Nexus 6 officially unveiled: Google’s first phablet

Design: a true 5.9” giant with Quad HD resolution

The Nexus 6 is the first phablet in the Nexus series, and it is large. Google knows that this size might not be right for everybody, but seems to embrace this diversity with a new ‘be together, not the same’ campaign.

The Nexus 6 features dual front speakers

The Nexus 6 design is almost identical to that of the 2014 Motorola Moto X, except for size, of course - the 5.9-inch Nexus dwarfs Motorola’s flagship. For all else, though, there is little difference between the two, and it’s clear that the Moto X served as the base for designing the Nexus 6. Last year, Google used LG to make the Nexus 5, and it based it on the LG G2, but the two looked vastly different, while this year that is not the case. Still, there are slight differences: the Nexus 6 has beveled rather than curved screen edges, for instance. The Nexus 6 is also a fairly heavy phone, with a weight of 6.5 ounces, and its curved back goes from a fairly thin 4mm at the edge to around 10mm at its thickest point.

One thing we're particularly happy to see in it is dual front-firing speakers 6 that Google claims deliver 'high-fidelity sound'. It's also listed as being water resistant, which means that it should be able to resist splashes, but is not supposed to get submerged in water.

The highlight of the Nexus 6, a device codenamed ‘Shamu’ after the big orca whale, is the equally large 5.9-inch display. The screen features a 1440 x 2560-pixel, Quad HD resolution that translates into very sharp-looking images.

Welcome to Android 5.0 Lollipop

Each year, Google launches a new Nexus to debut the newest version of its Android operating system. With the Nexus 6, this is Android Lollipop, probably the biggest redesign to the platform since its inception.

Android Lollipop features a new ‘Material design’ language based on flat shapes and realistic shadows to subtly convey structure. It comes with a redesign of the icons, and a refresh of the looks of Android with neat, snappy animations.

What happens under the hood, however, might be even more important as Lollipop sets the foundation for a future of 64-bit Android phones. It introduces the new ART runtime that replaces Dalvik, and this 64-bit-compatible environment is ready to transform existing Java apps into 64-bit without any effort from the developer.

Powered by Snapdragon 805

The Nexus 6 is powered by the Snapdragon 805 system chip, the jewel in Qualcomm’s 32-bit crown. This is the last iteration of Qualcomm’s Krait CPU core architecture, with four cores running at up to 2.65GHz, along with 3GB of RAM, and Adreno 420 graphics.

The GPU in particular is an impressive step forward, as it is capable of delivering top-notch graphics performance, and handling the most intense games at fairly smooth framerates. We do expect Adreno 420 on a Quad HD display to actually be able to match the performance of the ealier Adreno 330 on a much less demanding 1080p screen. Having a 32-bit chip in the Nexus 6, however, also means that the phone won’t make full use of the 64-bit optimizations coming with Android L.