 It seems like everybody wants a big phone, even if a lot of us act like we don't. Having the bigger screen and the bigger battery gets addictive, fast, no matter how hard it is to cram in your pocket. Samsung phones led the trend, then the iPhone jumped in, and now Google is here with a gigantic slab of Android. You asked for it, you got it. This is the Nexus 6. It's gotten really cliche to talk about how big phones are, but seriously, the Nexus 6 just feels massive. With a 6-inch screen, technically it's 5.96 inches, it's bigger than the Galaxy Note 4, it's bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus. It's just plain huge. The thing about using a huge phone is at first it's weird, but then it's great. And eventually, everything else just feels too small. You can't really use it with just one hand, but because of its curved, sloped back, it nestles nicely in your hands. It's thicker at the top than at the bottom, which can make it feel a little unbalanced sometimes. The power button and the volume buttons are smack in the middle of the right-hand side, which is fine, but it does make it a little weird in landscape. It has the same metal rim around the edges as the Motorola Moto X, which gives it a solidity and probably contributes a bit to the heft. It weighs just a half an ounce more than the iPhone 6 Plus. The back is a hard plastic in either white or midnight blue, and it has a sort of eggshell feel that I actually kind of like. It really is just like a blown-up Moto X, and that's pretty great. But it's a more powerful phone than the Moto X. It has a quad HD display, a faster, more powerful processor, more RAM, a bigger battery, and a second speaker on the front. Basically, it's top-of-the-line specs for Android. And more importantly, all that power is put to good use. The phone is fast, and dealt with anything I asked it to do with no problems. The only time I ever found it to be slow was when I was wishing the animations in Lollipop were tuned to move just a little bit faster. And then there's the screen. You already know it's big, and it has an insane pixel density of 493ppi. You absolutely won't see the pixels on this thing. But what you will see, if you look close enough, is some weird textures and colorations here and there. Basically, if you tilt the screen, you can see the colors shift a bit and maybe even see some rainbow banding. But really, that's just a nitpick, and it's one of the only knocks I have against this hardware. But on a phone this expensive, you'd expect it to be immaculate at any angle. There's a big benefit to using an AMOLED screen, though. It's one of the new features on Android 5.0 Lollipop, and it's called Ambient Display. Right now it only works on the Nexus 6. Your notifications show up right on the lock screen in Lollipop, and on the Nexus 6, they show up in a subtle, black-and-white-only mode right when they come in. It doesn't light up the whole screen, and it doesn't drain the battery, and it's super useful. Google and Motorola also crammed an extra loudspeaker on the front so you can get true stereo sound. Front-facing speakers are great, and even though this doesn't have quite the audio quality of the HTC One M8, it's still much better than most of the competition. There's a 13 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash here, and I'm pleased to say it's the best camera I've used on a Nexus device. It's just wildly better than the camera on the Nexus 5. But the bitter truth is that cameras on Nexus devices up until now haven't been very good, so I'm grading on a pretty serious curve here. The shutter speed is fast enough for me. In a lot of cases, it's basically instantaneous, though there's still sometimes an annoying lag, especially in low light. But thanks to the optical image stabilization, you can get some pretty decent low-light shots. The truth is that it's still not as good as the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, or even as good as Samsung phones at their best. I kind of feel like the best way to think about this camera is like golfing. Every now and then, you get that one perfect shot, with nice saturation and tack-sharp focus. It's the kind of shot that makes you think you could get that shot every time. And with practice, you can be really good with it. But sometimes you're just going to duff it. We've come to expect impressive battery life from these ginormous phones, and the new Nexus doesn't disappoint. I easily made it through a day and a half of regular use, and if you're gentler on it, you can probably extend that to two. There's a quick charge feature that will give you multiple hours after just 15 minutes when it's plugged into the included charger. Plus, Lollipop has a new battery saver mode. And Lollipop really is the star here. It's a complete and total redesign for Android based on a new philosophy for how touchscreen software should work. It's called material design. It's a fuse of bright colors, depth, and helpful animations that give you clues about what the phone is doing. It's just gorgeous and friendly. It