|FEATURES$type=ticker$count=12$cols=4$cate=0

How's my Nexus 6?

I’ve been using a Nexus 6 phablet for a while now, and I thought I’d pass along my thoughts on it.  I should note that my last phone was a Nexus 5; that may help explain any apparent biases you see in this “review."

Source: ExtremeTech.com
Basically, it’s awesome but for three relatively minor problems, which I’ll get to shortly.

There’s a lot more going for the 6 than against it, I think.

I have long fingers, so the size of the Nexus 6 isn’t a problem.  I also need reading glasses, so the screen size, and larger text and soft buttons helps my hand-to-eye coordination - which means I make fewer mistakes with the 6 rather than the 5.

It’s fast, it’s smooth, and it lasts a long time on a charge*.  It runs “pure” Android, so there’s no manufacturer’s bloatware and I get OS updates as fast as Google can get them out to Canuckistan.

The curved back - even though I don’t find it visually appealing - is functionally important. First, it’s easier to pick up from a flat surface (e.g., my desk). Second, the front/back asymmetry helps me orient the phone haptically, without using my eyes.  And in my mind, function will always trump form, so I’m happy in this regard.

Here’s the three concerns I have with it.

Navigation kills the battery.  I find Google Navigation much better than the nav system in my car.  Though I don’t use it often, I’ve come to depend on Navigation to get me where I need to go quickly (route choosing and noting traffic problems) and with significant confidence (both the display and voice instructions are timely and accurate). So I’m more than a little disappointed that navigation just kills the phone’s battery.  I don’t know if this is a software thing or a hardware thing, but I find it necessary to keep a charger in the car and keep the phone plugged in when I use Navigation.  Not that the battery drains completely, of course, but it does suck enough power out of it to prevent the phone from going a whole day on a charge. I don't remember that happening with the Nexus 5.

The camera is too slow.  I’m not the only one who has noticed this: compared to the Nexus 5, I’ve found that the camera takes too long to autofocus, and there’s too much lag between tapping and tripping the shutter.  This is especially true when shooting through a window, but also generally true - at least in my case. This is irksome. I don’t take many pictures, and I’m no photography wonk; but one Really Cool Feature of smartphones is their integration of multiple diverse functions (camera, phone, player, apps,...). So on those rare-ish occasions when I do want a pic, it’s because I really, really want one. And I end up missing too many opportunities because of the camera’s lag.

Power & volume are in the wrong place.  This may well be a function of how I hold and use the Nexus 6, but I’ve found I’m very, very often pressing either the power or volume buttons accidentally.  This is such an annoyance that I’ve gotten a rather bulky wallet-style case which better protects those buttons than any other case I’ve tried. I don’t remember having this problem with any of my previous phones (Nexus 5, Galaxy s3, various iPhones…).  The 6 is big enough as it is; to have to bulk it up even further to protect those buttons is disappointing.

Still, overall, I’m immensely pleased that I got the Nexus 6 and I would recommend considering it to anyone looking for a phablet.

* Given my usage patterns, and excluding navigation, a single charge lasts me a whole day for sure, and as long as 2 days.

