Nexus 6 vs. Project Ara: 3 Ways Google’s Modular Phone Can Defeat its Stock Android Sibling

Google's Project Ara will reportedly materialise in early 2015 - that is a working unit of the modular phone will become available to consumers - or a few months after the Nexus 6 release date in late 2014.

While the two phones are basically worlds apart - Ara is designed with accessibility and customisation as key features while Nexus devices are of the flagship class - it is interesting to see how the former will stack up against the latter.

A closer look will show that Project Ara has three key qualities that could convince Nexus fans to look beyond Google's hero phone.

Trailblazer processor

According to Google, the first Ara working modular phone will be fired up by a Rockchip application processor that the tech giant described as trailblazer. The core engineering of the CPU is to "function as an application processor in an Ara module without the need for a bridge chip," Android Central reported Google as saying.

For users, this would mean the ability to upgrade parts of the handset as better options become available while retaining the phone's core components. As Rockchip fully supports dynamic technology, worry-free modular replacement is assured.

The same is not true with the Nexus 5, its sequel the Nexus 6 or with any other handsets that run on the three major platforms - Android, iOS and Windows.

Hot swappable components

According to a new blog post, Googler Paul Eremenko announced that the concept of modular smartphone has reached a new milestone. Eremenko shared that out of the box, components of an Ara device will be hot swappable.

"The (Ara) modules, except the CPU and the display, will be hot swappable. This means you can change them without turning the phone off," PhoneBloks.com quoted the Googler as saying in a report.

This feature is made possible by a modified version of the upcoming Android L, which Eremenko said was developed exclusively for Project Ara phones.

$50 sticker price

In a report earlier this year, Time said that Google is looking into the possibility of putting together an Ara phone variant that will sell at dirt-cheap point. It will be an entry-level grayphone and composed mostly of the essential parts - the CPU and connectivity chips inside plus the touchscreen display panel.

With the bare-bone make, Google dreams of an Ara smartphone model that sits on store shelves with a $50 tag price, added the same report.

It's quite a remote possibility for the Nexus 6 to carry such a consumer-friendly price point on release date.