Battle of the Nexi
Since 2010, Google has released its flagship Nexus phones at roughly a yearly cadence. Although there are tons of Android phones out there, Google's Nexus line exemplifies the company's vision for what a stock Android phone should be. This year, Google has graced us with not one Nexus, but two Nexi: The Nexus 5X, which is the true successor to the original 2013 LG-made Nexus 5, and the larger Nexus 6P, which is made by first-time Nexus manufacturer, Chinese company Huawei.
The Nexus 5X (left) vs. the Nexus 6P (right)
While the phones are made by different companies, they share a number of similarities. Both ship with Android 6.0, code-named Marshmallow, both offer a new fingerprint scanner on the back side, both use USB type C ports at the bottom for fast charging, both use Nano SIM cards, and in traditional Nexus fashion, both are unlocked. But for all their similarities, there are some distinct differences, too. Which device is for you? We've put the Nexi Head to Head to help you find out!
Design
At 5.2 inches, the Nexus 5X's display is a little bit bigger than the 4.9-incher of the original Nexus 5. If you've got large hands, you could probably single-hand it for most applications. It helps that the the device is still pretty light at 136 grams. In terms of audio, it features just one speaker as opposed to its bigger brother's two-speaker setup. The audio can get decently loud, but it sounds a little flat—you won't be mistaking it for high-end Bluetooth speakers.
Moving to the Nexus 6P, the phone isn't as big as last year's Nexus 6, but at 5.7 inches, it is too large to use with a single hand. Fortunately, it's very thin at 7.3mm, which makes it thinner than the Nexus 5X's 7.9mm chassis. There is a horizontal bulge at the top back side of the phone, though, which Google calls "the visor." It's used primarily to house the camera's large 12.3MP sensor.
The "P" in 6P stands for "premium" in Google's high-end phone.
Both Nexi feature a fingerprint scanner on the back middle, which can be used to quickly unlock the phone. The front of the 6P looks a lot like an iPhone 6+, sans the circular fingerprint scanner. The dual speakers at the top and bottom of the phone sound fantastic. They offer a decent amount of volume and are arguably the best phone speakers we've ever heard.
What really sets the 6P apart from the 5X is its build quality. Because we've never used anything from Huawei before, we were very curious about how the company would do with Google's top-end product, and found that the CNC-machined "aeronautical-grade" aluminum indeed feels more premium than the 5X's more plastic body.
While the Nexus 5X is a little more portable and comfortable to hold, we're giving the 6P the edge here because of its more premium build quality.
Winner: Nexus 6P
Display
The Nexus 5X's 5.2-inch display uses a 1920x1080-resolution panel, which is the same resolution as the previous Nexus 5. Even with the slightly bigger screen compared to the 2013 model, the PPI is still quite high at 423 PPI. LG also employs Gorilla Glass 3 to protect the screen from scratches, and there's a smudge-resistant coating, although we were still able to see a small amount of smudging on our unit. While the screen looks nice, whites look a little more tan than they should.
We have nothing negative to say about the 6P's larger 5.7 inch screen, however. With its 2560x1440-resolution AMOLED display, it's got a super high PPI of 518. It also uses Gorilla Glass 4, as opposed to the 5X's GG3 equivalent. Colors here looked vibrant and accurate. Because of this, it's easy to give the nod to the 6P.
Winner: Nexus 6P
Specs
The Nexus phones have never really used the fastest components on the market, and that's still true with these Nexi. Fortunately, however, the tech specs here are more than good enough for today's Android environment. The Nexus 5X features a 64-bit 1.8GHz hexacore Snapdragon 808 processor, 2GB of low-power DDR3 RAM, and an Adreno 418 GPU. In terms of storage, SKUs come in 16 and 32GB varieties. We wish Google would do away with the 16GB SKU, as it's much too small for the average power user. Compatibility-wise, it supports 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS and the like.
