The Nexus 6P laid the foundation all Pixel phones are built upon, with a fantastic camera and timeless design.
It’s been 10 years since Google released the Nexus 6P, the last phone to bear the Nexus name before the Google Pixel followed it in 2016. Usually, a phone turning 10 is nothing more than an opportunity to wax nostalgic about a beloved device from the past. I think the Nexus 6P is different because a decade later, we’re still feeling the ripples of the splash this phone made, from its incredible camera to its timeless design.
The Nexus 6P isn’t any old Google phone. It’s the start of where Google’s devices are today, the Facehugger to the Pixel’s Xenomorph — a proto-Pixel.What is a Nexus, anyway?
For those of you who aren’t familiar, let me explain what a Nexus phone was. Before the Pixel, Google outsourced the manufacturing of its devices to other brands, such as LG, Samsung, and HTC. Initially, Nexus devices weren’t intended to sell millions of units; instead, they were reference devices for developers. Affordable phones and tablets that got Android updates day one, had access to all the developer builds, and allowed developers to get their apps working right. Enthusiasts loved them, too. Many non-developers purchased them to flash custom ROMs, experiment with, or to have a well-specced, blazing-fast phone that was affordable and lacked the bloated software that other phones struggled with at the time.
The Nexus 6 saw the focus on affordability start to slip, and the Nexus 5X and 6P, which launched together, marked Google’s first attempt to make its phones mainstream. Google marketed the 5X and 6P more heavily than any Nexus phone before. In the UK, I remember seeing posters, cinema adverts, and carrier store displays for these devices, something I hadn’t seen for their predecessors. The 6P in particular had substance to back up the marketing push.A small step for computational photography, a giant leap for Google
Nexus phones historically had bad cameras. They were cheap — the Nexus 5 launched for $350 in 2013, while the competition from Samsung, the Galaxy S4, was $580.
