With “shamu” as its codename, it’s almost fitting that the Nexus 6 was, and still is, a polarizing smartphone due to its sheer size. Motorola, which was tapped to make the Nexus 6, finally admitted as such in an interview with TechRadar.
According to Motorola chief marketing officer Adrienne Hayes, the Lenovo-owned company paid attention to the increased demand for larger smartphones. She admitted, however, that Motorola went a little too far with the Nexus 6.
“I think it was one of those where we were like ‘is [screen size] going to continue to go up?'” I think, unfortunately, that was one of the products that was going to be the example of no, it’s not. So now we know.”
The 2014 Nexus 6, with its 5.96-inch display, did catch many of us off-guard, particularly since 2013 brought us the now-diminutive Nexus 5, which packed a 4.95-inch display and is still considered the best Nexus smartphone by more than a few smartphone enthusiasts. In our review of the Nexus 6, we did mention that it was difficult to hold due to that screen, though the display also helped it be a great media consumption device.
As with previous and future Nexus devices, however, Google did have a say in the design aspect of the Nexus 6. According to Hayes, it was Google that wanted the 5.96-inch screen size of the Nexus 6, though Google wasn’t an overbearing partner. “For the most part, they have some influence, but they really let the manufacturing partner drive the industrial design,” said Hayes.
At the end of the day, however, Hayes said Motorola would be happy to make another Nexus device if the future dictates such a decision.
“I don’t know whether we’ll do another Nexus device, but we would be happy to,” remarked Hayes. “It was a good experience.”
