Fans of Google Nexus smartphones in Singapore will soon be able to get their hands on the search giant’s latest large-screen flagship, the Nexus 6P.
In a joint statement, Huawei Consumer Business Group (which manufactures the Nexus 6P and distributes the device in markets where Google’s official online stores aren’t available) and online retailer Lazada announced the smartphone will be available for pre-order exclusively on Lazada.sg from Nov 2-11.
This is the first time a Google Nexus smartphone is being sold in Singapore through official channels.
The last time a Nexus device made it to Southeast Asian shores was in 2013 when Taiwan’s Asus offered the Nexus 7 tablets through its retail outlets. Last year’s Motorola-made Nexus 6 smartphone by comparison, was only sold through third-party importers.
Huawei’s head of Consumer Device Singapore, Low Han Thong, said in the statement, “Huawei is excited to collaborate with Lazada to offer consumers in Singapore, for the first time, an alternative channel to own the premium Nexus experience.”
The device will be available in silver and black colour options at a pre-order price of S$899 for the 64GB storage version and S$999 for the 128GB model. After the pre-order period, the pricing will revert to S$949 (64GB) and S$1049 (128GB).
At the Oct 28 media briefing organised by Huawei Singapore, a company spokesman said Huawei is planning to sell the highly-rated smartphone through traditional retail and carrier channels as well, although there’s no confirmation on which operator will carry the product eventually.
Additionally, the company expects inventory for the 128GB model to be highly limited, due to a global supply shortage.
The 5.7-inch Nexus 6P is designed with a full metal unibody and sports a high-resolution QHD AMOLED display with 518 ppi (pixels per inch). That screen is flanked by two front-facing speakers that help improve the experience when watching videos or taking a conference call.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s 2.1 version of its flagship Snapdragon 810 processor, has a fingerprint sensor and fitted with a reversible USB Type-C port with support for fast charging. The device features 3GB of RAM and storage options of 64GB or 128GB.
On the downside, there is no expandable storage support and the battery is non-removable, but at 3450mAh, it seems beefy enough that you won’t really need a second battery.
The highlight of the device though, is that it runs on a pure, stock version of Google’s brand new Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, without the typical skins or bloatware offered by phone manufacturers. For many, this is the primary reason to purchase a Nexus branded smartphone or tablet, as these devices are the first to receive the latest Android software upgrades from Google.
The Nexus 6P is one of the two smartphones Google introduced during its recent Nexus event, the other being the smaller (but hardly small) 5.2-inch Nexus 5X, which is manufactured by South Korean giant LG Electronics.
During the hands-on session at the media event, the Nexus 6P still felt a little large but did exude a premium feel. The Marshmallow interface isn’t that different from Lollipop (Android 5.0) but there are some changes under the hood, including better support for the biometric sensors like the fingerprint reader. Autofocus on the camera was fast and the pictures turned out sharp and well-exposed.
Overall, this smartphone looks like a credible contender against Apple’s iPhone 6S Plus and Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 5 in terms of large screen devices, although there is no shortage of impressive Android flagships this year, including Huawei’s very own Mate S.