Nexus 6P Review: The Best Smartphone of 2015

New Nexus 6P Rocks Up With Snapdragon 820 CPU In Tow

This is a little strange. We've been hearing a lot of talk about 2016's Google Nexus releases, but none of them so far have pointed to a much more straightforward approach of simply re-issuing the Nexus 6P with an upgraded processor; but according to this new set of benchmarks leaking online that could be something on the cards. The Geekbench results clearly show the handset labelled as a "google Nexus 6P", however, where the original model has a Snapdragon 810 and 3GB of RAM, this version has Android N and a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with 4GB of RAM. This upgrade, if real, will make last year's Nexus 6P far more competetive with rivals that have emerged since, such as the HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7, and LG G5.

The chip is a quad-core setup clocked at 1.59GHz and paired with an Adreno 530 GPU, as well as the 1GB of extra RAM on the original build. There's also a reference to "Marlin" which is a codename already associated with other in-development Nexus phones for 2016 and follows on with Google's fish-themed codename convention we've seen on previous models.

As unexpected as the move is, it may simply represent Google being a little more diverse in its annual Nexus offering; this refresh alone doesn't rule out some of the other rumours we've been hearing about Google partnering with HTC on at least two handsets this year, while also entering into a two-year agreement with the Taiwanese manufacturer for longer-term plans. Google is quite well-established as partnering up with multiple manufacturers at once to get different devices made in the same year, in the past we've seen LG and Huawei, and LG and HTC both being employed at the same time by Google to produce Nexus hardware of one form or another.

The re-booted Nexus 6P also does fit with rumours we heard earlier in the year that Huawei would continue to partner with Google inside 2016 on the Nexus brand, it simply means that it's not making a "new" phone, but re-jigging the existing one.

Catering to different consumer demographics is a big deal these days - manufacturers have latched on to the fact that different people have different tastes, and that you can generate more sales if you tap into the likes and wants of folks who really dig a certain device style: compacts, tablets, phablets, devices with stylus pens, or even just moderately sized handsets. Because of that it has become very common to see device makers launch multiple new products simultaneously, and while Google is no stranger to launching both Nexus phones and tablets in the same breath, 2015 saw the first time the big G released not one, but TWO phones, as well as a hybrid tablet.

Google's latest batch sees the Nexus 5X as a revamp of the popular Nexus 5, something fans have long awaited as a more moderately sized, specced and priced Nexus variant. But we also have the Nexus 6P as a newer version of the Nexus 6, a premium device with a metal body and absolutely packed with high-end, cutting-edge hardware.

Nexus 6P Review: Design 

If you make a premium handset these days it NEEDS to be constructed from metal or aluminium. I don’t know who created this rule or when it was implemented, but it is one nearly all manufacturers follow right now and the result is, well, a lot of metallic handsets doing the rounds. 

The Nexus 6P is no exception to this rule and is, as you’d expect, constructed out of only the finest build materials Huawei could lay its hands on. It is not a particularly eye-catching device from the front, looking like a long, black slab, but it does feature a very tight unibody design with excellent button placement (volume/power right hand side; screen unlock/fingerprint scanner on the back) that feels exceptionally premium in the hand. 

At the bottom you have a USB Type-C port, the new standard for charging and data transfer on phones, tablets and laptops which you’ll be seeing A LOT more of in 2016, and a slight protrusion on the back at the top where the camera is housed. At first this protrusion is a problem — I couldn’t stand the way it looked or why it had to be encapsulated inside what looks like a mini version of the pavilion from Lords Cricket Ground. 

NEXUS is daubed along the back of the handset and about an inch above this is where you’ll find the Nexus 6P’s rather excellent fingerprint scanner. The protrusion and finger print scanner, as well as the NEXUS logo, are the most eye-catching elements of the Nexus 6P’s overall design and finish. On the whole I find the handset rather conservative, if I’m honest. It’s not “in your face”, it’s not too showy and it’s not too thin, either. 

One area of concern, however, is to do with the build materials: the Nexus 6P’s exterior chassis material is metallic to the touch and scratches-up VERY easily. An errant lighter or coin in your pocket can put a permanent scratch in the back of the Nexus, and when you’ve dropped £350+ on a handset this is not something you want to happen. For this reason, and a bunch more, GET A CASE! Do not learn the hard way as I did. 

Nexus 6P Review: Display

The Nexus 6P has an AWESOME display. The giant 5.7in QHD AMOLED panel clocks in with a ridiculous 518ppi pixel density and some of the truest, brightest colours I’ve ever seen on a mobile phone. Colours really do pop off the screen and the contrast, thanks to the AMOLED panel, is stunning. 

And if that wasn’t enough, the Nexus 6P supports ambient display mode as well which basically means you can view notifications and updates on a blank lockscreen without using any power. Not a new feature by any stretch, the original Moto X had it years ago, but a great addition to an already excellent Nexus handset. 

