There is lots to love about both the new Nexus 5X and the new Nexus 6P, including Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the fingerprint sensors, and the new camera setup which Google is hoping will help provide the best camera experience of any Nexus device so far. Both devices also have NFC embedded, naturally, as Android Pay is now live and this was to be a big selling point in pairing with the fingerprint sensors for both phones. In an AMA today Google’s Hiroshi Lockheimer elaborates a little bit on where the location of the NFC coils are on both devices, and reassures customers on how well it works.
According to Google, both phones have undergone “rigorous testing” for the payments at checkouts using Android Pay and have performed quite admirably which should be great news for anyone looking to pick up either device and utilize Android Pay even just a little. It should be even better news for anyone who plans on using it a lot to know that it should work flawlessly and quickly. For anyone interested in knowing exactly where the NFC coils are located on each phone, Google explains this in the AMA. On the Nexus 6P, the NFC coil is situated above the Nexus Imprint fingerprint sensor while being accessible through the exposed section of the black bar (which Lockheimer states is made from Gorilla Glass 4) where the camera, LED flash, and laser auto-focus sensor are also located.
For the Nexus 5X, LG has wrapped the NFC coil around the rear-facing camera sensor. Through Google’s testing of the NFC coils for payments, Google states they not only tested it for payments at retailers with Android Pay, but they have also tested the NFC quite thoroughly for peer-to-peer transfers as well as reader mode, so if you’re using NFC quite often for sending things to other devices by tapping the NFC sections, the transfer should happen quite smoothly. The NFC usage on some older devices in the past has been questionable at best, so it’s good to see that Google feels it works well with both the Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P.