Both the Nexus 5X, seen here, and the Nexus 6P offer a variety of color options to choose from.
With a sharper screen, the Nexus 6P is going to need a beefier SOC, so Huawei packed this bad boy with a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 v2.1 processor coupled with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM. For graphics, the 6P uses an Adreno 430 GPU. It also has the same Bluetooth and NFC bells and whistles that its smaller sibling supports. Because it has beefier components, it was able to best the 5X in all of our benchmarks from 14–59 percent!
Still, don't let the numbers fool you. Both phones, coupled with Android Marshmallow, were buttery smooth and snappy in our real-world tests.
Winner: Nexus 6P
Battery Life
Battery life was arguably the weakest aspect of the original Nexus 5 with its 2,300mAh brick, so LG went ahead and threw in a bigger 2,700mAh model in its stead. Coupled with Doze, which is Marshmallow's battery-saving sleeping feature, the Nexus 5X improves upon its predecessor, but it's still not the longest-lasting phone out there. Google says you should be able to get nine hours of Wi-Fi time out of the device and our actual use-case scenario was very close. Through heavy real-world usage—watching videos, running benchmarks, surfing the web, using apps—we were able to go for eight hours and 45 minutes before the phone keeled over. It's certainly not bad, but won't last you all day. While Google's numbers may be fairly accurate there, the company also says that you'll be able to get four hours of use out of 10 minutes of charging over USB type C. With 10 minutes of charging, we were able to go from a two percent charge to a 17 percent charge. That's not bad, but we think you'll be hard-pressed to get four hours of real-world use out of just 15 percent.
Because the 6P has the bigger chassis, it's able to squeeze in a huge 3,450mAh battery. As a result, we got a noticeable longevity boost over the 5X with our phone lasting roughly 12 hours and 45 minutes in our real-world tests. That's great, but it won't get you through an entire day of streaming Netflix non-stop, if that's what you're seeking. Going from one percent battery life and letting it charge for 10 minutes over USB C got us a 13 percent boost. In case you were wondering, it takes roughly an hour and a half to charge the 6P completely.
Even though the 6P's bigger screen soaks up battery at a faster clip than the 5X's, its bigger battery makes up for it in brute strength.
Winner: Nexus 6P
Camera
Another area where the Nexus phones are often criticized is in the camera department. Unfortunately, neither the 5X nor the 6P have optical image stabilization. This might not matter much for still photos, but if you try to shoot video with either phone as you're walking, you'll notice how shaky they look.
If you can ignore that, both cameras are fantastic and actually use the same innards. Both phones use a 12.3 megapixel sensor from Sony and feature an f/2.0 aperture. Word on the street is that the sensor was originally meant for a discreet camera and not a phone (this would explain the camera bulge on both devices). Both cameras can also shoot 4K video at 30fps and slow-motion video at 120fps. Compared to the original Nexus 5's camera, both the Nexus 5X and 6P produce much more vibrant and accurate colors. Both cameras also work better in low light, though there is still some noise when shooting at night, which is to be expected.
Because both phones effectively use the same excellent camera, this category ends in a tie.
Winner: Tie
Conclusion
If you want a phone that runs a pure version of Android, then these Nexi fill the bill, but which one should you get specifically? Honestly, you can't go wrong with either, as they're both excellent devices and Google promises at least 18 months of updates on each one. If you're a little strapped for cash and want something you can use with one hand, than the Nexus 5X (which starts at $380 for the 16GB model) is a good choice. If you don't mind the larger size and ponying up the extra cash for the Nexus 6P (which starts at $500 for the 32GB model), than the 6P is the obvious choice.
The Nexus 6P is Google's best Nexus phone yet.
At the end of the day, both phones are well designed, offer a ton of features, have good displays, solid specs/battery life, and great cameras. Overall, however, we're giving the Nexus 6P the win because it pretty much does everything the Nexus 5X does, but slightly better.