October 31st is here, and you all know what that means. Candy. Not the kind you’re thinking though. I’m talking about the kind of candy that comes in the form of Google’s new Nexus 5 and the appropriately named Android 4.4 Kit-Kat update. That is, we can expect to see this if all the rumors that have been floating around for the last week or so prove to be true.
Plenty of image leaks of the Nexus 5 have been dumped just about everywhere for the public world to see, and we know that it will be sporting a 4.95″ 1080p IPS screen and running on a Snapdragon 800 processor, which says one thing to a person like me; It’ll dominate in gaming performance.
In some recent leaked photos showing off the power of the Nexus 5, we get to see how well it scores on the BaseMark X benchmark test. For those of not in the know, the BaseMark X is primarily used to display how well the device performs while running games, and the Nexus 5 came out with a shiny gold star. As you can see from the images, it outperformed the LG G2 and of course the Nexus 4. While both the G2 and the Nexus 4 are running on Android 4.2.2 and Android 4.3, the Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 Kit-Kat is to say the least going to be a very well equipped contender when it comes to gaming performance.
During the BaseMark X benchmark test, the Nexus 5 received a score that was 8% higher than that of the LG G2 which is packed full of pretty much the same hardware. The only difference is the version of Android that is powering both devices. You can see from the image below that it also outperformed the Nexus 4 by double, although this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone as newer hardware means better performance in many cases.
If you’re in the market for a new device you can play games on, The Nexus 5 just might be what you’re looking for. Interestingly enough, Rightware(the company who developed BaseMark X) ranked the Nexus 5 as the best gaming device on the market, second only to the new iPhone 5s. That’s a lofty achievement especially with a few other devices out there with powerful specs. Needless to say, the speed and performance optimizations that look to come along with Android 4.4 seem to play a huge role in how well devices run and play games. If you own any older Nexus devices, as soon as you get your Kit-Kat update, you just might get a performance boost of your own.