In 2015, Google announced a partnership with a Chinese company to manufacture one of its own devices and generated much expectation. Huawei is known worldwide for the design of its devices, which are often criticized for their similarity to Apple's smartphones. However, the Nexus 6P has its own identity, excellent performance and can be considered the best Nexus ever built by Google. Continue reading this review of the Nexus 6P and understand how Google and Huawei have made life difficult for the next manufacturer who will develop the successor of this model.
NEXUS 6P
NEXUS 6P


NEXUS 6P REVIEW - LAUNCH DATE AND PRICE

The Nexus 6P was launched by Google on September 29 along with the Nexus 5. The device is now available in the Google Play Store in some regions, such as Europe and the United States.

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - DESIGN AND QUALITY OF CONSTRUCTION

The Nexus 6P uses high quality materials in its manufacture, which caught the eye at first sight. Huawei has chosen to carry a bar in the upper back of the Nexus 6P, which houses the device camera and the flash support. Now, after the launch of the device, we know that this box that stands out in the back also serves as a kind of window for the device's antennas, as well as for NFC hardware, since it is the only place in which We do not have aluminum, material that reflects the signal of the antennas and causes problems in the wireless connections. In addition, it serves as an alternative for the projection of the camera lens.

Unlike the rear, the front of the Nexus 6P is wasted. The 6P does not make good use of the upper and lower edges. In addition, it brings a feature inherited from its predecessor: the grille of the speakers in the front. If you do not like this style brought to market by Motorola, perhaps you are satisfied to hear the audio that these stereo speakers are capable of producing.

The Nexus 6P has a very stylish design, and much of it has to do with Huawei's ability to design a device with 3,450 mAh battery with a thickness of only 7.3 mm, comparable to the iPhone 6S Plus. Thinner than him, but with the same size, we found the Galaxy S6 Edge + and its 6.9 mm.

At the bottom of the Nexus 6P is present one of the surprises of the line Nexus that is new in the market: the microUSB Type-C port. Through it we can make a smartphone capable of charging another and also have faster data transfer. Unlike LG, Huawei offers two cables in the handset kit. One of them has two Type-C connections, the other a Type-C input, and a USB output. This way, you will not have to worry about using the device in conjunction with the computer or a classic adapter for charging.

In the back of the Nexus 6P we have another feature that has been adopted by the manufacturers in the last two years: the fingerprint sensor. With regard to this feature of the Nexus 6P there are two things you need to know: it is very sensitive and its location can be both good and bad. When you take the smartphone with your hands, placing your finger on the sensor is quite intuitive, but you will have to save both the left and right fingerprints.

However, when the device is on the table, it is impossible to unlock it using the biometric sensor. This also happens with the Xperia Z5 series, for example. To do this, you will have to use two screen locks, the second will be a password, PIN or pattern.

 GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - SCREEN

The screen of the Nexus 6P is quite clear, has a resolution QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) and the size of the screen is 5.7 inches. This is not little, but compared to the first Nexus 6 has had a small decrease, and an increase in the density of pixels per square inch, which went from 493 to 515 ppi. The display of the Nexus 6P has excellent brightness and saturation, with high contrast.

The screen glass uses Gorilla Glass 4 technology and brings two grids to the stereo speakers, but that does not detract from the content that is displayed on the screen when we are watching a video or playing a game. The touch recognition is instantaneous and the representation of colors is one of the best you will see on a smartphone. Surely this device is next to Galaxy S6 Edge + and Galaxy Note 5 with respect to AMOLED screen quality.

The viewing angles are very good and, although the device is at 70 degrees of inclination, you can also recognize the contents of the screen. In conjunction with the excellent audio quality, the Nexus 6P is the perfect candidate for the use of applications like Nextflix and YouTube.

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - SOFTWARE

The Nexus 6P is one of the first smartphones to hit the market with the latest version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This guarantees at least six outstanding features of the software: Doze Mode, individual application permission control, fingerprint reader support, Now on Tap, weekly security packages and increased user control of the system .

