Google's latest smartphone, the Nexus 6 phablet from Motorola, has opened up preorders today and is set to hit shelves in November. It won't be an easy time for the device, though. The phablet market is already dominated by phones from some pretty powerful tech giants, like Apple's iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung's Galaxy Note 4. So how do the Nexus 6's specs look when compared with the phones it'll be competing against?
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Size and Display
All of these phones are top-of-the-market when it comes to screen size. The iPhone 6 Plus has the smallest screen of the three at 5.5 inches. The Galaxy Note 4 comes in next with 5.7 inches. The Nexus 6 boasts the largest screen of all with a 5.96-inch display. It's up to you, though, whether you want a phone whose diagonal display is only an inch shorter than one of Google's own tablets. In terms of graphics, the Note 4 and Nexus 6 actually have the same resolution despite the difference in display size, both clocking in with a 1440-by-2560 resolution. The iPhone 6 Plus is actually a bit behind, sporting only a 1080-by-1920 display.
As for the bulk of these devices, the Nexus 6 is about 1.5 mm thicker than the Note 4, which is in turn 1.5 mm thicker than the iPhone. The iPhone is also the lightest of the three, weighing in at 172 grams. The Nexus 6 is the heaviest, but only by a little. It weighs in at 184 grams.
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Hardware Specs
Both the Note 4 and Nexus 6 come with 3 GB of RAM, triple what the iPhone 6 Plus comes with. Funnily enough, the iPhone comes with the most built-in storage, with one model that comes with 128 GB. The Nexus 6 comes in two models with different amounts of storage space, 32 GB and 64 GB. The Galaxy Note 4 only comes with 32 GB of built-in memory, but it's also the only phone that supports user-added memory, up to 128 extra GB via microSD card.
Camera
The Galaxy Note 4 comes with the most powerful cameras, sporting a 16 MP camera on the back and a 3.7 MP front-facing camera capable of shooting in 1440p. The Nexus 6 comes next with a 13 MP and 2 MP camera on the rear and front, respectively. Finally, the iPhone comes in with an 8 MP rear-facing camera and a 1.2 MP camera on the front. Both the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4 advertise themselves as being able to shoot 1080p footage at 60fps, while the Nexus 6 advertises its camera's ability to shoot 4K video at 30fps.
Only the iPhone 6 Plus, however, seems to natively support shooting 720p footage at 240fps, allowing it to create smooth, high-quality slo-mo videos. Samsung users have posted that they can also shoot slo-mo video but that the footage starts to get blurry after slowing it down more than 2x.
Battery
Both the Nexus 6 and Note 4 come with a 3220 mAh battery, whereas the iPhone 6 Plus sports a 2915 mAh battery. The Nexus 6 is uniquely suited to come ahead in this category, though, thanks to Motorola's Turbo Charger technology. From a low battery, the Turbo Charger can get the Nexus 6 up to six more hours of life in just 15 minutes.
Features
The iPhone 6 Plus comes with Touch ID technology and an NFC chip, which along with an upgrade to iOS 8.1 allow users to utilize the new Apple Pay cardless payment system. The Galaxy Note 4 also comes with an NFC chip and fingerprint scanner, one that is certified by PayPal, meaning that as Apple Pay tries to make NFC payments more mainstream, Galaxy Note 4 users could easily get in on other services like Softcard, an Android NFC payment service that is now accepted at McDonalds. The Nexus 6 also has NFC capabilities, though there's no word on fingerprint-scanning functionality.
All three phones come with pretty standard built-in sensors like gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses and barometers. Samsung goes a bit further with the Note 4, though, and throws in a few more gizmos like gesture sensors, a heart rate monitor and a UV sensor that lets you know when the sun is bright enough to be harmful to your skin.
Price
Purchased through Google Play without a contract, the Nexus 6 will run you $649 for a 32 GB version and $699 for 64 GB. Look out for an official on-contract price to come out soon. Comparatively, an off-contract iPhone 6 Plus starts at $749, and an off-contract Galaxy Note 4 will start at $699 (possibly more depending on the seller). With a contract, both the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4 can be bought for $299, though the iPhone will cost more if you want more than 16 GB of space.