Category: Chrome OS

TouchXPRT: a great tool for evaluating Windows performance

on April 4, 2019

From time to time, we remember that some XPRT users have experience with only one or two of the benchmark tools in our portfolio. They might have bookmarked a link to WebXPRT they found in a tech review or copied the HDXPRT installer package from a flash drive in their lab, but are unaware of other members of the XPRT family that could be useful to them. To spread the word on the range of capabilities the XPRTs offer, we occasionally highlight one of the XPRT tools in the blog . Last week, we discussed CrXPRT, a benchmark for evaluating the performance and battery life of Chrome OS devices. Today, we focus on TouchXPRT, our app for evaluating the performance of Windows 10 devices.

While our first benchmark, HDXPRT, is a great tool for assessing how well Windows machines handle media creation tasks using real commercial applications, it’s simply too large to run on most Windows tablets, 2-in-1s, and laptops with limited memory. To test those devices, we developed the latest version of TouchXPRT as a Universal Windows Platform app. As a Windows app, installing TouchXPRT is easy and quick (about 15 minutes). It runs five tests that simulate common photo, video, and music editing tasks; measures how quickly the device completes each of those tasks; and provides an overall score. It takes about 15 minutes to run on most devices. Labs can also automate testing using the command line or a script.

Want to run TouchXPRT?

Download TouchXPRT from the Microsoft Store or from TouchXPRT.com. The TouchXPRT 2016 release notes provide step-by-step instructions. To compare device scores, go to the TouchXPRT 2016 results page, where you’ll find scores from many Windows 10 devices.

Want to dig into the details?

Check out the Exploring TouchXPRT 2016 white paper. In it, we discuss the TouchXPRT development process, its component tests and workloads, and how it calculates individual workload and overall scores. We also provide instructions for automated testing.

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community members also have access to the TouchXPRT source code, so consider joining the community today. There’s no obligation and membership is free for members of any company or organization with an interest in benchmarks.

If you’ve been looking for a Windows performance evaluation tool that’s easy to use and has the flexibility of a UWP app, give TouchXPRT a try and let us know what you think!

Justin

Posted in Battery life, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chrome OS, CrXPRT, HDXPRT, Performance benchmarking, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT release cycle, TouchXPRT results, WebXPRT, Windows 10 | Tagged 2-in-1, CrXPRT, HDXPRT, laptop, PC, Performance, tablet, TouchXPRT, WebXPRT, Windows 10 |

CrXPRT is more valuable than ever

By Justin Greene

on March 28, 2019

Digital Trends recently published an article discussing various rumors about the future of the Google Pixelbook line. Pixelbooks were some of the first Chromebooks with high-end hardware specs, and they were priced accordingly. Whether or not the rumors discussed in the article turn out to be true, the author points out that the Pixelbook prompted several other vendors, such as HP and Lenovo, to take a chance on high-end Chromebooks. It seems like high-end Chromebooks are here to stay, but given the unique constraints of the Chrome OS environment, buyers are often unsure if it’s worth it to shell out the extra money for a premium model.

We developed CrXPRT to help buyers answer these questions. CrXPRT is a benchmark tool that measures the battery life of your Chromebook as well as how fast it handles everyday tasks like playing video games, watching movies, editing pictures, and doing homework. The performance test gives you individual workload scores and an overall score based on the speed of the device. The battery life test produces an estimated battery life time, a separate performance score, and a frames-per-second (FPS) rate for a built-in HTML5 gaming component.

You don’t have to be a tech journalist or even a techie to use CrXPRT. To learn more, check out the links below.

Testing the performance or battery life of your Chromebook

Simply download CrXPRT from the Chrome Web Store. Installation is quick and easy, and the CrXPRT 2015 user manual provides step-by-step instructions. A typical performance test takes about 15 minutes, and a battery life test will take 3.5 hours once the system is charged and configured for testing. If you’d like to see how your score compares to other Chromebooks, visit the CrXPRT results page.

Want to know more?

Read the Exploring CrXPRT 2015 white paper, where we discuss the concepts behind CrXPRT, its development process, and the app’s structure. We also describe the component tests and explain the statistical processes used to calculate expected battery life.

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community members also have access to the CrXPRT source code, so if you’re interested, join today! There’s no obligation and membership is free for members of any company or organization with an interest in benchmarks.

Give CrXPRT a try and let us know what you think!

Justin

Posted in Battery life, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chrome OS, Chromebooks, Google, Google Chrome, What makes a good benchmark? | Tagged battery life, BenchmarkXPRT, Chrome OS, Chromebook, CrXPRT, laptops, Performance, Pixelbook |

CrXPRT in the Chrome Web Store

By Justin Greene

on September 13, 2018

Testers searching for CrXPRT in the Chrome Web Store may be puzzled to see “no results.” While CrXPRT no longer appears in Chrome Web Store searches, the app is still live in the store and there’s nothing wrong with it. CrXPRT is freely available and functioning normally, but you can access it only through a direct link. It’s an unusual situation that results from a strategic decision by the Chrome team, a decision affecting many apps in addition to CrXPRT.

For several years, Chrome supported two types of apps—hosted apps that wrap online websites, and packaged apps that have offline capability. CrXPRT is a packaged app built for Chrome OS. In December 2017, the Chrome team stopped providing search and browse functions for hosted and packaged apps in the Chrome Web Store. Instead, they’re encouraging folks to develop Progressive Web Apps. You can read about the reasoning behind this decision on the Chromium blog. Despite this shift in focus, the Chrome Web store will continue to support existing apps packaged for Chrome OS.

