Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P review: The true flagships of the Android ecosystem

Hot off the launch of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it's time for Google to release the hardware portion of its Q4 release push. The Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P are the newest additions to the Nexus line, and, for the first time, users looking for a "pure Google" experience have a choice of devices. There's the relatively inexpensive, plastic, 5.2-inch Nexus 5X and the premium, aluminum, 5.7-inch Nexus 6P.

The Nexus 5X and 6P are two of the best Nexus devices ever produced. It's a common line that people say every year, but these are the first Nexus devices that don't have a huge deal breaker attached to them. Google and its partners have finally nailed two of the things Nexus devices have traditionally been poor at. The camera is actually good—great, even—and can hold its own against the best mobile shooters out there. And the battery life is just as good as any other flagship as well.

With the 5X, the Nexus line returns to the "bang-for-your-buck" value segment, too. The 5X starts at just $379, only $30 more than the old 2013 Nexus 5. Besides all the usual smartphone features, these are also the first Nexus devices to pack a fingerprint sensor, which is a first-class, fully supported component in Android 6.0 Marshmallow. And speaking of Marshmallow, given that we've already written about it, we'll direct you to that article for most of the software details.

Nexus 5X Design—LG's loving homage to the 2013 Nexus 5

Specs at a glance: LG Nexus 5X
Screen	1920×1080 5.2" (423ppi) LCD
OS	Android 6.0 Marshmallow
CPU	Six-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (two 1.8 GHz Cortex-A57 cores and four 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 cores)
RAM	2GB
GPU	Adreno 418
Storage	16GB or 32GB
Networking	Dual Band 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
Bands	GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8 CDMA: BC0/1/10 LTE (FDD): B1/2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/20/25/26/29 LTE (TDD): B41 LTE CA DL: B2-B2, B2-B4, B2-B5, B2-B12, B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-B29, B4-B4, B4-B5, B4-B7, B4-B12, B4-B13, B4-B17, B4-B29, B41-B41
Ports	USB 2.0 Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera	12.3MP rear camera with laser autofocus, 5MP front camera
Size	147.0 x 72.6 x 7.9 mm
Weight	136 g
Battery	2700 mAh
Starting price	$379
Other perks	RGB notification LED, NFC, fast charging, Android Sensor Hub, Project Fi support

The Nexus 5X marks the Nexus line's return to the value segment. The size of the 2014 Nexus 6 was definitely going a little overboard, but the most disappointing thing about the device was the huge $649 price tag. Starting at $379 for a 16GB version, the Nexus 5X is nearly as cheap as the 2013 Nexus 5, which started at $349.

The 5X definitely feels like an homage to the 2013 Nexus 5. It has the same minimal design and solid build quality for a dirt cheap price, and it's even made by the same manufacturer as the 2013 Nexus: LG. The 5X offers a respite from the humongous flagship wars, which now all seem to field devices with screens in the 5.5- to 6-inch range. This is a "small" 5.2 inches, which seems to be the new smallest available size for a flagship phone.

The display on the 5X is a 1080p LCD, which at 5.2-inches is a more than adequate 423ppi. Surrounding the LCD is a surprising amount of bezel, which is one of the few downsides of this device. By our measurements the Nexus 5X is backing a full 4mm more vertical bezel than the Nexus 5, which feels like a step backward. It's nothing iPhone users haven't been dealing with for years, but we've grown to expect better from LG.

The sizable bezels leave plenty of room for top and bottom speaker grills, which look like they were taken straight from a Motorola phone. The speakers are covered by a mesh sheet that's exposed via a cutout in the glass pane, which looks a lot like the tiny circle earpiece on the old Nexus 5. There's also something about the speaker grill's teeny, tiny holes that is very satisfying to look at.

There are technically two speakers here—one on top and one on the bottom— but the top one is used for calls and the bottom for media playback and notifications. The media speaker almost sounds like an internal speaker, rather than a "front facing" one. We say that because the back puts out just as much sound as the front speaker grill, and at high volume you can actually feel the speaker blasting away through the back of the device. Covering the speaker grill doesn't seem to do much either—it sounds more like you're blocking the speaker's air intake, rather than muffling a driver. None of this is really bad, it's just not what we were expecting and not what the exterior design implies will happen.

The good news is that the speaker will happily blast out sound whether it's face up or face down. In terms of quality, it's your standard tinny speakerphone that will crackle and sound kind of staticky at high volume. It's fine for voice and notifications, and we even found it acceptable for some games, but it's not something you would want to listen to music over.

