Google Nexus launch: new Nexus 5X and 6P launched alongside Android Marshmallow

Made by LG and Huawei, Google's Nexus phones are intended to show the best of Android

Google has unveiled two new phones, which it hopes are the phones to show off Android and take on the new iPhones.

The smaller Nexus 5X – which updated the now long-neglected Nexus 5 – was made by LG together with Google. The 6P follows last year's Nexus 6 – and keeps its big screen size, at 5.7-inches – and was made by Google and Huawei.

Both phones have many of the same features. Those include a camera with what Google says are bigger pixels than many other cameras including the iPhone, helping it take better pictures at night.

Google also said both of the phones have an extra chip called the Android Sensor Hub. That sits listening all the time in a lower-power state, so that the phone knows when it gets picked up or moved, for instance. If it gets picked up, for example, it will open up notifications in a way that uses little battery – and the activity monitoring will allow it to sense how far its owners has walked.

Both phones also have USB Type C – a new standard that allows phones to charge more quickly and can go in either way. It said that feautre will let the 6P charge up twice as quickly as the similarly-sized iPhone 6 Plus.

The 6P is also the first Nexus phone made entirely of metal.