After months of rumors and leaks, Google yesterday unveiled the Huawei-made Nexus 6P. Unlike previous Nexus devices that have always compromised in one area or the another, the Nexus 6P — at least on paper — looks as good as any other flagship handset released in 2015. The handset comes with a number of new features, some unique and some already found in other flagships, that make it worth a look and potentially your hard earned money. If you are wondering what these features are, check out our list of the the 10 best features of the Nexus 6P below.
#10 Front-facing stereo speakers
Google started the trend of front-facing stereo speakers on Nexus devices with the Motorola Nexus 6 last year, and it has continued it this year with the Nexus 6P. While front-facing speakers might not seem like a great deal to many, it makes a huge difference while watching videos and listening to music. It is one of those little thing that you start appreciating only after you have experienced it.
#9 Nexus Imprint
The Nexus 6P is among the first Nexus handsets from Google to feature a fingerprint scanner. Called Nexus Imprint, the touch-based fingerprint scanner is located at the rear of the device and can scan your fingerprint in less than 600ms. What makes this fingerprint scanner even better is that it can be used to directly unlock and wake up the device in one motion by simply keeping a finger over it. With the new APIs in Marshmallow, the fingerprint scanner can also be used to log you in automatically into apps and authenticate Android Pay transactions.
#8 Metal unibody
Nexus phones from Google have always felt as a side project, with average build quality and sub-par camera. All that changes with the Huawei-made Nexus 6P, which features an aero-grade aluminium unibody. This is the first Nexus from Google to feature a metal body, and it shows how serious the company is about its Nexus lineup this time around. The slim and svelte Nexus 6P is easily among the most beautiful handsets released this year, even though it features a protruding hump with a glass cover at its rear to act as a RF window for all the antennas inside it.
#7 Higher resolution front camera
Keeping up with the time, Google has bumped the resolution of the front camera on the Nexus 6P to an 8MP one. Considering that the Nexus 6 featured a paltry 1.2MP selfie shooter, the 8MP shooter on the Nexus 6P is a huge upgrade and should lead to selfies shot from the phone having more details.
#6 Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Every new Nexus device has launched with a new version of Android, and the Nexus 6P is no different in this regard. The latest version of Android — Marshmallow — brings with it a number of new features and enhancements, including some significant power saving optimisation techniques like Doze and App Standby, and other features like quick content sharing to contacts, Now on Tap, and a permissions manager. Considering that Android OEMs take their own sweet time in updating their devices to the latest version of Android, running the latest version of the OS and getting long term software support is kind of a big deal in the Android ecosystem, and if these things are of utmost importance to you, grab the Nexus 6P eyes closed.
#5 USB Type-C port
The OnePlus 2 might have been the first mainstream Android device to ship with a USB Type-C port, but the Nexus 6P is the first smartphone from a major OEM to feature the port. The reversible port has a number of advantages over the existing microUSB port, including being completely reversible, being able to supply more power, and support higher data transfer rate. While having a USBy Type-C port on a smartphone is problematic in the short term, almost all major smartphones will shift to this port within the next year or two.
#4 Beefy battery
Nexus devices have never really been known for their battery life. Motorola managed to fit in a gigantic 3300mAh battery inside the Nexus 6 last year and solved the problem somewhat. The Huawei-made Nexus 6P is slimmer and shorter than the Nexus 6 in length and breadth, yet it manages to pack in a huge 3450mAh battery. When combined with the new power saving techniques in Android 6.0, the Nexus 6P should easily be right up at the top with other Android smartphones known for their battery life.
#3 Storage
Google has always skimped on storage space for its Nexus devices. It was only last year that the company offered its first Nexus handset with 64GB of storage space, and this year, it has taken things a step further by offering a 128GB storage option for the Nexus 6P. To make things even better, unlike Apple, Google is only charging a reasonable — and I am using that term very loosely here — $150 premium for the 128GB Nexus 6P when compared to the 32GB variant of the handset.
#2 Price
With the launch of the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 5, the price-to-performance ratio became the USP of Nexus handsets. However, with the Nexus 6, Google once again went back to pricing its Nexus devices right up their with other Android flagships, which likely played a major role in the poor sales of the device. Learning from its mistake, Google has priced the Nexus 6P at a pretty sweet price point of $499. Once you consider the fact that the device features a unibody metal design, front-facing stereo speakers, a very promising camera, the fastest Snapdragon chipset, and plenty of RAM, its price tag of $499 seems pretty reasonable. Even better, Google is only charging an additional $50 for the 64GB storage variant of the Nexus 6P, which will likely entice many buyers to upgrade to it. #1 12.3MP rear camera
Google has always skimped on the camera performance of its Nexus devices. However, with the Nexus 6P, the company has gone all out in the camera department. The 12.3MP Sony sensor at the back of the handset features an F/2.0 aperture and 1.55um pixel size that promises great performance, even in low-light. The LaserAF sensor should also help the Nexus 6P in focusing on objects in less than 300ms. Google even compared the camera performance of the Nexus 6P to that of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which shows how serious the company is about the camera performance of its Nexus devices this time around. Google has also updated its Camera app for the Nexus 6P to add new features like slow-mo video recording at up to 240fps and Smart Burst mode. It is also possible to quickly launch the camera app on the handset by quickly double tapping the power button. What do you think about the Nexus 6P? Do you think it is the most impressive Nexus handset Google has ever released?