The Nexus 5X includes an RGB notification LED in the center of the bottom speaker grill. The design of this is beautiful—the LED shines through the speaker grill, where it looks like a dot matrix display. It's diffused into a square shape, so it lights up a perfect 3x3 square of holes in the speaker grill. The only oddity is that it's disabled by default. You can enable it by going to "Settings -> Sound & Notification -> Pulse notification light." Android really doesn't make much use of the notification LED anymore, so if you really want to get the most out of it you'll need to install an LED control app and create some settings yourself (or install third-party apps that use it).

To the left of the speaker is the front facing camera, and below the speaker is the sensor cluster for auto brightness and proximity. Usually the top camera, sensors, and speaker all sit in a line to minimize the top bezel.

The back is still a matte plastic, but there's no soft touch treatment here—just a smooth, hard surface. The colored back panel curves up along the sides, and about a quarter of the way up it meets a separate panel which makes up the majority of the side and houses the screen. The back of the Nexus 5X comes in black, white, or light blue, but the side panel and front are always black. Given that you're going to get black accents no matter what, we really like the black version.

The most distinctive part of the back is the "mountain" that rises up out of the case to meet the camera lens. The 12.3MP camera sticks out of the back a bit, and LG chose to extend the case with smooth, sweeping lines rather than the usual square bump. It's a nice design touch and gives the otherwise minimal Nexus 5X a bit of personality. Just to the left of Mount Megapixel you'll find a dual LED flash and the laser auto-focus component, a feature that is traditionally found on LG devices.

The Nexus 5 and 6 used embedded ceramic inserts for the rear "Nexus" logo, but on the 5X and 6P the logo is just silkscreened on. This definitely feels cheaper, but it's a minor change. For some people these letters would actually fall out of their phone after a few months, so maybe Google decided the extra manufacturing steps and hit to durability weren't worth it. On the Nexus 5X, the ring around the fingerprint reader is an embedded insert, though. It's raised out of the back slightly, making it easy to feel out where the fingerprint sensor is. Hopefully it lasts.

Both the fingerprint reader ring and Nexus logo are coated in a metallic, reflective paint that really stands out. Together with the camera hill on the back, the Nexus 5 is a unique looking device.

The power button and volume rocker are a little different from what we're used to. Rather than the usual rounded design, these are straight rectangular buttons with a very hard edge on the top and bottom that could almost be described as "sharp." It's not uncomfortable or even bad, just different from what most manufacturers would do. The strong edge definitely makes them easy to feel.

Overall, the Nexus 5X feels like a nice device. You're not going to mistake it for an $800 phone, but it's well-made and feels like it's worth more than the ~$400-ish dollars they're charging for it. There isn't an ounce of give to the body, and, as plastics go, the finish is rather nice.

Nexus 6P Design—Huawei's premium phablet makes a great first impression

Specs at a glance: Huawei Nexus 6P
Screen	2560×1440 5.7" (518ppi) AMOLED
OS	Android 6.0 Marshmallow
CPU	Eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (Four 2.0 GHz Cortex-A57 cores and four 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 cores)
RAM	3GB
GPU	Adreno 430
Storage	32GB, 64GB, or 128GB
Networking	Dual Band 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
Bands	GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8 CDMA: BC0/1/10 LTE (FDD): B2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/30 LTE (TDD): B41 CA DL: B2-B2, B2-B4, B2-B5, B2-B12, B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-B29, B4-B4, B4-B5, B4-B13, B4-B17, B4-B29, B41-B41
Ports	USB 2.0 Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera	12.3MP rear camera with laser autofocus, 8MP front camera
Size	159.3 X 77.8 X 7.3 mm
Weight	178 g
Battery	3450 mAh
Starting price	$499
Other perks	RGB notification LED, NFC, fast charging, Android Sensor Hub, Project Fi support, dual front-facing speakers

The "P" in Nexus 6P apparently stands for "premium," and Google tasked Chinese firm Huawei with creating the higher-end Nexus. For a lot of people the Nexus 6P will be their first experience with Huawei, and the company has definitely created a device that makes an excellent first impression. It lives up to the "premium" moniker with an anodized aluminum unibody and only a minimal amount of plastic for insulation and radio windows. "Premium" also comes at a price—the 6P starts a $499 for a 32GB version.

