Just yesterday, Google announced the launch of Nexus 6, its latest standard-bearer. After a torturous years filled with rumours of its premature demise, endless speculation about the hardware partners, and the slow trickle leaks, the Nexus 6 makes a big impression, literally. The super-sized Motorola Moto X, comes loaded with some cool features but the best has to be the inclusion of Android Lollipop (yes, its official now!)

Pros

~6" Quad HD Display
13 MP camera with HDR+
Turbo Charging
Android 5.0

Cons

6" Quad HD Display (bigger may not be better)
Price Spike
Not Waterproof (but water-resistant)
No fancy security features

Design

The Moto X template is actually beautiful and many commentators from the tech world rate it as their phone of the year. Google's decision to go with something similar seems to be a good choice. The Nexus 6 features the same contoured aluminium frame, camera, display, amongst other things. What is interesting is how it deviates from the template. The Nexus 6 deviates from the Moto X in terms of size. It is quite essentially a super-sized Moto X. Its size - 82.98mm x 159.26mm x 10.06mm, mean it is thicker than the iPhone 6 range but not cumbersome. If at all, thicker might be better after the iPhone "bend-gate" issue. The extra size also means extra weight, and at 184g, it is much heavier than the Galaxy Note 4 (176g) or the iPhone 6 and (172g, while keeping in mind the Nexus 6 has a larger display. It is available in two colours - (midnight) Blue and (cloud) White. Moreover, the phone will not feature any physical buttons on the front-side.

Display

With a 5.96 AMOLED display (493 PPI), it is much larger than the Note 4, iPhone 6 Plus or any other competitor. The stunning pixel density aside, it also pushes the limit of the "phablet"; an inch more and you are in today's world of tablets. In my mind, it is a bold design but I must remind myself that the trend is definitely towards "bigger is better". Therefore, while one may cringe at this "monster", it is easy to forget that just a few years ago; many of us cringed at the thought of owning a Galaxy Note.

Performance

The heart of Nexus 6 is the 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 SOC. This quad core performance is backed with 3GB RAM and an Adreno 420 GPU. Put together, the Nexus 6 should be quite fast. The Nexus 6 will be available in two memory configurations: 32GB and 64GB. It will also come loaded with the standard suite of sensors including GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and barometer. No doubt, it will be easy to integrate Google's range of fitness apps with the Nexus 6.

Camera

The Nexus 6 comes loaded with some standard camera features - 13MP primary and 2 MP secondary - but compliments them with optical image stabilisation, 4k video capture, d/2.0 aperture and dual LED ring lights. Yet, do not expect the camera to blow your mind.

Battery

With a phone this large, a good battery is essential. Thankfully, the Nexus 6 comes loaded with a 3220mAh battery, which is quite decent for this size. This translate to about 250 (ambient display on) to 330 hours (ambient display off) of standby time. Another way to look at it is through Wi-Fi time (9.5 hours) or LTE (10 hours). Talk time should be up to 24 hours. I am impressed, however, not by the battery but the charging. The Nexus 6 comes loaded with a turbo charging feature. Google points out that 15 minutes of charging provides around 6 hours of (moderate) use. Given that battery technology is improving at a snail's pace relative to everything else, Google' switch to better charging is great.

Android Lollipop

Hardware aside, the Nexus 6's best feature is Android Lollipop and that is gets its own special section.

Price and Conclusion

Until a hand's on review is possible, it would be impossible to give the Nexus 6 a final review. Yet, there is no doubt that this phone is now the most anticipated Android phone on the market today (at-least for a few more months) and it is impressive not just because of its hardware but also the amazing Android Lollipop OS. The price, however, is much more expensive than the Nexus 5: around $650 but at the same price range of high-end Android phones. In my opinion, the Nexus 6 is something of a real revolution for Google. Thanks to Android One (more about that some other time), Google can focus on the lower-tiers of the market and make the Nexus it is truly premium line. Should you buy it? Well, if you are an Android fan who needs an upgrade, so far the Nexus 6 sounds great. Personally, I would wait for a few more hands-on reviews and the almost inevitable software patches for the early release, before thinking of buying on.

By Navam Niles