I will be getting Nexus 6 from Amazon in couple of days. Will be using with Tmobile.
1. Will I get 6.0 depending on Tmobile or should I try to do OTA update WITHOUT inserting Tmobile sim?
2. I am newbie for rooting/unlocking. I know phone is unlocked for carier, but do I need to root to get rid of unwanted bloatware (if there are any)?
3. How to root?
4. Any other helpful suggestions? (First time using unlocked phone).
Thanks.
1. It depends. I will come back to this point in a little bit.
2. Nexus doesn't get bloatware. You don't have to worry about that.
3. First you'll need to unlock your bootloader. This will reset ALL data, so you WILL have to set up your phone again.
I'm going to assume you own a windows machine....
You will need adb and fastboot.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48915118 to download both.
On your Nexus 6, go to settings->about phone->click on the build number box 7 times or until a little bubble says "you are now a developer!"
Then go to settings->developer options->enable OEM unlocking
Then enable USB debugging
Shut off your phone
Turn your phone on again, but hold down the down volume key until a weird screen shows up
On your computer, make sure you unzipped adb/fastboot and have it on your desktop
Open cmd and enter "cd adb" and press enter
"fastboot devices" and press enter. If it shows your phone is connected then you're good. If not, make sure all cords are good/in/etc
"fastboot oem unlock" and enter. Do the instructions.
"fastboot reboot" and your bootloader is unlocked
That's just unlocking the bootloader though. You may want to flash a custom recovery though so it's easier to flash stuff.
https://twrp.me/devices/motorolanexus6.html read the disclaimers, etc and download. Unzip and put on your desktop.
Make sure your phone is in that weird screen again (you can do this through your computer by "fastboot reboot bootloader" and pressing enter)
"fastboot flash recovery " and drag the recovery.img from the shamu folder on your desktop then press enter.
"fastboot reboot bootloader" and press enter
Use the volume keys to find "recovery mode" and use your power button to open recovery
Make sure TeamWin shows up. If it doesn't, try reflashing stock recovery ( it's in
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images MAKE SURE TO DOWNLOAD THE RECOVERY FOR LOLLIPOP/MARSHMALLOW, THE ONE YOU CURRENTLY HAVE FLASHED/INSTALLED) then try again.
When you set up your phone again, just make sure to download a root permissions app. SuperSU is highly recommended, but is VERY annoying to update the binaries for.
1. Now I will return to this. If you don't want to lose everything and have to set your phone up again then go ahead and get the OTA without your SIM card. Please note: you won't get OTA updates with a custom recovery; you will have to manually flash every time there is an update (I can help give instructions for that too)
Hope my unintelligible mess proved helpful