Recently, a tester contacted us with details from a CrXPRT 2 performance test run that they’d successfully completed on… an Apple MacBook Pro! Because CrXPRT 2 is a Chrome Web App that we designed for Chrome OS, it was quite a surprise to hear that it is now possible to run CrXPRT 2 on non-Chrome OS platforms by using FydeOS.
FydeOS is an operating system based on a fork of the Chromium OS project. Developers originally intended FydeOS to be a Google-independent, Chrome-like alternative for the Chinese educational market, but FydeOS is now available to the English-speaking consumer and enterprise markets as well. FydeOS users can run a Chrome-like OS on something other than a Chromebook or a Chromebox, such as a PC, Mac, virtual machine, or even a Raspberry Pi device. Additionally, FydeOS supports Android, Chrome OS, and Linux apps, and users can run those apps at the same time on the same screen.
We have not yet conducted any testing with FydeOS in our lab, but we wanted to pass along this information to any readers who may be interested. If the OS operates as described, it may provide a way for us to experiment with using CrXPRT 2 in some interesting cross-platform tests.
From time to time, we like to run a series of in-house WebXPRT comparison tests to see if recent updates have changed the performance rankings of popular web browsers. We published our most recent comparison last October, when we used WebXPRT 3 to compare Windows 10 and Windows 11 browser performance on the same system. Now that WebXPRT 4 is live, it’s time to update our comparison series with the newest member of the XPRT family.
For this round of tests, we used a Dell
XPS 13 7930, which features an Intel Core i3-10110U processor and 4 GB of RAM, running
Windows 11 Home updated to version 21H2 (22000.593). We installed all current
Windows updates and tested on a clean system image. After the update process
completed, we turned off updates to prevent them from interfering with test
runs. We ran WebXPRT 4 three times each across five browsers: Brave, Google
Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. The posted score for each
browser is the median of the three test runs.
In our previous round of tests with WebXPRT 3, Google Chrome narrowly beat out Firefox in Windows 10 and Windows 11 testing, but the scores among three of the Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, and Opera) were close enough that most users performing common daily tasks would be unlikely to notice a difference. Brave performance lagged by about 7 percent, a difference that may be noticeable to most users. This time, when testing updated versions of the browsers with WebXPRT 4 on Windows 11, the rankings changed. Edge was the clear winner, with a 2.2 percent performance advantage over Chrome. Firefox came in last, about 3 percent slower than Opera, which was in the middle of the pack. Performance from Brave improved to the point that it was no longer lagging the other Chromium-based browsers.
Do these results mean that Microsoft
Edge will always provide you with a speedier web experience? A device with a
higher WebXPRT score will probably feel faster during daily use than one with a
lower score. For comparisons on the same system, however, the answer depends in
part on the types of things you do on the web, how the extensions you’ve
installed affect performance, how frequently the browsers issue updates and
incorporate new web technologies, and how accurately each browser’s default
installation settings reflect how you would set up that browser for your daily
workflow.
In addition, browser speed can
increase or decrease significantly after an update, only to swing back in the
other direction shortly thereafter. OS-specific optimizations can also affect
performance, such as with Edge on Windows 11 and Chrome on Chrome OS. All these
variables are important to keep in mind when considering how WebXPRT results
translate to your everyday experience.
Do you have insights you’d like to share from using WebXPRT to compare browser performance? Let us know!
Last March, we discussed the Chrome OS team’s original announcement that they would be phasing out support for Chrome Apps altogether in June 2021, and would shift their focus to Chrome extensions and Progressive Web Apps. The Chrome OS team eventually extended support for existing Chrome Apps through June 2022, but as of this week, we see no indication that they will further extend support for Chrome Apps published with general developer accounts. If the end-of-life schedule for Chrome Apps does not change in the next few months, both CrXPRT 2 and CrXPRT 2015 will stop working on new versions of Chrome OS at some point in June.
To maintain CrXPRT
functionality past June, we would need to rebuild the app completely—either as
a Progressive Web App or in some other form. For this reason, we want to
reassess our approach to Chrome OS testing, and investigate which features and
technologies to include in a new Chrome OS benchmark. Our current goal is to
gather feedback and conduct exploratory research over the next few months, and begin
developing an all-new Chrome OS benchmark for publication by the end of the
year.
