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Nexus 6 Tech Specs:
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5.96" display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels (493 ppi)
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2.7 GHz Quad core Krait 450 CPU (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SOC) + Adreno 420 GPU, with 3 GB RAM
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32 or 64 GB of internal storage
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Android 5.0 Lollipop
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802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO) + Bluetooth 4.1 + NFC
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3220 mAh "non-removable" battery
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13 MP rear-facing camera with Optical Image Stabilization + 2 MP front-facing camera
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The Nexus 6 has a central rear-facing camera that looks like it might have some interesting flash action hidden alongside.
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More on this later...
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The top of the phone is decked with a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a seemingly out-of-place nano SIM card slot.
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The bottom houses the Micro USB port, along with the obligatory FCC markings, leaving the back of the phone jargon free.
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Three companies produce two phablets and we hold them up in the same hand to compare their size. Thanks to a thinner bezel, you get more screen real estate with the Nexus 6, with only a slightly larger chassis.
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Nexus 6: 82.98 mm x 159.26 mm x 10.06 mm
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iPhone 6 Plus: 77.8 mm x 158.1 mm x 7.1 mm
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With no visible screws on the rear cover, we resort to opening picks to pry or slide our way in.
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The bad: No simple clips on this cover, looks like your fingernails won't be enough for this job.
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The good: The adhesive securing the cover is relatively mild, once the pick sneaks into the seam, the cover can be peeled up.
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The ugly: Removing the rear cover still doesn't provide access to internal components. At least we now have visual confirmation of screws, a whole legion of them.
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Time to take out the (oh-so-many) screws. 22 T3 Torx screws present themselves, and silently await our precision driver.
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We've spotted a secret door! With a secret connector!
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A shiny copper coil catches our eye through the holey midframe. We'll be sure to investigate that once we get it cracked...
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The Nexus is finally ready to reveal its secrets. Looks like that mystery connector belonged to the battery!
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With cables decoupled, it's suddenly delightfully apparent why there were so many screws in the midframe. The Nexus 6 practically falls apart into two halves; the midframe/battery assembly, and the display/motherboard assembly.
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Would you look at that! The shiny copper from before is an inductive charging coil! (Maybe this'll catch on after all).
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Peeling the coil off lets us get a look at the 3.8 V, 3220 mAh (12.2 Wh) battery.
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That's a step above the iPhone 6 Plus's 11.1 Wh, but it looks like the Nexus battery life doesn't benefit much.
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As we continue our trek, we get to investigate that flash assembly a bit closer.
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The Nexus 6 takes the dual LED flash in a different direction—two different directions, really.
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First peek at the motherboard brings back memories of the Moto X; big, green and lots of tiny EMI shields.
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We easily pluck out the rear- and front-facing cameras with a pair of tweezers.
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The Nexus 6 is certainly no slouch when it comes to cameras. The 13 MP rear-facing camera sports a Sony Exmor IMX 214 CMOS image sensor (Also found in the OnePlus One).
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After freeing the motherboard from the display assembly, we spy a lone IC:
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Atmel MXT640T CCU 1424D TW QLR64 Touchscreen Controller
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And that's it! The display assembly is bare and free of extra components, after a fairly easy jaunt to the center of the Nexus.
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Finally, the part we've all been waiting for! Let's identify some of the ICs that power this Nexus:
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SK Hynix H9CKNNNDBTMTAR 24 Gb (3 GB) LPDDR3 RAM, with Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC layered underneath
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Qualcomm PMA8084 Power Management IC
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SanDisk SDIN9DW4-32G 32 GB eMMC NAND Flash
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Qualcomm MDM9625M LTE Modem
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Qualcomm WTR1625L RF Transceiver
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Qualcomm WFR1620 Receive-Only Companion Chip
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Texas Instruments TMS320C55 Digital Signal Processor
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crwdns2935267:0crwdne2935267:0Rotary Tool$49.99-
But wait there's more! Motorola is touting its Turbo Charger, boasting enough charge for 6 hours of use in just 15 minutes of charging.
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Compatible with Qualcomm's new Quick Charge 2.0 tech, the Motorola Turbo Charger lists three different output options: 5 V at 1.6 A, 9 V at 1.6 A, and 12 V at 1.2 A.
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Sounds like there's nothing snailish about this Turbo, but really there's only one way to find out...
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...And that's by slicing our way in with a rotary tool!
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On the one side, amidst wads of epoxy, we find a transformer surrounded by some plain jane capacitors, voltage regulators, and a USB port.
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On the other side, amid a sea of solder and surface mount components:
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A bridge rectifier, responsible for converting AC to DC
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Dialogue iW1760B Power Supply Controller, clearly the brains of the operation
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Motorola Nexus 6 Repairability Score: 7 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).
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Pressure contacts and cable connectors make the modular components (cameras, buttons, headphone jack) easy to replace.
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The Nexus 6 uses a single kind of screw, although it's a fairly uncommon size (T3).
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Many many screws hold the midframe in place—this makes its removal somewhat tedious, but also means no clips or adhesive are needed to secure it to the front panel.
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The glued-in battery is less accessible than we'd like, but it can be replaced.
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Several components (vibrator, SIM slot, speaker, USB port) are soldered directly to the motherboard and will be more difficult to replace than if they were connected by cable.
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The digitizer is fused to the display, increasing repair costs for a cracked screen, but it is easy to get to the bare display assembly.
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Step 12, the chip above the orange one, Broadcom BCM20795 NFC controller chip.
So is it possible to put back the back cover or it need some kind of glue ?
It's still pretty sticky, so it ought to go back on and stay without any additional adhesive.
I'm struggling to stick mine back on, what adhesive can I use?
Is it possible to upgrade to upgrade the storage?