The "P" could also stand for "phablet," too, as this is a 5.7-inch device. A 1440p AMOLED panel consumes most of the front of the device, and—according to a Reddit AMA with members of the Android team—this is the "latest generation" panel from Samsung. The 1440p, 518PPI display is overkill for a smartphone. You will never, ever see a pixel, but we feel this is true of the 423ppi display on the Nexus 5X, too. The extra pixels are just burning battery.

By default the 6P display has that AMOLED-standard hyper-saturated color palette that some people like and others can't stand. There is a software toggle buried in the settings to fix this called "Picture Color Mode: Use sRGB." Toggle it on, and after completely freezing for a few seconds, the display will kick over to an "accurate color" mode that looks more like a standard LCD. Our comparison pictures at the end of the above gallery shows what a difference it will make. This is buried in the Developer Settings, of all places—was "Display" too obvious?

The display has a thick bezel a lot like the one on the 5X. The bloated bezels make the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P just as tall as the 6-inch Nexus 6. Again, when you look across the aisle to the iPhone, this is nothing that's impossible to deal with—the 6P's bezels are almost exactly iPhone proportions, actually. Still, we're in Android Land, and bezels like this—a full 8mm more than the Nexus 6—are disappointing. Either Motorola did a much better job last year than Huawei, or this was some kind of cost-cutting measure.

The Nexus 6P has two speaker grills, and they're both actually used for media speakers. This grill design looks a lot like the Nexus 6, with a bar in the center of the speaker slot and a ring around it from which sounds can exit. The speaker bars don't stick out above the screen this year, though—they're only as tall as the screen. These are definitely front-mounted speakers, as covering them blocks a good amount of sound. For quality you'll get a noise that's about as loud as the old Nexus 6, but not as high quality. The 6P is a cheaper phone with a tinnier sounding speaker set. Again this is all perfectly fine for speakerphone, ringtones, and games. There's a disabled-by-default notification LED here as well, but Huawei employs a more traditional light to the left of the 8MP front-facing camera.

The aluminum finish looks and feels wonderful, and Huawei has even managed to make it look and feel unique. Rather than the rounded sides everyone else seems to be using, Huawei decided to chamfer every single corner of the device. The first chamfer you'll run into is around the perimeter of the glass, where the aluminum body starts. A lot of designs would round the sides into the back, but Huawei went straight down on the sides, made a 90 degree corner to the slightly rounded back, and chamfered the entire perimeter of the back, too.

LG took the fingerprint sensor and surrounded it with a raised round insert, but Huawei took the sensor and embedded it in the phone and chamfered a ring around it. It's a different look that serves the same purpose—a tactile, easy to find marker for the fingerprint circle.

Radio signals don't really go through metal, so there has to be plastic somewhere, and, on the 6P, all the radio signals can exit via large strips across the top and bottom of the back. On the bottom is a plastic radio window that is flush fit to the back and aims for a tiny, invisible seam. On our black model the color doesn't quite match the anodized aluminum, but it tries.

The top window is the most controversial design element of the Nexus 6P. It's a camera hump that extends all the way across the back of the device. It's definitely an odd design decision and seems like a rather expensive one. The camera lens isn't a separate component on that glass, leading us to believe it's a single, gigantic, 70mm wide camera lens. The camera hump here is very small, and looks a lot better in person than it did in the early leaks. The glass is always black colored, so our matching black model makes the glass a lot more palatable.

Hidden behind the glass are the 12.3MP camera, dual LED flash, and laser autofocus array, and they're all clustered to the left side of the device. The other half of that huge swath of camera glass is strictly decorative.

Below the camera lens is the same silkscreened Nexus logo as on the 5X, but on our black model it's not contrasting color—it's just black on black with a slightly different light reflectance. In fact, everything on our black model is black—the body, plastic panels, camera lens, nexus logo, and front are all dark. It's a stealth Nexus.

Along the side of the Nexus 6P are much more traditional rounded buttons. We're going to guess that these are also aluminum, and the power button has a nice knurling texture to it. Also along the sides are the occasional plastic construction strips, which mesh well with the metal and have almost invisible seams.

The build and materials of Nexus phones have never really touched the upper echelons of premium phones, but the all-aluminum 6P has everything we could ask for in terms of build quality. It is rock solid and feels like it could double as a weapon or something. The design is a little odd, though. Even on our black version, the most eye-catching part of the device is that giant piece of glass on the back. It doesn't look horrible, but it's not particularly good-looking either. It just feels like a thing that large should be functional somehow, and it just isn't.