Here is a link to my photos for this review, as well as photos and footage from the 6P's cameras
As happy as I was with my Moto X Pure Edition, there were a couple oddities that surfaced after using it for a couple months. The camera was decent, but the interface was frustrating to use. When I gave the phone to someone else to take a picture, they always clicked the home button because there was no dedicated shutter button. Motorola has also been dropping phones from updates recently, having stopped updating last year’s Moto E after only one update. On their flagship Moto X line, they haven’t been doing a great job on releasing the monthly security updates. While I haven’t heard of anyone being affected by the scary malicious app stories we all hear about, it’s still important to have the latest and greatest security patches.
Then my brother told me he needed a new phone for Sprint, so I intended to get the Nexus 6P for myself and give him the Moto X. I went with the Aluminum 64gb model, and got the 6P when it was $50 off. After sales tax, the total came to $538.92.
The last time I’ve owned a Nexus phone was the Nexus 5, and I was a little disappointed. The phone itself wasn’t too bad, but the battery life was not enough to make me comfortable with it. For example, I got stuck in an airport during a big snow storm in early 2014. Even just using the phone to listen to music and message my family to let them know what was going on drained the battery to 40% by the time my first plane took off.
In my day to day life, it was hard to get the phone to last a day, even with my lighter usage. The camera was good in day light but didn’t do well at all in low light. And, the stock Android experience still had some oddities that made me want to use a custom ROM.
Nowadays, stock Android has fixed most of what I had problems with before. Being able to customize my quick settings sounds trivial, but goes a long way in day to day usage. Battery life is also much better for numerous reasons, but I’ll discuss that a few paragraphs down.
When the 6P first arrived, I had a difficult time getting it to connect to my apartment Wi-Fi. It took me about twenty minutes of forgetting the network, reinputting my password, and rebooting the phone numerous times to finally establish a connection. After a month with my first phone, I was able to exchange it for a free replacement to hopefully fix the Wi-Fi issues. The replacement unit was better, but still not great. I had AT&T replace my modem a few days ago, and since then everything’s worked just fine.
For this review period, I was on a number of different wireless networks. With my first device, I was on Project Fi the first few weeks of owning the phone, then switched to Straight Talk in early January. When on Project Fi, I kept Wi-Fi on even out and using cellular data, but I manually turn that off now. Bluetooth has always been on and connected to either a Pebble Steel or Vector Watch. I used the phone in rural Indiana and around my apartment in San Antonio, with a trip up to Waco on the first device. I never had any issues with reception, and the Nexus 6P supports all US carriers and some overseas networks right out of the box.
Even with a larger cell, I didn’t get noticeably better battery life compared to my Moto X. While at my parents’ house in Indiana, I was able to read books and online articles for about 6 hours before needing to plug in. In my day to day life, battery life isn’t a concern because I charge my phone while driving due to Android Auto, and Doze (more on that later) kicks in when I leave my phone in my car at work. On a normal schedule, I can get three to four days of battery life from my 6P, but I am a very niche use case. It was enough to last me through a day of travelling without issues, which is about the heaviest I use a phone. Even with a more active schedule, you shouldn’t have any problem getting through the day. If you do, the Nexus 6P supports USB-C quick charging.
USB-C is pleasant new thing to use. The plug is the same on both ends, and like Apple’s Lightning connector there’s no wrong way to plug it into either the phone or charger. The connection feels sturdier than the older Micro-USB plugs, and in the time I’ve had the phone it hasn’t gotten any less stable. The biggest pain will be replacing all your old cables with the newer one. The Nexus 6P comes with a reversible USB-C to USB-C cable, as well as a USB-C to the older USB-A. If you need more cables for your car, turn to Amazon. The best brands so far are iOrange-E and Anker.
The Nexus 6P has the same sized screen as my Moto X (5.7 inches), but is physically taller and wider. As much as I enjoyed the slimmer profile of the Moto X, I’ve gotten used to typing with both thumbs, so the wider Nexus 6P is a better fit for me. The metal exterior is very slick, and I’m surprised I haven’t dropped it yet. I did get a Dbrand skin for extra grip in everyday situations, and I use a Spigen case for when I’m running of weight lifting. On the top of the phone is the 3.5 mm headphone jack, the left side holds the Nano-SIM slot, the right has the power and volume buttons, and the bottom has the USB-C charging/data port.
The back of the device has the camera setup and fingerprint sensor. I love where the fingerprint sensor is. It’s incredibly easy to unlock my device while I’m pulling it out of my pocket and the screen on by the time it gets into my eyesight. The camera is a 12 megapixel unit with dual flash and laser auto focus, and takes very good pictures in any light. The Near Field Communication (NFC) chip is located behind the same pane of glass the camera setup is, and the location is perfect. Unlock other phones, I don’t have to guess where the chip is in order to make contact, and it’s very easy to use with my finger on the fingerprint sensor for Tap and Pay.
