The smartphone market has never been as competitive as it is today. Whenever you decide to buy a new phone, you start by looking at the specs and then reading some reviews on how they stand out from the herd. However, the question always remains: “How will this phone perform after 2-3 years?”
That is why we have decided to revisit one of the best phones of its year: the Nexus 6P.
Released back in 2015, the Nexus 6P was an important turning point in Google’s smartphone philosophy. It marked the final phone of the Nexus line, the reasonably priced, premium quality smartphones, and paved the way for the introduction of the Pixel lineup, Google’s more expensive phones.
Specs
| SoC | Snapdragon 810 |
| GPU | Adreno 430 |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Storage | 32, 64, or 128GB |
| Display | 5.7-inch 2560×1440 AMOLED |
| Battery | 3450 mAh |
| Water and dust resistance | No |
| Camera | 12.3MP rear camera (f/2.0), 8MP front camera (f/2.4) |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow (upgradable to Android 8.1 Oreo) |
| Measurements | 159.3×77.8×7.3 mm, 178g |
| Original Price | $499 USD (32GB) $549 USD (64GB) $649 USD (128GB) |
I find that it is only natural to start by listing the most important specs of the smartphone before diving deep into how good they are today. The Nexus 6P is equipped with a 5.7” QHD AMOLED screen with a 518 ppi and a ~71.4% screen-to-body ratio. It is packed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip, an Adreno 430 GPU, 3 GB of RAM, and 3450 mAh battery. The Nexus 6P also has 12.3MP main camera, capable of filming 4K video @ 30fps and an 8MP selfie camera.
Build Quality
The Nexus 6P has a full aluminum body and a Gorilla Glass 4 screen which was the “pinnacle” of premium phones back in 2015 before glass bodies invaded the market. Even though the aluminum feels premium, it is easily corroded if you tend to keep a case for too long on it that can collect dust. My phone has a lot of white spots on the back due to the aluminum wearing off. Back when it first came out, the phone was popular for being prone to bending if pressured was applied near the power button or if you tended to put it in your back pocket and sit on it. Speaking from personal experience, I haven’t experienced any bending and a simple case would prevent this problem.
There is a glass strip over the main camera that takes the width of the phone which extrudes from the body which makes it more prone to breaking if dropped on its back. As for the buttons, the Nexus 6P has 2 buttons on the side of the phone, the power button and the joint volume rockers. The power button is textured which makes it easier to differentiate between it and the volume rockers. Overall the buttons feel clicky. The Nexus 6P is equipped with a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone which is fast, accurate and perfectly placed making it extremely easy to reach.
Even though the aluminum and Gorilla Glass 4 make the phone feel premium and the buttons are clicky, the bend-gate and the possibility of corrosion are big downsides.
Display
The phone features a 5.7” QHD (2560×1440) AMOLED screen. It is bright, with a high pixel density of 518 ppi. The color is more on the saturated side so if you are into that you will like the display. Google also offers an sRGB mode for those who like the true to nature colors more.
The display is good with a high resolution and a high pixel density, but it is still not as good as what you can find in Samsung’s more recent Galaxy phones.
Camera
The Nexus 6P is equipped with a 12.3MP main camera which captures 1.55 μm-sized pixels at an f/2.0 aperture. Translation: It is a good balance of light entering through the sensor while maintaining a detailed picture. It also shoots 4K video @ 30 fps and if you are into slow motion you can shoot 720p @ 240fps. However, the camera offers no OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) so don’t expect an extremely stable video. As for the front camera, there is an 8MP sensor capable of capturing 1.4 µm pixels with an f/2.4 aperture. It is a good camera for a selfie.
The Nexus 6P camera has a DxOMark score of 84 which is surprisingly the second highest scoring phone camera released in 2015 after the Samsung Galaxy S6 camera with a score of 86. While judging a phone’s camera hugely depends on what you use it for, DxOMark is still considered a good benchmark to initially grade cameras based on objective data.
Even though the phone does not come with the Pixel’s portrait feature by default, you can get the same functionality (with some limitations) to get portrait mode on your Nexus 6P using a third party camera app which grants a boost to Nexus 6P’s camera.
