Big announcements from Google today. They unveiled the Nexus 6 phone, the Nexus 9 tablet, and the Nexus Player, the first set-top box running Android TV. All of which will be the first devices running Google’s latest Android 5.0 “Lollipop”.
Motorola Nexus 6 (phone)
The Google Nexus 6 is the next flagship Nexus Android phone built by Motorola, but this one will have a 6″ screen (technically 5.96″).
With a 6″ screen, this phone is definitely in phablet territory. Phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus with 5.5″ screens are already beasts to handle with one hand. I can’t imagine adding yet another half of an inch. There is no way your thumb will be able to reach the notifications panel.
But then again, having a big phone is pretty nice sometimes, and it’s not that bad getting used to 2-hand operation, especially if you think of this as your one device that eliminates the need for a tablet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk-PY2dBKaA
HTC Nexus 9 (tablet)
But if you are a fan of tablets, this one looks like great news for you. The Google Nexus 9 built by HTC is tablet with a 9″ (technically 8.9″) screen.
After using tablets both at 10″ and at 7″, I’m optimistic about the success of the 9″ size. 10″ tablets seem too big and unwieldy to hold, while the 7″ tablets like the Nexus 7 seem seem too small to be a tablet. After all, the old Nexus 7 was only 1″ bigger than Google’s new flagship phone.
The Nexus 9 is also the first Android device with 64-bit support, thanks to the dual-core 2.3GHz NVIDIA K1 chipset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYHY3MFiq1o
Google Nexus Player (streaming TV set-top box)
And now for the biggest news; Google announced its first set-top box running Android TV, the new branch of Android intended for streaming TV devices which was announced at Google I/O earlier this year.
It’s a small sleek puck of a device that will be able to stream content to your TV from Google Play, Android apps, as well as anything you can do with Chromecast. You can even play Android games and there is a game pad controller sold separately.
I don’t think this will be the flop that Nexus Q turned out to be. Google proved itself with the Chromecast, and this looks like a natural upgrade from that. You can tell Google thought this through a bit more. You can even say your voice searches right into the remote.
So what’s the cost? Price was one thing that Nexus Q got wrong and Chromecast got right. The Google Nexus Player will only cost $99, which seems very reasonable.
What Do You Think?
Do you think you will buy some of these? Why or why not?
