Google Nexus 6P officially announced

Google has just announced this year's Nexus lineup. Meet the Huawei built Nexus 6P, a large screened device which succeeds last year's Nexus 6 with a few new additions and improvements, including Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

DESIGN

This year, Google has partnered up with Huawei to design their new Nexus 6P Android smartphone. The result is a beautifully crafted all metal phone, built of aircraft-grade aluminium. The handset is 7.3 millimeters thin, which is a decent size considering the 3450mAh battery packed inside. The phone is 159.3mm tall, 77.8mm wide and weighs 178 grams.

You can select a Nexus 6P in one of three choices of color - white, aluminium, and graphite. Meanwhile customers in Japan will also get to choose between a rose gold color variant.

The Nexus 6P comes with a Micro USB Type-C connector, which is reversible. In other words, the cable goes in either way. The receptacle isn't compatible with older Micro USB cables, however. A discrete RGB light glows when there's an important notification pending. Additionally, the phone is equipped with front-facing stereo speakers, for an improved multimedia experience.

The new Nexus also has a fingerprint scanner, located on the back of the device. This, of course, can be used to unlock the smartphone. In fact, the reader responds even when the phone is in stand-by. This means you will not need to wake your phone in order to unlock it. Just place your finger and you are ready to use your device.

Display

The Nexus 6P features a 5.7 inch AMOLED display with a 1440 x 2560 pixel (Quad HD) resolution. This results in a 518ppi pixel density, for excellent clarity of your content. The display also has a layer of Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Google is quick to point out that despite the display being larger than the 5.5 inch iPhone 6s Plus, the device is around the same size as its competitor.

Camera

The Nexus 6P is outfitted with a 12.3 megapixel Sony imaging sensor on its rear, which boasts an aperture of f/2.0, and IR lasers that assist with focusing. This large sensor is packed with 1.55-micron pixels, which is quite large compared to the 1.22-micron pixels found on most phones. This larger sensor allows the camera to collect more light, which should result in great low-light photos. A duel-LED flash setup is in place for added assistance lighting up a scene.

Unfortunately, Google has decided to drop optical image stabilization on this camera, which is surprising, given its success on the Google Nexus 6 camera last year. In any case, here are some samples captured by the Google Nexus 6P camera so you can decide how much of an improvement Google has made in a year.

The front of the device houses an 8MP sensor, which is a huge upgrade from the 2MP camera found on the Nexus 6. This selfie camera has a 1.4-micron pixel sensor and an f/2.4 aperture.

Processor, Storage and Memory

The Nexus 6P is outfitted with a 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor. The chip in use is the 2.1 hardware revision, which is said to be better at not overheating. The Adreno 430 GPU is on board. 

The handset will be offered in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB storage options. As usual, dont expect microSD storage expansion in the Nexus lineup, so pick a storage option which suits you best when you purchase your device.

SOFTWARE

The Google Nexus 6P will be one of the first to feature Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. The latest version of Google's mobile operating system comes with mproved battery management, which should increase stand-by time dramatically. In particular, a new feature called Doze automatically puts your device into deep sleep when it is idle, as detected by its on-board sensors. And apps that are rarely used have their impact on battery limited. Although we have yet to witness the results of these improvements, Google claims that the battery life on the 2-year-old Nexus 5 has increased by 30% after the update.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow also adds granular control over app permissions. In other words, you have the power to choose what your apps have access to and what's off limits. Furthermore, voice input in Marshmallow has been improved, and your Nexus 6P can serve voice queries even when in stand-by.

In terms of UI changes, we find an app tray listing frequently used apps at the top. For the most part, however, Android 6.0 Marshmallow sticks to the Material Design principles we're all familiar with.

Pricing and Availability

The Google Nexus 6P will be sold directly by Google through the Play Store, where it will be unlocked and ready to work with major carriers. The handset will be available with 32GB of storage for $499, 64GB of storage for $549 and 128GB of storage for $649. Pre-orders begin today in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, and Japan. To sweeten the deal, the phone comes with a 90-day free Google Play Music trial. Those who order one in the US will get $50 worth of Play Store credit.