Uprading To A New Nexus

I’m in the market for a new cell phone. I have been for the past year or so. First I was putting off getting a new phone because I was waiting for the Nexus 6. At the time I started wanting a new phone, the Nexus 6 was still just “whatever phone Google comes out with next”. It wasn’t named, I didn’t know specs, I didn’t know when it was going to be released.

I just knew that I wanted to wait for the phone after the Nexus 5.

Nothing against the Nexus 5, I just wanted to skip few hardware generations. My current phone is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which I’ve had for almost three years now. In that time, I’ve used several different versions of Android; AOKP, Cyanogenmod, Paranoid Android, and stock Android. I’m currently using AOKP. All of them have their ups and downs, but at this point I want to go back to stock Android. Partially because Android 5.0 seems pretty sweet, but also because custom ROMs have left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

I don’t think it’s the ROMs fault, though. I think my phone is just getting long in the tooth, and isn’t able to run the latest versions of the various custom ROMs without giving up the ghost. Apps are slow to load, freeze up, and often take a while to respond while I’m using them. I’ve even had my phone randomly restart on a few different ROMs now, as well. I think going back to stock Android – especially now that Lollipop is out – is a good idea. Start fresh, and maybe in a year or so take another look at the custom ROM landscape.

There’s one problem though: the Nexus 6 is huge, and expensive. Before it was removed from the Play store, the Nexus 5 was $400 for the 32GB version. Currently the Nexus 6 is $750 for the 32GB version. Since I decided to get a new phone three weeks ago, I’ve been hestiant to pull the trigger on getting either the Nexus 5 or the Nexus 6.

I think my hesitancy around the Nexus 6 is mostly just the price. Last night I played with the Nexus 6 in a Telus store for a good ten minutes or so, checking out web pages, YouTube, and other apps. After a few minutes, the screen size didn’t bother me that much. I tend to use my current phone two-handedly most of the time anyways. I’ve been watching how I use my phone for the last two weeks, and it seems like the only time I use a single hand is when I want to quickly check notifications on my phone. The Nexus 6 has a neat feature where when you pick up the phone it’ll turn on the screen in a low-power black & white to show you the notifications.

After all this hemming and hawing though, I need to make a desicion. Despite the size and the price, I’ve been leaning towards the Nexus 6 since it launched. Even after playing with ( actual running models, not dead models with sticker screens ) both the 5 & the 6 in various stores, I’m still leaning towards the 6. I think I’m going to take the plunge later today and just live with the decision.