Everything You Need to Know About the Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player

Hey guys and gals and everyone in between, let’s talk Nexus. Google has officially unveiled the Nexus 6, the Nexus 9, and the Nexus Player, the first devices designed from the ground up for Android Lollipop. Actually, before we get to know Nexus, let’s make sure we know Lollipop.

Android 5.0 Lollipop

Lollipop has been in beta since June and the latest preview will go live this Friday, October 17. The name Lollipop has been thrown around for months now but with the announcement of the new Nexus products, only now has it become official.

With Lollipop, Android is getting more “Skynet” than ever before by powering your watch, your television, and even your car in addition to your traditional devices like phones and tablets. Things will work in unison across various electronics, allowing you to switch from one device to the next while still accessing your favorite apps, songs, and the like. It’s designed to be more purposeful and intuitive, something we can all appreciate. Multitasking, while still bad for your brain, is now easier than ever with improved side-by-side displays. Improved security means that you’re the only one using your devices. Lollipop also gives you greater control over your notifications so you can better control when you’re interrupted.

Finally, Lollipop has been designed to get the most out of your batteries with its new battery saver feature that can extend device life up to ninety minutes. And of course changes have been made so that it will run smoother and faster than ever before.

Nexus 6

The first thing you’ll notice about the Motorola Nexus 6 is its size. At 5.96-inches (2560 x 1440 2K native resolution), Google is all aboard the phablet trend. That’s even bigger than the 5.5 iPhone 6 Plus. It sports Gorilla Glass, a curved design, super slim bezels, and weighs 6.49 ounces.

Inside, the Nexus 6 features 3GB RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with a quad-core Krait 450 CPU (up to 2.7GHz per core) and an Adreno 420 GPU. If that all reads like gibberish to you, and don’t worry you’re not alone, just know that as of the time of this writing there exists no Android phone or phablet that beats it, but the Galaxy Note 4 does match it.

The rear camera on the Nexus 6 is 13MP with OIS, dual flash, and 4K video recording capabilities. The front’s 2.1MP camera can shoot 720p video.

The Nexus 6’s 3200mAh battery (combined with the Snapdragon 805 and the Project Volta Android 5.0 initiative) promises a full 24 hours of talk time, ten hours of video playback or Internet usage, and 330 hours of standby time. That’s a lot of hours. Even if you manage to run it dead, the Nexus 6’s quick charging can supposedly get you 6 hours of battery life from a 15 minute charge.

Throw in dual front facing stereo speakers and the above-mentioned Android Lollipop and you’ve got the Nexus 6.

The Nexus 6 will come in 32GB and 64GB models that won’t have microSD card slots. The contract-free price for the 32GB model is $649, and both will be available for pre-order in late October.

Nexus 9

The Nexus 9 tablet, available in black or white, features an 8.9″ screen, front-facing HTC BoomSound speakers, 2GB RAM, and a 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz with a Kepler DX1 GPU. It comes in two models – a 16GB and 32GB – but unfortunately, like the Nexus 6, there’s no MicroSD slot. There’s a 1.6MP front camera and an 8MP camera in the back, but sadly you’ll still look like a goof taking a picture with a tablet. The whole thing is powered by Android Lollipop and a 6700 mAh battery.

The Nexus 9 will be available to pre-order this Friday, October 17, for a November 3 release. The 16GB model will retail for $400.

Nexus Player

The Nexus Player may look like a hockey puck, but it’s capable of some pretty great things. It’s a streaming box, much like Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, but it uses Android TV, which was announced back in June. Sorry I just said “TV” so much.

The Nexus Player will let you stream all the usual channels – Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube – with the added benefit of the Google Play store. It’s Google Cast ready, which means you can send your favorite apps from Android and iOS devices, Mac, PC, or Chromebook straight to your TV through the box. Content will sync across your devices so you can start something one place and finish it somewhere else. You can also play games on it with an optional game controller. Oh, and the remote has a built-in mic, so you can yell at it like Gary Busey in that Amazon Fire TV commercial.

The Nexus Player will cost $99 and the controller $39, and they’ll both be available to pre-order on Friday from the Google Play store.

So there’s the rundown on Google’s nexus of Nexus products. What do you think? I feel like I should finally get a streaming box, so the Nexus Player might be in my future soon. The Nexus 6 certainly won’t because I’ll never be able to afford food again.