The 9 most important things from Google's Nexus event

The Nexus 6P: Google's 'most premium phone'

As expected, the Huawei-produced Nexus 6P has several hardware upgrades from last year's Nexus 6 — Google is calling it its "most premium phone yet." The metal-bodied 6P is 7.3mm thick, backed by a new fingerprint sensor called the Nexus Imprint. It now uses a USB Type-C port; while getting new cables might be an inconvenience, Google claims it can charge the device twice as quickly as an iPhone 6 Plus.

The 6P is equipped with an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and a 12.3-megapixel Sony sensor on the back, which can take 4K video and slow-motion shots. It will be available in frost white, aluminum, and graphite, and pricing will begin at $499. Preorders open today in the US, UK, Ireland, and Japan, and Google will be working with third-party retailers outside the US. The actual phones, meanwhile, will ship in late October.

The Nexus 5X: an affordable alternative

The Nexus 5X is the successor to Google and LG’s Nexus 5, which quietly ended its life earlier this year. It’s a slightly larger device, with a 5.2-inch screen and a fractionally bigger battery, and the design language has been updated for a new generation of phones. Like its companion, the Nexus 6P, the 5X has a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, and it uses the new USB-C connection instead of the standard Micro USB. As Motorola did with the new Moto X line earlier this year, Google is heavily promoting the phone’s camera, but the handset itself is a relatively modest affair — it’s positioned as the Nexus line’s "affordable" option, starting at a distinctly budget-friendly $379. Like the 6P, it’s available for preorder today in the US, UK, Ireland, Korea, and Japan, with a shipping date of October.

Android Marshmallow comes next week

The newest version of Android, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, will begin rolling out to users next week. We learned about most of Marshmallow's features earlier this year — it aims to make notifications more consistent and search functions more intuitive, while improving battery life and giving users more fine-grained privacy controls. The most prominent feature is probably Now on Tap, which integrates Google searches and voice interaction into individual apps. As usual, Nexus users will get the Marshmallow updates right away, while carriers and other smartphone brands will make their own tweaks and roll it out further down the line.

More options for Project Fi

Google's Project Fi wireless network — which combines major cell networks and Wi-Fi — offers very reasonable $20 monthly text and calling plans, with an extra $10 for each GB of data per month. But so far, it only works if you're on one phone: the Nexus 6. Now, we're learning that the Nexus 5X and 6P both support the network. That's still an extremely limited catalog, but it's the first time Project Fi users have had any choice at all.

A new Chromecast, still $35

The Chromecast, a little stick that lets users stream just about anything to a TV, has gotten an update. The new Chromecast 2 supports 5GHz Wi-Fi, making it significantly faster. Three different antennas, as opposed to the original Chromecast's one, are optimized for Wi-Fi streaming. Stylistically, the Chromecast looks different too: it's now a small disc with a bendable HDMI arm that allows it to hang further away from your TV than the previous Chromecast. It comes in three colors: red, yellow, and black. Like the first Chromecast, it will cost $35. Some new features will roll out next year, but the Chromecast itself will be available today in 17 countries.