Our battery life metric currently consists of one test: video playback. We chose this because it's one of the most commonly cited statistics by device manufacturers, and is relatively easy to check. The video drain is simply the Sintel 3D animated trailer looped endlessly in MXPlayer with the phone's display calibrated to a brightness of 200 nits.

Pretty darned impressive. This Nexus 5 gets a little over eight hours of continuous playback, and that last 15% held on for over one-eighth of that time. It was nail-biting. Compared to its nearest relative, the LG G2, which has a larger battery (3000 mAh versus the Nexus 5's 2300 mAh), that's a solid result, and it beats out the other devices in our comparison. This is even more impressive when you consider that EVGA's Tegra Note tablet has extended power-saving in the form of Prism, a lower-resolution display, and a much much larger 4100 mAh battery. In terms of daily usage, we've managed to go a full day of normal use (sans gaming) without a recharge. Once you add gaming to that equation the battery drains a lot faster.
- Redefining The Android Experience With Google's Nexus 5
- Product 360: Look And Feel
- GEL: A Better Experience
- GEL Gets Personal
- Benchmark Variance: Not Every SoC Is Created Equal
- Test Setup And Methodology
- Results: CPU Benchmarks
- Results: GPU Benchmarks
- Results: GPU Benchmarks, Continued
- Results: Web Browsing Benchmarks
- Results: Display Measurements
- Results: Battery Testing
- Does The Nexus 5 Raise Expectations?
Yes PVS scores do indicate something. They indicate the efficiency of a chip at a given frequency. The lower PVS numbers will heat up faster, and thus be at the optimal 2.23Ghz frequency less often, thus giving the perceived impression of being significantly slower.
I have a Nexus 5 myself, same PVS scoring (1). Running Antutu in my hand, and I'll score 22,000 - 23,000. However, out of curiosity, I rest the phone on an AC vent for 15 minutes, started the Antutu benchmark while leaving it there, and managed to score 29,500. All results easily and consistently repeatable. And my phone has never been unlocked/flashed. 100% Factory ROM, 4.4.2.
The issue purely heavy thermal throttling under heavy sustained loads.
In day to day operations though, it is absolutely flawless, and felt ever so slightly snappier then my previous HTC One (M7). Still incredibly happy with this device, and the only one I have never felt the need to unlock and flash silly. My only gripe was Camera issues, but the 4.4.2 update resolved those problems.
They mentioned the Nexus 4, which is right alongside spec-wise with the Moto X; also its probably to the 2 most compared phones out right now.