The Google Nexus 9 Review
by Joshua Ho & Ryan Smith on February 4, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- HTC
- Project Denver
- Android
- Mobile
- NVIDIA
- Nexus 9
- Lollipop
- Android 5.0
GPU Performance
While Denver is new, the Kepler GPU in the Tegra K1 is mostly a known quantity by now. In the Nexus 9, the GPU is still a single SMX clocked to 852 MHz. In order to verify performance, we turn to our standard test suite. For the most part, our GPU-bound tests are meant to represent gaming performance although tests like 3DMark can have CPU-bound aspects while GFXBench tends towards being a pure GPU test.
The Nexus 9's GPU has effectively identical performance to what we saw in the SHIELD Tablet, which means that the Nexus 9 should be able to support a broad range of games without performance issues. There is a bit of a noticeable performance delta when comparing on-screen performance, but this is simply due to the higher resolution of the Nexus 9's display. The one notable exception is the 3DMark physics test, which seems to scale with core count quite well, and that causes Denver to fall slightly short of the quad A15 configuration.
NAND Performance
While storage performance can often be secondary to a smooth user experience, poor storage performance is extremely painful. This is similar to RAM, where the difference between 2 and 3 GB is generally academic, while the difference between 512MB and 1 GB is enormous. While there have been some issues with Androbench with the move to Android 5.0, it seems that the timer issues have since been resolved, so it's possible to resume using the results from Androbench to get a rough idea of NAND performance.
Here the Nexus 9 doesn't suffer nearly as much from full disk encryption that is forcibly enabled on the device; performance is noticeably higher than what we see in the Nexus 6. This seems to lend some credence to the theory that CPUs with ARM v8 ISA would be better suited to handling the need to encrypt and decrypt storage in real time. I tested the Nexus 9 with a custom kernel without full disk encryption to see how Androbench scores might change, but this didn't have a noticeable impact which seems to back this theory, although I'm still not confident that FDE is a good idea to enforce across all new devices.
The NAND itself, a Samsung eMMC package designated by the name BWBC3R, seems to be quite performant outside of pure sequential access, which seems to suggest that HTC hasn't skimped out in this area at all, and the use of F2FS is responsible for some of the best random I/O scores in any mobile devices we've tested thus far.
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philosofa - Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - link
Anandtech have always prioritised quality, insight and being correct, over being the first to press. It's why a giant chunk of its readerbase reads it. This is going to be relevant and timely to 90% of people who purchase the Nexus 9. It's also likely to be the definitive article hardware and tech wise produced anywhere in the world.I'd call that a win. I just think there's no pleasing everyone, particularly the 'what happened to AT????!? crowd' that's existed here perpectually. You remind me of the Simcity Newspaper article 'naysayers say nay'. No: Yea.
iJeff - Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - link
You must be new around here. Anandtech was always quite a bit slow to release their mobile hardware reviews; the quality has always been consistently higher in turn.Rezurecta - Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - link
C'mon guys. This isn't the freakin Verge or Engadget review. If you want fancy photos and videos with the technical part saying how much RAM it has, go to those sites.The gift of Anandtech is the deep dive into the technical aspects of the new SoC. That ability is very exclusive and the reason that Anandtech is still the same site.
ayejay_nz - Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - link
Release article in a hurry and unfinished ... "What has happened to Anandtech..."Release article 'late' and complete ... "What has happened to Anandtech..."
There are some people you will never be able to please!
Calista - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link
You still have plenty of other sites giving 0-day reviews. Let's give the guys (and girls?) of Anandtech the time needed for in-depth reviews.littlebitstrouds - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
No offence but your privilege is showing...HarryX - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
I remember that the Nexus 5 review came out so late and that was by Brian Klug, so it's really nothing unusual here. This review covers so much about Denver that wasn't mentioned elsewhere that I won't mind at all if it was coming late. Reviews like this one (and the Nexus 5 one to a lesser extent, or the Razer Blade 2014 one) are so extensive that I won't mind reading them months after release. The commentary and detailed information in them alone make them worth the read.UtilityMax - Sunday, February 8, 2015 - link
The review is relevant. The tablet market landscape hasn't been changed much between then and now. Anyone in the market for a Nexus 9 or similar tablet is going to evaluate it against what was available at the time of release.SunnyNW - Sunday, February 8, 2015 - link
Only thing that sucks about these late reviews is if you are trying to base your purchase decision on it especially with holiday season.Aftershocker - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
I've got to agree, Anandtech have dropped the ball on this one. I always prefer to wait and read the comprehensive Anandtech review which I understand can take a few weeks, but this is simply to long to get a review out on a flagship product. Call me sceptical but I can't see such a situation occurring on the review of a new apple product.