The Nexus 6: The Premium Nexus
The First Phablet You’ll Definitely Want To Give A Shot
On the eve of getting Google’s newest entry into the Nexus line, I had a terrible dream. I had woken up in the middle of a Whopper Jr. commercial and I was the guy whose hands were too small for the burger. I was Tiny Hands guy. The rest of the dream carried on like the director’s cut, lengthy version of the commercial you all know (if not, here).
But, when I woke up in a cold sweat (wanting a BK burger for the first time since 2011), I realized that this wasn’t me. I have decent sized hands and the phone would probably be fine. But to make myself clear about this size issue, I want to state something clearly now:
The Nexus 6 is big. It is.
It is the biggest Android device I have ever owned. I’ve handled my fair share of tablets and had friends with Galaxy Notes and iPhone 6 Plus’, but this was mine and for the first 24 hours, that really did scare me.
Now, almost a full week into owning this whale of a phone/phablet, I have my impressions pretty firmly in place. So let’s get into it.
Ordering Process:
Most reviews usually start with hardware, but with the Nexus 6, the biggest issue so far has been people haven’t been able to actually get the damn thing. Between flash sale-outs on Google Play and Motorola to T-Mobile inventory issues and the AT&T software-aggedon, there can’t be more than 150 people in the U.S. with consumer versions (maybe more, I don’t know).
And that’s a huge problem. I was able to get my 32GB white version from Motorola after being tipped on Twitter that they were for sale. I couldn’t get the 64GB to go through after twice adding it to my cart, so I decided 32 was good enough for me and snagged one.
But new phones shouldn’t be “snagged.” The No. 1 question people ask me about a new phone shouldn’t be “How/where did you get it?” Maybe this is indicative of the growing popularity of the Nexus line, or maybe it’s just a bad job on Moto’s part. I feel like it’s a combination of both.
Hardware:
So beyond the diagonal measurements, I feel like the overlooked aspect of this phablet is how incredibly thin it is. It’s sleek. It’s slimmer than my Moto X (2013) and that phone was a full 1.26 inches smaller.
It also feels really nice in your hand(s) as you hold it. It’s curved so it fits nicely with your grip, something I complained about with the Pop-Tart iPhone 6 Plus. It’s just too boxy. But the Nexus 6 has a good feel to it and that’s exponentially important when it is the size of your hand.
The screen is beautiful to look up. Text looks crisp and pictures/videos look sharp as ever. I haven’t found any glitches like screen bleed, but I haven’t looked that closely. It’s just a nice screen, plain and simple.
The phone really is a scaled up Moto X (2014) and that’s okay. What’s not to like about that phone. The back is more like the Moto X (2013) and that works well for me because that’s what I’m coming from. So it’s a win for me.
It’s also really important to mention they moved the power button and volume rocker down some so it’s actually reachable with your hand. It’s a subtle change, but it makes all the difference here.
As for fitting in your pants, I’ve yet to have a pair pants that it didn’t fit in. It’s just the type of pants I wear (the ones that fit appropriately). Also with sweats, it doesn’t weigh them down because, as I mentioned, it’s actually pretty light. So have no fear of an unsightly… err… outline in sweats.
Software:
Better than those frozen shits in the clear, unmarked plastic bags, sold by the cartload in cardboard bins during the summer, Lollipop is the best thing to happen to Android.
(For those of you who had unfun childhoods, it’s called Flavor-Ice. Go buy some and have an experience.)
But really, Android 5.0 is the next jump in the evolution of Google’s mobile operating system and we for once I feel like it’s complete. For once, I do not feel like, “oh, it would be really nice if I had that feature.”
No. Lollipop feels refined, it feels finished. It feels like this is what Google has been dreaming about. I feel better than when I did when Ice Cream Sandwich came out and I was partying hard for that.
This feels like what we’ve all been waiting for. It has the animations, the intuitiveness, the Google Now integration, the clear design strategy, the notification dropdown.
It all fits together and my biggest fear is how it will differ in Sense and Touchwiz because it’s supposed to fit together now in a certain way, and those HTC and Samsung tend to ruin good things. Stock is just so damn nice to use.
For those of you who have fears about the encryption slowdown, stop. With encryption it’s fine, without encryption fine. It’s all very smooth. I feel like the encryption-ageddon has everyone really overthinking it. It’s just not that big of a deal for users.
It’s hard to really pinpoint Lollipop features that are standouts because of how everything just works together nicely. Messenger has actually replaced Hangouts as an SMS app, which I didn’t expect to happen (although, I still use it for, well, Hangouts).
The Active Display wannabe could probably use some work as far as pulse time and when to activate, but I think that’s code things that could easily be implemented with time and feedback for consumers.
I feel like I’m forgetting something here, but I guess I’ll carry on…
Miscellaneous:
Slickness: Okay, so this is totally a personal thing but it bears mentioning I think. The back feels very slick to me and I fear sometimes that it’s gonna slip out of my hand when I’m holding it with just one hand. It’s not that I don’t have a good grip, it’s just how the back feels to me. A Seidio Surface case would be nice for this sucker and I hope more cases start coming out than the clear ones which, personally, look like the worst.
Verizon: Carrier freedom is now something I am a part of and it feels fantastic. As someone who has long been reigned in by Big Red’s leash, it’s nice to know that Verizon has zero control of this device. I purchased mine from Motorola and I was able to easily slip in the nano-sim from my Moto X before booting it up and all has worked fine.
Not that I think what’s happening with AT&T is all that big a deal. I’m honestly just happy that carriers seem to be allowing Google to control all the updating and true OS stuff (except for having Kit Kat on units. What the hell guys… you had one job). If they want to add stuff like that and allow you to pay a subsidized price, I’m one of the people who find that okay. As I’ve seen many people post, it’s fairly easy to get rid of some of the stuff they add. But that’s my unpopular opinion for the day.
A moment about rooting and Lollipop:
So here’s where we get to the technical and I don’t really have a full grasp on this yet, but I‘m learning the gist. Also, if you’re just a casual consumer who doesn’t understand or care about root or unlocked bootloaders, you can skip this part.
So, with Lollipop, OTA updates are going to be checking and verifying all of the system partition before installing. What that means is, even the smallest modifications will fail an OTA update flash.
Stephen Bird, co-founder of RootzWiki and just all-around well-known developer, weighed in on the issue some:
“Basically all of Android is moving towards a very, very secure platform so rooting really breaks that,” Bird said. “And, in some circumstances, some pretty big workarounds are needed like what Chainfire is doing basically. Root really is something we as a community need to move away from altogether.”
(Chainfire’s work can be followed on his Google+ account linked here.)
Moving away from rooting, from the outset, seems almost like blasphemy, but he clarified to say that they need to move away or maybe the community needs to find ways of rooting without modifying the system at all.
“[Rooting’s] going to start to become a bigger hassle than it is a benefit so we need to find a way to get the modifications we want outside of rooting or just have people flash custom ROMs and do root that way,” Bird said. “But the days of having root on a stock system are kinda dwindling with the OTA checks.”
“I don’t think we should have to root a phone anymore,” he said. “If you do have to root for something, it should be to install a custom ROM because you want to not because you have to.”
Not everyone will have this opinion, but it’s really worth thinking about if you’re a tinkerer, like I am, and just like to mess around with your phone. Times may be changing and we may have to wrap our heads around that.
Bird finished by noting that he thinks people will always find a way around things if they want it enough.
“After all, they jailbreak the iPhone all the time, but that's why I don't buy an iPhone,” he said. “Because I feel like the only way to enjoy it is to jailbreak it. I’ve been root-free on android for almost eight months now.”
Bottom Line:
The Nexus 6 is a new kind of Nexus device coming out of Google. This doesn’t feel like a phone/phablet that deserves the moniker (for better or worse) of a Developer Phone. And you have to wonder if that’s how Google pitched it to all the carriers to get them on board.
It feels extremely premium in software and hardware and unless you know what you’re doing, you won’t just stumble into unlocking the bootloader or rooting or anything like that.
This Nexus is being sold to consumers and that’s why I think they didn’t cut corners to reduce the price. It’s out to compete with every other smartphone, not just to be a niche anymore.
If you can get past the size (and you should honestly give a shot and if you hate it, return it), this is one of the nicer Android phones I’ve ever played with, let alone owned.
