Comparing : iPhone 6s vs Nexus 6P, Who is the winner?

iPhone 6s vs Nexus 6P: Google's Nexus DOMINATES

It's the showdown between Apple's and Google's flagships, the iPhone 6s and Nexus 6P

Last year’s iPhone was an incremental update, a refinement on the major redesign iPhone — the iPhone 6 — that came the year before. For this reason, the iPhone 6s wasn’t quite as exciting a release as its forefather because we knew it’d look pretty much the same as the iPhone 6. Still, Apple did introduce quite a few new features, and also did the usual tweak to the processing power. The most notable feature change was the introduction of 3D Touch, the new method of interacting with your iPhone’s display - the new display can detect hard or soft presses and issue different commands accordingly. Apple also changed up the camera and added 4K video support.

Things did not get any better in 2016, either, after Apple released yet another incremental update for its iPhone lineup, using the same industrial design it used for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s. The new iPhone 7 is plenty powerful, however, and it has one of the best cameras in the business but it is still VERY hard for a tech lover such as myself to get excited about a phone that looks like the last two phones from Apple.

Yes, there’s new colour options and its waterproof and there is more storage but would it kill Apple to tweak the design a little bit? The removal of the headphone jack, for me, at least, was also a faux par, as it didn’t solve any issues. No one has ever complained about their headphone jack; like buttons and a display, it’s just one of those features you can of assume your phone will have.

For this reason, I’ve been getting the majority of my phone-kicks from the Android space. And no other handsets are more Android than Google’s now-defunct Nexus brand. Here we’re looking at how the Nexus 6P – my favourite phone of 2015 – compares to Apple’s iPhone 6s.

Unlike the Nexus 5X, the Nexus 6P uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 CPU. This is 64-bit chipset and it has proven time and time again its pedigree inside some of Android’s best handsets so far this year. The Nexus 6P also features 3GB of RAM, dual front-facing stereo speakers, a Micro USB Type-C port, a 12.3MP main camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing selfie camera, a massive 3,450 battery and either 16GB, 64GB or 128GB of storage. It's the first Huawei-made Nexus phone and the first from the series to feature an all-metal bodyshell.

As well as having the latest Android software, the Nexus 6P is a much more powerful and feature-packed device than the smaller Nexus 5X counterpart with a top-of-the line processor, camera and display panel.

Spec for spec the Nexus 6P has some impressive offerings. First off, it gets storage right. Where the iPhone 6s comes in 16, 64, or 128GB versions, the Nexus 6P knows no one in their right mind should buy a 16GB phone, so it comes in the 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB varieties. The Nexus 6P also wins in the RAM department. It has 3GB versus the iPhone 6s' 2GB. If you want to up the ante with Apple’s offering you’re better off with the iPhone 6s Plus. It’s bigger, has a better display and vastly superior battery and imaging technology. It is the flagship in every way but because Apple people like small displays, the company’s smaller unit is still the most popular.

But things turn the iPhone’s way when you consider the chipsets of the two phones. Yes, the iPhone 6s “only” has two cores, but it still handedly beats the eight core Snapdragon 810 found in the Nexus. Why? Again, here it’s because Apple does the hardware and software. Apple actually designed the A9 chip side by side with iOS so the two work incredibly efficiently together. Qualcomm, on the other hand, cares about making the best chips they can, regardless of them being optimized for a certain OS.

Pound for pound, though, and in real life you’re not likely to notice much of a difference. Benchmarks are great tools for very specific readings on a handset’s performance, but when the results are close, as they are in this context, it is a bit of a stretch to say one is A LOT better than the other because this just isn’t the case.

The Nexus 6P, for one, has more RAM. Android Marshmallow is very smooth in operation and has a ton of useful tricks and back-end tweaks that make it even more power efficient than usual. Combined these result in excellent performance across the board. Both handsets are excellent in this regard; neither will leave you wanting. But for those that want a bit more grunt, you’re probably best off with the Nexus, as it is something of a monster in the specs department.