Google Nexus 6 review – Killed after the Pixel takeover

Update: Google Nexus 6 is no more

Google’s Nexus 6 is no longer on sale following the Pixel launch. The now two-year-old handset is officially dead and buried with Google pushing all its efforts into its fancy new flagship, the Pixel.

Read our Google Pixel review for more information

New units are no longer being manufactured, but there are a handful of Nexus 6’s doing the rounds on reseller sites such as Ebay for super cheap should your heart be set on getting one. The Nexus 6 is still a reasonably solid choice, and a recent update should see it running Google’s latest version of its smartphone operating system, Android 7.1 Marshmallow.

That being said, here is my original Google Nexus 6 review.

Google Nexus 6 review

Google’s Nexus brand is a fickle beast, hopping from one manufacturer to the next. After a successful stint with LG, the latest recipient of its blessing is Motorola. That makes some sense as the company was Google-owned until its recent shift to Lenovo. The Nexus 6 is undoubtedly a Motorola device, being a dead ringer for the excellent Moto X (2nd Gen). It’s bigger, though, much bigger. Its titular 6in screen puts it among the largest smartphones we’ve ever seen, bigger even than the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 at 5.7in.

It was also one of the first smartphones to get Android 5.0 Lollipop and, since launch, one of the first devices to get the point upgrade, Android 5.1. As a result, we’ve since updated this review with our observations of Android 5.1, plus we’ve run our new benchmarks on the phone to see how fast it is with the software upgrade. All existing Nexus 6 owners can upgrade to Android 5.1 now, with the OTA update available.

Design

We’ve already waxed lyrical at length in our admiration for the new Moto X’s design, and the same applies here. The rear is a delightful collision of lines and curves, all tapering to narrow edges that terminate in an aluminium frame. It feels very tough and rigid.

The smooth, slightly soft rear panel is a pleasure to hold. The headphone socket, camera lens, Motorola and Nexus logos, and the USB port all fall perfectly in a line down the centre of the handset. The ridged power button sits neatly under your forefinger; you’ll need it, too, as there’s no double-tap to wake, which we saw on the HTC Nexus 9 tablet.

The front of the phone is a gloss black and largely featureless. There are slim bezels, around 3.5mm, on either side of the screen. At the top and bottom are forward-firing stereo speakers, for watching videos in landscape aspect, but despite this there’s still little in the way of bezel above and below the screen.

There are no physical buttons here, as on Galaxy handsets or iPhones, with everything dealt with using onscreen buttons instead, which we prefer. There’s no rim or edge around the screen either, it simply curves away to meet the metal frame on the edge. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and so should stay largely scratch free, it has a slightly more resistant feel when you slide your finger over it than usual, which might bother some.

In terms of measurements, the 6in screen makes it understandably a bit larger face-on than the 5.7in Galaxy Note 4 – 159x83mm compared to 154x79mm. On paper, it’s a tad chunkier as well, being 10.1mm deep compared to the Note 4’s 8.5mm. In practice, there’s nothing in it, with the nexus 6’s slender edges and subtly bulging rear panel feeling just as slender as the Note 4’s slim slab.

Of course, the sheer size will put some off. Our largest members of staff found they could still grasp the phone one-handed and reach across the display, but not to the opposite corner. Your average person is really looking at using this two-handed, especially given there’s no provision made to one-handed use, as with the resizing screen options provided by both the Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Display

However you tackle it, the screen is truly huge at a massive 6in across. The AMOLED display has the now-typical, but still absurdly detailed, 2,560×1,440 resolution we’ve seen on the Note 4 and LG G3. The sheer screen size does drop the pixels-per-inch figure to a ‘mere’ 493ppi, which is a tad below that of those other handsets, but not noticeably.

As important as raw resolution claims are the number of subpixels being used for each claimed pixel. The Note 4 uses Samsung’s latest AMOLED technology, which utilises a new diamond-shaped pixel structure, with fewer of the larger red and blue pixels and more of the smaller green ones. The Nexus 6 looks to use an older subpixel structure with simpler bar-shaped subpixels. In practice, that means the Note 4 is slightly sharper-looking. We’re splitting hairs here though, given how fine the detail is on both screens.

Colour is a far bigger issue for the Nexus 6. AMOLED screens have long suffered from inaccurate colour reproduction compared to their LCD cousins, although that has been offset by their far superior contrast. Now the two are converging, with contrast improving on LCDs and the Note 4 showing itself capable of good accuracy; largely thanks to multiple colour temperature settings, of which the ‘Basic’ setting accurately tracks sRGB.

After that, the Nexus 6 is a big step backwards. Despite having 100% sRGB coverage, the colours are way off the sRGB standard in our tests, being far too saturated and garish. Purists will hate it, but those who like their TV sets as they come from the shop, full of vibrant hues, won’t be overly put off. In our experience, most people prefer something a bit livelier and warmer than sRGB but this is still over-egging it somewhat.

All that said, it’s hard not to enjoy watching downloaded iPlayer shows on the 6in display on the commute. A peak brightness of 286.91cd/m2 is slightly brighter than the Note 4, giving it the edge in terms of AMOLED screen brightness. For those who watch a lot of video on the go, or who want to watch around the home without reaching for a tablet, this is a satisfyingly big screen, with deep blacks and plenty of detail.

^ It’s not easy to see the difference here, but you should be able to make out the oversaturated red/orange shades at least, in real life it’s far, far more pronounced

Speakers

The Nexus 6 has a pair of forward-firing stereo speakers, with one on each side of the screen when it’s in landscape mode. We’ve seen such speakers before, mainly on HTC’s handsets, and they’re always welcome. In portrait mode, the upper speaker also doubles up for as an earpiece for voice calls, while the lower one integrates the microphone, keeping everything very neat.

The volume is well graduated with lots of options in the middle of the range, and then fewer at the low and high ends, which makes practical sense. Audio quality is way ahead of anything with bottom- or rear-positioned speakers. It main rival is the HTC One M8; the M8’s speakers were more balanced with more lower-mid, but the Nexus 6 was louder and sounded more expansive. It’s hard to pick between them here, but for watching video clips the huge 6in screen on the Nexus wins out anyway.

^ The front-firing speakers hugely increased our enjoyment of movie trailers and the like

Android 5.1

The Nexus 6 shipped with Android 5.0, although it now has an upgrade to Android 5.1, which is available as an OTA update. Most of the changes are slight tweaks over Android 5.1, but there are some important differences. First, many Nexus 6 owners complained that performance deteriorated over time, but the Android 5.1 update seems to fix that, restoring the phone to its prime.

There’s a sizeable change in how Android handles the processor, too. Rather than turning two processor cores off when they’re not needed, the CPU now runs as a permanent quad-core model. In our performance tests (see next section), the phone had a slight performance boost from Android 5.1.

Android 5.1 also introduces some neat interface tweaks. Now, when you use the pull-down Notifications menu, both the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons have drop-down arrows underneath them that you can tap to view other networks and paired Bluetooth devices.

There’s also the fancy new On-body unlock option, which uses the phone’s accelerometer to detect movement, keeping your phone unlocked and ready to use. The idea is that the phone knows it’s in a pocket and being carried around, so it doesn’t need the passcode. It works pretty well, although the phone locks if you sit still for two long.

Other than these tweaks, it’s business as usual for Android Lollipop. The operating system has a fancy new look and lots of lovely new animations, called Material Design, where everything is simpler and flatter than before. The homescreen works much the same as ever, which is still more flexible than the competitions in terms of placing things, widgets and folders. A new app switcher lets you cycle through a Rolodex of previous applications, and multiple Chrome tabs appear here, so it’s easier to get access to everything.

Notifications have been turned into Google-Now style cards, and you can see these on the lockscreen if you want, so you know what’s going on at all times. The Nexus 6 supports an ‘Ambient Screen’ mode where these lockscreen notifications appear (in black and white) whenever you pick up the phone or take it out of your pocket. There’s also a great new tool for backing up and restoring your handset. You can choose to restore all your apps and homescreens exactly as they were, letting you do a full reset whenever you like without having to reorganise everything afterwards.

There are numerous other tweaks, but it’s largely familiar stuff to look at. Beneath all that is a whole new codebase, with improvements to performance and battery life, plus support for 64-bit processors.

The big problem here is that Android Lollipop is just that and nothing more. On the Nexus 9 the new Gmail app has a tablet mode with a preview pane, but apparently the Nexus 6 isn’t big enough for that and there’s no setting to force it on. In fact, there are no phablet enhancements here, such as being able to run two apps side-by-side on the Note 4. Plain Android is great, but sometimes you want more.

Performance

The Nexus 6 uses the same Snapdragon 805 chipset as its main rival, the Note 4. It’s hard to compare the two directly though, as we’ve only seen the Note 4 running under Android 4.4 and only seen the Nexus 6 running Android 5.0. Even though this CPU isn’t a 64-bit model and Android Lollipop is 64-bit, the Nexus 6 is seriously fast.

Its 2.7GHz quad-core processor, with 3GB of RAM, whipped through our tests and Android ran smoothly with all its new fancy animations. Running on Android 5.0, the handset scored 1,377 in Browsermark and 1,346 in Basemark OS II. Upgrading to Android 5.1 we saw a slight boost, with 1,416 in Browsermark and 1,356 in Basemark OS II. This makes the handset extremely fast, although the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is quicker with a score of 2,721 in Browsermark and 1,845 in Basemark OS II.

Running the Basemark X 1.1 graphics benchmark, we saw an even bigger difference in performance. At medium detail, the Nexus 6 scored 30,237 running Android 5.0 and 31,537 running Android 5.1; switching to the High quality setting the scores were 13,547 and 15,777 respectively. This means that the Nexus 6 will happily run any current game quickly, and it’s scores aren’t far behind those the Galaxy S6 Edge, which scored 37,885 at Medium detail and 22,682 running at High detail.

Battery life

The Nexus 6’s 3,220mAh battery isn’t huge given its large screen size, the Note 4 has the same size battery in a handset that its noticeably smaller. In our battery rundown test, it managed to continuously play a video file for a respectable 12h and 41m with the screen set to 170cd/m2, so it should easily coast through a full day of usage. We re-ran the test using Android 5.1 and the phone lasted 12h 17m at the same brightness setting. The slightly lower score is most likely down to standard variation and the discrepancy isn’t enough to worry about. However, the Note 4, presumably with a more power-efficient display managed to last a huge 18h 55m in the same test, making it a far better bet for those who use their phones heavily all day.

^ As you can see it’s that big screen that’s the big draw on your power

Battery life may not be the best, but getting power into the Nexus 6 is a breeze. It comes with a 9V 1.6A turbo charger, which charged the handset at around 1% of battery per minute, with the battery being full in well under two hours. This is thanks to Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology, which makes the Nexus 6 one of the fastest charging phones we’ve ever seen – although the Note 4 can pull a similar trick. The Nexus 6 does come with Qi wireless charging too, which is handy and not on the Note 4.

Camera

We’ve done initial testing on the camera in our labs, and the results are pretty impressive. It uses a 13-megapixel sensor measuring roughly 1/3in across, which is a smaller than the one on our benchmark Galaxy S5 handset. However, it has a brighter F2.0 lens, compared to the F2.2 on the Galaxy S5. More importantly, it includes optical image stabilisation, which also comes on the Note 4, to help give you steadier shots.

In our indoor still life test, we found the Nexus 6 sat between the Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 6. The Galaxy S5 has aggressive noise reduction which eradicates fine detail and the results look flat and a little overlit. The Nexus 6 does a far better job, there’s a slightly greenish cast but plenty of detail and noise is kept to a soft patina. The iPhone 6 still comes out on top through with spot on colours and plenty of detail.

^ Comparing the Nexus 6 and Galaxy S5 – Click on image to see at full resolution

The Nexus 6 has a dual LED ring flash around it lens, apart from looking rather smart it’s also more powerful than most flashes and the ring is designed to diffuse the light to stop things looking too harsh. We’re not convinced of the latter yet, but it’s certainly a decent flash with good reach.

Moving outdoors into a sunny day it was harder to make comparisons. The Nexus 6 took pictures with spot-on colour and plenty of detail. It dealt better with high-contrast scenes than the S5, even without using HDR mode.

^ Outdoors it coped well with carried lighting and produced true-to-life colours

It’s a good camera, although it does lack fun and useful features. There’s no burst mode for starters, so you’re limited to tapping the buttons over and over. You do get panorama and Photosphere modes, but that’s pretty poor compared to the wealth of playthings on Samsung’s models.

Conclusion

The Nexus 6 isn’t a bad phone, but it’s not a great one either. The handset is lovely, the camera’s good, but the screen has some issues and the battery life isn’t the best. At £500 for a 32GB model it’s £100 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (32GB), although they’re similarly priced on contract at present and cost a bit below £40 a month for a decent contract and a free handset.

It really comes down to what you want. As far as phablets go, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is the better choice overall. It has a superior screen, a handy stylus and numerous software tweaks to make the most of its big screen. However, you’ll have to live with Samsung’s strong riff on Android. Likewise, the iPhone 6 Plus is a better phablet, with Apple redesigning iOS and key apps to work on the larger screen.

The big issue with the Nexus 6 is that a lot of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 owners would have been far happier with an updated ‘Nexus 5.1’ than this phablet. But since that isn’t forthcoming, it’s hard to recommend a straightforward alternative for them. The Nexus 5 had its share of issues, notably a rather average battery life, but its low price and middle-of-the-road screen size gives it a far wider appeal than its new step-sibling – especially given you can buy one for as little as £239 at present. Given that the current best Android handset, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, costs a lot more, there’s not a clear successor.

If that feels a bit old hat, and like us you’re keen on the Nexus 6’s design, then you can buy a smaller version in the form of the Motorola Moto X (2nd Gen). It looks great, has a great set of useful Motorola apps, a practically unchanged Android 5.0 OS, but still suffers with some colour accuracy issues.

We’re not bothered by the size of the Nexus 6, but despite that we’re finding it hard to justify switching to the new handset from our trusty Nexus 5, and that’s with both sitting freely available on our desk. If money was no object, we’d definitely buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, but check out our regularly updated best smartphone guide for the latest best handsets.