When Google released the Nexus 6 in 2014, it split public opinion, and although the Motorola-designed handset was fast and good-looking, its sheer size put a sizeable proportion of potential customers off. The search giant has taken note this year, and has scaled its ambitions back for the introduction of the Nexus 6P.
The new Nexus flagship has lost a considerable amount of weight, and instead of an enormous 6in screen, has a more manageable 5.7in display. This brings it in line with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5 (the Apple iPhone 6s Plus is only 0.2in smaller).
In short, Google’s flagship smartphone is no longer as much of an outlier in big phone circles and that, in my book, is nothing but a good thing.
Google Nexus 6P: Design and performance
Along with the change in tack comes a change in manufacturer, with Motorola making way for Chinese technology giant Huawei this year. Huawei has gone from strength to strength in recent times in terms of its design prowess, culminating in the excellent Huawei Watch, and that experience is immediately evident here.
I love the design of the Nexus 6P. It’s the first time Google has built an all-metal phone and it’s a truly handsome piece of hardware. The exposed chamfered edges catch the light attractively, and the flattened, yet softly curved rear, doesn’t rock annoyingly when you lay it flat on a table. Even the black strip at the rear of the phone, which I had my doubts about when I first saw the press shots, looks good, adding an element of originality so sorely lacking in many other smartphones.
More importantly, perhaps, it feels less clumsy in the hand and far less bulky in the pocket than the monstrous Nexus 6. It's still a big phone, and is best stowed in a jacket rather than your jeans pocket – but it turns out that shaving 4.2mm off the width, 2.8mm from the thickness and 6g from the weight makes a huge difference to the overall feel.
It’s certainly a much nicer design than the awkward-looking Nexus 5X, and it doesn’t sacrifice the practicalities, either. The screen has Gorilla Glass 4 to protect it from the twin scourges of keys in pockets and accidental drops, the two front-facing speakers deliver audio without getting muffled by your hand, and on the bottom edge you’ll find one of the new USB Type-C ports.
Type-C ports are going to become increasingly common in the coming months, and will be standard across all smartphones in a couple of years' time. And with good reason. Type-C ports are far more robust than their Micro-USB equivalents, and since the connection is reversible, the days of fumbling around trying to cram in your charging cable the wrong way around will be a thing of the past.
USB Type-C is also more capable from a technical standpoint: it can carry more data and more power, promising faster charging, potentially. Courtesy of the magic of USB Type-C, it's even possible to reverse the power flow and use your phone to charge other devices.
For now, though, you’ll be cursing Google’s choice every time you’re caught out without the right cable. I’m also baffled by the decision to include a stubby USB-A to Type-C converter cable in the box, alongside a longer Type-C to Type-C cable. With so few Type-C-equipped laptops around right now, surely it would have been better to do this the other way around?
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