What have they done? They've killed the single biggest feature of the nexus program, getting a great phone for an affordable off-contract price.

Yes, but before you couldn't simply get a good mid to high-range phone for $400. That's not true anymore nowadays, the Moto X 2014 will probably go down to ~350USD/Euro off-contract like last year's generation. Heck, even the Moto G is a great phone for most people and is $179 off-contract for the LTE model.

Quite affordable compared to iphone 6+, which has an off-contract price of $750/$850/$950 for 16GB/64GB/128GB - on a 5.5" display. The 4.7" 16GB iphone - lowest end model available - is $650 off-contract.

In contrast, the $650 Nexus 6 has a 5.96" display and is presumably 32GB.

I agree that $650 seems like a lot of money for a phone - but that doesn't mean it's not a good value.

Thanks. Can't see the Nexus 5 US price so basing this off the UK price. Looks like between $200-300 extra.