COMMENTS

Name

academia,15,academic,2,activism,1,adaptation,1,additive manufacturing,1,admin,14,aesthetics,7,affect,1,ageing,2,AI,18,analogy,2,android,1,animation,1,anthropology,3,anticipation,1,app,1,architecture,51,art,2,arts,73,Asia,3,assistive technology,2,authority,1,automobile,1,award,1,balance,28,biology,5,biomimetics,17,book,8,branding,4,building,3,built environment,4,business,7,CAD,5,Canada,29,care,1,case,11,cfp,689,change revision,1,children,2,cinema,1,Circa,3,circular design,1,circular economy,4,codesign,3,cognition,12,collaboration,4,colonization,1,commercialization,3,commonplacing,1,communication,3,communication design,12,competition,5,complexity,5,computation,24,computer science,1,computing,18,concept map,4,conference,354,constructivism,1,conversation,1,conversational analysis,1,covid-19,4,craft,11,creative arts,1,creativity,15,crime,1,CSCW,1,culture,35,cybernetics,2,data science,1,decision-making,1,decolonization,1,degrowth,1,dementia,4,design,111,design science,1,design thinking,12,digital,3,digital media,5,digital reproduction,1,digital scholarship,1,disability,3,dissertation,1,drawing,7,economics,23,education,71,effectiveness,14,efficiency,12,emotion,1,engineering,45,entertainment,1,entrepreneurship,6,environment,28,ergonomics,3,ethics,51,ethnography,2,Evernote,1,evolution,4,exhibition,3,exoskeleton,1,experience,5,experimental studies,3,fail,1,fashion,15,featured,10,film,1,food,5,function modeling,1,futurism,16,gender,1,gender studies,3,geography,2,Germany,2,globalization,3,grantsmanship,1,graphic design,32,Greece,1,HCI,53,health,29,heritage,2,history,33,HMI,1,Hobonichi,1,housing,2,human factors,3,humanism,56,humanities,2,identity,1,illustration,2,image,4,inclusivity,2,industrial design,6,informatics,4,information,9,innovation,19,interaction,26,interdisciplinarity,4,interior design,9,internet of things,3,intervention,1,iphone,16,jobs,1,journal,194,journalism,1,justice,2,landscape,6,language,5,law,2,library,1,life,105,life cycle,3,lifehack,10,literature,1,literature review,1,logistics,2,luxury,1,maintenance,1,making,5,management,12,manufacturing,9,material culture,7,materials,6,mechanics,1,media,17,method,46,migration,1,mobile,2,mobility,1,motion design,2,movie,3,multimedia,3,music,1,nature,3,new product development,5,Nexus 6,1,olfaction,1,online,2,open design,2,organization,1,packaging,2,paper,19,participatory design,16,PBL,1,pengate,1,performance,1,PhD,34,philosophy,46,planning,5,play,1,policy,9,politics,52,postdoc,1,practice,26,predatory,3,preservation,2,printing,1,prison,1,proceedings,1,product,1,product lifetime,1,product longevity,1,productivity,106,project management,1,prototyping,4,public space,6,publishing,3,reading,1,Remember The Milk,1,repair,1,reproduction,1,research,117,research through design,2,resilience,1,resource-limited design,1,reuse,1,review,74,robust design,1,Samsung,3,scale,1,scholarship,54,science,48,science fiction,5,semiotics,5,senses,1,service design,12,simplicity,5,society,136,sociology,11,software,61,somatics,1,space,5,STEM,1,strategic design,6,student,8,sustainability,68,sustainable consumption,1,sustainable design,1,sustainable production,1,systems,67,tactile,1,tangibility,1,technology,25,textile,7,theatre,3,theory,7,Toodledo,2,Toronto,3,tourism,2,traffic,1,transhumanism,1,transnationalism,1,transportation,3,tv,3,typography,1,uncertainty,1,universal design,4,upcycling,2,urban,30,usa,9,usability,1,user experience,8,virtual reality,1,visualization,24,waste management,1,wearable,3,well-being,17,women,1,workshop,74,writing,2,
ltr
item
The Trouble with Normal...: How's my Nexus 6?
How's my Nexus 6?
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bpsZbP55em5wm4yyNOcBLkmSTkHSS-iKfZOC43ER-Nuw0OfruFvAtXL32Ioo_dMBUTi4qdDR33u1M36WqDfW3a8z9cw6cM93gFjPhcPChqELlNWT6zQsplnVdl3PYUm-zpZsTFFViE4/s320/Nexus6.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bpsZbP55em5wm4yyNOcBLkmSTkHSS-iKfZOC43ER-Nuw0OfruFvAtXL32Ioo_dMBUTi4qdDR33u1M36WqDfW3a8z9cw6cM93gFjPhcPChqELlNWT6zQsplnVdl3PYUm-zpZsTFFViE4/s72-c/Nexus6.jpg
The Trouble with Normal...
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/2015/09/hows-my-nexus-6.html
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/2015/09/hows-my-nexus-6.html
true
389378225362699292
UTF-8
Loaded All Posts Not found any posts VIEW ALL Readmore Reply Cancel reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RECOMMENDED FOR YOU LABEL ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not found any post match with your request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec just now 1 minute ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 hour ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago more than 5 weeks ago Followers Follow THIS PREMIUM CONTENT IS LOCKED STEP 1: Share to a social network STEP 2: Click the link on your social network Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy