The IT Nerd

Telus this past week sent me the Google Nexus 6 which is built by Motorola to review. The first thing that you notice about it is that it’s a huge phone that is impossible to hold and use with one hand (and I have what I’d consider to be average sized hands). I was convinced that I was going to drop it at some point. For the record, I didn’t. But it made me wonder if some people would be turned off the Nexus 6 because of the size. So I showed it to my wife and she said that she wouldn’t get it for the same reason why she didn’t get the iPhone 6 Plus. It’s too big. But size does have its advantages. In this case, it gives you a absolutely amazing 5.9″ screen that it viewable in most lighting conditions except bright sunlight and sharp as well. The On/Off switch as well as the volume control is on the right, headphone jack is on top, and USB port is on the bottom. It’s also slippery which means that if you’re hands are sweaty or you have hand cream on them, you’re going to have problems holding this phone. Having said that, it feels solid and well constructed.

Here’s what the phone has in terms of specs:

• Android 5.0 Lollipop
• 5.96-inch 2560×1440 display
• 2.7Ghz quad-core processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB internal storage
• 13MP rear camera
• 2MP front-facing camera
• 3840 x 2160 pixel (4K UHD) video capture
• 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi
• Bluetooth 4.1
• LTE

The specs are completely in line with what you’d expect from a flagship phone. This is a quick phone that took everything that I threw at it without tripping over itself. That was impressive. You will not have any problem playing games or watching videos. Another thing that was impressive was the speed on the Telus LTE network which averaged 21.75 Mbps downstream and 13.68 Mbps upstream. One thing that was not as impressive, you get 32GB of RAM and no way to expand it. That means you’ll have to use a cloud service to augment your storage. The phone ships with Android Lollipop 5.0 and much like other Lollipop devices I tried, I liked it and most users will as well. One plus to getting Lollipop on this phone versus other phones is that Google claims that you’ll get upgrades first.

In terms of the camera, it’s a 13MP shooter that does 4K video as well. to test this camera, I went to my usual location which is Pearson Airport in Toronto to test the camera. It was a windy day, so the airport was using the less used north/south runway to land planes. But that means that I could get some great shots. First let’s start with still pictures. Click to see them at full size:

These still shots are very sharp and clear. However, that does not translate to the video below. Set it to full screen and:

You will notice the constant auto focus. That’s not good and it’s something that Google will have to fix. Also, you’ll hear the wind noise. Out of interest I shot another video with my iPhone 5s and the wind didn’t overwhelm the microphone nearly as much. This is why I take videos of planes landing and taking off. It highlights the strengths or weaknesses of the phone’s camera. In this case, it was a mixed bag.

One real strength of the Nexus 6 was the battery. At the end of a day where I used the Nexus 6 as my primary phone, I had somewhere between 30% and 40% battery life left. That means that I’d get about a day and a half of usage out of a charge. More if I used battery saver mode which does all that it can to stretch your battery life. That’s good as you can’t remove the back to swap in a new battery.

The Nexus 6 at Telus goes for $280 on a two year term or $780 outright. It’s a phone that is a bit of a mixed bag. On the upshot it’s fast, has a good screen that is huge, and takes good still photos. It also runs Lollipop which is a big plus as Google says that Nexus users will get updates first. But video performance was lacking and it has no expandability in terms of storage. It’s also a big phone that is difficult if not impossible to use one handed. The cons may turn people off this phone, but it’s still worth a look if you want a flagship phone.