Nexus 6

Design

It takes two hands to properly operate the Nexus 6, but this Android phone feels better in my increasingly ambidextrous grasp for its size. Motorola's design, borrowed from the Moto X, gives it a sturdy BendGate-free aluminum metal frame and palm-pleasing gently curved back. It's sloped, so while the contoured sides run as thin as 0.15 in. (3.8mm), the thicker hump is 0.39 in. (10.1mm). The height and width are a normal 6.27 in. (159.3mm) x 3.15 in. (83.0mm). Nexus 6 pushes an edge-to-edge display with no physical buttons, so the - by comparison - "small" 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus isn't too far off: 6.22 in. (158.1mm) x 3.06 in. (77.8mm). At 6.49 oz. (184g), it weighs more than the new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy Note 4. But there's a good chance that if you can fit Apple's biggest smartphone in your skinny jeans, you're also going to be able to squeeze this oversized Android into a pocket too. You might not always be able to get it out as easily, especially when driving or sitting down. The curve feels natural against my hands, and the back, while made of hard plastic, is at least smooth. It doesn't try to mask the material with fake leather stitching or bumpy plastic. Nexus 6's shell is different from the rubberized Nexus 5, but I found it a lot easier to grip than its "premium," but far-too-slippery competitors that feature an all-metal design from top to bottom. With the aluminum iPhone 6, I felt like I needed a sleek-design-defeating case not to drop it. This is a familiar Motorola device almost all of the way through, down to the dimpled logo on the back where my finger automatically rested when on a call. But it skips out on the Moto Maker customizations like wood finishes and far-too-supple leather backs. Nexus 6 colors are limited to two: either Cloud White or Midnight Blue with the advantage of both being compatible with Qi wireless chargers, a feature all of those tricked-out Moto X phones don't support. It's also missing the Moto Active Display functionality. Waving my hand above the three IR sensors of the Moto X triggered a mostly unlit screen with just the current time and notification icons. Pressing down on these icons revealed more information like email teasers. Active Display is nowhere to be found here, even though it was a great a battery-saving idea that made notifications very glanceable. Instead, there's the less reliable Ambient Display mode that provides a greyed-out lockscreen whenever you lift the phone up suddenly. This doesn't always work. Nexus 6 misses the boat when it comes to a fingerprint scanner to rival Apple's Touch ID. Apparently, the iPhone-maker is inadvertently responsible for killing Motorola's biometric design plans because it bought supplier AuthenTec. You won't find a working LED light indicator here either. Recently, a developer discovered that the phone does emit one of these notifications pulses, but it's disabled. Turning it on requires a rooted phone. Also missing, or at least inconsistent, is the Nexus 9 tablet's knock-to-wake feature. It actually works sometimes and turns on that greyed-out screen, but other times I get no response at all. "Hello, is anyone home?," I keep asking. Maybe a firmware update can resolve this in the future but that hasn't arrived in the months since the original launch.

Interface

Stock Android remains one of the best reasons to own a Nexus device. Its software is void of the often unnecessary third-party overlays and pre-installed apps that simply get in my way. Sure, skins like Samsung TouchWiz, LG Optimus and HTC Sense look and run better today than they did two years ago, but pure Android is the way to go. There's no getting around the fact that Nexus devices, like all Google Play Edition devices, receive future Android updates almost immediately without carrier intervention. That matters as much this year as it does next year. We're gearing up for Google's successor to Android Lollipop, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which will be released later this year. While it probably won't be as big a leap as Android Lollipop was compared to Android KitKat, it's still set to come with some exciting new features, and it's a good bet that the Nexus 6 will be one of the first handsets to get the update. Right now though it's all about Android 5.0 Lollipop, last fall's pre-installed version of the operating system. It sports a flat, yet layered theme among its menus and apps. Google calls this "Material Design," and it sort of lifts 2D layers to the third dimension with a combination of shadows cast by key and ambient lights. The new look also dials back the visual non-essentials, but punches up the color. Menus aren't as dark as they were on Android 4.4 KitKat, and apps share in this same geometry-focused design and splash of color. So far this applies to Google's slate of apps like Gmail, Google Play Movies & TV and Google Maps. The company is driving a simplified, unified layout throughout its ecosystem. There's also a big difference to how Android 5.0 Lollipop functions, and I didn't even have to unlock my Nexus 6 to see the very first change - it was right there on the lockscreen. Lockscreen notifications bring the hidden notification panel to the forefront with email alerts, text messages exchanges, app updates and so forth. It's all easily glanceable like on iOS 8. Such a move would normally introduce a privacy problem. Google, however, nipped that issue in the bud within the "Sound & Notifications" settings menu. With nothing to hide, I can "Show all notification content," keep certain items confidential via "Hide sensitive notification content," or turn everything off with "Don't show notifications at all." Better yet, I can block notifications on an app-by-app basis through this same handy menu. Priority Mode is Google's more advanced take on Apple's Do Not Disturb feature. It silences the Nexus 6 indefinitely or in intervals ranging from 15 minutes to 8 hours. Like the lockscreen notifications, certain apps and callers can be allowed or disallowed via whitelisting, and I've since ditched my third-party Silence app for this new, system-wide feature. Priority Mode isn't part of Quick Settings like I had expected. It's activated by pressing the volume key in either direction and following the on-screen toggles. Quick Settings does have some new additions, however. The pulldown menu doesn't require two fingers simultaneously. That still works, but now you can do one swipe for notifications, then another swipe to reveal this hidden quick settings menu. It's a lot less awkward. It's still impossible to add to or rearrange the quick settings. What you see is what you get. Thankfully, new buttons alongside Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Airplane Mode include Flashlight and the Chromecast "Cast Screen" button. A brightness slider, while not necessarily new, is no longer hidden behind its own submenu. One less step is what quick settings is all about. New features are already on the way too, with Android 5.1 set to roll out any moment at time of writing. That brings support for multiple SIM cards and high definition voice calls to the Nexus 6, as well as a new Device Protection mode, which keeps a lost or stolen handset locked until you sign in with your Google account.

