Is the Nexus 6P the perfect Android phone?

Continuing on in my Huawei fanboyism (last blog post was about the Huawei G8), I couldn’t help but also review the Nexus 6P, which seems to have been crowned the best Android phone on the market right now.  Much to my surprise, all the online reviews I read raved about this phone, so I had to see what all the fuss was about.

First thing you notice about this phone: it’s big.  At 5.7” it’s definitely a phablet, and a smidgen bigger than the iPhone 6s Plus (5.5”). Screen is AMOLED, protected by Gorilla Glass 4, with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 (518 ppi).  Unlike Huawei’s other phones, this one runs pure Android (Marshmellow).  Processor is a quad-core 1.55 Ghz Cortex-A53 with 3GB RAM.  Camera is 12.3MP, and powering the show is a massive 3,450mAh battery.

Boring specs out of the way, what’s the good stuff this phone has to offer?

Speed. Coming from Samsung’s TouchWiz and Huawei’s Emotion UI, the pure Android experience is dreamy.  Camera opens quickly, swapping between apps is quick, and turning WiFI, mobile data and any of the other features on and off is quick.  If you switch developer options on, you can make the animations even shorter.

Camera. Best camera I’ve ever used, especially in low light. This photo I took at New Years, and even after I’d had a beer or six, it’s pretty clear.

One annoying feature of the camera is if you swipe right to turn on the camera, after you finish recording a video, the phone takes you back to photo mode. 

Finger print reader. This is located on the back centre just under the camera.  It’s pretty quick to respond, and its much better than typing in a pin or swiping a pattern to unlock your phone.  You can also setup smart unlock, which means the phone won’t require a finger print if you’re at the office or at home.

Power. This phone doesn’t have your stock standard micro USB, but has an USB Type-C connector.  At the moment, this is a double edged sword: on one hand, you can get up to seven hours of use after 10 minutes of charge (haven’t test this yet, though it’s all over their marketing collateral).  The downside is because it’s not so common, if you forget your charger, you’re not going to be able to find someone who has a spare.

There must be some bad stuff: You can’t remove the battery, and you can’t add a memory card to get more storage.  Some reviews have talked about not liking the protruding camera on the back (I don’t think it’s much of an issue) and the fact it doesn’t support wireless charging.

All in all, I think this is the perfect Android phone.  The formula that’s been a success if a good form factor, speedy hardware with a big battery, paired with pure, no frills Android.

I liked it so much that I bought my own 64GB version the day I returned the review unit back to Huawei.

No more phone reviews after this I promise.