Huawei Nexus 6P review: Stepping it up

Performance

The Nexus 6P packs a hefty punch with a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 810 v2.1 chipset. The Adreno 430 pairs very nicely with the latter for a perfect UI experience with velvety-smooth animations with absolutely no hiccups when switching back and forth between apps and performing basic tasks like opening apps and transitioning between windows.

As for gaming performance, particularly with Asphalt 8, the performance was less than perfect. Just remember, Asphalt 8 is quite a heavy application requiring a lot of horsepower. We simply wish it ran as smoothly as it did on the iPhone 6S, but we could be looking at it the wrong way.

Other, more casual games like Candy Crush, Subway Surfer, Granny Smith, and Temple Run 2 all ran perfectly without hiccups or dropped frames. Games look super fluid visually stunning thanks to the punchy colors of the Samsung-made AMOLED panel.

GeekBench 3 scores show the Nexus 6P just ahead of Apple A9 chip performance. Samsung's Exynos chipset still beat the Snapdragon 810 on the GeekBench test.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  5215
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  5158
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  5124
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  5095
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4539
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  4413
• LG V10
  3607
• LG Nexus 5X
  3527
• Moto X Pure Edition
  3433
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285

The Nexus 6P scored placed similarly in the Antutu test when comparing the scores to the GeekBench test above. The Exynos lineup beats the Snapdragon 810 setup just past the iPhone 6S's A9 chip.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  70053
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  69465
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  69396
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  68324
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  58610
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  58582
• LG V10
  52713
• LG Nexus 5X
  51948
• Moto X Pure Edition
  50629
• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803

This is where we see that Android's graphics power is still not to par with iOS's custom GPU chip, even with Google's flagship phone packed with top-of-the-line CPU and graphics.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  39.5
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  26
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  24
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  21
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• LG Nexus 5X
  16
• LG V10
  15
• Moto X Pure Edition
  15

Our onscreen graphics test scored the same as the Nexus 5X, most likely due to the increase in pixels (1440p vs 1080p) despite the increased horsepower.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  38.6
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• LG Nexus 5X
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  15
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  14
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• LG V10
  9.5
• Moto X Pure Edition
  9.3

The Nexus 6P was able to beat out the competition in our second offscreen graphics processing test. The Nexus 5X only pumped out 11fps in the same test while the Nexus 6P scored 17 fps.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  15
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• LG V10
  10
• Moto X Pure Edition
  10

It looks like Marshmallow has made some performance optimizations that were able to beat even the Exynos processors when it comes to the graphics department. Both the Nexus 6P and the 5X scored the same 11fps in this on screen test.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  11
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  6.6
• LG V10
  5.7
• Moto X Pure Edition
  5.6

The browser tests were done directly in the Chrome browser. The Nexus 6P scored best as a non-Samsung contender. The Exynos team did slightly better in browser performance while the iPhone 6S Plus blew all Android away in the browser tests.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  1731
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  3702
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  3767
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3989
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4053
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  4154
• LG Nexus 5X
  4575
• LG V10
  4666
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Moto X Pure Edition
  6910

When using a separate browser test, the results don't reflect the outcome of the Kraken browser test. Browsermark ranked the Nexus 6P right in the middle of the other Exynos performers. The Nexus 6P performed even better than the Note5 did.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  2718
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  2702
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  2591
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2520
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  2324
• LG Nexus 5X
  2241
• Moto X Pure Edition
  2132
• LG V10
  2119
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1447

Not all benchmarks are created equally, which is why these benchmarks show the 6P ahead of all the other Exynos competitors but placed just behind the iPhone 6S Plus.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  2261
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2040
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  1789
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  1750
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  1674
• LG Nexus 5X
  1591
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  1560
• LG V10
  1383
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1267

Our singe-core test revealed that the Nexus 6P is more capable of running everyday tasks quickly (since oftentimes the CPU will only be running one or two cores). The single-core test is designed to stress only one core in order to see how every day tasks (opening apps, sending SMS, loading webpages) will affect the CPU before it has to ramp up two or more cores for multitasking.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  6498
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  6306
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  6173
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  6014
• LG Nexus 5X
  5808
• Motorola Nexus 6
  5624
• LG V10
  4261
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  3873

The multi-core test is used to measure the CPUs ability to perform multiple calculations at the same time. The Nexus 6P, however, scored lower than the Nexus 6 did, this could be due to the different CPU infrastructures: higher speed quad-core vs lower speed octa-ctore. The Exynos processors did better in these multicore tests. Whatever Samsung is doing, they are doing it right.

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27703
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  27511
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  26799
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  25317
• Motorola Nexus 6
  21026
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17661
• LG Nexus 5X
  17456
• LG V10
  17127

Again, the Basemark X tests show the Exynos-powered devices ahead of all the Snapdragon devices. Though, the 6P performed best in its own category surpassing only the Motorola Nexus 6.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  27169
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27046
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  26333
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  26281
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  22825
• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• LG Nexus 5X
  16609
• LG V10
  15161
• Moto X Pure Edition
  14598

The Basemark ES 3.1 placed the Nexus 6P above the other competitors but still not a match for the iPhone 6S Plus. It's still unbelievable how Apple has managed to optimize the software for these A9 processors.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  916
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  504
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  348
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  311
• LG Nexus 5X
  306
• LG V10
  297

The Nexus 6P overall did very well in our benchmark tests and scored consistently and comparably to the other Samsung competitors. The Nexus 6P was often at or just below the scores of Exynos-powered Samsung devices. With that being said, the Snapdragon 810 proves worthy of being a direct competitor to the Exynos processors and we hope to see them defeated with the first wave of devices powered by the Snapdragon 820.

There definitely was some thermal throttling going on that would have affected our benchmark tests if we didn't wait for the device to cool down properly between runs. However, during normal use, we haven't felt the device getting hotter than the body's temperature. Heat dissipated fairly quickly with the help of the aluminum backside of the device, acting as a heat sink to cool it down. Perhaps the only times the phone became hot to the touch, was when trying to use it while charging.