Performance

 Nexus 6 running Android 5.0 Lollipop clears all but one rival smartphone when it comes to benchmarks: the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. It's awful close, and that's no surprise. Google's specs mirror it chip-for-chip with a 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor, Adreno 420 GPU and 3GB of RAM. Nexus 6 aces Geekbench 3 benchmarking tests with an average multi-core score of 3294. It's significantly faster than the smaller iPhone 6 Plus (2911) and Samsung Galaxy S5 (2905). Alas, the Galaxy Note 4 eeks out a win with a benchmarking score of 3,352. A real overachieving nerd with a pocket-protected S-Pen in its frame, if that's what you want. The recently released Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 also upstage the Nexus 6, with scores of 4,846 and 3,803, respectively. Despite the newer handsets scoring higher, these numbers translate into stellar performance from the Nexus 6. Google's phablet is venturing into tablet territory, and the recent Nexus 9 slate averaged 3,492 in the same tests. It's pushing the boundaries of more than just physical size. The one and only slowdown I saw was during the boot-up process. It took 1 minute 33 seconds to start this thing up. At first slow start times seemed more like a glitch that can be addressed in a post-launch firmware update, however a year after launch and the Nexus 6 still takes its sweet time when booting up. Right now, streaming movies and playing CPU-intensive games hasn't slowed this phone down one bit. That's a good sign if you're going to hold onto this smartphone for two whole years.

Camera

Nexus 6's camera certainly bests the flawed photos of 2013's Nexus 5 snapper and it's way more accurate than the rest of Motorola's oversaturated lineup. The improvements are care of the Sony IMX214 CMOS sensor, a wider f/2.0 aperture and optical image stabilization, all attributes that aren't a part of the new Moto X. It's a 13-megapixels - the same as the OnePlus One camera - and holds its own next to the 21-megapixel Droid Turbo for two reasons: it has better shot-for-shot color accuracy and OIS. Both the Moto X and Droid Turbo have tried to impress with vibrant, Instagram-like colors for each shot. It works in some cases like photos of the sky or buildings, but when it occasionally turns your skin different hues, it's unfortunate. That's why I appreciate the fact that the Nexus 6 is closer to reality. It's still a bit warm in natural light and grainier than it should be in low-light situations, but a marked improvement. The problems are only abundantly clear when comparisons are drawn between its camera and the Galaxy Note 4 camera. Samsung's color accuracy and post-processing skills can't be beat. All of this is true of the front-facing camera too. It's a bit redder and grainier in low light when using that 2 megapixels. The Note 4 and the front-flash-equipped HTC Desire Eye do a better job if you're looking for selfies in your local pub. I found the Nexus 6 autofocus to be comparable and even snappier in some instances, but the Note 4's camera is just chock-full of options not in Google's very straightforward default. Sure, Photosphere is a neat camera trick that works on Google+, but its an overall bare bones camera app that's easily overpowered by third-party alternatives in the Play Store. And sadly, Motorola hasn't brought over the camera twist shortcut that launches the Moto X app. Video is a little more straightforward. It shoots 4K video at 30 frames per second, but if you're not playing it back on a 4K TV, it's hard to justify the space on a quad HD smartphone. That's where the 1080p video recording option is much more relevant. You can find camera samples on the next page and I'll be adding more of my photo-snapping results throughout the week with additional analysis.