The pure Android experience of the Nexus 6P is really fast, agile and fluid. Everything works as expected from a premium operating system: running applications, multitasking, connecting your smartphone to your computer, browsing the internet, accessing e-mail and social networking, listening to music, and getting rid of Unnecessary applications quickly and easily. If you need a smartphone that offers an excellent gaming experience, hardware specifications and software stability, the Nexus 6P is the right one.

One of my concerns has been regarding the overheating of the device due to the choice of Snapdragon 810. However, the mobile phone has not presented any problem regarding the loss of performance due to the heating of the smartphone. On the other hand, during my benchmark tests, I realized that even with a high level of processing, the device showed above-average performance.

Among the features that are most noticeable, but unfortunately still under development by the Android team, is the Now on Tap feature. In my opinion, this is one of the functions that best translates the expression "easy to use software". If you receive a message or are browsing a specific page, and long press the home button, some cards in the style of Google Now will appear on the screen, and you can do some research on some references found by the system, add events Quickly to your calendar, or even be directed to other applications, such as News, YouTube and Spotify, among others.

However, the resource can be used only in English and has difficulty recognizing local establishments, for example. I think when there is more integration between the Google search engine, with the support of Maps and Google Street View, for example, the service level will be better.

In addition, user control over the user interface is now larger because Google no longer offers many barriers and limitations in relation to uninstalling bloatwares, as well as offering the System UI Tuner setting that frees functions before Only possible with the root of the device.

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - PERFORMANCE

As for the technical specifications of the Nexus 6P, we expect an absolutely consistent performance and that is the same as the Huawei and Google deliver. The Nexus 6P processor is the Snapdragon 810 v2.1, a CPU that caused much controversy in 2015 because of overheating and poor battery performance. And, after some benchmark tests, a drop in performance with hardware warming was found.

The curious thing is that the Xperia Z5 has the same processor, but due to the fact that Sony uses a dual channel to dissipate the heat of the processor, the performance of the device increases considerably, so much so that the benchmark of the Z5 reaches 66858 points, leaving only Behind the Galaxy S6 Edge +, which reaches the score of 69901 points.

Leaving the numbers aside and looking at the experience of using the device, we can say that the integration of the software with the hardware is not bad, and in our tests we have not had any kind of performance drop in the course of the days of Test or problems with the quality of game graphics such as Asphalt 8 or Real Racing 3, for example.

What's more, the experience with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other hardware resources proved to be very stable. And, in conjunction with the 3GB of Nexus 6P RAM, the multitasking feature is very stable.

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - AUDIO

The audio quality of the Nexus 6P was really a surprise. The sound is clean, loud, but without distortion, and for the first time in many years I think I've found the smartphone with the perfect speakers.

This way, being able to see your favorite series on Netflix or have an excellent audio experience while playing on your Android will not be a problem.

Regarding the sound quality of the speakerphone for calls, you can say that it is really very good, but that at some point gave me the impression that it is not able to filter the sound of the voice and ends up delivering some external noises. However, this can be easily solved by decreasing the sound of the call by up to 60% of its capacity.

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - CAMERA

The Nexus 6P has the same sensor as the Nexus 5 camera. In other words, we are dealing with a 12.3-megapixel camera that does not have an optical image stabilizer. To compensate for the lack of it, however, we have the laser auto focus, that's why we see the glass bar at the top. Another outstanding feature is the size of the pixels, which are larger. This feature makes images captured in dimly lit environments richer in detail. We had already seen it before, in the HTC One M8, however the Chinese manufacturer also included it in the latest models in the series.

The LED flash is double and really offers more natural colors than the cameras of the other smartphones of the Nexus line. What is striking is the fact that you have to access the camera settings to make a video in 4K resolution. This can be a bit uncomfortable, if you want to start with a manufacturer skin for the Nexus 6P.

Using the camera software of the Nexus 6P is quite intuitive too, instead of clicking the buttons to switch from photo to video, simply slide your finger on the screen from side to side. Another very good feature is the direct access to the camera on the power button of the device. Thus, by clicking on this twice quickly, the camera will start up and be ready to be used.

The front camera of the Nexus 6P is really good, and looks a lot like the camera quality of the Huawei Mate S. Well, the quality of the images is all we can expect from an 8-megapixel sensor.

