Motorola Nexus 6 review: Setting the tone

Performance

Built upon a Snapdragon 805 chipset with a quad-core 2.7GHz Krait 450, 3GB of RAM and the Adreno 420 graphics-processing unit the Motorola Nexus 6 should be a true benchmarks champ. We've found that the new Android version helps too.

In the CPU benchmark section, the Nexus 6 posted the high scores on a consistent basis. It is one of the most capable devices out there in terms of sheer oomph.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu MX4
  3556
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  3165
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  3080
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2925
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  2884
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2860
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  2709
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2435

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  47067
• Meizu MX4
  46922
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  46824
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  42460
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  41510
• Sony Xperia Z3
  40393
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  32487

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  1509
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  1345
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  1222
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  1181
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  1120
• Sony Xperia Z3
  1109
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  830
• Meizu MX4
  695
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  452

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  18971
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18684
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12637
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  11875
• Meizu MX4
  8324
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  6501
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2974

The Basemark OS II (multi-core) section is where the chipset fell slightly short from some of its competitors. The single-core performance produced similar results too.

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  15012
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  12771
• Meizu MX4
  12268
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  10146
• Motorola Nexus 6
  9915
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  9604
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  9446
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  9332
• Sony Xperia Z3
  8792

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4031
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2588
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  2351
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  2334
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  2216
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2114
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1967
• Meizu MX4
  1729
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  1701

The Adreno 420 GPU is a highly capable unit, so it does a good job of handling the millions of pixels on tap. See its scores below.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  41.7
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  40.9
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Sony Xperia Z3
  27.7
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  27.2
• Meizu MX4
  22.7
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  16.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  9.8

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z3
  29.3
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  26.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  26.4
• Meizu MX4
  21.3
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  19.5
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  17.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  13.3

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18.5
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  18
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  11.3
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8
• Meizu MX4
  7.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z3
  12.7
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  11.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  11.2
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8.5
• Meizu MX4
  7.4
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  6.9

The device did a solid job in the Kraken 1.1 JavaScript benchmark. The same goes for the BrowserMark 2.1 test.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  5351
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  5567
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  5763
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  6072
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Sony Xperia Z3
  6355
• Meizu MX4
  9408
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  12416

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3389
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2208
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  1543
• Sony Xperia Z3
  1533
• Motorola Droid Turbo
  1487
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1447
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  795
• Meizu MX4
  720
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  588

Motorola Nexus 6 packs highly capable hardware, coupled with OS, which has been greatly optimized in comparison to past versions. You will not be lacking in processing power regardless of the circumstances.