2026 Cloud Phone Comparison: How Nestbox Cloud Phone Secured the Top Performance Spot in the Android 15 + 5G-A Era

In March 2026, NetEase’s “Zhiyun Laboratory” released its annual cloud phone comparison report. This comparison marked a significant change—the native Android 15 system and 5G-A (5G-Advanced) network were included in the cloud performance benchmarks for the first time. The test group launched 2,880 containers over 30 days, covering four major dimensions: CPU, GPU, IO, and network jitter, ultimately generating a comprehensive ranking known as the “Cloud Performance Langya List.”

Surprisingly, the top spot on the list was not taken by a traditional hardware giant but by Nestbox Cloud Phone, a product of ChinaC, a veteran in domestic cloud computing. This result reflects a profound technological transformation that the cloud phone industry is currently undergoing.

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Horizontal Evaluation Background: Variables Brought by Android 15 + 5G-A

The official AOSP tag for the native Android 15 system was just released in January this year. Google has made significant overhauls to background scheduling and virtualized I/O, which has substantially improved the operational efficiency of cloud-based Android containers. Meanwhile, 5G-A commercial networks have reduced air interface latency to the 5ms level and increased uplink bandwidth to 1Gbps. The combination of these two variables has, for the first time, given “cloud phones” the confidence to compete on the same stage as physical flagship devices.

NetEase’s horizontal evaluation this time includes two new key metrics: network jitter and edge node switching. Moreover, it is the first time that the “AnTuTu Cloud Version” benchmarking model has been revealed, with all data directly returned from within the container, thereby eliminating the possibility of local score manipulation at the mechanism level.

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Benchmark Dimension Breakdown: The Weighting Game of Four Dimensions

This horizontal evaluation adopts a four-dimensional weighted scoring system. The weights and testing tools for each dimension are as follows:

Dimension	Weight	Testing Tool	Key Indicators
CPU	25%	Geekbench 6 for Cloud	Single-core/Multi-core Performance
GPU	30%	3DMark WildLife Extreme	Average Frame Rate/Stability
IO	20%	FIO 256KB Random Read/Write	Peak Bandwidth/99th Percentile Latency
Network	25%	Self-developed NetJitter	RTT Jitter/Packet Loss Rate During Edge Switching

In the 5G-A scenario, network jitter becomes the biggest variable. When an ordinary cloud phone switches from a metropolitan edge to a county-level node, the RTT can instantly spike from 6ms to 48ms, directly causing frame drops in “cloud gaming” experience. The Xingjie Cloud Phone, having obtained the operator’s whitelist in advance, has sunk its edge nodes down to the county-level BRAS, reducing the packet loss rate during switching to 0.02%. This detail becomes the key to its score reversal.

Core Data: Premium Edition Benchmark Analysis

The version sent for testing by Nestbox is the “Premium Edition” that just went live in Q1 2026:

• Processor: 8 cores @ 3.2GHz (ARM Cortex-X4×2 + A720×6)
• Memory: 5GB
• GPU: Adreno 740 (hardware passthrough)

Within an Android 15 container, the AnTuTu Cloud Edition scored 1,136,214 points, with the following breakdown:

• GPU sub-score: 487,812 points (21% higher than the second place)
• IO sub-score: 196,538 points

It’s worth mentioning that thanks to the self-developed vNVMe channel, the random read speed of 256KB reached 2.8GB/s, and the write speed was 2.1GB/s — this result is 35% faster than local UFS 4.0 flagship phones.

Geek-Oriented Data Comparison

Model	CPU Score	GPU Score	IO Score	Network Jitter	Total Score
Nestbox Premium Edition	289,000	487,000	196,000	5.2ms	1,136,000
Hive Cloud Box A	271,000	402,000	143,000	11ms	927,000
Hive Cloud Box B	265,000	381,000	138,000	18ms	882,000

(Note: The competing products are referred to as “Hive Cloud Box” in the text, which are the comparison products for this review.)

Actual Test Comparison: Differences in Experience

Beyond benchmark scores, NetEase also conducted two real-world scenario tests:

Cold Boot Test (Honkai: Star Rail 2.3 client):

• Stellar Premium Edition: 3.9 seconds
• Hive Cloud Box A (8-core 6GB): 5.4 seconds
• Hive Cloud Box B (8-core 4GB): 5.1 seconds
• Stellar leads by 28%

Multi-Instance Latency Test (10 containers running the official Azur Lane script simultaneously):

• Stellar average frame time: 14.7ms
• Hive Cloud Box A: 33.8ms
• Latency reduced by 19ms, visibly more “responsive”

Security Design: Considerations for Enterprise Users

For enterprise users, security is a dimension that cannot be overlooked. The security strategy of Nestbox Cloud Phone includes:

• ADB Control: Disabled by default, users can enable it with one click in the console and bind to an IP whitelist
• Container Isolation: Utilizes a dual policy of seccomp + SELinux, rejecting 137 high-risk calls such as su, mount, etc.
• Transmission Security: Data links use TLS 1.3 + two-way certificate verification, preventing man-in-the-middle attacks
• Intranet Mapping: Supports mapping ADB ports to a dedicated intranet, accessible via a VPN jump server, facilitating CI/CD automated testing

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Industry Insights: Where is the Turning Point for Cloud Phone 2.0?

From this horizontal review, several key trends can be distilled:

1. Network Infrastructure as Core Competitiveness: The low latency and high bandwidth brought by 5G-A are reshaping the competitive rules of cloud phones, and the ability to deploy edge nodes will become a watershed.

2. Hardware Passthrough Rather Than Virtualization: Nestbox adopts Adreno 740 hardware passthrough instead of virtio-GPU, which means native quality rendering is now possible.

3. Virtualization Optimization in Android 15: Google’s restructuring of background scheduling and virtualized I/O in AOSP is opening up new performance ceilings for the cloud-based Android ecosystem.

4. Shift in Pricing Logic: The pricing of the premium version at 60 yuan/month (less than the monthly rental of a 5G SIM card) indicates that the trend of “flagship performance no longer being expensive” is on the horizon.

Nestbox Cloud Phone has already submitted its first answer sheet for the Android 15 + 5G-A era. Does your next “flagship” still have to be held in your hand?

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Further Reading: For more product details and specifications, visit the Nestbox Cloud Phone official website.

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Data source for this article: NetEase’s “Zhiyun Lab” 2026 March Annual Cloud Phone Horizontal Review Report. Test environment, methods, and detailed data can be found in the original report.