The Google Nexus 6P Review
by Andrei Frumusanu on December 16, 2015 8:00 AM ESTAs we have come to know, Google has opted to simultaneously release two Nexus smartphone devices this year. Alongside the smaller form-factor LG Nexus 5X which we’ve reviewed a couple of weeks ago, we also find the larger Huawei-built Nexus 6P. The Nexus 6P is the successor to last year’s Motorola Nexus 6. The new device also marks a first for Google’s Nexus line-up: the introduction of Huawei as a hardware partner.
The symbiosis created by the collaboration between OEMs and Google for Nexus devices is quite unique in the market and is more similar to how ODMs operate. In the case of the Nexus devices the hardware vendors make their design resources and production lines available to Google. This usually means that a Nexus device from a given vendor will most of the time be remarkably similar in build to what the OEM offers for their own product lines at that moment in time. As we’ve seen in the past this has been valid for the last few generations of Nexus’, where for example the Nexus 6 took design cues from Motorola’s own Moto X devices or LG’s Nexus 5X sporting very typical LG build characteristics.
The Nexus 6P is no different in this regard. Huawei has had a long history of producing metal frame devices and in the past few years has even made this a trademark design characteristic of their latest models. In terms of build the Nexus 6P clearly reminds of the Mate series and even has some design cues that are similar to the recently announced Mate 8.
While in terms of design we can see a fair bit of input and design language from the vendors, the actual specifications of the device’s internal hardware are heavily influenced by Google’s own choices. As such, we go over the specifications of the Nexus 6P:
Huawei Nexus 6P | ||
SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 4x Cortex A53@1.56GHz, 4x Cortex A57@1.95GHz Adreno 430 @ 600MHz |
|
RAM | 3GB LPDDR4 | |
Storage | 32GB / 64GB / 128GB NAND | |
Display | 5.7” 1440p Samsung AMOLED Gorilla Glass 4 |
|
Modem | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE UE Category 10 (SoC Integrated Qualcomm Gobi Modem) |
|
Networks North America (H1511 / A1) Rest of world (H1512 / A2) |
TDD LTE | B38 / B39 / B40 / B41 |
FDD LTE | B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B9 / B12 / B13 / B17 / B19 / B20 / B25 / B26 / B28 / B29 / B30 | |
UMTS | 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / AWS /1900 / 2100 ( B19 / B6 / B5 / B8 / B9 / B4 / B2 / B1) |
|
CDMA | BC 0 / 1 / 10 | |
GSM | 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 | |
Dimensions | 159.3 (h) x 77.8 (w) x 7.3 (d) mm, 178 grams |
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Cameras | Rear | 12.3MP ( 4032 x 3024 ) Sony IMX377 Sensor w/ 1.55µm pixels F/2.0 aperture, 26mm eq. |
Front | 8MP ( 3264 x 2448 ) Sony IMX179 w/ 1.4µm pixels F/2.4 aperture, 26mm eq. |
|
Battery | 3450mAh (13.18 Whr) | |
OS | Android 6.0 | |
Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz BT 4.2, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC, USB-C 2.0 |
|
SIM Size | NanoSIM | |
MSRP USA, UK, Eurozone |
32GB | $499 - £449 - 649€ |
64GB | $549 - £499 - 699€ | |
128GB | $649 - £579 - 799€ |
The 6P is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC. This is a big.LITTLE with a quad-core ARM Cortex A57 cluster at 1.95GHz serving as the high-performance cluster and a quad-core Cortex A53 cluster running at 1.55GHz serving as the high-efficiency cluster. Graphics are powered by Qualcomm’s own Adreno 430 GPU which should be plenty to serve the 1440p screen of the Nexus 6P. Over this past year there have been some concerns regarding the Snapdragon 810’s efficiency, and we’ll cover how the chipset affects the device’s performance and battery life throughout the review.
The device comes in two different models: a North American model and a rest-of-the-world / international variant. In terms of frequency bands the NA model comes with frequency bands equipped for NA carriers while logically the second model sports bands for all other global carriers. Connectivity is provided by the integrated modem on the Snapdragon 810 offering up to LTE UE Category 10 speeds of up to 300Mbps down and 100Mbps upload.
