When using my Nexus 6 over the past couple of weeks my mind kept going back to an old episode of Top Gear I remember watching a few years ago. In it, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond were discussing their favourite cars, from the point of view of 'unadulterated driving pleasure' (or some such). Both of them agreed that this was best embodied by cars by Alfa Romeo. They then paused, before Clarkson asked, 'But would you recommend one to a friend?' Hammond's response? 'No, of course not.'





The thing was, despite the apparent greatness of Alfa Romeo, they also have so many quirks, foibles and eccentricities, that actually recommending one to someone else, at least in the eyes of the two hosts, became virtually impossible. This is the way I have begun to feel about my Nexus 6.





The thing is, there is so much to admire and enjoy about the phone. It's stupidly powerful, has a really good camera, a big, bright, hi-res display, and a gorgeous design. The 64gb version I plumped for has loads of onboard storage, battery life is a comfortable day/ day-and-a-half (perhaps even two with light usage), and Android Lollipop, in its natural habitat and integrated tightly with Google services, really is a joy to use.





I love the hardware design, with thoughtful design touches like the rear dimple to help your fingers orientate themselves, and the ridged power button to differentiate it from the volume rocker below. Features like active display and 'always listening' Google Now really do move the game forward with regards to how we will interact with our phones in the future.





But just as the phone is crazily powerful, crazily fast, and generally crazily well spec'd, it is also, at least to an extent, just plain crazy.





Firstly, the size. It's a monster. Far bigger than any phone usefully needs to be. I know every year people complain about phones getting too big, only for them to be accepted by the mainstream almost immediately (remember when the 4.3 inch HTC Desire HD was considered huge? Nowadays that would be the 'compact' model). 6 inches, though, really is virtually unmanageable (phnarr, phnarr). One handed use goes out the window. I had to buy a new windscreen mount in order to use it in the car because the one I had was too small. And whilst web-pages and video do look glorious, I can't help but feel they wouldn't look any less glorious on a 5.2-5.5 inch screen.





On top of that, living on the bleeding edge of Android has it's own pitfalls. More than once, I have turned to my Nexus 6, only to find the screen won't turn on, and am forced to hold down the power button until the device reboots. There are weird, quirky little visual artefacts; like sometimes the material design style highlight animation that shows when you press the home button gets stuck, requiring a second press of the home button to force the animation to complete. Sometimes the multi-tasking, or 'recents' window, takes a beat too long to appear, other times it's fine. Active display is great, but doesn't always appear when expected. I'm sure these bugs will get worked out, but for now they remain a source of frustration.





Also, somewhat crazily, Lollipop on the Nexus 6 does nothing to take advantage of the massive screen. Why can't I, for example, see the month view in the calendar, like I can on my Nexus 9? Why can I not see a preview pane in Gmail when in landscape, like I can on the Nexus 9? Why, indeed, are some apps (including the launcher) locked in phone-friendly portrait mode, despite this phablet handling more like the '-ablet' part of that particular portmanteau than the 'ph-'?





Why indeed, does the device have a notification LED that isn't enabled? Why does double-tap to wake (one of my favourite features of the Nexus 9) not work, despite being supported by the hardware? Why does the default, non-optional encryption slow the read/ write speeds so dramatically (http://www.anandtech.com/show/8725/encryption-and-storage-performance-in-android-50-lollipop), despite the Snapdragon 805 SOC natively supporting hardware encryption?





I absolutely love my Nexus 6, even if it may not sound like it. The things the Nexus 6 does well, such as the notifications, voice control, battery life, camera, design, build-quality, etc., really do set the device apart from both the Nexus 5 I had previously, and the iPhone I use for work. It's the things it does well, however, that serve to accentuate it's failings, and this is what makes it such a frustrating device to own. I admire the ambition of the device, if not always the execution.





TL;DR. The Nexus 6 is fast, beautiful, functional and flawed all at the same time. Do I love it? Yes, absolutely. Would I recommend one to a friend? No, absolutely not.