Even though the phone is 3 years old, it still has an above average camera. The image quality is nice and sharp in most conditions. However, the phone doesn’t have OIS and in night time/low light conditions, the videos bear more grain than desired, which is expected.
Performance
The phone is packed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip, an Adreno 430 GPU, 3 GB of RAM. The Nexus 6P ships with stock Android, which is Google’s attempt to optimize the user experience as much as possible. So how does this fare in 2018 with these specs? Out of the box, your experience should be smooth, but the more applications you install that run in the background you will experience some slowing down. This also means that multitasking will not be the best as you won’t be able to switch between many apps. My experience with some apps hasn’t been optimal; for example, I faced some delays and FPS drops when navigating between Instagram stories, and sometimes when using the camera.
The Snapdragon 810 was popular for its overheating controversy. Even though the phone will not overheat to “burn your hands,” expect during intensive gaming sessions to suffer from heat throttling, which means that when the phones gets hot it, might start to stutter and slow down. It is put as a safety measurement to save the internals of the phones from harm by limiting the working temperature of the phone. I have tested a lot of games on the 6P and from my experience, gaming is “acceptable.” Asphalt 9 and Riptide GP2 play quite well and I haven’t experienced many FPS drops. The story is different with Injustice: Gods Among Us which is one of the most intensive games out there where you should expect some severe fps drops and lag even navigating between menus.
Another point to note is that the Nexus 6P’s support for Major Updates stopped with Oreo, meaning that you won’t be able to get the latest Android versions.
The phone is capable of some light gaming. However, with 3GB of RAM and the controversial Snapdragon 810, don’t expect an above average experience.
Battery
The phone is equipped with a 3450 mAh battery. In theory, it should last 4 hours of screen on time of normal usage. However, a lot (and I mean A LOT) of phones suffered from manufacturing issues. The Nexus 6P suffered from extreme deterioration, making the battery life age fast. It also suffered from an early shutdown issue where the phone would shut down anywhere from 10% to 60% (and in some cases more).
The phones battery usage differs from a phone to another making the experience extremely unpredictable. Since day one I haven’t gotten over 3 hours of usage, and after 3 months that dropped to 2 hours of the same usage. A couple of months later it started suffering from the early shutdown issue at 10% and over the next few months, I have witnessed the early shutdown evolve to start shutting down at 60% with a SoT less than 30 mins. Clearly, my phone was one of the bad batches of production. I had to buy a different battery from Amazon to help extend the life of the phone. The phone now still gets about 2.5 hours of SoT and no early shutdown issues but it’s still a below average time in 2018.
The phone doesn’t support Qualcomm quick charge as it was the first phone coming with USB-C. It does have fast charging with the out of the box charger of 5V and 3A.
The phone’s battery is extremely unreliable and you can buy a phone that suffers from extremely bad battery life and early shutdown issues. You won’t be able to find a replacement easily as well.
Miscellaneous
When buying a phone there are more items you should check other than how good it performs. These include the availability of accessories and their variety, as well as the manufacturer’s support and other points that might affect your decision.
The phone comes with dual facing stereo speakers resulting in crispy loud audio. It also comes with a headphone jack (which is a bonus nowadays).
The Nexus 6P wasn’t available worldwide and it wasn’t extremely popular in the market, which meant that the accessories weren’t available in most shops. This gets worse now that the phone is old. Google Support also refused to return most phones that had the battery issues claiming it wasn’t a manufacturing fault. Stock spare parts aren’t generally available which means that you will have to buy third-party parts.
The sound resulting from the dual speakers is quite great. However, the lack of availability of accessories and support are big downsides.
The Verdict
The Nexus 6P was one of the best performing smartphones back in 2015 when it was first released. The camera and front-facing stereo speakers, along with the premium body and good vibrant display are definitely an advantage when thinking of the phone. However, with the end of major updates, lack of support, a relatively old chip and risky battery the phone is definitely not the one to track down today and buy.
Featured-Image: TechnoBuffalo