The 6P shares the same main camera as found on the 5X: A Sony IMX377 sensor module which sports large pixel pitches coming in at 1.55µm. As such the resolution is more limited at 12.3MP but together with the F/2.0 lens system the larger pixels should provide better light sensitivity compared to other sensors on currently available in devices. On the front camera we find the same module found on other Huawei devices this year; an 8MP Sony IMX179 with 1.4µm with an F/2.4 aperture lens system.
The device has a footprint of 159.3 x 77.8mm in height and width, making this a much smaller device than last year’s 6” Nexus 6. The thickness is also much more reduced at a mere 7.3mm. Even in weight and despite that the 6P is a metal design, in comparison to its predecessor it manages to shed off 6g for a total of 178g. This is a clear change in form-factor and the Nexus 6P is in terms of ergonomics more comparable to last year’s Note 4 than it is to the Nexus 6, which subjectively I would deem it to be a very positive change for the average consumer. Even though the 6P is smaller in every metric, it actually manages to ship with a larger battery than the Nexus 6. The 3450mAh 3.82V or 13.18Whr should provide ample power for a good battery life.
As mentioned, the device sports a 5.7” screen with a resolution of 1440 x 2560. This is an AMOLED screen provided by Samsung Display. The Nexus 6 was notorious for having a rather disappointing panel, but this time around Google and Huawei were able to step it up in terms of quality and the 6P’s panel looks very good.
The front of the device is all black and the screen is flanked on both the top and bottom by two front-facing speakers. Actually this is the first phone in my possession with front speakers so I was looking forward to the experience. While it is true that in terms of directionality the Nexus 6P offers a much better experience than mono speakers on other devices, I was a bit disappointed by the quality of the sound output by them. At medium volume the range is very good, even if it somewhat lacks the in terms of bass when compared to Samsung and especially Huawei’s own devices. What I found to be more upset about is that at maximum volume (which is quite loud) we can experience distortions. It’s especially notifications that suffer a lot in terms of quality when at high volume. As opposed to the Nexus 5X’s deceiving speaker design which only offers general audio playback via the bottom speaker, the 6P does offer full stereo experience, but however I found that on my unit the top speaker is ever so slightly louder than the bottom speaker which makes for an odd balance when you view content in landscape. HTC here seems still has a considerable lead when it comes to audio processing and adjusting front-facing speakers for the best experience.
The device’s left side has no features other than the nanoSIM tray, while on the right we find the power button and the volume rocker. I found it weird that the power button was placed above the volume rocker so that’s definitely something out of norm and needs getting used to. The perfectly vertically centred position of the volume rocker also caused me to keep pressing it whenever I picked up the device which I also found to be odd.
At the back of the device we find the large Nexus logo next to the fingerprint sensor. The back is very solid and has no noticeable flex when trying to press on it. At the bottom we find a plastic cover that acts as an RF window for some of the antennas.
The overall device’s ergonomics are good and the flat sides allow it for a good grip with it being rounded off enough by the chamfered edges and slightly curved back to make for a comfortable grip. Again I fall back to the Note 4 comparison as that’s the most similar device in terms of how the Nexus 6P feels, with of course a metal finish instead of the faux-leather plastic.
It’s of course at the top where we find the Nexus 6P’s most recognizable characteristic. The “visor”, as it seems to have become norm to call it, features the main camera as well as a dual-LED flash and IR laser which is used by the laser auto-focus system. The whole feature is around 1mm thicker than the rest of the phone and is covered by a black-accentuated glass cover which curves at the side edges. Personally I don’t mind the design at all and it actually provides a feature which better helps you orientate what is otherwise a very symmetrical device.
The phone comes with a USB Type-C connector but the port itself only implements USB 2.0 connectivity.