In relation to the quality of the images, this is the best Nexus for photos, with all certainty. The images are very clear and rich in details, they offer a good coloration, since they are not very saturated. One downside we found to be true is above average exposure which, according to DXOmark experts, is caused due to HDR + mode activation, especially in low-light environments. So pay attention to this when using the Nexus 6P camera.

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

TYPE: Phablet
MODEL: Not available!
MANUFACTURER: Google
DIMENSIONS: 159.3 x 77.8 x 7.3 mm
WEIGHT: 178 gr
BATTERY SIZE: 3450 mAh
SCREEN SIZE: 5.7 inches
SCREEN TECHNOLOGY: AMOLED
SCREEN: 2560 x 1440 pixels (515 ppi)
FRONT CAMERA: 8 Megapixels
REAR CAMERA: 12.3 Megapixels
FLASH: Dual-LED
ANDROID VERSION: 6.0 - Marshmallow
USER INTERFACE: Android Stock
RAM: 3 GB
INTERNAL MEMORY: 32 GB - 64 GB - 128 GB
REMOVABLE MEMORY: Not available
CHIPSET: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
NUMBER OF NUCLEI: 8
MAXIMUM SPEED: 2 GHz
CONNECTIVITY: HSPA, LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0

GOOGLE NEXUS 6P - BATTERY

In the past, the Nexus line had a big problem: the battery. From the partnership with Motorola in 2014, the series began to change in this direction with the arrival of the Nexus 6 and its battery of 3,000 mAh. However, this was not necessarily a big deal for a device with a QHD display, but it was a jump compared to the 2,300 mAh of the Nexus 5.

While today's big-screen smartphones have an average of 3,000 mAh (like the LG G4, Galaxy S6 Edge +, Galaxy Note 5, Xiaomi My Note Pro, and others), the Nexus 6P comes with a relatively good battery , With 3,450 mAh. Although the Nexus 6P is unibody and, therefore, does not offer the possibility of removing the battery, we have other features that make the battery autonomy is above the market average.

However, with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google also brought the Doze Mode, which allows to decrease the activity of the applications in the background when they are not used for a certain period of time. This makes the appliance save enough energy.

To measure the autonomy of the energy of the Nexus 6P, two processes were used, one through the AnTuTu benchmark of battery, in which the device has been tested at the reference point of consumption between 80 and 90% of the load ; And another process through the daily experience with the smartphone.

In the AnTuTu, the Nexus 6P reached 7777 points. To get an idea, the Galaxy S6 Edge + reached 6659, the S6 Edge to 7561 and the Moto G (2013) to 8352. The performance of the battery in the day to day depends on many factors and is not reflected in a score reference. Thus, it is necessary to say that a greater or lesser use of the device will be directly related to the playing time, the connection to a wi-fi network, movement within the coverage area of ​​your operator's antennas, active screen and the brightness level Of the screen during the use of the device.

With this in mind, I can say that within my experience of use, which I consider above the moderate, I was able to use the Nexus 6P for an average of 11 hours. The device also features Qualcomm's fast charging technology that can truly deliver anywhere from 3-4 hours of use in as little as ten minutes of charging. But of course, this will depend on the behavior of the user.

Finally, the fact that Google has added the microUSB Type-C resource to the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5, makes us able to load each other using a compatible cable. And that is excellent. However, very few cell phones in the market offer the same feature.

NEXUS 6P REVIEW - FINAL CONCLUSION

The "P" Nexus 6P stands for Premium, and this is actually the best Nexus ever made after the Nexus 6. Despite the performance of the Snapdragon 810 processor it does not deliver all the processing power due to the performance drop caused by the Overheating of the hardware, still the use of the smartphone in the day to day does not demonstrate limitations. However, in the long run, the tendency is for you to feel delays and a certain slowness of the system.

One thing is certain, the Nexus 6P is the smartphone more than designed that Google has manufactured so far. It is beautiful, thin, fast, has a battery with excellent capacity and, above all, works with the purest software that can be found on an Android smartphone.

If you have any prejudice regarding smartphones manufactured by Chinese companies, the Nexus 6P can surely convince you infinitely and make you change your mind.

And if the Nexus 6P was available for purchase in your country's stores, what would be the chances of you opting for it at the expense of a premium third-party smartphone?