Category: Benchmarking

WebXPRT 2015

on May 7, 2015

Tomorrow we’ll be releasing WebXPRT 2015, with mirror site in Singapore to follow soon. We’ve been talking about it for a while and we’re delighted to finally make it available to the public.

As we’ve discussed over the past few weeks, the new WebXPRT is a big improvement over WebXPRT 2013. Some of the changes are

An improved UI. In addition to a cleaner, sleeker look, the UI now has a progress indicator and on-screen test descriptions. There is also a Simplified Chinese version of the UI.
Test automation. WebXPRT 2015 lets you automate testing, giving labs more flexibility and making it easier to test lots of devices.
New and improved tests. In addition to enhancing the existing tests, WebXPRT 2015 adds two new tests, Explore DNA Sequencing and Sales Graphs.

If you haven’t checked out the new WebXPRT, now is the time!

And remember the design document for the next generation of MobileXPRT should be out by the end of the month. If there are things you would like to see, it’s a great time to let us know.

Eric

Posted in Android, Automation, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, WebXPRT |

Looking at the data

By Eric Hale

on April 30, 2015

We’re planning the general release of WebXPRT 2015 for late next week. The testing is looking good and the response has been positive.

We’ve been looking at the hundreds of runs in the database for the community preview. As we’ve said before, we’ve been looking at the information from the JavaScript navigator object in the hope that we could improve the disclosure information from WebXPRT 2015. However, the information is not reliable enough for us to use it at this time. Hopefully, that will improve in the near future.

For now, we will continue to use the information from the user agent string. We’ve discussed the user agent string before. It does give us some information about the device, although not as much as we are able to gather in some of the XPRTs.

Looking at the data, the most common OS has been Windows. This may be in part because you needed to be logged in to run the CP. However, Android devices represented over a third of the runs, and Chrome OS represented about 25 percent of the runs. While we had healthy numbers of iOS devices, there were only a handful of Mac OSX runs. Chrome was the most common browser. Other browsers identified themselves as Safari, Firefox, Opera, and MS IE.

As you can see, the new WebXPRT continues the tradition that WebXPRT 2013 started of running everywhere. We can’t wait to make it available to general public!

Eric

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Community Preview, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2013 release, WebXPRT 2015 |

The XPRTs at IDF15 Shenzhen

By Justin Greene

on April 23, 2015

We recently traveled to Shenzhen, China to anchor Principled Technologies’ booth in the IDF15 Shenzhen technology showcase. Over 60 companies set up displays to interact with approximately 2,000 attendees, and it was a great opportunity for us to connect with innovators in one of the fastest-growing technology hubs in the world.

We spent most of our time talking with people about the benefits of the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, demonstrating the XPRTs on our display systems, and describing the scope and abilities of each XPRT. Many of the people we talked with showed great interest in the XPRTs’ commitment to developing easy-to-use benchmarks that measure performance and battery life while doing everyday tasks.

Of course, we also spent a good deal of free time exploring Shenzhen and nearby Hong Kong. If you ever get the opportunity to visit either of these dynamic cities, you won’t be disappointed!

The IDF15 Shenzhen technology showcase floor. Our booth is just to the right of the gray-and-white balloon. The booming Shenzhen skyline, including the soon-to-be-second-tallest building in the world.

If we missed you at IDF15, or you have questions or comments about the Benchmark XPRT Development Community, feel free to contact us.

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chinese, Collaborative benchmark development, IDF, Principled Technologies, Simplified Chinese, Trade Shows |

Time for a merger of equals?

By Eric Hale

on April 16, 2015

As I said last week, we’re working on the design document for the new version of MobileXPRT, and we expect to have it out in the next couple of weeks. We have several ideas we’re pretty excited about.

One of the ideas we’ve been considering is merging BatteryXPRT and MobileXPRT into a single benchmark. This would be similar to what we’ve done with CrXPRT, which has tests for both battery life and performance. As with CrXPRT, you’d be able to run either test, and you could get performance and battery life for a device in a single day using a single benchmark.

If we as the community do decide to merge the benchmarks, there will be a lot to think about. For example, MobileXPRT is unaware whether it’s connected to the Internet, while BatteryXPRT not only detects how it’s connected, but selects the appropriate Airplane mode or Network-Wifi Mode test. And, of course, we’d have to figure out what to call it.

What do you think about merging the two benchmarks? Would it make your life simpler? What other features would you like to see in the new MobileXPRT? This is the time to speak up!

Eric

Posted in Battery life, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, CrXPRT, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT |

A couple of things

By Eric Hale

on April 2, 2015

We’ve heard about a couple of issues this week. The HDXPRT 2014 Convert Videos test uses the MediaEspresso application and requires hardware acceleration be configured. On some systems, this setting is not configuring automatically, which may result in lower scores. We’re working on a solution, but in the meantime there’s an easy workaround.

We’ve also found that some Chromebooks report extremely low battery use, as low as 0%, for the first couple iterations of the CrXPRT battery life test. This can cause CrXPRT to report results with a very wide confidence interval, with an interval greater than 15%. We’re looking at ways to detect and compensate for this. However, if you see results with a very wide confidence interval, we recommend that you use the rundown test.

In other news, we’ve been talking about Intel Developer Forum 2015 – Shenzhen for weeks, and the time is finally here! Bill and Justin get on the plane tomorrow. If you’d like to talk about the XPRTs, or any of PT’s other offerings, Bill and the team would be happy to meet with you!

Eric

Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, CrXPRT, Google Chrome, HDXPRT, IDF |

WebXPRT 2015 Community Preview is available!

By Eric Hale

on March 27, 2015

As we said yesterday, we’re releasing the community preview of a WebXPRT 2015 Community Preview. Members of the BenchmarkXPRT community can now run the community preview and publish results.

Run the community preview here.

After trying out the community preview, please send in your comments. Either post them to the forum or mail them to benchmarkxprtsupport@principledtechnologies.com. If you mail information that’s of interest to the entire community, we may post an anonymous version of the comments to the forum.

Thanks for being part of the community,

Eric

Posted in Automation, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chinese, Community Preview, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015 |

Category: Benchmarking

WebXPRT 2015

Looking at the data

The XPRTs at IDF15 Shenzhen

Time for a merger of equals?

A couple of things

WebXPRT 2015 Community Preview is available!

Check out the other XPRTs: