Inside Google’s Nexus 6 Smartphone, Nexus 9 Tablet, Nexus Player

By Todd R. Weiss

The Nexus 6 smartphone includes a 6-inch Quad HD AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 3, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SOC CPU, a rear-facing 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and dual LED ring flash, a 2MP front camera and all-new dual front-facing stereo speakers.

The new Nexus 6 smartphone also has improved battery life over the Nexus 5 that it replaces, thanks to a larger 3,220-mAh battery. The new phone, available in Midnight Blue or Cloud White, with 32GB or 64GB of memory, starts at $649.

Nexus 6 owners will get faster battery charging for their devices through the all-new Turbo Charger feature built into the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system that runs the new devices. The Turbo Charger provides up to 6 hours of use after only 15 minutes of charging.

The new Nexus 9 tablet, built in partnership with HTC, includes brushed-metal sides and an 8.9-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) LCD screen with Gorilla Glass 3. The tablet is available in Indigo Black, Lunar White or sand. Pricing starts at $399.

The Nexus 9 tablet also includes a 64-bit 2.3GHz Nvidia Tegra K1 CPU, 2GB of RAM, front-facing HTC BoomSound speakers, an 8MP rear camera, a 1.6MP front camera and a 6,700mAh battery. An LTE 4G version is also available in addition to WiFi-only models.

For users who want an alternative to a virtual on-screen typing experience, Google offers an optional $129 magnetically-attached keyboard and cover that allows users to type at different angles.

The Nexus Player, Google’s first Android TV device, will stream movies, music and videos to an HDTV. Priced at $99, it will also allow users to play Android games.

The Nexus Player will also allow users to broadcast entertainment from a Chromebook, an Android or iOS phone, or tablet to an HDTV, making it even more versatile.

The Nexus Player will allow users to play Android games on an HDTV using an optional $39 gamepad. The Nexus Player ships with an included remote-control pad (center).

The fresh Android 5.0 Lollipop OS that’s shipping on all the new devices gives users many expanded capabilities, including content that responds to touch and voice more intuitively. Lollipop also received a consistent design across devices, from smartphones to tablets and more.