Gadgetory

the Nexus phone has meant many things to many people since the Nexus 1 rolled off the assembly line nearly six years ago but whatever else it may have stood for and whatever other roles it may have fulfilled the Nexus has always represented the Android baseline the showcase for Google's idealized vision of its mobile platform this year Google has split its Nexus smartphone offering into the Huawei made Nexus 6p is the larger and in charger of the tube bringing all the power of last year's Nexus 6 in a slightly less imposing significantly less expensive package unlike the veteran LG Huawei has built few smart phones for the US market and no Nexus devices period the result is a fresh take on the concept of a pure Android handset that while not flawless is definitely worth your dollars i'm michael fisher with pocket now and this is our video review of the google nexus 6p at a glance the Nexus 6p isn't always the most distinctive phone around especially in the graphite color of our review unit lying on its back with its large 5.7 inch display switched off its twin speaker grilles recall its direct predecessor the Nexus 6 the anodized aluminum chassis summons memories of the old HTC One m7 or hallway zone ascend mate s from most angles it could be almost any phone flip it over to the back though and things get a little funky above the oversized Nexus branding sits a rounded rectangle spanning the width of the phone a black Gorilla Glass 4 window that the folks at Google have nicknamed the visor it contains the primary camera mounted oddly off-center within an elliptical ring accompanied by a dual LED flash the visor is counterbalanced by a barely visible access plate at the phone's bottom a subdued Huawei silk-screened above the cherry on this special sundae is a fingerprint scanner contained within a circular crater it's very fast and very accurate this all comes together to produce an aesthetic that's interesting in an odd way like a small car with a big spoiler the 6p isn't an ugly phone necessarily but neither would we call it particularly attractive probably the most accurate label is unique like all phones the Nexus 6p makes some sacrifices in usability to accommodate its design while it's quite thin at 7.3 millimeters it's also tall and wide with a slippery finish the result is a pretty awkward slab of metal fortunately it's also durable we've dropped it onto a hardwood floor about five times and the only sign of damage thus far is a tiny ding in the aluminum the textured power standby key is easy to discern from its neighboring volume button but it's a bit too easy to press accidentally that button is all you've got to wait the thing up when it's just sitting there Android's ambient display only kicks in when there's a waiting notification or when you move the phone even then it's as slow as molasses to do so the display itself is quite beautiful it's a latest generation Samsung AMOLED panel under that Gorilla Glass for its quad HD resolution making for 515 pixels every inch google says it worked especially hard to tune the displays gamut and white point for color accuracy the whites look a little Bluegreen to us and we could stand for a little more brightness in direct sunlight but aside from those minor issues this is indeed an excellent display we're 5.0 lollipop was the update that laid the foundations for a new Android look and feel 6.0 marshmallow is the revision that cements the good stuff in place while smoothing over some of the rough patches and bringing a few tricks of its own easily the most anticipated update is the new Google now on tap this feature raised a lot of eyebrows at the marshmallow unveiling and for good reason it seems kind of like magic when it works Google now on tap is great in a text message exchange debating dinner and movie destinations a long press of the HOME key generated a Google now card for each restaurant containing Quick Links to call or navigate and offering an associated yelp review if there was one where we mentioned specific timing plans now on tap also offered a shortcut to create a calendar appointment while scrolling through the tourism section of the page for Shelburne Falls Massachusetts now on tap generated cards for all the travel destinations it was able to plot from the pages text it even factored in what we were listening to on Spotify at the moment telling us the band and song title the problem with Google now on tap is the same one faced by many new features it seems like it was rushed out the door before it was ready in the Shelburne Falls example now on tap provided an information card for one of the movies the site mentioned was filmed there but offered no card for the other one a text message asking if we wanted to see black mass at the Somerville theater generated a card for the venue but not the film in one case and the film not the venue and another the amount of information that gave us about that pin back album changed each time we long pressed sometimes it was just generic Google search strings and other times it was genuinely useful stuff so while you should be excited for Google now on tap future it has a long way to go before it becomes truly useful other upgrades are more modest but no less welcome app permissions are a big one in marshmallow you green light access to your phone features on a case-by-case basis so the first time you run Evernote for example the app asks permission to access your location so it can create a note title based on where you are now if like us you just