LG Nexus 5X review: Settling down

Performance

The LG Nexus 5X is powered by a Snapdragon 808 chipset, which has been paired with an average 2GB of RAM (flagships these days are in the 3-4GB range). The chipset packs two fast Cortex-A57 cores at 1.82GHz and four power-efficient Cortex-A53 cores at 1.44GHz.

The GPU is an Adreno 418, not Qualcomm's best, but much better suited for a 1080p screen than the QHD screens that LG pairs it with.

Starting off with full system performance, Basemark OS II 2.0 ranks the Google phone quite close to the top-of-its-class Galaxy S6 edge.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  2195
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  1750
• LG Nexus 5X
  1591
• LG G4
  1584
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  1440
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  974
• HTC One A9
  944

AnTuTu 5 places the Nexus 5X somewhere between the old Nexus 5 model and the Galaxy S6 edge.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  70053
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  61481
• Apple iPhone 6s
  59074
• LG Nexus 5X
  51948
• LG G4
  49295
• HTC One A9
  40631
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  37774

The processor speed has gone up noticeably since the Snapdragon 800 days.

The HTC One A9, which runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow on a Snapdragon 617 chipset (octa-core Cortex-A53) lags well behind the Nexus 5X. If you ask us, the pricey HTC smartphone should have been equipped with a Snapdragon 808 to begin with.

Single-core performance is almost on par with the Galaxy S6 edge (same cores, different clockspeed) and even the multi-core performance is very good. Compared to the Snapdragon 810-packing Xperia Z5 Compact (two extra Cortex-A57 cores), the total result isn't very different.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  5095
• Apple iPhone 6s
  4427
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  3796
• LG Nexus 5X
  3527
• LG G4
  3509
• HTC One A9
  3209
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  2743

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  6234
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  6173
• LG G4
  5871
• LG Nexus 5X
  5808
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  4264
• HTC One A9
  2753

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27703
• HTC One A9
  19160
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  17770
• LG G4
  17739
• LG Nexus 5X
  17456
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  10382

The difference in raw processing power between the Adreno 418 (Nexus 5X) and the Adreno 430 (Xperia Z3 Compact) can be seen quite clearly in the off-screen graphics benchmarks results. Depending on the benchmark the gap can be quite massive - especially when the latest OpenGL ES 3.1 is involved.

At its native 1080p resolution, the Nexus 5X should provide enough oomph for 3D gaming (benchmarks are always much harder than games). You can see that the LG G4 struggles at native resolution and rendering at a lower one would negate the benefit of its QHD screen.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27046
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  23703
• LG Nexus 5X
  16609
• LG G4
  15090
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  9786
• HTC One A9
  6617

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  39.5
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  26
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  25
• LG Nexus 5X
  16
• LG G4
  14.9
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  9.1
• HTC One A9
  6.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  53.6
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  39
• LG Nexus 5X
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  15
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  10
• LG G4
  9.4
• HTC One A9
  6.7

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  18
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• HTC One A9
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  38
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• HTC One A9
  4

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  879
• LG Nexus 5X
  306
• HTC One A9
  132

The JavaScript performance is well optimized and is about as good as Androids manage (the iPhone is well ahead).

In general web browsing the Nexus 5X beats most other Androids, even the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, which boasts the beefier chipset (S810 vs. S808) and only has to render the web pages at 720p resolution.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  1737
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3989
• LG G4
  4085
• LG Nexus 5X
  4575
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  7868
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  9524
• HTC One A9
  11069

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  2702
• LG Nexus 5X
  2241
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
  2099
• LG G4
  1990
• HTC One A9
  1562
• Nexus 5 Lollipop
  1440

The LG Nexus 5X provides great performance for its price, even getting into competition with 2015 flagships. The processor isn't the fastest, but comes close enough to modern flagships, even outperforming more expensive handsets. Similarly, the phone does great for 3D gaming and web browsing.