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Google and Huawei teamed upwardly to release the about high-end Nexus device yet with the Nexus 6P. Information technology has a slick metal frame, rear-facing fingerprint sensor, and Android six.0 Marshmallow. The newly released G5 is similar in a lot of ways. It too has a metal frame, rear-facing fingerprint sensor, and Marshmallow. Things are a lot different when y'all look more than closely, though. The Nexus 6P lacks any modular features, and LG has taken the modular attribute more seriously than ever with the G5. Then, how do these phones stack up? Let'due south find out.

Design

Both of these phones make use of aluminum in the constructions, but you'll discover a singled-out divergence when you pick them up. The Nexus 6P feels like a solid aluminum phone should feel. It has a very clean design with chamfered edges and a somewhat unusual Gorilla Glass window at the tiptop of the back panel for the antennas. Information technology'southward also extremely thin at simply 7.3mm.

The LG G5 has a different artful. It's more rounded, and the aluminum frame doesn't feel like metallic. This was a bit of  PR disaster for LG when the G5 came out. In that location's a thick layer of primer on top of the aluminum that makes it feel more plasticky than the Nexus 6P. It's not bad, but I don't think it has the same premium experience as an unpainted metal telephone. That said, the G5 is more comfortable to concord every bit it's a little smaller and the rounded edges provide more grippable area.

The G5 has a single bottom-firing speaker, though information technology does get fairly loud. The Nexus 6P has front-facing stereo speakers. So, if having swell sound is of import to you, the 6P is worlds better.

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Around back the G5 and Nexus 6P both accept a fingerprint sensor placed conveniently for your index finger. The 6P's sensor continues to exist the best one on whatsoever Android phone with amazing speed and accuracy. The G5's sensor is all right, but information technology misreads often compared to the 6P. The G5'south fingerprint sensor is also a ability push button, but information technology's a little looser than I'd expect from a flagship telephone. The 6P tin likewise be woken upward with the fingerprint sensor, but it has a carve up power button on the side, as setup I recall I prefer.

The Nexus 6P is a unibody phone, so the battery doesn't come out. With the G5, the mentum on the bottom comes off and the battery slides out for easy swapping. This chin can likewise be replaced with modules similar the photographic camera grip. Even so, these are expensive, and the camera grip is the but one available in the The states. The chin also doesn't sit down entirely flush on the G5. The modules could exist interesting, but right now information technology'due south a miss for LG. The 6P simply feels like a better-built aluminum phone.

Display

The G5 is a smaller phone than the Nexus 6P with a v.3-inch 1440p LCD versus the 6P'southward 5.7-inch Super AMOLED. Because nosotros're talking about an LCD, the G5 lacks the extremely bright colors of the 6P, but information technology's not decumbent to burn-in every bit AMOLED panels still are. The G5'southward console has proficient viewing angles and surprisingly loftier brightness. The colors are quite accurate as well.

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The Nexus 6P was using the nearly recent version of Samsung's AMOLED technology until the GS7 came out (it'southward the same 1440p panel equally you lot make it the Notation 5). That means very accurate, though somewhat overly vibrant colors. It likewise gets extremely bright outside and the viewing angles are perfect. The Nexus 6P also has an sRGB mode that makes the colors extremely accurate without the oversaturated expect of most AMOLEDs.

The G5 does take a nice display for an LCD, but that applied science is increasingly outclassed when compared with AMOLEDs. Its main selling point is that it's smaller and more manageable than the 6P's AMOLED. Yous tin actually reach most of the G5's screen ane-handed.

Cameras

The Nexus 6P has a 12.3MP sensor with big 1.55µm pixels and a f/2.0 aperture. That ways it takes slap-up low-low-cal shots, and there's laser-assisted autofocus to make sure yous capture your subject. This is still ane of the best cameras available on an Android phone. The laser autofocus is snappy as well. I'd say its only real shortcoming is that image capture in low-light situations takes longer than another phones. The results are commonly quite good. If you want to dig into the options, you'll likewise find that Google'southward camera app is missing a lot of advanced features.

G5 cam

The LG G5, on the other hand, has a fantastic photographic camera app with a full manual fashion, RAW output, and more. This is paired with a 16MP main camera with optical paradigm stabilization (OIS) and laser autofocus. That counters shakiness for a clearer image. The 6P has stabilization, but it'southward electronic and not as skilful. The G5 also captures images much faster than the 6P, but its low-calorie-free performance isn't quite as good. In general, the G5 takes slightly better images, and the HDR mode is fast enough to be left on all the time.

What sets the G5 apart is the secondary photographic camera, which takes wide-angle photos. That's not something the 6P can lucifer. It has a field of view in the neighborhood of 135-degrees, even wider than a lot of action cameras. The optical distortion isn't bad, either. These images aren't peachy in depression light, just they make for stunning landscapes. It's a little gimmicky at first, merely yous'd be surprised how frequently broad-angle photos come in handy.

Internals and software

The Nexus 6P came out last year, and then it's running the best chip that was available at the time, the Snapdragon 810. This SoC was a bust in some phones, only most of its heat issues accept been solved in the Nexus 6P. The Snapdragon 810 has a quad-core cluster of high-power Cortex-A57 CPUs and a 2d group of 4 highly efficient Cortex-A53 cores. This differs dramatically from the Snapdragon 820 in the LG G5. That'southward a quad-core fleck based on Qualcomm'due south new Kryo custom cores. It's about as fast, simply power usage and heat are lower.

Even with the lower CPU power usage, battery life on the G5 isn't as skillful as the 6P. The battery is only 2800mAh versus 3450mAh in the 6P. Both will make it through the 24-hour interval, but the 6P volition do so more than comfortably. The G5 does have more ram, 4GB versus but 3GB in the 6P. It also includes a microSD card slot for more than storage. The 6P comes in variants from 32GB up to 128GB, but there'southward no bill of fare slot.

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On the software front, it'southward a clear win for the Nexus 6P. If you care about having the most upwards-to-date experience, Google's phone is the one for you. Information technology ships with Android half dozen.0 Marshmallow with a ton of keen features like doze mode to reduce idle battery bleed, more granular app permissions, and Google Now On Tap.

What of the G5? Well, it'south also shipping with Android 6.0 right now, which is nifty. You get still core features, but there's a skin on top that has some problems. Many of LG's custom apps are not very well designed and the launcher doesn't accept an app drawer. You'll want to swap that out for a different launcher. Stock Android just looks and feels amend. LG has a few software features that are cool, similar Knock Lawmaking, which can wake and unlock the phone with a pattern of taps.

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Where the Nexus 6P sets itself apart is with the update pledge. Google keeps its Nexus devices up to date for at least two years from release, with another twelvemonth of security updates. That means at least ii more major Bone updates for the 6P. Plus, you won't be waiting for months on the OTA. Nexus devices are unremarkably all updated within a week or two after a new version is announced.

G5 6P

The Nexus 6P retails at $500 for the 32GB version, but information technology's frequently on sale for $50 less. Yous can't become information technology via a carrier, but it'due south unlocked and works on all of them (even Sprint and Verizon). The G5 is sold in the traditional manner via carriers. The full price is around $700, which works out to near $30 per month on a payment program.