The smartphone will sell for $650 via Google Play Store

Oct 17, 2014 14:54 GMT  ·  By

The Nexus 6 is definitely more expensive than any of the previous smartphones in the Nexus family, but one could argue that it’s for good reasons. The upcoming flagship unit comes with a much larger display than any of the previous Nexus devices and puts it closer to the tablet range than the smartphone one.

In fact, Nexus 6 is the first so-called “phablet” ever launched by Google, which is one of the reasons the company had to up the price a bit so it won’t lose too much on each device sold.

If we are to look back at the prices with which Google had sold the previous Nexus smartphones, we can notice that there’s a very big difference between Nexus 6 and any other handset in the family.

While most Nexus smartphones were available for purchase through Google Play Store for about $300-$400 outright, the newest device in the series cost almost double that amount.

According to Google, the cheapest Nexus 6 (featuring 16GB of internal memory) will be available for pre-order via Google Play store beginning October 29. The smartphone is expected to ship on November 3 or around that date.

Even if the Nexus 6 is clearly very expensive in comparison with any of the previous smartphones in the series, Google’s handset still undercuts any other flagship smartphone recently launched on the market.

Carriers and authorized retailers will sell it for a much higher outright price though

For example, the Galaxy Note 4 will sell in the United States for around $700 outright, while the iPhone 6 Plus starts from around $750 off contract.

Moreover, Nexus 6 is arguably better featured than both Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus, so here is another reason that Google went with a higher price than before.

If Nexus 6 had been priced lower than $600, Google would have probably lost a lot of money for each device sold. The $650 outright price seems to be the right amount, even if it’s slightly higher than what many of us have anticipated.

Obviously, carriers will sell the Nexus 6 for a much higher amount if customers don’t commit to a long-term contract, so your best bet to get it cheap is Google Play Store.

The bad news is that Google Play Store is not available in all countries, so some Android fans may need to order it via third-party retailers which will increase the phone’s price by a lot.

What do you think about the Nexus 6’s price tag? Do you believe Google could have gone with a lower price for its flagship smartphone if it wanted?