The new Nexus lineup is weak

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Disappointing, i was looking forward to the new Nexus but i guess they got complascent and released a me-too giant handset that’s just good enough. You could say that this year they really… phoned it in B-)

I might have to hold off on getting a new handset until a new Galaxy comes out because i’m not really crazy about the S5 either.

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rather than using serious handsets

What constitutes a “serious handset,” then?

I get a little defensive when I see Nexus models described like this, as I often think of them in quite the opposite light: that freedom to run the software of your choice makes them serious mobile computing devices, as opposed to inflexible models with closed software ecosystems or locked-down bootloaders, which seem more like consumption-oriented toys.

But I’m probably projecting a lot there, and that’s not what was meant at all, so I’m asking.

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The Motorola-built Nexus 6 sports a 5.96-inch, Quad HD display that packs in far more pixels than any human retina can discern, yet loses much of that resolution to oversized icons and text that’s too large by default.

I thought this was thoroughly debunked way back when the iPhone 4 was first released and Steve Jobs first made his claims about the limits of human vision. The human eye can discern far more than the iPhone’s 326 ppi at normal using distance, and the Nexus 6’s 493 ppi isn’t more than the human retina can discern.

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Why not get the moto X? The Nexus 6 is just an oversized moto X with fewer features, and the unlocked X is about as open and bloat-free phone as you’re going to get outside of the Nexus line.

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I think what the author meant was that, compared to the nexus 4 and 5, which aimed to be the best of all aspects wrapped in a solid package for an attainable price, the nexus 6 seems to be somewhat lacking in that ‘all-around people-pleaser’ category. Maybe ‘serious’ was an imprecise word to use, but I understood the intention, I think; I own both a nexus 7 (2012) and a nexus 5, as well as most iOS devices, and having looked at all of the reviews of the nexus 6, it just seems disappointingly ‘non-nexus’ in that it eschews the solid simplicity and out-of-the-box readiness that the previous ones have. Never mind that this line is supposed to represent Google’s idea of a benchmark for Android devices.

Some of that is subjective, sure, but the fact that you can only buy one in any size you like as long as it’s ‘mongo’ just caps off a series of ‘things we are scratching our heads about’. I suggest you check out the Ars Technica review if you’re more technically inclined; they go into a lot more detail about why it’s disappointing in comparison to what used to be a easy buy.

Just jumping in to say that that subheading was mine rather than Rob Pegoraro’s. It’s not that the hardware isn’t serious, but rather the fact that Google itself seems to be experimenting instead focusing on useful, user-oriented, consistent products. It reflects Rob P’s opinion that Nexus feels like Google’s word for “hobby”, the way Apple TV is Apple’s “hobby”. Maybe serious was the wrong word, because that experimentation isn’t a bad thing to every customer (and is, in its own way, a very serious business)

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The flash has multiple uses. Would have loved a flash on my Nexus 7 on my last trip when I was using the real-time translation app “WordTranslate” to read menus.

The real problem with the current Nexus line up is that they no longer have the cheap price that made the flaws (crappy cameras, for one) justifiable. I was looking forward to the Nexus 6 but it has some of the performance of a nexus 4 at a much higher price.

Article I mentioned in my first reply: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/nexus-6-review-the-premium-price-still-comes-with-compromises/

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This makes me so glad I snagged a refurbished Nexus 7 at a good price, two days before the new lineup was announced.

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Yea, seems like the go-to unlocked android phone right now is from Motorola, at various price points.

Its not entirely free of manufacturer OS mods, but they are minimal and cause little harm.

Really its the “unlocked” part that is most important. The worst software mods are from the phone companies, not the manufacturers, and unlocked also means you can get phone service for half the price (though maybe not LTE, if you think you need that).

i have considered the Moto X, i’m not 100% sure if i’d like to get it or if i should hold off until next year. I have a Galaxy S3 and it has been a real trooper thus far, i’m just not sure when i should jump to a new phone yet. Maybe i’ll see if i can get some hands on time with the Moto X.

I believe the proper phrase for what you’re looking for is “droid turbo”, but that depends on the carrier.

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“And what if you want a smaller Android tablet free of the cruft other vendors add? I don’t know. Maybe Google now expects you to tote a Nexus 6?”

Buy a Nexus 7? Or is that no longer an option because it is a year old?

Can we please get over disposable hardware already? Am I the only person who finds it rather distasteful that we basically get to landfill a $300-600 bit of electronics every year or two?

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I typically hold onto my electronics for quite a while. My laptop is about 4 years old, my cellphone i got 3 years ago going on 4 soon, had my PS3 about 6 years and i still have my Wii. Usually it comes down to money, i can’t afford to upgrade often… however even if i had the money i tend to be cautious of new tech and i’ll wait a long while before jumping to the latest thing.

My Nexus 4 is fine and will get an OS update soon. I’ll keep it another year or two then see what’s available. Project Ara perhaps?

Wow. No offense to Mr. Pegoraro, but I sure hope you aren’t basing your decision on a single review…?

According to Ars the phone is hamstrung by slow storage on the phone, causing regular stalls and generally poor performance, worse than the previous generation Nexus 5. Going backwards in performance is not acceptable when the price shot forward $200.

Do you have any information that contradicts the storage speed bencmarks reported by Ars?

Wait a few years to buy into this market until the year-over-year performance gains for ARM CPUs and mobile GPUs have leveled out. Once we get to a point where the current year’s model is not appreciably faster or more powerful than last year’s, people will stop upgrading regularly. Don’t buy ARM right now if you want something that’s still going to be supported by modern software in 5 years, stick with x86.