For this review, were going to highlight Motorola Nexus 6, Google’s first take on the 6-inch phablet style device. The Nexus 6 is the bread and butter of Motorola and Google’s collaboration, which promises to deliver strong and powerful performance and high-caliber features and specs that can make any 6-inch competition, wiggle their tailbone. The Nexus 6 was launched late last year, and is not showing any signs of slowing down. The Nexus 6 is priced here at around P21,099 for a the 32GB variant and P21,098 for the 4G LTE variant.
Design and build
For its body, the metal frame and matte polycarbonate back, feels really comfortable in the Nexus 6, this helps in establishing the robust character of the Nexus 6. The Nexus 6 is weighted at around 187g, which is a bit hefty for a phablet, but, consistently connects it to the robustness of the Nexus 6. The Nexus 6 also has a 10.1mm dimension measurement and a 74.1% STB ratio, which is monstrous, in a good way. For us, we find this quite appealing, since it pretty much solidifies its robust and durable character and helps in establishing more trust to the Nexus 6’s prolongevity as a phone.
The Nexus 6’s overall appearance is reminiscent to the Moto X, which to us, was a good decision by google, because, to us, the Moto X’s design was top-notch and beautiful and using the Moto X, as a source for its exterior design was pretty respectful to Motorola’s Moto X. On the front side, the speakers two stereo speakers are the one to immediately notice. It odd positioning, with the first speaker on top part of the front side and the other below, seems unique to us and in terms of, bezel and spacing, the Nexus 6, considerably maximized its own spacing, with the latter, almost evening out with the C5 Ultra’s bezel count.
The selfie cam is also seen on the device’s upper right and under the phone is its USB port, while on the right side are the physical buttons for power activation and volume control. At the back of the device is its matte polycarbonated back cover and its 13MP rear shooter, which is located at the upper middle part of the device, below the shooter is a letter M for Motorola and right below the M, is the word nexus written vertically. The jack is located just above the device.
Display
From first glance, the feature you’ll notice is its huge 6-inch AMOLED screen display, which is quite lovely, when experienced hands-on. Thats a 2560 x 1440 pixel screen spread out to an 6-inch display delivers quite of an output. One can, compare this features to the Galaxy Note 4, with its 1080p resolution. The upgraded 1440p resolution on the Motorola Nexus 6 is not exactly noticeable, in comparison to the Note 4’s 1080p.
There are key points to take when checking the Nexus 6’s display, one, is that the display looks a less saturated than other 6-inch phablet phones, more specifically, the Note 4. Which for us at least, is a good thing, since, this helps the display to be blend more in different sceneries. Another is its unique auto-brightness setting, that adapts its screens lighting capabilities, when set to the most lowest possible, brightness. This feature will surely be useful on late dark nights, for reading e-books.
Camera
The Nexus 6 sports a 13MP OIS, dual-LED ring flash and HDR ready rear shooter. Which should deliver high-caliber still images, however, from the looks of its outputs, it didn’t necessarily provided the perfect shot that we were expecting it to deliver.
The Nexus 6 is dependable on the perfect brightness of natural light for its ultra fast autofocus feature and quick shooting capability to play their roles at their finest, however, when under low-light or bad natural lighting, the Nexus 6 delivers poor outputs, with the mentioned outcome would be either to noisy or to blurry, or even both. The worst thing comes when HDR is open, with the latter taking too much time in focusing and processing a shot.
For video performance, the Nexus 6 has good capabilities, but just like in its still image performance, possesses a few drawbacks. Video quality is really solid and delivers in both 4k and 1080p, although, it kinda lacked a few spark and tricks in its alley, like a slow motion feature or something entirely different.
System and Experience
The Nexus 6’s overall system design was at far with Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, with the Nexus 6 providing a new application design, which adds up to the appeal of the Nexus 6.
Overall experience with the application set-up were smooth, Android 5.0 Lollipop really suits the Nexus 6 and provided easy-to-follow directions, which was reminiscent of Apple’s iOS. This was a really big factor to consider since the Nexus 6, is already hitting the right marks on the majority, with this adding up to the Nexus 6’s repertoire.
Performance and benchmarks
Unlike most Nexus devices in the past, the Nexus 6 packs a powerful punch, with its Snapdragon 805 processor, running at an amazing 2.7GHz and supports a 3GB RAM capacity.
