Earlier this week, word surfaced that Motorola would finally be putting their mark on the Nexus name with a whopping 5.9-inch giant (although the word is that this mind end up being the Moto Maxx). While there’s no telling for sure if Motorola is in fact creating the next Nexus, it seems that the timing is perhaps now right. After all, Motorola is no longer Google’s pet manufacturer, they belong to Lenovo now. As such, cries of ‘favoritism’ are much less likely to pour in from the likes of Samsung, HTC and others. As well as that, Motorola is not stranger to working with stock Android, after all the Moto X, G and E are all built around Google’s blueprint for Android and their first device, the Motorola Droid was built on stock Android as well. A lot of people would love a Motorola-made Nexus phone, but at 5.9-inch would it be just too big?
I currently use a Nexus 5 as my daily driver, mostly because I prefer stock Android and the ability to make what modifications I like as time goes on, but also because the design is minimal and the handset itself is fairly compact. I don’t like large devices, however I can see why others thoroughly enjoy them. The Galaxy Note line of devices are far too large for me to get behind, but the S-Pen is one of Samsung’s triumphs and the handwriting recognition still surprises me to this day. Huawei has recently made a name for itself with the Ascend Mate and the Ascend Mate 2 and the Galaxy Mega line of devices have done well at offering larger devices, too. However, these are devices that have software additions and tweaks to help Android make sense on larger screens. Stock Android on the other hand, isn’t built for larger displays as the Google Play Edition of Sony’s Z Ultra (a whopping 6.4-inch device) showed.
So, while the 5.9-inch display would be great for those looking for a larger device, perhaps on the cheap, I can’t really see the point of it. Choice is brilliant and one of Android’s biggest strengths however, having a large device for the sake of it just doesn’t make sense. Without multi-window or some kind of true pen-input a large device is just that, a bigger screen. Sure, said device might offer much better battery life, especially with Porject Volta greatly improving things in Android L, but what would be the point of carrying around a larger device that doesn’t really offer anything extra? Multi-window is included in many of Samsung’s devices and some from LG like the 6-inch G Flex and it’s about high-time that we see soemthing similar in stock Android, especially with the advent of Quad HD displays.
The Galaxy Note 3, and the pretty much inevitable Galaxy Note 4 will offer users larger screens as well as true pen-input, multi-window and other excellent additions to Android that make it more worthwhile on a larger display. Without any of Motorola’s secret sauce or changes to Android that make better use of large display, a 5.9-inch Nexus would end up being the best way to browse the web and watch movies on the move, but that’s about it. Still, I’m intrigued to hear from those who would relish the opportunity of such a large Nexus and those who run stock Android on their Galaxy Notes, so shout out in the comments below!