The Nexus 6 is arguably one of the most important smartphones of the year. Whereas the Nexus 5 was an excellent mid-range handset, Google has gone all out with the Nexus 6 and made it a direct competitor to Samsung's Galaxy Note 4, which is our current reigning champion of large screen phablet phones.
Made by Motorola, the first thing that comes to mind when you hold it in your hand is that it looks rather like a giant 2nd Generation Moto X. It shares the same design as Motorola's smaller flagship handset, right down to the ribbed power button on the side of the phone and the circular Moto logo indentation just below the camera. The only thing setting it apart is the embossed metallic Nexus logo that runs down the back of the phone, complementing the phone's metal trim.
The soft touch back is also curved so it fits comfortably in your hand, and we much prefer it to the Note 4's faux leather finish. If anything, the Nexus 6 provides a lot more grip when using the phone single-handed, which is vital when the phone's screen is so large and the handset itself is so wide.
The Nexus 6 is noticeably wider than the iPhone 6 Plus, for example, yet doesn't feel quite as comically large in the hand as Apple's extra large smartphone. This is partly because its gorgeous 5.96in 2,560x1,440 resolution screen takes up so much of the front of the handset, making much better use of the available space than the iPhone 6 Plus.
^ The Nexus 6 is much wider than the iPhone 6 Plus, but it's almost the same height, making the iPhone 6 Plus seem needlessly large for its screen size
The screen was lovely and bright, too, although we'll have to wait until we get our hands on a review sample before we can judge its colour accuracy and contrast levels. Of course, despite having the same resolution as the Note 4, the Nexus 6's larger screen means it has a slightly lower pixel density of 493 pixels-per-inch, but when we looked at both phones side by side, we couldn't notice the difference whatsoever.
The Nexus 6 also has the same quad-core 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor as the Note 4 and swiping between the home menus in Android Lollipop was lovely and smooth. We weren't able to get any preliminary benchmark results during our time with the phone, but we'll be keen to see whether it will be able to match the Note 4 when we do a full review.
^ The Nexus 6 is even larger than Samsung's giant Note 4, but the Nexus 6's curved back feels much more comfortable to hold
You can find out all about Android Lollipop in our full review, but our short time with the phone aspects of Google's new operating system were promising. The dialler app, for example, is separated into Speed Dial (which holds your starred or most frequently called contacts), Recents and general Contacts.
This is much cleaner and easier to use than the current phone dialler app in Android 4.4.4, which puts everything in together on one screen. There's also a Google search bar at the top of the screen to help you find specific contacts or places.
In messaging, there's plenty of space onscreen for Google's standard keyboard and keys were large and spacious. App icons also look lovely and big in the app tray and swiping through the Google Now-esque cards in the Recent App menu looks just as slick as it does on the Nexus 9.
The 13-megapixel camera on the back of the handset produced stunning photos. While we couldn't take our test shots away with us, we were able to see lots of detail in the woolen cushions and fluffy santa hats, and the phone's 2,560x,1440 resolution display really helped bring it out when zooming in onscreen. The Google Camera app also handled indoor lighting very well, showing rich and vibrant colours despite the slightly dim lighting conditions.
We still don't know when the Nexus 6 will launch in the UK, but with a price of £499 for the 32GB version and £549 for the 64GB version, it stands to be much better value than both the £600 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and £619 iPhone 6 Plus. We'll have to wait and see whether it can match the Note 4's performance, but its large screen, comfy design and Android 5.0 Lollipop certainly make it a very attractive handset.
However, the Nexus 6's pure Android approach may also be its downfall, as we think it may just be too similar to Motorola's own 2nd Gen Moto X (which costs £420 for the 16GB version and £460 for the 32GB version) to make it really stand out against its smaller 5.2in cousin. This is mainly due to Motorola's excellent suite of helpful Moto apps, including the incredibly useful Moto Display and the ability to send text messages from your PC via Moto Connect. These aren't available on the Nexus 6, so we suspect the Moto X may end up feeling much smarter and more useful on a day-to-day basis. It will definitely be a close race, but we'll bring you our final verdict as soon as we get our hands on a review sample.