Here are the performed benchmarks of the Nexus 6
- AnTuTu ratings- 50508
- Basemark OS II ratings- 1101
- Geekbench 3 ratings- SCS:1046, MCS: 3284
The Nexus 6 possesses an Android 5.0 Lollipop, which can be upgraded to a 5.1 lollipop. Thanks to the up-to-date system of the Nexus 6, application browsing are quick and snappy, with the latter delivering fast and almost-to-no-lag experience in browsing through the applications.
However, we experienced a few slow downs on certain gaming applications, this could either be from the Nexus 6’s system capabilites or probably the games that we were trying it out with are just a bit to much for the Nexus 6 to handle.
If this is however, a problem on the Nexus 6’s system, then, they should really find a way to fix this, since game applications are frequently updated and it can be frequent problem for them, if the Nexus 6 could not cope. Overall, the Nexus 6 was partially true to its robust character, with a few drawbacks here and there, though the Nexus 6 was still very satisfactorily.
Speaker
The Nexus 6 sports 2 front-facing stereo speakers that to us, deliver a very accurate and good audio quality. Awesome sound clarity mixed with a bit of distortion, makes a perfect combination on the Nexus 6.
Theres little to no bad thing to say about the Nexus 6’s speaker, with the latter simply as good as it is.
Battery
A beefy 3220mAh battery is sported to the Nexus 6. The Nexus 6 delivered excellently, in a few of our battery life tests. It delivered a 8-10hours lifespan, on continuous use. Which is kinda expected from the robust Nexus 6.
Think about it, you can listen to your tunes while going towards work, and while at work, up until you go home, all that and the Nexus 6 will still have decent power to grind you out till midnight. Decent battery capability and lifespan is important to a device’s overall experience, and with the Nexus 6, it delivers an okay performance. The Nexus 6 also has Quick charge 2.0 features, thanks to its Snapdragon 605, which will also play a huge role in the devices battery performance. With the latter, able to at least provide you with a 4-5 hour battery life span, in a 15-minute charging session.
The Nexus 6 delivers a pretty normal battery life capacity. Theres not exactly anything special to its battery, it is relatively normal, from our point-of-view, but the important thing is that, it delivers a decent battery performance
Verdict and Value
The Nexus 6 isn’t necessary the perfect phablet that will suit everyones needs and wants, because, it clearly has some strong points and weak points in its pocket. The big thing to keep in mind, is that Motorola and Google, delivered something far better than previous Nexus devices, which probably is their main objective.
The Nexus 6 is available in grey markets and online stores in Philippines, which they provide special offers, with the Nexus 6, priced at around sub or above Php 21K, which is reasonable, but not a price for everyone. Since the Nexus 6, might be a little far off, in terms of price range of some buyers.
What we liked about the Nexus 6
- robust-like style
- pleasing speaker performance
- decent display
- satisfactorily battery life span and capacity
What we didn’t like about the Nexus 6
- Camera outputs are dependable on sceneries and natural light
- Possible problem in system, due to experienced lag, while playing games
Also, check out this comparison review of the Nexus 6 against Samsung Note 5
Nexus 6 specs, PH Price |
| 6-inch AMOLED QHD, 493ppi |
| 10.1mm thin, 181g weight |
| Gorilla Glass 3, water-resistant |
| Snapdragon 805 chip, quad 2.7GHz Krait 450 cpu |
| 3GB RAM |
| 32/64GB internal, no microSD card slot |
| 13MP camera, OIS, dual LED ring flash, HDR, 2160p video |
| 2MP selfie camera |
| 4G LTE Single/dual SIM, WiFi ac, Bt 4.1, FM Radio, GPS, wireless charging, NFC |
| Android 5.0 Lollipop, upgradeable to 5.1 |
| 3220mAh battery |
| Blue, White |
| P21,099 for th LTE 32GB variant and P21,098 for the 4G LTE variant price on Lazada as of September 15 |
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- Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Unboxing, Hands-on, First Impressions
- Nexus 6 Unboxing, First Impressions; Locally Priced at P22k in Philippines
- Top 5 Reasons Why NOT to Buy OnePlus 2
Recently bought this phone however whenever I try to update the phone it shows that is it up to date. My concern is how do I update the phone to the newer version. First time Nexus user here running 5.0 out of the box. Thank you.
You update to Marshmallow? The Android 6.0 Marshmallow is on roll-out, meaning it is either the variant you bought didnt receive the update yet or there is a bug. But I am pretty sure you could get the update once it becomes available.