Google threw a monkey wrench in the big-screen phones' comfortable existence yesterday with the announcement of the Motorola Nexus 6 phablet, speccing it out to the gills with a Quad HD AMOLED display, Snapdragon 805 processor, and an optically-stabilized 13 MP camera, as well as a pack of stereo speakers at the front, making it the most decked 6" phablet this side of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro.
Granted, the Nexus 6 won't be for everybody, unlike previous Nexus iterations, as it's still a gigantic handset that has to be operated with two hands the vast majority of the time, but if you are eyeing a 6-incher, you already knew that, didn't you? This is why we are curious to learn which one of the popular 6" phablets that have been unveiled this year would you get if you had the chance.
The Motorola Nexus 6 will sell for $649 without a contract, and thus it faces steep competition from a few other 6" juggernauts. Let's start off with the Huawei Mate7, which on places like Newegg and Amazon sells for about the same price as the Nexus 6, but offers the best screen-to-size ratio of all phablets, elegant aluminum unibody, and state-of-the-art fingerprint scanner on the back, as well as a giant 4100 mAh battery for two to three days of Android-ing. Granted, it doesn't have QHD, but "only" 1080p screen resolution, and eschews the OIS and stereo speakers tech of the Nexus 6.
Next in line is the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro, which sells for about $600, and sports QHD display, Snapdragon 801, and 3 gigs of RAM; this hardware is powered by a massive 4,000 mAh battery, and all of this is enclosed in a full-metal body that is just 0.3" (7.7mm) thick. The camera has a 16 MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor with OIS, too, making this a worthy competitor to the Nexus 6 specs, save for the chipset speeds. Just like the Mate7, it is more compact than the Nexus 6 by a significant margin.
We shouldn't forget the LG G Pro 2 as well, which was released in the spring, and is still going strong, with a 1080p display, Snapdragon 800 chipset, 13 MP camera with OIS, and a 3200 mAh battery. It sells for a tad below $600 now, making it a direct competitor to the flagship phablets listed above. Here they are, in all of their expensive glory:
Going down the food chain, we find two excellent midrange 6-inchers - the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra and Huawei Ascend Mate 2, which retail for about $300, or about half of the flagship phablets above. They sport displays with HD resolution, Snapdragon 400 chipsets, and 13 MP cameras. The Mate 2 has a 3900 mAh battery, while the T2 Ultra makes do with a 3000 mAh juicer, but both are currently occupying the top two slots in our brand-name battery benchmark tests anyway. Let's not forget also the Galaxy Mega 2, this year's 6" entrant from Samsung, which also flaunts an HD display, but dials it down with an 8 MP camera, Exynos processor, and a 2800 mAh battery pack, all for more than $400, making it the steepest midranger of the pack, despite being the one with the weakest specs. Here are the 6" midrangers:
Given this abundant choice of 6-inchers that is currently on the market, from all specs and price points, on one hand, and the brand new entrant in the category - the venerable Nexus 6 - we want to ask you which one would you get, if in the market for a big-screen device, which seems to be the fastest growing market segment right now. Take your pick in the poll below, and sound off in the comments.
Which 2014 6-incher would you buy?
Motorola Nexus 6
64.97%
Huawei Ascend Mate7
13.43%
Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
9.26%
LG G Pro 2
4.61%
Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
4%
Huawei Ascend Mate 2
1.61%
Samsung Galaxy Mega 2
2.13%
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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