To Google, the Nexus line is more than just a bunch of phones. It's a signal, to developers and users alike, of the future of mobile devices. This year, it's about a lot of things: USB Type-C charging, better cameras, reliable authentication, more reliable software updates, contextual awareness. But mostly, it's a statement: Design matters.
When Alberto Villarreal takes the two new Nexus devices out of his bag, he places them on the table upside-down. The phones' screens are off. He doesn't want to talk about the specs inside the Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P, or even really about the Android Marshmallow software inside. At least, not at first. First he wants to talk about the camera hump.
Both new devices were leaked as if from an exploding dam, and commenter feedback was swift: People did not like the opaque black stripe across the top of the 6P, which gave the phone a chin like you might find on an old-school calculator. Villarreal shrugs at the response. He had to design around one of the largest camera sensors ever placed in a smartphone; what was he supposed to do?
"It was a big challenge," he says. "the sensor is pretty big, but we still wanted to have clean devices, and optimize them for ergonomics." The Nexus team learned a lot from the Nexus 6, which some people found too wide and too thick to really be wieldy. "You can't afford a large device to be very bulky," says Sandeep Waraich, a product manager on the project. "You have to make it very thin, very sculpted, very narrow." So Villarreal thinned the device down, shrunk the screen from 6 to 5.7 inches, and moved most of the circuitry to that small hump up top. "The location of the camera here is higher up, and not centered," he says. "That made sense for all the componentry inside—but we wanted to make it, again, something more stable so it didn't feel like there was a big bump on one side." Plus, he says, maybe looking for a silver lining, it's a unique look. "I can see people grabbing the phone like this," he says, holding the 6P to his left ear, "and you know exactly what phone it is."
He might not sell everyone on the camera hump, but Villarreal's trying to chart a new path for the Nexus phones. They've traditionally been developer and purist playgrounds, little more than fast processors and cutting-edge software inside an innocuous rectangle. But now, Google wants more. They want you to notice that "there's actually harmony in the curvature here," says Waraich. "Which is the same as the microphone here, which is the same as the speaker here...you'll see the same radii all across, which gives it a very harmonious sort of a feel." Villarreal tenderly touches the curved glass on the back of the 6P, and Waraich explains wide-eyed how hard it is to machine the "single volcano" camera hump on the back of the 5X.
This, from the test-a-million-shades-of-blue Google? It feels different.
Much is still the same, of course. The 6P and 5X are both very much developer playgrounds. They run stock versions of Marshmallow, the brand-new version of Android. The Huawei-made 6P, which will cost $499 unlocked, comes with a Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32-128GB of storage, a 3450mAh battery, and all the connectivity and wireless you could want. Waraich calls the phone "a power-user wonderland." Meanwhile, the LG-produced 5X is a more sensible device: a Snapdragon 808, 2GB of RAM, 16-32GB of storage, and a 2700mAh battery, all in a smaller 5.2-inch package, all for $379.
In true data-friendly Google form, the new Nexus lineup reveals a few things they learned. People loved the Nexus 5, and people love big phones. And people who love big phones tend to also love high-end specs. And they tend to be willing to pay more for them. This is familiar territory by now—whether it's the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus or the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note, this kind of bifurcation has become the norm.
There's a 12.3-megapixel Sony camera sensor inside both devices, with 1.55 micron pixels that are much larger than your average smartphone. The Nexus cameras have never been much to brag about, but Google says this combination of high pixel count and big pixels is going to be huge. In theory, that's true: big pixels, and lots of 'em, can equal great photos. But there's lots of software involved, too—Google's worked to make autofocus faster, improve HDR to make it more useful, and even add slow-mo video capabilities. (You can go as high as 120 frames per second on the 5X, or 240 on the 6P.) Even the camera app has changed, as Google tries to help you discover all the different modes and features it offers. And last, but certainly not least, you can double-click on the power button to launch the camera ready to fire.1>
There's a lot of familiar territory in the Nexus lineup this year, actually. Like the Ambient Display, which blinks with the time and notifications when you pick up your phone or turn it over; that's lifted basically intact from the Moto X. (The only difference is that the Nexus phones also kick on when you nudge the phone, shifting it slightly on your desk. That's a nice addition.)
This is all powered by a new "Android Sensor Hub," which takes the accelerometer, gyroscope, and more, and bundles it all together on a low-power chip of its own. That means your Nexus phone can collect more information about where you are and what you're doing, without hurting your battery life, and use it to do more predictive and useful things. Right now the list is short, but i "You can think of Google Now done on mobile in a very low-power way," Waraich says. "Where it's ambient, always-on, and it can provide great meaningful contextual data when you need it."
Both devices also come with fingerprint sensors on the back, which tap into the fingerprint support built into Android 6.0. They also have USB Type-C ports, the fast and reversible chargers that the whole tech industry is quickly getting behind. There's no wireless charging here, which feels like an oversight, but there is super-fast charging through the new port. And for now, Waraich says, that's the best solution we've got. He says both phones will last a full day, but no more—and that's as good as it gets. "One and a half days doesn't matter," he says. "In the morning you want your battery to look 100 percent when you leave for the day. So either somebody solves it for a week battery, or you have to give reliably one solid day of battery." And when you need a little extra, well, that's where fast charging helps.
Both also come with a promise of monthly security updates, and two full years of software updates from Google. "They're very much our vision for where we want to take Android going forward," Waraich says. Their design is a big part of that, too.
"[With] Material Design, which you've seen over the last couple of years, there's been a big focus in aesthetics and design overall. And that is reflected in the devices as well. We really wanted to make something with a lot of care, because users value..." here he pauses. Then he backs up: There are different kinds of Nexus users. One is still developers, which is a hugely important group. But what Google's realized, what everyone's realized, is that they care about design too. Everyone cares about design now. And if Google can make a phone that represents the future of Android, the future of phones in general, and the best design the company can muster? In this ever-changing industry, where we're learning to buy phones outside of carrier stores and contracts, Google might find itself in a powerful spot. Camera hump and all.
1UPDATE: An earlier version of this story said you could also do the Motorola-style double-twist action to launch the camera. Apparently that feature was dropped at the last minute. Which sucks.
