Category: CrXPRT

The 2018 XPRT Spotlight Back-to-School Roundup

on August 9, 2018

With the new school year approaching, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve just published our third annual XPRT Spotlight Back-to-School Roundup! The Roundup allows shoppers to view side-by-side comparisons of XPRT test scores and hardware specs from some of this school year’s most popular Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, and convertibles. We tested the devices in our lab using the XPRT benchmarks and provide not only performance scores, but also photo galleries, PT-verified device specs, and prices. Parents, teachers, students, and administrators who are considering purchases for use in their education environments have many options, and the Roundup can help make their decisions easier by gathering product and performance facts in one convenient place. We’ll continue to add devices to the Roundup, including the new Microsoft Surface Go, as they arrive over the next few weeks.

The Back-to-School Roundup is just one of the features we offer through the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight. Every week, the Spotlight highlights a new device, making it easier for consumers to select a new laptop, phone, tablet, or PC. Recent devices in the Spotlight include the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, the 2018 Samsung Chromebook Plus, the Intel Hades Canyon NUC mini PC, and the OnePlus 6 phone. The Spotlight device comparison page lets you view side-by-side comparisons of all of the devices we’ve tested.

If you’re interested in having your devices featured in the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight or in this year’s Black Friday and Holiday Showcases, which we publish in late November, visit the website for more details.

If you have any ideas for the Spotlight page or suggestions for devices you’d like to see, let us know!

Justin

Posted in Battery life, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, CrXPRT, Education, Mobile data, TouchXPRT, WebXPRT, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight | Tagged convertible, education, laptop, PC, school, Spotlight, tech, XPRT Spotlight |

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 |

Find the perfect tech gift with the XPRT Spotlight Black Friday Showcase

By Justin Greene

on November 16, 2017

With the biggest shopping day of the year fast approaching, you might be feeling overwhelmed by the sea of tech gifts to choose from. Luckily, the XPRTs are here to help. We’ve gathered the product specs and performance facts for the hottest tech devices in one convenient place—the XPRT Spotlight Black Friday Showcase. This free shopping tool provides side-by-side comparisons of some of the season’s most coveted smartphones, laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and PCs. Most importantly, it helps you make informed buying decisions so you can breeze through this season’s holiday shopping.

Want to know how the Google Pixel 2 compares to the Apple iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in web browsing performance or screen size? Simply select any two devices and click the compare button to see how they stack up against each other. You can also search by device type if you’re interested in a specific form factor such as consoles or tablets.

The Showcase doesn’t go away after Black Friday. We’ll rename it the XPRT Holiday Buying Guide and continue to add devices throughout the shopping season. So be sure to check back in and see how your tech gifts measure up.

If this is your first time reading about the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, here’s a little background. Our hands-on testing process equips consumers with accurate information about how devices function in the real world. We test devices using our industry-standard BenchmarkXPRT tools: WebXPRT, MobileXPRT, TouchXPRT, CrXPRT, BatteryXPRT, and HDXPRT. In addition to benchmark results, we include photographs, specs, and prices for all products. New devices come online weekly, and you can browse the full list of almost 100 that we’ve featured to date on the Spotlight page.

If you represent a device vendor and want us to feature your product in the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, please visit the website for more details.

Do you have suggestions for the Spotlight page or device recommendations? Let us know!

Justin

Posted in Apple, BenchmarkXPRT, Chromebooks, Laptops, PCs, Phones, Tablets, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight |

The XPRT Spotlight Back-to-School Roundup

By Justin Greene

on August 17, 2017

Today, we’re pleased to announce our second annual XPRT Spotlight Back-to-School Roundup, a free shopping tool that provides side-by-side comparisons of this school year’s most popular Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, and convertibles. We designed the Roundup to help buyers choosing devices for education, such as college students picking out a laptop or school administrators deciding on the devices for a grade. The Roundup can help make those decisions easier by gathering the product and performance facts these buyers need in one convenient place.

We tested the Roundup devices in our lab using the XPRT suite of benchmark tools. In addition to benchmark results, we also provide photographs, device specs, and prices.

If you haven’t yet visited the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight page, check it out. Every week, the Spotlight highlights a new device, making it easier for consumers to shop for a new laptop, smartphone, tablet, or PC. Recent devices in the spotlight include the Samsung Chromebook Pro, Microsoft Surface Laptop, Microsoft Surface Pro, OnePlus 5, and Apple iPad Pro 10.5”.

Vendors interested in having their devices featured in the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight or next year’s Roundup can visit the website for more details.

We’re always working on ways to make the Spotlight an even more powerful tool for helping with buying decisions. If you have any ideas for the page or suggestions for devices you’d like to see, let us know!

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, Chromebooks, Education, Mobile devices, Performance benchmarking, Tablets, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight |

MobileXPRT: evaluate the performance of your Android device

By Justin Greene

on July 27, 2017

We recently discussed the capabilities and benefits of TouchXPRT, CrXPRT, BatteryXPRT, and HDXPRT. This week, we’re focusing on MobileXPRT, an app that evaluates how well an Android device handles everyday tasks. Like the other XPRT family benchmarks, MobileXPRT is easy to use. It takes less than 15 minutes to run on most devices, runs relatable workloads, and delivers reliable, objective, and easy-to-understand results.

MobileXPRT includes five performance scenarios (Apply Photo Effects, Create Photo Collages, Create Slideshow, Encrypt Personal Content, and Detect Faces to Organize Photos). By default, the benchmark runs all five tasks and reports individual workload scores and an overall performance score.

MobileXPRT 2015 is the latest version of the app, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware running Android 4.4 or higher. To test systems running older versions of Android, or to test 32-bit performance on a 64-bit system, you can use MobileXPRT 2013. The results of the two versions are comparable.

MobileXPRT is a useful tool for anyone who wants to compare the performance capabilities of Android phones or tablets. To see test results from a variety of systems, go to MobileXPRT.com and click View Results, where you’ll find scores from many different Android devices.

If you’d like to run MobileXPRT:

Simply download MobileXPRT from MobileXPRT.com or the Google Play Store. The full installer package on MobileXPRT.com, containing both app and test data, is 243 MB. You may also use this link to download the 18 MB MobileXPRT app file, which will download the test data during installation. The MobileXPRT user manual provides instructions for configuring your device and kicking off a test.

If you’d like to dig into the details:

Check out the Exploring MobileXPRT 2015 white paper. In it, we discuss the MobileXPRT development process and details of the individual performance scenarios. We also explain exactly how the benchmark calculates results.

If you’d like to dig even deeper, the MobileXPRT source code is available to members of the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, so consider joining today. Membership is free for members of any company or organization with an interest in benchmarks, and there are no obligations after joining.

If you haven’t used MobileXPRT before, give it a shot and let us know what you think!

Justin

Posted in Android, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, CrXPRT, HDXPRT, Mobile devices, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2015, Performance benchmarking, TouchXPRT, WebXPRT |

Category: CrXPRT

The 2018 XPRT Spotlight Back-to-School Roundup

A note about a recent CrXPRT update

CrXPRT helps to navigate the changing Chromebook market

Find the perfect tech gift with the XPRT Spotlight Black Friday Showcase

The XPRT Spotlight Back-to-School Roundup

MobileXPRT: evaluate the performance of your Android device

If you’d like to run MobileXPRT:

If you’d like to dig into the details:

Check out the other XPRTs: