Gadgetory

in mobile technology it's the same thing over and over new device comes out new device gets reviewed new device gets forgotten almost no one follows up no one follows along no one sticks around to see how well a gadget ages over time because there's always something new to drool over so let's do something about it let's take another look at one of the most polarizing Google phones ever I'm Michael Fisher this is the Nexus 6 and this is episode 46 of after the buzz in retrospect the Nexus 6 seemed to define an upper level of acceptability for huge phones in the main strand like Captain Picard consumers seem to say this far no farther I very much doubt we'll see many more gigantic phones like this hit the mainstream and not much on the hardware side has changed in the seven months since we reviewed it aside from a problem with the back covers peeling off on some devices which is a shame on such a pricey phone it's still the hulking mass in the hand the dense anchor in the pocket no smartphone launched into wide availability sense has even come close to this phone's displacement if it were a ship it would be an ultra large crude carrier the physical manifestation of the human preoccupation with size I'm not one for skinny jeans but on an article of clothing with even slightly below average pocket size well the thing takes up some space to understand the downside of this kind of scale just try using the Nexus 6 with one hand open any app that puts it back arrow or context menu in the upper left corner of the screen and use your right hand to try selecting it ever notes a good example because saving a note requires you to use that function and not androids back key at the bottom same with Google Docs use the phone one-handed enough and you might come close enough to dropping it to make you want a protective case which will of course only make the thing bigger fortunately the upside of oversized is still pretty cool there's so much more acreage on this nearly 6-inch display I tend to stick with a fairly minimal home screen but there's enough area here to go pretty information dense if you want to you've got space to spread out on a keyboard is sharing photos with parents won't instantly make them dive for their glasses and of course watching movies or gaming is much more immersive oh and I still have yet to use another smartphone with front firing speakers this loud the HTC One m9 delivers more nuance yes but in terms of sheer amplitude the Nexus 6 blows it away internally the Nexus 6 is aged quite well the Snapdragon 805 within it might have seemed a little long in the tooth by now were it not for the thermal troubles attributed to its successor as things stand the 805 seems just dandy and it continues to perform well with the help of three gigs of RAM kudos to Google for future proofing in this regard ditto on the wireless charging which is a much bigger deal nowadays thanks to Samsung making so much noise about it on the Galaxy s6 on the whole the Nexus 6 Hardware holds up nicely and so does the software finally it was a bumpy road getting there though as we've said a few times before Android 5.0 was no picnic even on the capable hardware the Nexus 6 unfortunately 5.1 has ironed out most of those initial stumbles and our early experiments with Android M on this monster are promising so I'd sure like to see Google rip off that mean take inspiration from Apple's reach ability as Microsoft recently did for Windows 10 mobile also it would be great to see multi window multitasking finally added to stock Android or at least smart use of multi column views when you switch to landscape in certain apps a big screen like this just feels wasted if you can't take full advantage of it Motorola did liberally borrow from itself here it adapted the always listening voice command feature of the Moto X for the Nexus 6 and being able to trigger it with the screen off is still a very nice convenience ambient display is another Moto X transplant but this one never really worked as elegantly or reliably as it did on the smaller phone and updates haven't really changed that the camera remains largely the same as well which is to say it's okay just looking at the end results might lead you to believe it's above-average you can really get some pretty nice shots out of this thing given the right lighting and the 13 megapixel image size means you can do a little digital zoom too without losing too much detail and though the selfies are only 2 megapixel they're also fairly good the problem is the process of taking a picture once again the phone's size plays against it the lockscreen camera shortcut is tough to hit with a thumb and that problem only gets worse if you're rushing to get a shot the Google camera app has gotten some updates to be faster in HDR mode but it's still laggy at points and it's very slow to focus meaning you'll be retaking a lot of photos and asking people to restrike a pose pretty often and the focus drift remains in camcorder mode too which makes for frustratingly blurry videos so even though the camera is capable of some really nice output it's not the most fun smartphone to shoot with fortunately the Nexus 6 does give you plenty of time to try to get that perfect shot because it's battery is well and truly cute sure we've seen bigger Power Packs sense but they're few and far between no Google doesn't pay me to say this but my favorite new game is in breasts which between keeping the screen and GPS on all the time is a real power sucker I can still play it for hours and hours with the Nexus 6 before recharging at more conventional use usually gets me about five hours of screen on time between charges now we were disappointed with that performance in the review and to be honest that figure should still be higher with a battery this huge I still miss the 10 hour screen on time I got out of last summer's huawei ascend debate too but given the super high-resolution display here we can sort of forgive that especially considering the abysmal battery life of some of the recent competition probably the area this phone has aged the most is in terms of its positioning its price with increasingly capable offerings at ever cheaper price points the market has changed around the Nexus 6 a recent round of discounts has helped but it's still not as affordable as previous Nexus offerings which is still an issue for some people combine that with a size that turns some consumers off and you can see why certain folks are stoked about the rumors of a Nexus 5 resurrection slash sequel this coming fall a smaller simpler and probably cheaper handset a nexus phablet might have been inevitable in some respects but it's definitely an acquired taste the thing about acquired tastes is that sometimes once you acquire them it's tough to go back to anything else thanks to a tee we've had a Nexus 6 loaner at the pocket now offices for a while and between review devices I keep coming back to it as weird as lollipop can be as inconsistent as the camera is and as clunky as the hardware can feel at times some things about the Nexus 6 are just really alluring as long as you've got two hands available it's comfortable to use material design makes for a very slick looking software experience without the need to theme and if the size really bugs you you can pair it with a SmartWatch so you don't need to take it out of a pocket as often if you're considering a nexus you owe it to your wallet or your pocketbook to wait until the fall at this point even if the next generation devices don't do it for you it's likely the Nexus 6 we'll see yet another price cut at that time but if I needed right now to pick a tablet replacement phone that hadn't last me a while the Nexus 6 would be even higher on my list than it was back in December I really like it and oddly I like it a lot better than I did seven months ago maybe I'll even use it to finally take the plunge and try project five but that's another topic for another video for much more on the Nexus 6 check out our full review coverage at pocketnow.com and see our more recent reviews here on youtube also be sure to subscribe and give this video a thumbs up if you did enjoy it and thanks for watching until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on twitter encouraging you to leave your best bigger-is-better joke down in the comments we'll see you next time