Introduction
In our Nexus 6 review, we saw its Snapdragon 805 SoC deliver strong CPU and GPU performance while running the initial Android 5.0 release. Internal storage performance however, was a point of contention.
With Android Lollipop, Google announced that full disk encryption (FDE), an optional feature available since Android Honeycomb, would be enabled by default. This requirement was later revoked due to performance issues on certain classes of hardware, the Nexus 6, having shipped with FDE enabled, being a prime example.
At the conclusion of our initial performance analysis, Google released the Android 5.1 update, which includes some patches meant to address the performance impact of using FDE on the Nexus 6, in addition to changes that affect overall system performance and battery life.
In light of these changes, it's worth taking a second look at the Nexus 6, comparing performance after installing the Android 5.1 update to the initial 5.0 release.
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