Actually found a store with the phone on the floor and played with it for about 15-20 minutes. Basically, if you're worried about the camera in the slightest, I wouldn't be. Without HDR mode on, it took pictures instantaneously with no trouble and they looked great. With HDR on, it was about a full second delay until the picture was done being taken. Honestly, comparing the pics I took, I would keep HDR off for normal, off-the-cuff pictures you're taking that don't need to be as beautiful as possible and you'll be fine. The HDR did obviously make it look better, and I couldn't move the phone far off it's holder to try different kinds of pictures of different spots of the store, but only slightly to my eye. It isn't 100% necessary and you should be fine without it. Just save it for more important times where the photo really matters and you'll be set.
And to whomever was asking about taking a bunch of pictures then going to the gallery to see if it lags on loading, the unit I used pulled up the gallery no problems. However, if I tried doing a quick swipe through a bunch of the photos there was a noticeable amount of lag, but it was very slight for me. I forgot to check if there was an option to look at photos in the gallery through a column/row set-up, but if there was, that's what I would probably be using and at that point I couldn't see lag being a problem.
As far as screen goes, sadly the criticisms about the screen brightness do have merit to them. My HTC EVO 4G LTE has a brighter screen with both at max brightness and auto-brightness turned off, but there was never a time where it wasn't bright enough for me and it was something that I couldn't use. Also, it does seem not as vivid, but I think these are things that will be most readily apparent if you're doing a direct screen comparison with another phone right next to you. Once I was spending time just with the N6 my eyes stopped noticing the differences it had been a few minutes ago and I was just in awe of how big of a phone this really is.
Transitions within apps and the app drawer were 100% smooth as everybody else has commented on. The back did pick up a little bit of smudging/finger-print grease, but honestly not as bad as what I've heard (coming from an EVO I've dealt with much more noticeable marks on the back haha). Also if you're like me and weren't a big fan of the powder blue trim around the phone, it honestly looks much better than I expected and is much more subtle than some of the pictures of the phone that I've seen so don't worry about that. The speakers are strong and I didn't even put them at 100% due to interrupting the rest of the people in the store nearby me, but they should be more than enough for every person who lists that as something important and is okay with one step below Boomsound.
I'll update this if I remember more things, but like I said the main thing you'll really notice is how big this phone is. In my opinion the Note 4 really does have a nicer look to it design wise, but I'm won over with the Nexus and real excited to hopefully pick it up from Sprint tomorrow. Also I was not expecting the Nexus to be as thin as it is, and am honestly very happy I have a Spigen Neo-Hybrid coming in to help it feel more substantial. The only other thing I can think of is that I couldn't get a normal hold on the phone due to the security tether, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a little bit slippery as well. Hope this helps some of you guys out, and if you're on the fence between a Note or a Nexus, my opinion would be that at this point there's really no way to wrong and seeing it at the store really confirmed that for me.
Edit: An important last note is that within the notification drawer it was asking me to do an update to Lollipop, so any stutters from the gallery or HDR could actually be less than what I saw.
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