Google’s latest smartphone has hit the US and the reviews are pouring out with both praise and misgivings – but is a 6in screen just too big?

Google released its latest flagship smartphone the Nexus 6 to the public in early November. Previous Nexus devices have been good phones let down by poor battery life and camera quality, but excusable by its low price. The Nexus 6, however, is a big phone with a 6in screen and promises much.

The Nexus 6 is the most expensive smartphone Google has made to date, and more than £200 dearer than last year’s excellent Nexus 5. Costing £499, the Nexus 6 is in direct competition with top-of-the-line smartphones from Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Sony, not to mention Apple.

Now that low cost is no longer an advantage, has Google and its manufacturing partner Motorola done enough to persuade buyers away from Samsung and Apple?

And for those in the UK, the Nexus 6 will be on sale soon but delays in the supply chain are holding things up …

Nexus 6 review: it’s time to go big - Gizmodo

Eric Limer praises the weight balance of the Nexus 6, which makes handling the phablet manageable even if it takes some adjustment.

The Nexus 6 poses a tough question for Android fans: Am I ready for a 6-inch phone? Google is betting the farm that you’re ready to take the plunge. If you hold the Nexus 6 with a pinky placed on the bottom for support, the top of the screen is unreachable except by a stretch worthy of Mr. Fantastic. Also, you run a pretty real risk of dropping the sucker. But if you place your index finger in the Nexus 6’s welcoming back-divot and just cradle the phone in your fingers instead of holding on for dear life, suddenly things fall into place. You’ll have to change your grip from time to time, but the whole wide world of screen is yours.

Nexus 6 review: great phone, but you’re going to need a bigger hand – The Wall Street Journal

But even with good balance you may not be able to fit the 6in phablet in your pocket, which could be a deal breaker for some says Nathan Olivarez-Giles.

The Nexus 6 is so big, I wouldn’t advise people buy it unless they’ve held it in one hand and tried carrying it in a [trouser] pocket. Compared with the massive-in-its-own-right iPhone 6 Plus, the Nexus 6 is taller, thicker and heavier. Unless your name is Shaquille O’Neal, you probably won’t be able to palm it.

Google’s best Nexus with bigger and badder specs than iPhone 6 Plus - TechRadar

Matt Swider says specifications matter with Android 5 Lollipop and it shows in smooth the performance and handling.

At the heart of the Nexus 6 is a 2.7Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor that has an Adreno 420 GPU. It’s a top-of-the-line chip for Google’s largest Android phone yet. Backing that up is 3GB of RAM and a reasonable 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. Notice, there’s no silly 16GB model to cheapen the value. All of these Nexus 6 specs aren’t overkill. It’s important for the lightweight, but feature-filled Android Lollipop update that’s pre-installed on the phone. Android does more things than ever in the background: it runs multiple apps, receives notifications that hit the new lockscreen non-stop and makes the instantly accessible Google Now available with one swipe to the left. Voice searches are also on demand whenever I say the “Okay Google” prompt.

Nexus 6 review: Google shows it can make a big-screen phone - Engadget

Those specifications and large, high-resolution screen comes at the price of battery life for Brad Molen.

The Nexus 6 doesn’t have terrible battery life, but it’s definitely not as good as many similarly sized phones. I used the device extensively at Engadget Expand last weekend, and I was lucky if the phone got more than 13 or 14 hours. A battery of that size and supposed power efficiency should still have juice left over after a full day of heavy use, and the 6 just wasn’t up to the task.

Nexus 6 review: go bigger or go home - The Verge

Dieter Bohn thinks the speakers are some of the best available:

Unlike its smaller sibling, the Moto X, the Nexus 6 has two front-facing speakers. They are loud. Once I accidentally put the phone up to my ear when Google Now was about to speak in its Outside Voice, and I damn near damaged my eardrum. Still, these won’t replace your Jambox: at high volumes it can begin to sound a little tinny. But if the only phone that beats you in terms of sound quality and volume is the HTC One M8, you’re in good company.

Nexus 6 review: the ‘premium’ price still comes with compromises - Ars Technica

It’s all about voice control for Ron Amadeo.

The Nexus 6’s always-on voice commands are easily the phone’s best feature and will change the way you use the device. It’s so fast now that it’s just way easier to set a reminder or a timer with your voice. “OK Google remind me to buy milk tomorrow” is more efficient than turning the screen on, unlocking the device, swiping over to Google search, and typing in a reminder. These voice commands aren’t exclusive to the Nexus 6; they’re now a base feature in Lollipop, complete with support for the low-power voice processor. Even if you don’t buy the Nexus 6, the line in the sand is drawn. Make sure your next device has a special DSP for always-on voice recognition. (Unless you hate the idea of always-on voice recognition.)

Nexus 6 Review: A Big, Beautiful, Cumbersome Beast - TechCrunch

For Greg Kumparak the phablet’s size is just too much and he’s going back to his Nexus 5.

If you’re a happy Nexus 5 user and you’re looking for the sequel to that device, take caution: despite the sequential naming scheme, that is not what the Nexus 6 is. Wait a few months for Google to inevitably (/hopefully?) release a Nexus 5 version 2 — something of a more reasonable size and perhaps with a more welcoming price tag, but that still serves as the bar which all Android phones should strive to beat. For what it’s worth, I will be going back to my Nexus 5 after this review.

It’s big, it’s round, it feels good in your hand: the Nexus 6 - The Register

Iain Thomson is in two minds as to whether he’d spend his own money on one.

The gut check for any reviewer: would you spend your own money on the product? In the Nexus 6’s case, possibly. The app choice is much better than Windows Phone or a BlackBerry passport, and the handset is much cheaper - and seemingly more sturdy - than an iPhone 6 Plus. Samsung and HTC have interesting models, but there’s something appealing about a smartphone running the latest hardware that has been built to optimize a particular operating system, as Apple users are well aware. So possibly, but not certainly.

Other reviews

• Motorola Moto X review: listening out for your dulcet tones

• Google Nexus 5 review: a great value smartphone that undercuts the competition

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review: big, powerful and Samsung’s best yet

• Sony Xperia Z3 review: great battery life and quality camera

• Motorola Moto G 2014 review: the best all-round budget smartphone

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus: it’s a very big phone and it feels great - review

• Google Nexus 9 tablet review: can’t match Samsung or Apple