plain don't want a memo taking app to know your location you can deny Evernote that specific permission it's other functions will be unaffected the hated lollipop notification scheme is gone too replaced by a more straightforward trio of sliders with the global do-not-disturb option move to a toggle in the notification shade and the standard Google now view not on tap just Google now has gotten a denser layout that packs more information into a smaller space like the new 5x5 icon arrangement on the homescreen it's great it's about time modern platforms started actually leveraging the power of today's high-resolution displays Nexus devices have long been somewhat lacking in the camera department shortcoming google is keen to address in this generation that starts with the new twelve point three megapixel sensor which google says sony designed for camcorders and point-and-shoot cameras rather than smartphones the Google camera viewfinder has also been redesigned it's now much easier to get focus especially with one hand and Google has built in a new launch shortcut as well you double click the power standby button to fire up the camera whether the screen is on or off it occasionally fails to open the camera on the first attempt which is annoying but it's a good shortcut it's much more straightforward than the lock screen swipe action though that is still here if you've gotten used to it and if you want it we're not going to talk your ear off about the specifics of the picture quality and if you want a longer look at any of these check out our full review of the 6p at pocketnow.com we'll just say that this camera does really well in a very wide range of lighting conditions yes some shots are noisy and yeah sometimes we miss the higher resolution shooters that are becoming more commonplace on high-end devices but on the whole both front and back cameras here are Swift they're reliable and they're better than not just anything we've seen on a nexus before well that is true they're better than a whole lot of Android cameras out there we're very happy with these optics and we think most people will be too oh don't eat that don't don't eat so much grass that's correct the Nexus 6p is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SOC that's that processor that got such a bad rap for its thermal throttling problems earlier this year but you'd never know it Android 6.0 runs almost flawlessly on the Nexus 6p with slick animations and buttery responsiveness it's too early to tell how well marshmallow will age of course but this hardware packs enough CPU power and high-speed RAM to give it at least some room to grow the 6p also offers plenty of power in the literal sense under its aluminum casings it's a very large battery which makes the phone good for a solid day of moderate to even heavy use on a particularly taxing day we put the phone through one and a half hours of social media and email usage before pressing it into service as a mobile hotspot for six straight hours by our eight the phone was still at 30% that's a pretty solid reservoir and if your phone spends much of its time in standby mode you'll really see the benefits of Android marshmallows new dough's and app standby enhancements this phone barely sips power in standby it's quick to recharge to the Nexus 6p comes with the new USB type-c charging port and cable whose anyway you want it that's the way you plug it connector makes up for the inconvenience of buying all new cables and chargers starting from a dead pack the Nexus P hit the 25% mark in 15 minutes and a church to full in about an hour and a half the Nexus 6p offers band support for all the major US carriers and we tested it on two of them at the same time with Google's Project phi5 switches between Sprint and t-mobile us based on which network has the best reception at a given time and service was solid over six days in our densely populated test area of Greater Boston calls were clear on the earpiece though it's a shame smart phone still can't leverage two speakers for speaker phone calls when the Nexus 6p is allowed to use both of its speakers like during media playback and gaming the sound is very loud and very good within striking distance of the excellent Moto X pure edition the Nexus 6p starts at $4.99 for the entry-level 32 gig model with 64 and 128 gig options taking it up to 549 and 649 respectively well more expensive than its LG maid sibling this represents a significant drop from last year's Nexus 6 so is it worth it definitely there are shortcomings here as with any phone some of marshmellows new features aren't quite ready for primetime there are some missed opportunities to take full advantage of the screen size and the slippery casing is a real drop hazard but the Nexus 6p really nails the fundamentals it's got a great display a really good camera solid battery life and beautiful smooth software backed up by a vibrant ecosystem guaranteed to get timely updates best of all you still don't have to break the bank to own one the Nexus 6p might not be the most beautiful Nexus that's ever existed but it is without question the best there's a lot to that's found folks and there are things we just couldn't fit into this video review - so for the whole story check out our full review at pocket now available October 23rd and linked in the description below also be sure to subscribe here on YouTube so you don't miss future videos until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on twitter thanks for watching we'll see you next time