With the correct brightness settings (I set mine manually depending on where I am), the screen is very easy to see in daylight and gets adequately dim for night time use. The front facing stereo speakers sound fantastic, but do get distorted pretty badly at higher volumes. I had no problems talking over speakerphone and having the other party hear me clearly as well. To my poor ears, audio in general sounds great through either the headphone jack, from the front facing speakers or over Bluetooth.
With a few exceptions, I haven’t had any issues with performance. Apps open fast, and there’s no lag while scrolling through web pages in either Chrome or Firefox. While others have had issues with Bluetooth, neither of the units I’ve had have had issues. Devices pair without problem, and stay connected so long as I’m within range. The only time the phone crashed and rebooted was when I was redownloading all my apps on the second 6P. I was able to simultaneously download my music collection through Spotify, Apple Music, Microsoft Groove Music, and sync a folder with many files from Google Drive using FolderSync without any slowdown or rebooting.
The camera is very fast to take and process photos, even when using HDR. As much as I enjoyed the Moto X’s “twist to open camera” feature, I have to say the Nexus 6P’s method (double pressing the power button) is faster for me. While the camera interface doesn’t have as many features as Samsung or LG’s camera apps, it’s perfectly adequate for my needs. With just a swipe you can switch between shooting photos and shooting video, and unlike Motorola’s interface, there’s a dedicated shutter button. If you don’t like the interface, the phone supports the Camera2 API, meaning you can install an alternative camera app from the Play Store and still retain full functionality.
For capturing video, you can go up to 4K on the rear camera and 1080P on the front facing camera. Video looks great whether in day light or lower light, and unlike the Moto X you can set the video to capture at 4K by default and it will still be set the next time you open the camera.
Now onto the most important part of why I decided to buy the Nexus 6P: support. Even without considering the awesome support I’ve gotten from the Google team, you’re guaranteed new Android versions for two years after the device’s release (for the Nexus 6P, that’ll be until October 2017), and monthly security updates for three years after the device’s release. Other manufacturers have made their own support claims and stuck to them so far, but since Google is the main force responsible for Android, buying their phone makes that guarantee seem much more plausible.
Google’s hardware support team was also fantastic. I never had to wait more than two minutes to connect to a representative, and the call where I ordered my replacement device took no more than five minutes. Along with my earlier point about stock Android finally being complete enough for an average user, I will recommend anyone looking for a phone today to get the Nexus 6P.
As happy as I was with my Moto X Pure Edition, there were a couple oddities that surfaced after using it for a couple months. The camera was decent, but the interface was frustrating to use. When I gave the phone to someone else to take a picture, they always clicked the home button because there was no dedicated shutter button. Motorola has also been dropping phones from updates recently, having stopped updating last year’s Moto E after only one update. On their flagship Moto X line, they haven’t been doing a great job on releasing the monthly security updates. While I haven’t heard of anyone being affected by the scary malicious app stories we all hear about, it’s still important to have the latest and greatest security patches.
Then my brother told me he needed a new phone for Sprint, so I intended to get the Nexus 6P for myself and give him the Moto X. I went with the Aluminum 64gb model, and got the 6P when it was $50 off. After sales tax, the total came to $538.92.
The last time I’ve owned a Nexus phone was the Nexus 5, and I was a little disappointed. The phone itself wasn’t too bad, but the battery life was not enough to make me comfortable with it. For example, I got stuck in an airport during a big snow storm in early 2014. Even just using the phone to listen to music and message my family to let them know what was going on drained the battery to 40% by the time my first plane took off.
In my day to day life, it was hard to get the phone to last a day, even with my lighter usage. The camera was good in day light but didn’t do well at all in low light. And, the stock Android experience still had some oddities that made me want to use a custom ROM.
Nowadays, stock Android has fixed most of what I had problems with before. Being able to customize my quick settings sounds trivial, but goes a long way in day to day usage. Battery life is also much better for numerous reasons, but I’ll discuss that a few paragraphs down.
When the 6P first arrived, I had a difficult time getting it to connect to my apartment Wi-Fi. It took me about twenty minutes of forgetting the network, reinputting my password, and rebooting the phone numerous times to finally establish a connection. After a month with my first phone, I was able to exchange it for a free replacement to hopefully fix the Wi-Fi issues. The replacement unit was better, but still not great. I had AT&T replace my modem a few days ago, and since then everything’s worked just fine.
For this review period, I was on a number of different wireless networks. With my first device, I was on Project Fi the first few weeks of owning the phone, then switched to Straight Talk in early January. When on Project Fi, I kept Wi-Fi on even out and using cellular data, but I manually turn that off now. Bluetooth has always been on and connected to either a Pebble Steel or Vector Watch. I used the phone in rural Indiana and around my apartment in San Antonio, with a trip up to Waco on the first device. I never had any issues with reception, and the Nexus 6P supports all US carriers and some overseas networks right out of the box.
