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Category: Cross-platform benchmarks

Side by side

We’re making a big upgrade to the Spotlight: It will now let you make side-by-side comparisons of any of the devices we’ve featured. You’ll also be able to filter devices by type.

We’ve also added pricing information to the Spotlight. The price of a device can vary a lot, depending on the options you select. We give you the price we paid for the device as we tested it. Because prices can vary over time, we also give the date when we bought the device.

We think these changes will make the Spotlight an even more powerful tool for helping with buying decisions.

We also created a special page, the Back to School Roundup. It provides side-by-side comparisons of 13 of the hottest devices to help families and students choose the right ones for their educational needs. We include a range of device types—all-in-ones, Chromebooks, convertibles, laptops, and tablets—and operating systems—Chrome OS, OS X, and Windows.

Going forward, we’ll be adding more advanced querying features. Of course, we’ll also add new devices every week.

Check it out! And, if you have any ideas about how to make the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight more useful, let us know!

Eric

Feedback

We’re excited by the high level of interest the community and vendors have shown in the upcoming cross-platform MobileXPRT benchmark. We’ve received general observations about what a cross-platform benchmark should be, along with detailed suggestions about tests, subsystems, and benchmark architecture. We appreciate all of the responses and welcome more, so please keep them coming!

The number-one concern we’ve heard is that we be sure the benchmark tests all platforms fairly. Transparency will be essential to assure users that the tests are performing the same work on all platforms and performing the work in the appropriate way for each platform.

Fortunately, the XPRTs are well positioned to address that concern. From the beginning, we have used a community model. The source code is available to all members, which is the ultimate in transparency.  (If you’re not a community member, it’s easy to join!)

Speaking of source code, we released TouchXPRT source code to the community this week. Members can download the source here (login required).

Eric

Looking ahead

It’s only been a couple of weeks since we announced a cross-platform XPRT. It’s still early days, but we’ve already started getting ideas from vendors and media—from both people within the community and those who have not yet joined. We’re incorporating these ideas into our investigations, and plan to be sending a design document for the community to critique in a few weeks.

However, we are always looking ahead and Bill’s trip to IDF16 got us thinking about future benchmarks. Virtual reality is obviously going to be big. Bill said that he thinks he saw more things using the Oculus Rift than there are Oculus Rifts in the world! The Internet of Things has been ramping up for a while now, and shows no sign of slowing down. Computer vision is another emerging area, one with many possible applications. There are a lot of exciting possibilities!

As always, we want to know what you think. What upcoming technologies are you excited about? What would like to see in these benchmarks? Please let us know!

Eric

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