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Google Unveils New Flagship Nexus 5X and 6P Smartphones

It's official: Google's pair of new Nexus smartphones is here. The Nexus 5X and 6P will both run on Google's new Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" OS.
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It's official: Google's pair of new Nexus smartphones is here. The Nexus 5X and 6P will both run on Google's new Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, and they feature a new "Nexus Imprint" fingerprint reader.

Google unveiled the new flagship phones at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday, which marked CEO Sundar Pichai's first major product event since taking the top helm last month.

Image: Google Holds Press Event Announcing New Products
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 29: Google VP of engineering Dave Burke holds up a new Nexus 6P phone during a Google media event on September 29, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

"It's our most premium phone yet," Google's vice president of engineering Dave Burke said of the higher-end Nexus 6P. The phone, which was manufactured by Huawei and starts at $499, has a 5.7-inch screen — slightly smaller than the 6-inch Nexus 6 phone it's replacing.

The 6P also comes with a 12.3-megapixel rear-facing camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing one — "to take the world's best selfies," Burke said — capable of capturing slow-motion video and ultra-high-definition 4K video.

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The other new flagship Nexus phone is the 5.2-inch 5X, an LG-built device that starts at $379.

Both the Nexus 6P and 5X come with the new Nexus Imprint, a fingerprint reader that can scan a print — instead of requiring a user to enter a password — in less than 600 milliseconds, Burke said. The two phones also have a USB "Type-C" port, which Burke said can charge the phones twice as fast as an Apple iPhone 6 Plus.

The pair of Nexuses also both run on Google's Android Marshmallow operating system, which Google previewed at its I/O developer conference in May. The update will include the revamped mobile payment service Android Pay, a beefed-up version of the Google Now voice assistant and more new features. Burke also showed off a new smart "doze" mode that puts certain apps on hold when you haven't touched your phone in a while, a feature designed to further extend battery life.