While we will discuss ideas for this new Chrome OS benchmark in future blog posts, we welcome ideas from CrXPRT users now. What features or workloads would you like the new benchmark to retain? Would you like us to remove any components from the existing benchmark? Does the battery life test in its current form suit your needs? If you have any thoughts about these questions or any other aspects of Chrome OS benchmarking, please let us know!
During
some recent internal WebXPRT 4 Preview
testing, we discovered that the WebXPRT 4 Preview does not run in Internet
Explorer (IE) 11. In fact, before the first workload begins in IE, the WebXPRT
4 built-in WebAssembly (WASM) check fails and produces an error message.
The
reason we haven’t tested WebXPRT 4 on IE 11 before now is that Internet
Explorer is currently in its end-of-life phase. Microsoft has been removing
support for IE 11 in Microsoft 365 and other apps for some time, they did not
include the desktop version of IE 11 in Windows 11, and they are removing support for IE 11
in Windows 10 on June 15, 2022. Among Windows users, the most popular browsers
are now Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.
We’re
proud that WebXPRT has historically had broad, cross-platform compatibility in
almost any browser. However, the modern web is rapidly incorporating powerful
tools such as WASM that do not work in older legacy browsers. To maintain the
benchmark’s relevance in future years, we need to deprioritize some level of
legacy compatibility, and this begins with WebXPRT 4 release.
For
the WebXPRT testers who wish to continue testing with IE 11, WebXPRT 3 will remain
on our site for the foreseeable future. Barring any further changes from
Microsoft, the benchmark should continue to run in existing instances of the Internet
Explorer desktop app.
The official WebXPRT 4 launch is approaching, and we hope to announce the release date within the next few weeks! Until that time, we will continue to share the latest updates here in the blog. If you have any questions or comments about WebXPRT 4 or compatibility with legacy browsers, please feel free to contact us!
Recently,
we heard from a BenchmarkXPRT Development Community member who was testing
Chromebooks in their lab. On a few of the Chromebooks, they saw sporadic CrXPRT
2 battery life test failures where CrXPRT 2 would successfully complete a
battery life test and produce a result for the initial run, but then fail at
the end of later runs.
After
a considerable amount of troubleshooting, they determined that the issue seemed
to be related to the way some systems automatically shut down before the
battery is completely exhausted, and the way some systems will automatically
boot up once the tester plugs in the power adapter for charging. This member found
that when they added a few system configuration steps before battery life tests
and made slight changes to their post-test routine, the systems that had
previously experienced consistent failures would successfully complete battery
life tests and produce results.
The
added steps are quick and straightforward, and we decided to add them to the
Configuring the test device and Running the tests sections of the CrXPRT 2 user manual.
We hope this updated guidance will help to prevent future frustration for
CrXPRT 2 testers.
If you have any questions or comments about the CrXPRT 2 battery life test, please feel free to contact us!
The holiday season is
fast approaching, and with widespread product shortages and supply chain
interruptions in the tech industry, it’s wise to start your holiday shopping
now. If you’re considering phones, tablets, Chromebooks, or laptops as gifts,
but are unsure where to get reliable information about the devices, the XPRTs can
help!
One of the core
functions of the XPRTs is to cut through the marketing noise by providing
objective, reliable measures of a device’s performance. For example, instead of
trying to guess whether a new Chromebook is fast enough to handle the demands
of remote learning, you can use its CrXPRT and WebXPRT performance scores to see how it stacks up against the
competition on everyday tasks.
A good place to start looking
for device scores is our XPRT results browser, which lets you access our database of more than 2,800 test
results from over 110 sources, including major tech review publications around
the world, OEMs, and independent testers. You can find a wealth of current and
historical performance data across all the XPRT benchmarks and hundreds of
devices. Learn how to use the results browser here.
If you’re considering
a popular device, chances are good that a recent tech review includes an XPRT
score for that device. You can find these reviews by going to your favorite
tech review site and searching for “XPRT,” or entering the name of the device
and the appropriate XPRT (e.g., “Apple iPad” and “WebXPRT”) in a search engine.
Here are a few recent tech reviews that use one or more of the XPRTs to
evaluate popular devices:
The XPRTs can help
consumers make better-informed and more confident tech purchases this holiday
season, and we hope you’ll find the data you need on our site or in an
XPRT-related tech review. If you have any questions about the XPRTs, XPRT
scores, or the results database please feel free to ask!
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