In terms of graphics performance, the difference between the S626 and the S835 is massive. Again, while it doesn’t make a huge difference in basic tasks, in intensive Android games the huge performance gulf between these SoCs can make a genuine difference to in-game frame rates and the overall experience. The S835 is a huge 430 percent faster than the S626 in GPU workloads on average. In other words, the Adreno 540 is around five times faster than the Adreno 506. The S821 is a good 250 percent faster, and the S650 is 52 percent faster. No matter how you try and present this data, the Z2 Play comes out looking like an entry-level phone in terms of graphics performance. The good news here is that the S626’s GPU is slow enough that throttling is not a concern. The phone doesn’t run particularly hot, and lasts a very long time during 3D heavy use.
NAND performance is rather average here, certainly well below other flagship phones. In fact the storage used here appears to be identical to what is seen in Motorola’s budget Moto G phones. I would have liked to see more speedy NAND here, as the Z2 Play costs about twice as much as phone like the Moto G5. Faster NAND leads to faster app loading times, which is an advantage flagship phones have over the Z2 Play.