Even with a larger cell, I didn’t get noticeably better battery life compared to my Moto X. While at my parents’ house in Indiana, I was able to read books and online articles for about 6 hours before needing to plug in. In my day to day life, battery life isn’t a concern because I charge my phone while driving due to Android Auto, and Doze (more on that later) kicks in when I leave my phone in my car at work. On a normal schedule, I can get three to four days of battery life from my 6P, but I am a very niche use case. It was enough to last me through a day of travelling without issues, which is about the heaviest I use a phone. Even with a more active schedule, you shouldn’t have any problem getting through the day. If you do, the Nexus 6P supports USB-C quick charging.
USB-C is pleasant new thing to use. The plug is the same on both ends, and like Apple’s Lightning connector there’s no wrong way to plug it into either the phone or charger. The connection feels sturdier than the older Micro-USB plugs, and in the time I’ve had the phone it hasn’t gotten any less stable. The biggest pain will be replacing all your old cables with the newer one. The Nexus 6P comes with a reversible USB-C to USB-C cable, as well as a USB-C to the older USB-A. If you need more cables for your car, turn to Amazon. The best brands so far are iOrange-E and Anker.
The Nexus 6P has the same sized screen as my Moto X (5.7 inches), but is physically taller and wider. As much as I enjoyed the slimmer profile of the Moto X, I’ve gotten used to typing with both thumbs, so the wider Nexus 6P is a better fit for me. The metal exterior is very slick, and I’m surprised I haven’t dropped it yet. I did get a Dbrand skin for extra grip in everyday situations, and I use a Spigen case for when I’m running of weight lifting. On the top of the phone is the 3.5 mm headphone jack, the left side holds the Nano-SIM slot, the right has the power and volume buttons, and the bottom has the USB-C charging/data port.
The back of the device has the camera setup and fingerprint sensor. I love where the fingerprint sensor is. It’s incredibly easy to unlock my device while I’m pulling it out of my pocket and the screen on by the time it gets into my eyesight. The camera is a 12 megapixel unit with dual flash and laser auto focus, and takes very good pictures in any light. The Near Field Communication (NFC) chip is located behind the same pane of glass the camera setup is, and the location is perfect. Unlock other phones, I don’t have to guess where the chip is in order to make contact, and it’s very easy to use with my finger on the fingerprint sensor for Tap and Pay.
With the correct brightness settings (I set mine manually depending on where I am), the screen is very easy to see in daylight and gets adequately dim for night time use. The front facing stereo speakers sound fantastic, but do get distorted pretty badly at higher volumes. I had no problems talking over speakerphone and having the other party hear me clearly as well. To my poor ears, audio in general sounds great through either the headphone jack, from the front facing speakers or over Bluetooth.
With a few exceptions, I haven’t had any issues with performance. Apps open fast, and there’s no lag while scrolling through web pages in either Chrome or Firefox. While others have had issues with Bluetooth, neither of the units I’ve had have had issues. Devices pair without problem, and stay connected so long as I’m within range. The only time the phone crashed and rebooted was when I was redownloading all my apps on the second 6P. I was able to simultaneously download my music collection through Spotify, Apple Music, Microsoft Groove Music, and sync a folder with many files from Google Drive using FolderSync without any slowdown or rebooting.
The camera is very fast to take and process photos, even when using HDR. As much as I enjoyed the Moto X’s “twist to open camera” feature, I have to say the Nexus 6P’s method (double pressing the power button) is faster for me. While the camera interface doesn’t have as many features as Samsung or LG’s camera apps, it’s perfectly adequate for my needs. With just a swipe you can switch between shooting photos and shooting video, and unlike Motorola’s interface, there’s a dedicated shutter button. If you don’t like the interface, the phone supports the Camera2 API, meaning you can install an alternative camera app from the Play Store and still retain full functionality.
For capturing video, you can go up to 4K on the rear camera and 1080P on the front facing camera. Video looks great whether in day light or lower light, and unlike the Moto X you can set the video to capture at 4K by default and it will still be set the next time you open the camera.
Now onto the most important part of why I decided to buy the Nexus 6P: support. Even without considering the awesome support I’ve gotten from the Google team, you’re guaranteed new Android versions for two years after the device’s release (for the Nexus 6P, that’ll be until October 2017), and monthly security updates for three years after the device’s release. Other manufacturers have made their own support claims and stuck to them so far, but since Google is the main force responsible for Android, buying their phone makes that guarantee seem much more plausible.
Google’s hardware support team was also fantastic. I never had to wait more than two minutes to connect to a representative, and the call where I ordered my replacement device took no more than five minutes. Along with my earlier point about stock Android finally being complete enough for an average user, I will recommend anyone looking for a phone today to get the Nexus 6P.
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