Nexus 6P Review: Specs & Hardware 

• Operating System: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• Display: 5.7 inches; WQHD (2560 x 1440) AMOLED display at 518 ppi; 16:9 aspect ratio; Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4; Fingerprint and smudge-resistant oleophobic coating
• Rear Camera: 12.3 MP¹; 1.55 µm pixels; f/2.0 aperture; IR Laser assisted autofocus; 4K (30 fps) video capture; Broad-spectrum CRI-90 dual flash
• Front Camera: 8MP camera; 1.4 µm pixels; f/2.4 aperture; HD video capture (30 fps)
• Processors: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 810 v2.1, 2.0 GHz Octa-core 64-bit; Adreno 430 GPU
• Memory & Storage: RAM: 3 GB LPDDR4; Internal storage: 32 GB, 64 GB, or 128 GB
• Dimensions: 159.3 X 77.8 X 7.3 mm
• Weight: 178 g
• Color: Aluminium; Graphite; Frost
• Media: Dual front-facing stereo speakers; 3 microphones (2 front, 1 rear) with noise cancellation
• Battery: 3,450 mAh battery; Fast charging: up to 7 hours of use from only 10 minutes of charging
• Wireless & Location: LTE cat. 6; Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, dual-band (2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz); Bluetooth 4.2; NFC; GPS, GLONASS; Digital compass; Wi-Fi use requires 802.11a/b/g/n/ac access point (router). Syncing services, such as backup, require a Google Account.
• Ports: USB Type-C; Single Nano SIM slot: 3.5 mm audio jack
• Material: Anodized aluminum

To say the Nexus 6P has good specs and hardware would be an understatement. This thing is so jam-packed with the latest bells and whistles it makes the iPhone 6s look like a handset from 2010. The Nexus 6P has all the grunt and firepower you will ever need from a handset, but importantly — and this isn’t always the case inside Android — it ACTUALLY feels that way too. 

Why is this? Simple: Huawei — through some kind of voodoo — has apparently tamed Qualcomm’s squiffy but incredibly powerful Snapdragon 810 CPU. How do I know this? Again, simple: the handset does not overheat, like at all, and in the two months I’ve been using it hasn’t once crashed, stumbled or glitched-out. Android Marshmallow runs buttery smooth and everything, from video editing to high-end gaming titles, sprint along at a very impressive rate.  

I don’t know what Huawei did with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 but it WORKED. The Nexus 6P is the fastest, most reliable and non-glitchy Android phone I have tested all year. Nothing else, save for Samsung’s Galaxy S6, S6 EDGE and Note 5, even come close to what Huawei and Google have achieved here. Hell, I even dumped my beloved iPhone 6 Plus for the Nexus 6P. It really is THAT good. 

Nexus 6P Review: Android Marshmallow

Android Marshmallow is a HUGE update that adds in a bunch of new and very useful features. And thanks to Google’s Material Design initiative it is also the best looking mobile platform on the planet, surpassing Apple’s iOS in almost every regard when it comes to features, aesthetics and overall usability. Google has made huge steps with its Android platform in recent years, but the last two builds — Lollipop and Marshmallow — were very significant, adding in new, innovative features and plenty of background updates so as to ensure smoother, more power efficient performance.

For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to go into detail about Android Marshmallow here. It’d take way too long and detract from the hardware, which, of course, is the main event in this review. You can find out ALL about Android Marshmallow and its best new features inside our Android Marshmallow Review.

As of March 2016, the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X have both received an update intended to boost overall device performance. The update, tagged as the MHC19I build, is being pushed over-the-air, so you should receive a prompt, but if not, you can head to Settings>About Phone>Updates to check manually and it should register that the new patch is waiting to go. Here's a shortlist of quoted features:

• General device performance
• DND next alarm disappearing issue
• Carrier-specific bug fixes
• Connectivity improvements

Nexus 6P Review: Camera 

For the longest time Nexus cameras sucked. But this was OK, most of the time the devices themselves were so affordable you could forgive them this one lacking aspect. All this changed in 2014, though, with the launch of the Nexus 6, a big budget Nexus handset tasked with going head to head with Android’s top players in terms of specs, hardware, performance and price. 

I didn’t much care for the Nexus 6. It felt like a rushed job, something Google kicked out at the 11th hour simply because it had no other choice. The Nexus 6 wasn’t awful all round. It was just about adequate for the most part. But one area that really was pants was its camera, which blew harder than Hurricane Frank. 

The Nexus 6P is an expensive handset (for a Nexus handset) but unlike the Nexus 6 it has the Nexus 5x, a cheaper, more traditional Nexus handset to back it up, meaning you have a choice now of either a classic, affordable Nexus handset and all that comes with it ,or a next-generation Nexus handset with all the blingy bits for a higher cost, including EASILY the best imaging technology ever packed into a Nexus phone. 

The Nexus 6P rocks a 12.3MP camera on the back and, once you’ve fired off an image, you’ll notice right away that this is a significant cut above what came before. It doesn’t have OIS, which is a shame, but it does let a TON of light in thanks to its 1.5 microns sensor, meaning better general performance and a HUGE boost to low-light performance. 

The front facing setup is decent too, and I have A LOT of love for Android’s simple and easy to use Camera App. I also like the fact you can access the camera by clicking the power/unlock button twice in quick succession. Granted, this isn’t a huge new feature but it is one you will use over and over again, once it is committed to your muscle memory 

Nexus 6P Review: Battery Performance 

I love the Nexus 6P. I really, really do. But one of my favourite things is something I hadn’t even dreamed was possible — great battery life. And not just GREAT battery life, but battery life you simply do not have to worry about anymore. 

The Nexus 6P features a HUGE 3450mAh battery, large even by today’s standards, and normally this would deliver excellent results. Combine it with Android Marshmallow’s Doze mode and other built-in power-saving features, though, and it goes above and beyond expectation. 

One of the main reason I used the iPhone 6 Plus has my daily driver for so long was because of its battery life — it was insanely good. Nothing else ever came close until I used the Nexus 6P, which does just about the same as my iPhone 6 Plus, meaning it’ll do a solid two days with minimal usage and a full day with hardcore usage. 

Nexus 6P Review: Verdict 

The Nexus 6P is EASILY my favourite handset of 2015 — bar none! It looks great, feels great, performs great and has the best software currently available inside the mobile space. Battery performance is exceptional, the camera is decent and overall performance — I’ve had this phone for months now — is solid, reliable and consistent.