Quick thoughts on the Nexus 6P

Oh my, Cart gave me a Nexus 6P as a birthday present which was a very kind gesture of him.

My older phone, the Nexus 5 is still functioning  fine for me, but being two years old now is slowly starting to get sluggish, so it’s nice to have a new upgrade. I still like my Nexus 5 though, among all the phones that I’ve owned, I think that it’s one of the most attractive.

(Here are the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5 and Galaxy Nexus side by side. You can tell by now that I really like Google Phones)

Anyway, I’ve been using the phone for a couple of days now and here are my first impressions.

Design 

I find the white stripes around the corners of the phone strange.I thought that it was a protective strip but then I realised that it was part of the design.

Nevertheless, the aluminium back makes it look premium (hence the name 6P) but the black front makes it look indistinguishable to any other device. I would have liked the gold one, but seems that it is only available in Japan, India and in the USA.

Dimension 

It’s a big phone. Huge! Technically, I can’t even call it a regular phone but a phablet because of it’s 5.7 inches display. it. Watching Netflix is amazing now!

(If you’re wondering what to watch, Bojack Horseman, Stranger Things and Atelier are amazing!)

As a sidenote, you know how we used to laugh at people with those huge 80s brick phones? Look at who’s laughing now as more and more people go around making calls on their tablets.

Besides, I very rarely make calls on the phone since the birth of social media.

Display

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find the screen colour very saturated. I don’t know if this is because it of the AMOLED or if it is something that I could adjust, but my screen looks perpetually +20 Saturation. This is something I’d just have to get used to.

My Nexus 6P is slightly bigger than Cart’s One Plus 3

The resolution is also bigger, I can fit 5 apps in a row instead of 4. I can put in more apps and widgets! But being this size, has a slight disadvantage. I glyph slightly slower now because of the bigger estate.

Weight 

Of course, being of this size, it’s significantly heavier than my previous phone. I dare not take it out for jogging for fear of damaging it. You know how heavier things break more easily? Besides, I don’t think that it fits any of my fitness pouches.

Transfer

The exchange of data from one phone to another was completely painless. Being out of the box, you’d need to update the software and apps, which could take a few hours but apart from that, the move was completely smooth.

The photo that I took the day before for example, was already in my new phone (through cloud backup) and I didn’t even have to retype in WiFi passwords of the places that I’ve been to, it remembers. Google can be quite scary.

Security

The Nexus 6P has a fingerprint unlock function which sounds like a cool idea in theory, but personally, I find it a hassle, because the sensor is at the back. Why not the front? I’d find it much more ergonomic that way.

Sim Card

(Relic from 2009)

As I’ve been using the old Sim Card all these while, it’s been cut so much that it can’t be shaved anymore.  So I had to get my card completely replaced with a NanoSim. I find it interesting that I restart my phone, I don’t need to key in my PIN compared to the previous phones that I’ve used.

Audio

It’s loud! It’s so loud that I can watch shows and use Soundcloud without even needing to connect it to my Bluetooth speakers.

Charging

The Nexus 6P uses a type C charger. The box provides you with two cables – a long one for the wall charger and a short one which is compatible with a USB plug. The long one only works with the stock charger meaning that when I’m on the move, I can only use the short one for my portable battery. Or till I get new cables.

Cart’s One Plus 3 has a dash recharge, which claims that you’d get 7 hours of use on a 10 minute charge with it’s stock charger. I should have something similar. I haven’t done any tests so far, but charging does seem faster compared to when charging it on another charger.

Photos

As you know by now, I love taking pictures and sharing them online. The quality of the images I find much brighter and it takes a faster time capturing photos which is something I love and was something that I was starting to get a little frustrated with on the Nexus 5.

Here are some of the photos that I’ve snapped :

(Apart from being resized for the blog, the pictures were unedited)

Changes 

Apart from the size, the biggest change I see is the lack of the Power Control Widget. I’ve always found this function useful as I could just change the brightness and GPS precision from one touch on the home screen.  Why would Google take out this useful feature?

I know that I could a two finger swipe down but I find that encumbering.

Apart from that, I’ve been liking my new phone phablet a lot. Apps load significantly faster than my Nexus 5 and I’ve been enjoying my time with it. I haven’t been using it so much on the go though because I’m still a little bit paranoid about dropping it, so I’ll have to find new accessories to go with it such as a bike mount and a bumper case.

Thank you so much Cartcart for the extremely generous and thoughtful gift :3