Okay, close to one day through with the Nexus 6. Here are some of my impressions:
I do not like the Moto X design on the Nexus 6. I feel that the Note 4 is easier to hold, which by itself isn't surprising because it is thinner than the N6, but the sharp edges on the Note are actually better for gripping than the more round N6.
I do not like the volume key placement (on the same side as the power button, right under it), it is just bad design IMHO. Right where the volume keys sit is exactly where you want to grip the phone with your thumb (when using the right hand). I have adjusted to it, but it's still an annoying little quirk.
I do not like how the screen is slightly off center. By that I mean the bottom bezel is smaller than the top bezel. I know
why they did it, the small bottom bezel + the nav bar is about equal to the bigger top bezel and the status bar. So when you're using the phone in portrait the screen (minus the nav bar portion) looks perfectly centered. However, once you use the phone in landscape for anything, it's odd seeing the screen be off center (especially for video), and because of the Moto X design traits, the top of the phone is thicker than the bottom, so in landscape the side with the larger bezel also has a thicker back. Symmetric design is best, especially for phones that will be seeing a lot of landscape usage. Now is this a deal breaker? No, I can and will get used to it, but it is annoying and I notice it every time.
I love the speakers. They are nice and loud, but it's not just about being loud, the quality of the sound is simply better because it is being evenly directed to you from both sides, rather than shot out the back or only on one side. I'd say it's quite a noticeable difference.
I do love the display. It looks great, it isn't too dark as some reviews mentioned (though it did feel pretty dim in direct sunlight, this was with auto brightness turned on), and it does not appear to be overly saturated like Samsung's default settings for AMOLED. I'm not really much of a display snob though, but I'd say it's a great screen. Not as good as the Note 4, but still gorgeous.
I love the size. I don't think it's perfect, but that's because of my issues with Moto's design choices. I do not think I could comfortably go any bigger, this is about as big of a phone as I personally would want. Honestly I don't even think of it as a large phone, in my mind it's a mini tablet, and the horizontal Nexus writing on the back only affirms that feeling. Watching video, web browsing, and playing games on this thing compared to my work issued iPhone 5S is a night and day difference, I could never happily go back.
I like the nav buttons as shapes. When you go landscape the circle and square obviously don't need to change form at all, just the triangle needs to shift its pointy end slightly, but it looks nice in either portrait or landscape.
I like the camera. I used the Nexus 6 to take some photos for a soon to be Craigslisted item and the pictures came out very well. Again, like with displays I'm not a camera snob either, but I did notice how poorly the Nexus 5 and last year's Moto X were at taking pictures, to the point where I would never use the camera on those phones, but I feel confident taking pics with the N6, the results are pretty good. It is by far the best camera we've ever seen with a Nexus, without a doubt.
I neither love nor hate the battery life. It isn't bad, certainly not as bad as the Nexus 5, but it's also not quite as good as the top phones. I think they still have some work to do especially with it being a new phone on the new OS, standby drain seems to be a bit too high at the moment. The battery metric that matters the most to me is screen on time combined with an explanation of how that time was used. Here is a screenshot from my use today:
21% left with over 4 hours of screen on time, not too bad really. That's with an hour of Netflix streaming, an hour of music streaming, around an hour's worth of Twitter, Snapchat, news and web browsing, some gaming, a lot of app re-downloading from the Play Store, 20 or so texts, around 30 emails, 4 phone calls, and some Hangouts chatting as well.
All in all, I am very happy with my purchase. Everything looks fantastic on this phone, pictures, video, and text are sharp and clear - and most importantly - big! Sound is loud, even, and nice. I do think the Nexus 6 is right at the limit of how big I prefer my smart phone to be. Now all this thing needs is official Multi Window (and we know Google has been testing it). For someone like me who enjoys stock Android with no carrier bloat, who doesn't want to root and rom their phone (but still likes to customize and tinker with things to a degree), who enjoys the larger size of phablet phones, for that type of person the Nexus 6 is an awesome phone, arguably the best you can get IMHO. It's not for everyone, but I am glad Google went with a phablet sized phone this round. Hopefully next year we'll get two sizes so more people can be happy.