unlocked sim card and can be used on any carrier off contract.

 

[julianbautista87]

Removable SD cards and replaceable batteries are dated dinosaurs technology. 64gb of storage and the cloud is enough storage.

Incidently, your phone can be rooted, so I have no idea what you're talking about in terms of that being any sort of difference maker.

The N6 of course has an unlocked sim card and can be used on any carrier off contract.

paying Apple 100 dollars every time your battery dies is "high tech", I guess.

 

[Chillyblue]

Removable SD cards and replaceable batteries are dated dinosaurs technology. 64gb of storage and the cloud is enough storage.

Incidently, your phone can be rooted, so I have no idea what you're talking about in terms of that being any sort of difference maker.

The N6 of course has an unlocked sim card and can be used on any carrier off contract.

paying Apple 100 dollars every time your battery dies is "high tech", I guess.

 

[Chillyblue]

The trick is to of course avoid Apple, which is also dated technology with slower processors, lower resolution screens, no customization and high prices. I have a backup HTC M7 which was my daily driver for three years, and the original battery is as good as the day I got it.

 

[LordConrad]

I believe that most AMOLED screens, being Pentile displays, should have their stated resolution reduced by 33% as each pixel consists of only two sub-pixels instead of the usual three.

 

[MobileEditor]

why didn't you test the device with 5.1? 5.1 resolved lots of battery and memory issues

We had already completed the review by the time the 5.1 update was available (there was a gap between completion and posting). Since the 5.1 update is supposed to specifically address FDE performance, I did rerun AndEBench and updated the review to include the performance delta relative to 5.0. I also reran Geekbench and did not see any significant change in performance. The 5.1 update also had no effect on photo quality or display performance.

I'm retesting the Nexus 6 on 5.1 now and hope to post a performance comparison soon.

- Matt H.

 

[bogda]

Removable SD cards and replaceable batteries are dated dinosaurs technology. 64gb of storage and the cloud is enough storage.

It is not about it being dinosaur technology, it is about business model of charging an arm and a leg for any upgrade. "Modern users" consider changing wallpaper on their phone ultimate customization decent user should do. Anything else is too complicated..
So why don't you leave it as an option for us dinosaurs. You modern users can have your iPhones, S6s and M9s.
BTW fastest 32GB MicroSDs is around 20$ online.

 

[badvok66]

Without a time machine I guess it would be impossible to answer this question but; Has AMOLED improved significantly so that the lifetime of a phone like this will be greater than 12 - 18 months?
For comparison purposes I had an old Galaxy S2 which had a fairly early model AMOLED display that faded to < 10% original brightness in 48 months and was thus only usable in a darkened environment (was kept as backup but since virtually unusable when actually needed it has now been dumped).

 

[terrober14]

So my 6.44" screen on my Sony Xperia Z Ultra doesn't get compared here simply because it isn't in the list of newest devices?

 

[dthx]

Removable SD cards and replaceable batteries are dated dinosaurs technology. 64gb of storage and the cloud is enough storage.

It is not about it being dinosaur technology, it is about business model of charging an arm and a leg for any upgrade. "Modern users" consider changing wallpaper on their phone ultimate customization decent user should do. Anything else is too complicated..
So why don't you leave it as an option for us dinosaurs. You modern users can have your iPhones, S6s and M9s.
BTW fastest 32GB MicroSDs is around 20$ online.

I understand what you say, but I think that the main reason of not proposing MicroSD slot on the devices has much more to do with device manufacturers trying to reduce the return rates than vendors trying to sell you cloud storage.
A good part of the reliability or speed issues of former android devices were related to defective or slow crappy MicroSD cards that the users put in their devices. Users (not me, not you, but the man of the street) were also struggling to find correct ways to transfer their data to or from the SD card, which offsets the benefit of having that option.

 

[neconnn]

Still moto droid turbo is better than reviewed phones.