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Category: Android

Patching and future proofing

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on September 18, 2014

We recently became aware of two potential issues with running MobileXPRT 2013 on versions of Android 4.4 (KitKat) and a pre-release version of Android L. The first involves a reported failure of MobileXPRT 2013 to display scores when running on a Nexus 5 running KitKat with the ART runtime enabled. ART is an experimental Android Runtime available on a number of mobile devices, and offers several features not found in Android’s current default runtime, Dalvik. We have not been able to reproduce this specific problem, and have successfully tested MobileXPRT on a Nexus 5 running Android 4.4.3 with ART enabled. If you encounter this problem, contact us at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

The second issue is specific to the pre-release version of Android L. On that OS, we have seen a failure of the MobileXPRT Create Slideshow workload. We found that while previous versions of Android used specific addresses when loading libraries, this pre-release version of Android L loads libraries at different addresses as a security precaution. This appeared to be causing the workload failure. Recompiling with the –pie flag, so as to be position independent, seems to fix the problem.

As soon as thorough testing is complete, we’ll be releasing a patched build on MobileXPRT.com, and expect no problems running MobileXPRT on Android L.

If you have any questions about MobileXPRT or any of the other benchmarks, feel free to send us a message.

Justin

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Posted in Android, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2013 source |

It makes a difference

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on July 3, 2014

Ars Technica reported this week that they tested the developer preview of Android L and saw a whopping 36 percent improvement in battery life! Google made improving battery life a priority, and it sounds like they are succeeding. I can’t wait to test Android L with BatteryXPRT.

This is a spectacular example of how a change in software can change benchmark results, but it’s hardly unique. I’ve written before about how background activity on a phone depressed my friend’s WebXPRT scores. AnandTech used both IE 11 and Chrome 30 to test the Surface Pro 2 with a variety of benchmarks, including WebXPRT, SunSpider, Octane, Browsermark, and others. Browser choice had a noticeable impact on results – about a 40 percent difference for WebXPRT and a 76 percent difference for SunSpider!

People are generally pretty aware that changing the hardware changes performance. However, sometimes they lose track of software differences. When you compare scores, it’s not always possible to keep all the variables the same, but it’s crucial to know what the differences are.

In other BenchmarkXPRT news, we’re making some final adjustments to HDXPRT 2014, and the general release is just around the corner.

Eric

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Posted in Android, Battery life, HDXPRT 2014, Performance benchmarking, Performance testing on tablets, WebXPRT |

The updated BatteryXPRT is here

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on June 30, 2014

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we discovered stability issues when running BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android on devices with only 1 GB of RAM. We now have a build that’s stable on those devices. Battery life and performance results from the new build are equivalent to those from the previous build, so your existing results are still valid and comparable.

You can download the new build of BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android at BatteryXPRT.com or through the Google Play Store. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Eric

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Posted in Android, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android |

A new version of BatteryXPRT is coming

By admin
on June 12, 2014

We’ve found that BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android has some stability issues on some devices with low memory. We’ve investigated the problem and found that the problem is that the low RAM reduces the per-application heap quota so much that BatteryXPRT may not run correctly.

To address this problem, we’ve restructured BatteryXPRT so that it stays within the heap limits on devices with 1 GB of RAM. We are currently testing the restructured version of BatteryXPRT and it looks good so far. It takes a while to thoroughly test BatteryXPRT, but we will release the new build as soon as we complete testing it.

We haven’t seen any change in the performance or battery life results in the testing so far. You’ll be able to safely compare your existing results with the results from the rebuilt version.

Remember that we are looking for ideas, and a really great name, for a Chrome OS benchmark. If you have any ideas, or are curious about the changes to BatteryXPRT , let us know!

Eric

Posted in Android, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android |

BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android is here!

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on May 2, 2014

Today we formally released BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android. The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community has been using a community preview for several weeks and now that we’ve released the benchmark, anyone may freely use it.

Also, the BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android source will soon be available to the community. Remember that community members have access to the source, but it is not available to the general public.

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Posted in Android, Battery life, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, BenchmarkXPRT development community |

It’s show time!

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on May 1, 2014

Tomorrow is the big day for BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android. After months of development, it’s finally time to release it to the world. We’ve learned quite a bit throughout the process, and we expect BatteryXPRT to become a trusted tool for Android users around the world.

BatteryXPRT will be available for download at BatteryXPRT.com, or through the Google Play Store. It will be available to the public no later than 5:00 PM ET on Friday May 2.

The BatteryXPRT results page allows you to submit test results directly from the app. We hope you’ll use this feature to submit your test runs for publication in the database.

There’s a huge diversity of Android devices out there, so BatteryXPRT.com will link to a page of tips, tricks, and known issues that we compiled during development testing. As with any of the XPRTs, if you encounter any issues please let us know.

Along with the new app, we also invite you to check out the Exploring BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android white paper for a more in-depth discussion of how it all works.

It’s definitely BatteryXPRT’s time to shine, but don’t forget that the new and improved TouchXPRT is coming soon!

Eric

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Posted in Android, Application-based benchmarks, Battery life, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, TouchXPRT 2014, White papers |

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