sort of sits in the middle of a Venn diagram of reserved elegance and Andy Warhol-style pop art, which is kind of not a space I would have believed existed, but it works. More than the design, though, there are really thoughtful tweaks you'll find all over the OS. And there's also a new priority mode that you can tweak so only important stuff will come through. And you can set that mode to only last an hour or two so you don't have to worry about forgetting to go back to a normal mode. The multitasking button now gives you a basically infinite overview of your apps. Some of those apps, like Chrome or Gmail, can stick multiple cards into that overview stack, which makes it easier to deal with complicated tasks. You can even set a guest mode if you want to hand your phone over to a friend. There's new battery improvements, under the hood speed improvements, and a bunch more. We have a full review of Lollipop to cover it all, but the bottom line is this is the best improvement to Android in years. My biggest complaint about the software is that I wish Google had done more to take advantage of this massive screen. Android was the original home for big ass phones, and you'd like to think it could be better designed to take advantage of all that space. But when you turn the phone sideways, only a few apps really give you a noticeably different view. There's one more big thing to talk about with the Nexus 6, and that's the price. We've all gotten used to Google selling phones for dirt cheap, but this one retails at $650. That's on par with other top tier phones, and like those other phones, Google has finally brought the Nexus back to most US carriers, so at least you'll be able to buy it with a subsidy. If you want the best Android phone you can possibly get right now, the Nexus 6 is undoubtedly it. But that's assuming your definition of best phone includes really, really big. We've been watching phones and their screens get larger and larger every year, and every year we think, okay, that's enough. That's as big as these get. Nobody would want anything bigger. And every year we're wrong. But this year, I'm calling it. Anything bigger than this phone, and it's not a phone. It's a tablet. Anything bigger and we'll need a fashion revolution to redesign our pockets and purses to accommodate all our new gadgets. The Nexus 6 is the limit, and it turns out that the limit is a pretty great place to be.
 It seems like everybody wants a big phone, even if a lot of us act like we don't.
 Having the bigger screen and the bigger battery gets addictive, fast, no matter how hard it
 is to cram in your pocket.
 Samsung phones led the trend, then the iPhone jumped in, and now Google is here with a gigantic
 slab of Android.
 You asked for it, you got it.
 This is the Nexus 6.
 It's gotten really cliche to talk about how big phones are, but seriously, the Nexus 6
 just feels massive.
 With a 6-inch screen, technically it's 5.96 inches, it's bigger than the Galaxy Note
 4, it's bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus.
 It's just plain huge.
 The thing about using a huge phone is at first it's weird, but then it's great.
 And eventually, everything else just feels too small.
 You can't really use it with just one hand, but because of its curved, sloped back, it
 nestles nicely in your hands.
 It's thicker at the top than at the bottom, which can make it feel a little unbalanced
 sometimes.
 The power button and the volume buttons are smack in the middle of the right-hand side,
 which is fine, but it does make it a little weird in landscape.
 It has the same metal rim around the edges as the Motorola Moto X, which gives it a solidity
 and probably contributes a bit to the heft.
 It weighs just a half an ounce more than the iPhone 6 Plus.
 The back is a hard plastic in either white or midnight blue, and it has a sort of eggshell
 feel that I actually kind of like.
 It really is just like a blown-up Moto X, and that's pretty great.
 But it's a more powerful phone than the Moto X.
 It has a quad HD display, a faster, more powerful processor, more RAM, a bigger battery, and
 a second speaker on the front.
 Basically, it's top-of-the-line specs for Android.
 And more importantly, all that power is put to good use.
 The phone is fast, and dealt with anything I asked it to do with no problems.
 The only time I ever found it to be slow was when I was wishing the animations in Lollipop
 were tuned to move just a little bit faster.
 And then there's the screen.
 You already know it's big, and it has an insane pixel density of 493ppi.
 You absolutely won't see the pixels on this thing.
 But what you will see, if you look close enough, is some weird textures and colorations here
 and there.
 Basically, if you tilt the screen, you can see the colors shift a bit and maybe even
 see some rainbow banding.
 But really, that's just a nitpick, and it's one of the only knocks I have against this
 hardware.
 But on a phone this expensive, you'd expect it to be immaculate at any angle.
 There's a big benefit to using an AMOLED screen, though.
 It's one of the new features on Android 5.0 Lollipop, and it's called Ambient Display.
 Right now it only works on the Nexus 6.
 Your notifications show up right on the lock screen in Lollipop, and on the Nexus 6, they
 show up in a subtle, black-and-white-only mode right when they come in.
 It doesn't light up the whole screen, and it doesn't drain the battery, and it's super
 useful.
 Google and Motorola also crammed an extra loudspeaker on the front so you can get true
 stereo sound.
 Front-facing speakers are great, and even though this doesn't have quite the audio
 quality of the HTC One M8, it's still much better than most of the competition.
 There's a 13 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash here, and I'm pleased to say it's
 the best camera I've used on a Nexus device.
 It's just wildly better than the camera on the Nexus 5.
 But the bitter truth is that cameras on Nexus devices up until now haven't been very good,
 so I'm grading on a pretty serious curve here.
 The shutter speed is fast enough for me.
 In a lot of cases, it's basically instantaneous, though there's still sometimes an annoying
 lag, especially in low light.
 But thanks to the optical image stabilization, you can get some pretty decent low-light shots.
 The truth is that it's still not as good as the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, or even as good
 as Samsung phones at their best.
 I kind of feel like the best way to think about this camera is like golfing.
 Every now and then, you get that one perfect shot, with nice saturation and tack-sharp
 focus.
 It's the kind of shot that makes you think you could get that shot every time.
 And with practice, you can be really good with it.
 But sometimes you're just going to duff it.
 We've come to expect impressive battery life from these ginormous phones, and the new Nexus
 doesn't disappoint.
 I easily made it through a day and a half of regular use, and if you're gentler on it,
 you can probably extend that to two.
 There's a quick charge feature that will give you multiple hours after just 15 minutes when
 it's plugged into the included charger.
 Plus, Lollipop has a new battery saver mode.
 And Lollipop really is the star here.
 It's a complete and total redesign for Android based on a new philosophy for how touchscreen
 software should work.
 It's called material design.
 It's a fuse of bright colors, depth, and helpful animations that give you clues about what
 the phone is doing.
 It's just gorgeous and friendly.
 It sort of sits in the middle of a Venn diagram of reserved elegance and Andy Warhol-style
 pop art, which is kind of not a space I would have believed existed, but it works.
 More than the design, though, there are really thoughtful tweaks you'll find all over the
 OS.
 And there's also a new priority mode that you can tweak so only important stuff will
 come through.
 And you can set that mode to only last an hour or two so you don't have to worry about
 forgetting to go back to a normal mode.
 The multitasking button now gives you a basically infinite overview of your apps.
 Some of those apps, like Chrome or Gmail, can stick multiple cards into that overview
 stack, which makes it easier to deal with complicated tasks.
 You can even set a guest mode if you want to hand your phone over to a friend.
 There's new battery improvements, under the hood speed improvements, and a bunch more.
 We have a full review of Lollipop to cover it all, but the bottom line is this is the
 best improvement to Android in years.
 My biggest complaint about the software is that I wish Google had done more to take advantage
 of this massive screen.
 Android was the original home for big ass phones, and you'd like to think it could
 be better designed to take advantage of all that space.
 But when you turn the phone sideways, only a few apps really give you a noticeably different
 view.
 There's one more big thing to talk about with the Nexus 6, and that's the price.
 We've all gotten used to Google selling phones for dirt cheap, but this one retails at $650.
 That's on par with other top tier phones, and like those other phones, Google has finally
 brought the Nexus back to most US carriers, so at least you'll be able to buy it with
 a subsidy.
 If you want the best Android phone you can possibly get right now, the Nexus 6 is undoubtedly
 it.
 But that's assuming your definition of best phone includes really, really big.
 We've been watching phones and their screens get larger and larger every year, and every
 year we think, okay, that's enough.
 That's as big as these get.
 Nobody would want anything bigger.
 And every year we're wrong.
 But this year, I'm calling it.
 Anything bigger than this phone, and it's not a phone.
 It's a tablet.
 Anything bigger and we'll need a fashion revolution to redesign our pockets and purses to accommodate
 all our new gadgets.
 The Nexus 6 is the limit, and it turns out that the limit is a pretty great place to
 be.