All in all the Nexus 6P is a very solid device and I think Google made a good choice in sizing down to 5.7” to try to attract a wider user-base who maybe wasn’t so convinced by the Nexus 6’s very large size. I’m a bit biased on giving opinions about phablets – I did run a 5.7” device as a daily driver for several months only to be happy to scale down back to a 5” form factor after deeming the large device is not a good fit for me. My only gripe is that for the amount of bezel that Google put on the 6P, I expected some more impressive speakers as I would have otherwise preferred a larger screen-to-device footprint ratio, such as found on Samsung’s Note series or Xiaomi’s Note devices. Besides that little critique regarding the bezel, I can objectively see how the 6P could be a perfect device for many users who looking for a larger form-factor.
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Djdjndjddjs - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
"not as smooth as everyone is saying are the main reasons." It is evident that you are making this up as the 6P is very smooth and the iPhone just doesn't meet its specs. The fact you say the iPhone is the best phone right now says you're full of it and are pretty uninformed on this subject. The iPhone was the best when it first came out but this is definitely no longer the case.MykeM - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
If you haven't already I suggest reading these articles:http://www.anandtech.com/show/9662/iphone-6s-and-i...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9686/the-apple-iphon...
Anandtech handed the iPhone 6s, the Editors's Choice Gold Award. The only other phone in the past 5 years to receive an award (the HTC One being the other phone). And to quote from the review:
"I believe that the criteria for this award is such that a product is not only one of the best in its category and an extremely good product in a vacuum, but pushes the smartphone user experience forward in significant ways. The iPhone 6s isn't a perfect phone, but to receive the second highest award I don't believe it's necessary to make a "perfect" phone. There are areas that could be improved, but nothing that I believe is a significant detriment to the phone."
You don't have to like Apple or iPhone but to say that it doesn't meet the specs of the Nexus 6P shows a clear misunderstanding of technology.
amdwilliam1985 - Thursday, December 17, 2015 - link
Depends on your personal usage, I got a friend who recently switched from LG G2 to iPhone 6S(pink color of course, for those guys, it's the gold color ;), and her first comment was that iOS is "slow"/annoying. fast in terms of UI, but slow if you want to do anything, like calendar app doesn't support her attachments, customization. Fast camera and good quality pictures, but can't easily share them to others. Apple Music app is great, but she doesn't want to pay, so she needs a different solution after the 3 months free trial, she misses the "easy" folder management that Android offers. iTunes, please don't start on how great it is. Constantly updates from iOS 9.0 to iOS 9.1 to iOS 9.2 and god knows how many more mini versions in between, she's not a power user, to her, NOTHING changes, just annoying bugging update messages, lol. She traded prettiness for convenient, so far she's not sure if it's a good trade.whiteiphoneproblems - Thursday, December 17, 2015 - link
How is it difficult to "share photos with others" in iOS?tuxRoller - Thursday, December 17, 2015 - link
Do you test phones for a living?Ethos Evoss - Sunday, December 20, 2015 - link
u are just been purchased by apple or u trollingjohnnycanadian - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
Bloody hell. Is there EVER going to be an Android device that can even match the current Apple offering (never mind surpass it)? I'm growing more disenfranchised with iOS but the advantages of Android aren't enough to put up with sub-par hardware.5th element - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
Tegra x1 phone? Seriously I don't know though. Apple has the distinct advantage that it only has design a very small number of high performance premium SoCs and can ignore everything else. The other manufactures not so much and as there is strong competition between SoC suppliers products get released with problems in the rush to get a product to market.On the whole I agree with you though the other SoC manufacturers need to up their ante!
V900 - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
There used to be some real competition in the Android SOC space, but unfortunately, both Texas Instruments and ST Ericsson (both of whom made some great SOCs) threw in the towel. And now it looks like Nvidia is giving up too.A real shame. Back when OMAP and NovaThor were still around, Android CPUs were still roughly on par with Apples Ax chips.
But now no one even comes close to Apple SOCs in terms of performance, and brand new phones Android phones perform worse than iPhones that are six months or a year old.
The 820 doesn't look like it'll do anything to change that either.
We prob need some real competition in the SOC space, to see a real competitor to Apples Ax CPUs.
(And yes, I am aware of Mediatek/Allwinner et. al. But they make cheap SOCs to stuff in $80 tablets. Qualcomm has the premium/performance market mostly to itself.)
lilmoe - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
lol, you guys seriously need to lose your tin foils.