In short, the Chrome Web Store will support CrXPRT for the foreseeable future, and we’ll continue to issue any necessary bug fixes through the store. With the help of the community, we’ll reevaluate CrXPRT next year and decide the best way forward for the app. In the meantime, you can access CrXPRT from the direct link below and from CrXPRT.com. Note that the direct link may take you to a splash page if you use an unsupported platform.

CrXPRT 2015: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/crxprt/hiajijaeaacmnpjpkcfnhohmaijanjgf

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Justin

Posted in Chrome OS, Chromebooks, Collaborative benchmark development, CrXPRT, Google Chrome, Performance benchmarking | Tagged Apps, Chrome, Chrome Web Store, Chromebooks, CrXPRT |

A note about a recent CrXPRT update

By Justin Greene

on June 21, 2018

A tester from Acer recently contacted us about an issue where CrXPRT was freezing indefinitely during the Photo Effects workload. We initially thought the problem was limited to a specific hardware platform or Chrome OS version, but soon discovered the issue was affecting all CrXPRT tests, regardless of the system.

After quite a bit of troubleshooting, we were able to find and fix what turned out to be simple bug. The problem started with a change we made to increase security and strengthen compliance with GDPR by moving all our web pages to HTTPS. Specifically, we added a redirect that forced principledtechnologies.com to www.principledtechnologies.com. Chrome apps have a manifest property that defines which websites can connect to the application. Because we hadn’t reconfigured the CrXPRT path permissions to account for the new redirect, the test failed. We made the necessary edits to the manifest, tested the fix, and uploaded the updated package (build number 1.0.2.1) to the Chrome Web Store.

If you’re still encountering this problem during testing, check to be sure the app has updated on your system. The changes we made do not affect performance, and all completed CrXPRT test scores from before and after the update are valid and comparable.

We’re grateful whenever community members report issues! If you ever have any problems, questions, or comments regarding any of the XPRTs, please feel free to contact us.

Justin

Posted in Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, Chrome OS, Chromebooks, CrXPRT, Google Chrome, JavaScript, Performance benchmarking |

CrXPRT helps to navigate the changing Chromebook market

By Justin Greene

on June 7, 2018

Some people envision Chromebooks as low-end, plastic-shelled laptops that large organizations buy in bulk because they’re inexpensive and easy to manage. While many sub-$200 Chromebooks are still available, the platform is no longer limited to budget chipsets and little memory. Consumers can now choose systems that feature up to 16 GB of RAM, 8th generation Intel Core CPUs, and Core i7 configurations for those willing to pay around $1,600. In addition, some Chromebooks can now run Android apps, Microsoft Office mobile apps, Linux apps, and even Windows apps. While Chromebooks still depend heavily on connectivity and cloud storage, an increasing number of Chrome apps let you perform substantial productivity tasks offline. The Chrome OS landscape has changed so much that for certain use cases, the practical hardware gap between Chromebooks and traditional laptops is narrowing.

More consumers might be interested in Chromebooks than was the case a few years ago, but how they make sense of all the devices on the market? CrXPRT can help by providing objective data on Chromebook performance and battery life. Steven J. Vaughan Nichols offered a great example of the value CrXPRT can provide in his recent ZDNet article on the new Core i7-based Google Pixelbook. The Pixelbook’s CrXPRT score of 226 showed that it performs everyday tasks faster than any of the Chromebooks in our results database. When trying to decide whether it’s worth spending a few hundred or even a thousand dollars more on a new Chromebook, having the right data in hand can transform guesses into well-informed decisions.

You don’t have to be a tech journalist or even a techie to use CrXPRT. If you’d like to learn more about CrXPRT, we encourage you to read the CrXPRT feature here in the blog or visit CrXPRT.com.

Justin

Posted in Chrome OS, Chromebooks, CrXPRT, Google, Google Chrome, Linux, Uncategorized |

Nothing to hide

By Eric Hale

on November 9, 2017

I recently saw an article in ZDNet by my old friend Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols that talks about how NetMarketShare and StatCounter reported a significant jump in the operating system market shares for Linux and Chrome OS. One frustration Vaughan-Nichols alluded to in the article is the lack of transparency into how these firms calculated market share, so he can’t gauge how reliable they are. Because neither NetMarketShare nor StatCounter disclosed their methods, there’s no sure way for interested observers to verify the numbers. Steven prefers the data from the federal government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP). DAP makes its data freely available, so you can run your own calculations. Transparency generates trust.

Transparency is a core value for the XPRTs. We’ve written before about how statistics can be misleading. That’s why we’ve always disclosed exactly how the XPRTs calculate performance results, and the way BatteryXPRT calculates battery life. It’s also why we make each XPRT’s source code available to community members. We want to be open and honest about how we do things, and our open development community model fosters the kind of constructive feedback that helps to continually improve the XPRTs.

We’d love for you to be a part of that process, so if you have questions or suggestions for improvement, let us know. If you’d like to gain access to XPRT source code and previews of upcoming benchmarks, today is a great day to join the community!

Eric

Posted in Battery life, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chrome OS, Collaborative benchmark development, What makes a good benchmark? |

Category: Chrome OS

TouchXPRT: a great tool for evaluating Windows performance

Want to run TouchXPRT?

Want to dig into the details?

CrXPRT is more valuable than ever

CrXPRT in the Chrome Web Store

A note about a recent CrXPRT update

CrXPRT helps to navigate the changing Chromebook market

Nothing to hide

Check out the other XPRTs: