The Nexus 6 Review
by Brandon Chester on November 12, 2014 1:00 PM ESTVideo Performance
By moving from the 4:3 8MP sensor in the Nexus 5 to a 4:3 13MP sensor, Google has been able to enable UHD (3840x2160) video recording on the Nexus 6. Google can also benefit from improvements in Snapdragon 805 allowing for higher quality video encoding. With Snapdragon 805 only capable of HEVC decode, we're still looking at H.264 encoding on videos for the current generation of devices. Unfortunately, Google does not include a 1080p60 recording mode on the Nexus 6, so both 1080p and UHD recording modes are at 30fps.
For 1080p content the Nexus 6 encodes with an average bitrate of 17Mbps and uses the Baseline H.264 profile. I don't know why Google isn't using the Main or High profile for their video recording, as Baseline is typically used in applications like video chat where quality isn't a big concern. I have no complaints about the quality of the video itself, although the OIS doesn't do as much to reduce the shake in the video as I imagined it would.
UHD video is encoded with an average bitrate of 42Mbps, and is again Baseline H.264. Compared to the 1080p video there's a significant increase in overall detail, particularly with the branches of the trees and smaller objects like leaves on the ground which tend to show up as large blurry areas in the 1080p footage. Something I noticed when testing the UHD recording on the Nexus 6 is that it has a tendency to drop frames, which is demonstrated in the video below.
As you can see, there are a few areas where the video framerate dips below 30fps during a fast movement, and several moments where the video will stop and then skip forward. I haven't been able to determine a cause for this, but Samsung and other OEMs have been able to do UHD recording at 30fps on their devices that use essentially the same hardware as the Nexus 6 which leads me to believe it's an issue that is rooted in software.
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Chaser - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
If battery life matters there are better choices besides both those phones.Shftup - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Hi, can you validate the build, etc:Android Version: 5.0
Build Number: LRX21I
Kernel Version: 3.10.40-gb2ab3cc
Thanks
Kensei - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Is the Nexus 6 meant to be the next version of the Nexus 5.... or will there be an update to the Nexus 5 down the road?meowmanjack - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Were you able to test wireless charging at all? I'm curious if Motorola included an alignment magnet near the coil so it plays nice with the Nexus 5's wireless charging pad.mpokwsths - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
I don't see NAND benchmarks. In all previous reviews they were present. Could it be because of the performance doubling that Lollipop brought (in all the Nexus devices) using the same Androbench app? When, in a previous review, I mentioned that, the answer I got was "it is probably a dev preview incompatibility". Now we have the final Lollipop release...mpokwsths - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Or maybe that performance if only under Lollipop accurate???To the readers that haven't heard anything about that:
http://www.anandtech.com/comments/8613/the-samsung...
Brandon Chester - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
If you read the Misc section you'll see that the results were inaccurate when I tried to test, as in they were insanely slow, not fast.p-zilla - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Brandon, this is almost definitely due to having disk encryption on. Can you encrypt a Nexus 5 and do a comparison?tipoo - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Look at the Ars Technica review. Storage performance isn't looking that hot, slower sequential reads probably are responsible for some of the slowness opening apps.Chaser - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Imagine all the people that pre-ordered this phone. I recently bought the Sony Xperia Z3. Amazing phone with unprecedented battery life. Mostly because Sony's designers made a smart move and didn't fall for the Quad HD hype bandwagon. It has a brilliantly bright and vivid display and in the tradition of Sony, absolutely outstanding audio quality that I can take in the shower with me if I choose :)