LARGE, ROUND and FEELS SO GOOD in your hand: Yes! It's a Nexus 6

The Reg verdict

As a phablet the Nexus 6 holds up reasonably well. It's not as advanced in hardware terms as most of the competition, and is larger and heavier, albeit with a very large screen size. But it's also significantly cheaper than rivals too, and it does "good enough" very well.

Design-wise it hides its flaws well, looking a lot thinner than it is, although it lacks the panache of a Sir Jony design and some of the features you'd find in a Lumia or Samsung. It also lacks a microSD port and a removable battery, although the fast charging capabilities of the Nexus 6 are a major plus point.

But, if you're used to Android, Lollipop is a really big step up and it's going to be interesting to see how that impacts the rest of the Android market. Nexus units aren’t designed to be big sellers, more show horses, but Motorola (now newly sold to Lenovo) will get a big advantage in being first to the new operating system.

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. ®