Google’s mandatory device encryption is slowing down the Nexus 6

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Nexus-6-splashPrior to the launch of the Nexus 6 and Android 5.0, we knew Google was moving to making device encryption mandatory for all new devices shipping with Lollipop. As far as security goes, that's a great move, but it looks like it's actually having some negative effects on the Nexus 6.

Early benchmarks seem to show that Lollipop's full disk encryption (FDE) are having some fairly significant performance impacts on the Nexus 6. This is especially unfortunate since the Nexus 6 encrypts itself on first boot and there's no way to turn it off, outside of flashing custom boot images. That's not exactly a user friendly solution.

The benchmarks show that in different tests, the encryption is causing upwards of a 50% performance drop when it comes to reading and writing to the phone's storage. In a few tests, the Nexus 5 pretty handily outscores an encrypted Nexus 6. Ouch.

To top things off, FDE really only helps users that keep a passcode on their device. Not everyone uses a protected lock screen, so those users are taking performance hits on their Nexus 6 with no benefit whatsoever. This is definitely something Google will have to address. Hopefully they'll update the Nexus 6 and allow us to turn the encryption off, but we'll have to wait and see.

You can find some detailed benchmarks at the link below.

source: AnandTech

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4 comments
  1. There’s absolutely no reason to go nexus over the Galaxy line. Unless you’re a simpleton that wants something close to an iphone. Or if you’re just sitting at home doing nothing. If you work like me for a living, the note 4s productivity prowess is something no other phone comes close to.

    1. Also has worse display, worse camera, no sd, no removable battery, no true mulitwindow, all the spen features and the twiz features. Why da hell would anyone get this phone… updates? Lol half the features of lollipop are straight ripped from twiz.

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