After years of fitting a potato camera on its Nexus devices, Google had a change of heart and finally equipped the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P with a 12.3MP shooter that — at least on paper — is on par with the iPhone 6s Plus, LG G4 and other smartphones that come with a great camera.
The vastly improved camera hardware is only one part of the story though. Google has also improved its Camera app that now offers a vastly superior experience of using the camera on the new Nexus handsets compared to its previous versions. Not only does the new camera app feature a improved and more intuitive UI, it is also significantly faster.
A key ingredient for a great camera experience on any smartphone is that the camera app should be quickly accessible. On flagship Samsung devices released this year, the camera app can be quickly opened by simply double tapping the home button. On the LG G4, pressing the Volume down button while the device is sleeping opens the camera app in less than a second.
Taking a cue out of their book, Google has also implemented a similar feature on the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. On both the new Nexus handsets, simply double pressing the power button twice will launch the camera app irrespective of wherever you are in the OS and even when the device is sleeping. If you are not really fond of this shortcut though, you can always disable it by going into Settings -> Display and then toggling the ‘Press power button to launch camera’ option.
