Category: Benchmarking

A smooth transition

on February 15, 2018

We want to thank Andrei Frumusanu of AnandTech for mentioning WebXPRT 3 in the System Performance section of their Snapdragon 845 review. For testing labs and tech media, incorporating a new benchmark into a test suite can be daunting, and they don’t make the decision to do so lightly. Once a new benchmark is in play, the score database used for comparisons is suddenly empty, and a lot of testing needs to happen before anyone can compare devices on a large scale.

In the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, we’ve designed our development and release system to minimize the stress involved in adopting new benchmark tools. A key part of that strategy is releasing community previews to members several weeks before the general release. When we release a community preview, we include no publication restrictions and we work to make sure that preview results will be comparable to results from the general release. Between a community preview and a general release, we may still tweak the UI or fix issues with non-workload-related features, but you can be sure that the results will still be good after the general release.

The community preview system allows us to solicit feedback from an expanded base of pre-release testers, but it also allows labs to backfill results for legacy devices and get a head start on incorporating the new benchmark into their testing suites.

Speaking of previews, WebXPRT 3 community preview testing is going well and we’re excited about the upcoming release. If you’d like to learn more about our development community and how you can join, send us your questions and we’ll be happy to help.

Justin

Posted in Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Browser-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 3 |

WebXPRT 3, Mobile World Congress, and the next HDXPRT

By Justin Greene

on February 8, 2018

We’re excited about everything that’s in store for the XPRTs, and we want to update community members on what to expect in the next few months.

The next major development is likely to be the WebXPRT 3 general release. We’re currently refining the UI and conducting extensive testing with the community preview build. We’re not ready to announce a firm release date, but hope to do so over the next few weeks. Please try the community preview and give us your feedback, if you haven’t already.

During the last week of February, Mark will be at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Each year, MWC offers a great opportunity to examine the new trends and technologies that will shape mobile technology in the years to come. We look forward to sharing Mark’s thoughts on this year’s hot topics. Will you be attending MWC this year? If so, let us know!

In addition, we’re hoping to have a community preview of the next HDXPRT ready in the spring. As we mentioned a few months ago, we’re updating the workloads, applications, and UI. For the converting photos scenario, we’re considering incorporating new Adobe Photoshop tools such as the “Open Closed Eyes” feature and an automatic fix for pictures that are out of focus due to handheld camera shake. For the converting videos scenario, we’re including 4K GoPro footage that represents the quality of video captured by today’s “prosumer” demographic.

What features would you like to see in the next HDXPRT? Let us know!

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Browser-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, Future of performance evaluation, HDXPRT, HDXPRT release cycle, Mobile devices, Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress, Performance benchmarking, Trade Shows, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 3 | Tagged HDXPRT, Mobile World Congress, MWC, WebXPRT |

New features for the WebXPRT Processor Comparison Chart

By Justin Greene

on February 1, 2018

We’re excited that the WebXPRT 2015 Processor Comparison Chart is becoming a valuable resource for community members and visitors interested in comparing web-browsing performance scores. When we introduced the chart, we mentioned that the first iteration was only the beginning. We planned to add additional capabilities on a regular basis, and today we’re happy to announce some new features.

The chart now offers a drop-down menu for displaying more than 20 results per page. (You can choose 20, 50, 100, or all.) When you click on a system to view the details of its score, you will see that we added a column displaying browser information. If the “Browser” column entry shows as “Unknown,” this means we can’t find browser information for a specific test result.

We’re also working on adding a drop-down menu for filtering scores by device type (laptop, tablet, etc.).

We hope these features will prove to be helpful. We want the chart to continue to be a great asset for its users, so if you have ideas for features and types of data you’d like to see, let us know!

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Browser-based benchmarks, Cross-platform benchmarks, Performance benchmarking |

Here’s to 100 more!

By Justin Greene

on January 18, 2018

This week’s Essential Phone entry marks the 100th device that we’ve featured in the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight! It’s a notable milestone for us as we work toward our goal of building a substantial library of device information that buyers can use to compare devices. In celebration, I thought it would be fun to share some Spotlight-related stats.

Our first Spotlight entry was the Google Pixel C way back on February 8, 2016, and we’ve featured a wide array of devices since then:

33 phones
16 laptops
16 tablets
16 2-in-1s
6 small-form-factor PCs
5 desktops
5 game consoles
3 all-in-ones

In addition to a wide variety of device types, we try to include a wide range of vendors. So far, we’ve featured devices from Acer, Alcatel, Alienware, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BLU, CHUWI, Dell, Essential, Fujitsu, Google, HP, HTC, Huawei, Intel, LeEco, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OnePlus, Razer, Samsung, Sony, Syber, Xiaomi, and ZTE. We look forward to adding many more to that list during the year ahead.

XPRT Spotlight is a great way for device vendors and manufacturers to share PT-verified specs and test results with buyers around the world. If you’re interested in sending in a device for testing, please contact XPRTSpotlight@PrincipledTechnologies.com.

There’s a lot more to come for XPRT Spotlight, and we’re constantly working on new features and improvements for the page. Are there any specific devices or features that you would like to see in the Spotlight? Let us know.

Justin

Posted in Performance benchmarking, Performance of computing devices, Performance testing on tablets, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight |

Machine learning in 2018

By Bill Catchings

on December 21, 2017

We are almost to the end of 2017 and, as you have probably guessed, we will not have a more detailed proposal of our machine learning benchmark ready by the end of the year.

The key aspects of the benchmark proposal we wrote about a few months ago haven’t changed, but we are running behind schedule. We are still hoping to have the proposal ready in Q1 2018 and the tool based on that proposal later in the year. We will keep you posted.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy as much as we did the recent CGP Grey tech video explanation of machine learning. There are actually two videos—the first one gives a general overview and then the second one does a better job of looking at the current state of machine learning. It talks mainly about the training aspects of machine learning rather than the inference aspects that we are looking into with AIXPRT/MLXPRT.

From all of us in the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, we hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday and a great start to 2018!

Bill

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, Machine learning, Performance benchmarking | Tagged AIXPRT, MLXPRT |

The WebXPRT 3 Community Preview is here!

By Justin Greene

on December 14, 2017

Today we’re releasing the WebXPRT 3 Community Preview (CP). As we discussed in the blog last month, in the new version of WebXPRT, we updated the photo-related workloads with new images and a new deep learning task for the Organize Album workload. We also added an optical character recognition task to the Local Notes workload and combined a portion of the DNA Sequence Analysis scenario with a writing sample/spell check scenario to simulate an online homework hub in the new “Online Homework” workload.

Also, longtime WebXPRT users will immediately notice a completely new, but clean and straightforward, UI. We’re still tweaking aspects of the UI and implementing full functionality for certain features such as social media sharing and German language translation, but we don’t anticipate making any significant changes to the overall test or individual workloads before the general release.

As with all community previews, the WebXPRT 3 CP is available only to BenchmarkXPRT Development Community members, who can access the link from the WebXPRT tab in the Members’ Area.

After you try the WebXPRT 3 CP, please send us your comments. Thanks and happy testing!

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Browser-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, Cross-platform benchmarks, Future of performance evaluation, German, Performance benchmarking, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 3 |

Category: Benchmarking

A smooth transition

WebXPRT 3, Mobile World Congress, and the next HDXPRT

New features for the WebXPRT Processor Comparison Chart

Here’s to 100 more!

Machine learning in 2018

The WebXPRT 3 Community Preview is here!

Check out the other XPRTs: