We've just started testing Google's latest Nexus flagship

Dec 24, 2015 08:57 GMT  ·  By

Pretty much every single major phone maker has refreshed its flagship phone lineup this year, including Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, so Google couldn't stay way from this appealing side of the market and worked with Huawei to launch the Nexus 6P.

In essence the best of the best when it comes to Android, Nexus 6P is an impressive device when looking at the spec sheet.

A 5.7-inches AMOLED display, Gorilla Glass 4, Snapdragon 810, 3 GB of RAM, up to 128 GB of storage space, a 12.3-megapixel camera employing a Sony IMX377 Sensor with 1.55µm pixels, an 8-megapixel front unit for selfies and video calls, and a 3450 mAh battery that can certainly get you through the day. These are the main specs of a flagship device that ships with Android 6.0 and it's supposed to be the pioneer of the platform.

But is that really so?

After a couple of days with the Nexus 6P, which is primarily a Huawei device, we've come to some very interesting conclusions, which you'll find detailed in our in-depth review to be published next week. What you'll read below are our first impressions with the device and could change in the meantime.

First of all, the design. While Google says this phone is all about premium quality, that can hardly be noticed at the first encounter. It looks nice, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's made of “aeronautical-grade aluminum,” as Google calls it (we'll call it just aluminum, it's more accurate this way), but the black version barely offers a metal feeling. Some of our colleagues mistakenly said it's made of plastic, and the device most likely feels plasticky when held in the hand.

Build quality

But the premium finish does exist when analyzing the phone in depth, and Huawei certainly focused on details that matter. The rear upper side of the phone that holds the camera is beautifully crafted on the device (we've learned, however, that this is a love it or hate it feature - some like the little bump on the back, others say it's just ugly).

Overall, the phone looks just like a flagship Android device, and it's almost impossible to mistake it for a handset running iOS, Windows Phone, or any other OS. It's a pure Android device.

Nexus 6P display - it really shines
Nexus 6P display - it really shines

The display offers excellent quality, and colors are very bright and vivid. Contrast is also excellent, and watching YouTube videos is a pleasure. The display really shines and is very responsive all the time.

The camera of the phone is very good, but not the best. The Nexus 6P competes against the best phones on the market, including the iPhone 6s Plus, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ (also an Android), and Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, all coming with exquisite cameras. We've found the Nexus 6P to shoot high-quality photos with good contrast and brightness, but they're not as great as those on the Edge+, for example. Colors are more vivid on the Samsung, but Nexus seems to shoot photos that are brighter.

On the other hand, it's faster when it comes to post-processing than the Lumia 950 XL, which needs up to 4 seconds to complete the task. Nexus 6P is slower than the iPhone 6s Plus when processing HDR photos too.

Nexus 6P camera sample, no editing
Nexus 6P camera sample, no editing

Battery life is decent, to say the least. On average, the Nexus 6P can last you through the day with absolutely no problem. Right now, our test unit is at 40 percent on day 2 with moderate usage, so even if you're a heavy user, it should easily go for 24 hours.

And now, the CPU. The Nexus 6P comes with Snapdragon 810, which is the exact same chip as on the Lumia 950 XL, Microsoft's new flagship device competing against Google's. As we've told you in our Lumia 950 XL review, the phone is getting really hot when performing more demanding tasks, but it generally feels warm when browsing the web or even when chatting on WhatsApp.

It's super fast

Things are very similar on the Nexus 6P, as the phone is also getting hot when watching a 4K video, for example. It feels warm most of the time, but it's also cooling very fast, definitely faster than the Lumia, which, as Microsoft said on so many occasions, features a liquid-based cooling system (which isn't exactly liquid-based anyway, but still).

And yet, expect the phone to be warm 90 percent of the time, and to get hotter when performing demanding tasks. But it cools down as fast as it gets hot, so it's up to you to judge if this is a problem or not.

Other than that, Nexus 6P is one of the fastest devices we've tried in a long time. Everything opens instantly, and the phone never, but never seems to become slower. If you like to mess with developer settings and disable the time needed for animations, it can basically feel like flying through menus (we'll discuss how to do this in our review coming next week).

All in all, the Nexus 6P seems to be a good candidate for the best flagship currently on the market, but it definitely has some downsides too. We'll analyze all of them in an in-depth review.

Note: these are the early impressions after unboxing the Nexus 6P, and they could change in the coming days as we take a closer look at all the features of the new phone. Our in-depth review will be published next week, so come back soon to learn how good the new phablet actually is.

The back of the phone with the fingerprint reader, which is placed in a very incovenient position
The back of the phone with the fingerprint reader, which is placed in a very incovenient position

Photo Gallery (4 Images)

Nexus 6P is Google's flagship for 2016
Nexus 6P display - it really shinesThe back of the phone with the fingerprint reader, which is placed in a very incovenient position
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