Living in Europe and being able to easily buy a Nexus device have traditionally been mutually exclusive. With the possible exception of a couple of countries, getting your hands on a Nexus in Europe usually meant having to jump through a million hoops and deal with a very limited availability. Compounded with the fact that basically every other Nexus launch to date has been a fiasco in one way or another, you could count yourself lucky if you managed to grab one in time for Christmas.

Fortunately, Nexus manufacturers and Google have learned from their mistakes, and things have improved greatly compared to previous years. As a whole, preorders in the US went swimmingly, and today — barely a month after the US launch — the Nexus 5X is available to order in Europe. As expected, the prices for the 16GB and 32 GB models are €479 and €529, respectively. Orders begin shipping by November 9th and come with free 3–4 business day shipping, so they'll be in customers' hands before the end of next week.

In some countries, Google is also throwing in a free Chromecast until December 8th, which should partly make up for not including the $50 Play Store credit or the 90-day Play Music subscription that come with orders in the US. So far, we've been able to confirm the promotion is available in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, but not in Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, or Sweden, so feel free to drop us a comment below if you know of anywhere else where the offer is valid.

While it may not be as cheap as the deal you get in the US, the Nexus 5X is undeniably an impressive phone and well worth the money, especially if you value update support as much as you say you do. The best reason not to buy one is if you're eyeing the Nexus 6P, which should hopefully also be available to EU consumers sooner rather than later.

Thanks: Thorben Otto, Rafael Freitas, and Roberto