Is it worth buying a secondhand Nexus 6P?

So I was looking for a suitable replacement for my Moto X Play, which although a fairly decent device, I was always bumping up against the end of its 16GB internal storage. SD card storage is fine for music and stuff but not for apps. It is too slow and unreliable for that and many apps just will not move to SD. I also missed other little things like having a gyroscope for Photosphere photos. With my limited budget, I considered an LG V10 (and the V20 was way out of my league) but they are just too expensive for a no longer update device. LG also have a bad reputation for bootloops these days. I decided to try get a Nexus 6P and hope that I could get one without the dreaded early shutdown battery issue. Could I find one?

Nope! I bought and took back two secondhand 6Ps from CEX and both had the same battery issue. Early shutdowns and atrocious 4 hour battery life. What tended to happen would be it would drop down from 100% battery down to about 30% in just a few hours then shutdown as if it was flat. Then if you plugged it in for a moment, enough to boot it up, the battery life would now seem to be about 70%. Then you could use it for a few more hours until it shut off around 15 - 7%.

The problems with the 6P are so bad that at one point, for a short time, Google were replacing them with Pixel XLs under warranty for those who bought them from the Play store. Probably because replacement 6ps had the same issues.  There was even a lawsuit filed against Google and Huawei over early shutdown and bootlooping issues. Perhaps I could have kept going and bought more but I think many owners who had the issues probably sold them to CEX for a quick chunk of cash. CEX clearly do not test them properly and I am pretty sure I spotted the first one I bought sitting back on the shelf in their store.

This is such a massive shame, because if they did not have the battery issues they would be such a great phone for the price. The best thing was having the latest Android Oreo installed. It’s an absolutely beautiful OS, buttery smooth and it just looks amazing! The only thing I don’t like the look of in Oreo is the default icons but these are easily changed. I still used Nova Launcher Prime instead of the default Google Launcher, for the excellent customization it offers to the user. The 6P also took very good photos especially in low light.

So sadly, no, I would not recommend getting one unless you want to replace the battery yourself. I just don't have the money and patience for that. I have returned the last device and have now ordered a Moto Z Play to replace it.