Category: Mobile devices

Thoughts from MWC Shanghai 2018

on June 28, 2018

Ni hao from Shanghai! It is amazing the change that happens in a year. This year’s MWC Shanghai, like last year’s, took up about half of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). “5G +” is the major theme and, unlike last year, 5G is not something in the distant future. It is now assumed to be in progress.

The biggest of the pluses was AI, with a number of booths explicitly sporting 5G + AI signage. There were also 5G plus robots, cars, and cloud services. Many of those are really about AI as well. The show makes it feel like 5G is everywhere and will make everything better (or at least a lot faster). And Asia is leading the way.

[caption id="attachment_3447" align="alignleft" width="640"]

5G + robotics at MWCS 18.[/caption]

Most of the booths touted their 5G support as they did last year, but rather than talking about the future, they tried to say that their 5G was now. They claimed their products were in real-world tests with anticipated deployment schedules. One of the keynote speakers talked about 1.2 billion 5G connections by 2025, with more than half of those in Asia. The purported scale and speed of the transition to 5G is staggering.

[caption id="attachment_3449" align="alignleft" width="640"]

The keynote stage, displaying some big numbers.[/caption]

The last two halls I visited showed that world is not all 5G and AI. These halls looked at current fun applications of mobile technologies and companies developing technologies in the near future. MWC allowed children into one of the halls, where they (and we adults) could fly drones and experience VR technology. I watched in some amusement as people crashed drones, rode bikes with VR gear to simulate horses, were 3D scanned, and generally tried out new tech that didn’t always work.

The second hall included small booths from new companies working on future technologies that might be ready “4 years from now” (4YFN). These companies did not have much to show yet, but each booth displayed the company name and a short phrase summing up their future tech. That led to “Deepscent Labs is a smart scent data company,” ChineSpain is a “Marketplace of experiences for Chinese tourists in Spain,” and “Juice is a tech-based music contents startup that creates an ecosystem of music.” The mind boggles!

The XPRTs’ foray into AI with AIXPRT seems well timed based on this show. Other areas from this show that may be worth considering for the XPRTs are 5G and the cloud. We would love to hear your thoughts on those areas. We know they are important, but do you need the XPRTs and their emphasis on real-world benchmarks and workloads in those areas? Drop us a line and let us know!

Bill

Posted in 5G, AI, AIXPRT, AR, Augmented reality, Automated cars, Future of performance evaluation, IoT, Mobile data, Mobile devices, Mobile World Congress, Virtual reality | Tagged 5G, AI, China, mobile, Mobile World Shanghai, MWC, Shanghai, VR |

More on the way for the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight

By Justin Greene

on May 24, 2018

In the coming months, we’ll continue to add more devices and helpful features to the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight. We’re especially interested in adding data points and visual aids that make it easier to quickly understand the context of each device’s test scores. For instance, those of us who are familiar with WebXPRT 3 scores know that an overall score of 250 is pretty high, but site visitors who are unfamiliar with WebXPRT probably won’t know how that score compares to scores for other devices.

We designed Spotlight to be a source of objective data, in contrast to sites that provide subjective ratings for devices. As we pursue our goal of helping users make sense of scores, we want to maintain this objectivity and avoid presenting information in ways that could be misleading.

Introducing comparison aids to the site is forcing us to make some tricky decisions. Because we value input from XPRT community members, we’d love to hear your thoughts on one of the questions we’re facing: How should our default view present a device’s score?

We see three options:

1) Present the device’s score in relation to the overall high and low scores for that benchmark across all devices.
2) Present the device’s score in relation to the overall high and low scores for that benchmark across the broad category of devices to which that device belongs (e.g., phones).
3) Present the device’s score in relation to the overall high and low scores for that benchmark across a narrower sub-category of devices to which that device belongs (e.g., high-end flagship phones).

To think this through, consider WebXPRT, which runs on desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, and other devices. Typically, the WebXPRT scores for phones and tablets are lower than scores for desktop and laptop systems. The first approach helps to show just how fast high-end desktops and laptops handle the WebXPRT workloads, but it could make a phone or tablet look slow, even if its score was good for its category. The second approach would prevent unfair default comparisons between different device types but would still present comparisons between devices that are not true competitors (e.g., flagship phones vs. budget phones). The third approach is the most careful, but would introduce an element of subjectivity because determining the sub-category in which a device belongs is not always clear cut.

Do you have thoughts on this subject, or recommendations for Spotlight in general? If so, Let us know.

Justin

Posted in Cross-platform benchmarks, Mobile devices, Performance of computing devices, Performance testing on tablets, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 3, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight | Tagged benchmark, desktops, laptops, phones, Spotlight, tablets, WebXPRT, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight |

The value of speed

By Bill Catchings

on May 3, 2018

I was reading an interesting article on how high-end smartphones like the iPhone X, Pixel 2 XL, and Galaxy S8 generate more money from in-game revenue than cheaper phones do.

One line stood out to me: “With smartphones becoming faster, larger and more capable of delivering an engaging gaming experience, these monetization key performance indicators (KPIs) have begun to increase significantly.”

It turns out the game companies totally agree with the rest of us that faster devices are better!

Regardless of who is seeking better performance—consumers or game companies—the obvious question is how you determine which models are fastest. Many folks rely on device vendors’ claims about how much faster the new model is. Unfortunately, the vendors’ claims don’t always specify on what they base the claims. Even when they do, it’s hard to know whether the numbers are accurate and applicable to how you use your device.

The key part of any answer is performance tools that are representative, dependable, and open.

Representative – Performance tools need to have realistic workloads that do things that you care about.
Dependable – Good performance tools run reliably and produce repeatable results, both of which require that significant work go into their development and testing.
Open – Performance tools that allow people to access the source code, and even contribute to it, keep things above the table and reassure you that you can rely on the results.

Our goal with the XPRTs is to provide performance tools that meet all these criteria. WebXPRT 3 and all our other XPRTs exist to help accurately reveal how devices perform. You can run them yourself or rely on the wealth of results that we and others have collected on a wide array of devices.

The best thing about good performance tools is that everyone, even vendors, can use them. I sincerely hope that you find the XPRTs helpful when you make your next technology purchase.

Bill

Posted in Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, Benchmarking computing devices, Mobile devices, Performance benchmarking, Performance of computing devices, Phones, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 3, What makes a good benchmark? |

New opportunities for TouchXPRT

By Justin Greene

on March 29, 2018

Next week’s XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight will feature a unique device: the HP Envy x2 2-in-1. The first device of its kind on the market, the Envy x2 runs Windows 10 on ARM hardware—in this case, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform. ASUS and Lenovo will release similar devices in the coming months. Using the ARM chips found in many flagship phones, these devices aim to power robust operating systems on 2-in-1s and laptops while providing extended battery life and always-on LTE connections.

These new devices bring ample opportunities for benchmarking. Consumers will want to know about potential trade-offs between price, power, and battery life—incentivizing tech reviewers to dive into the details and provide useful data points. But for the new Windows on ARM systems, the usual benchmarks have presented challenges. Many traditional laptop benchmarks just won’t work on the new systems. TouchXPRT, however, works like a charm.

TouchXPRT assesses performance on any Windows device. Since it’s a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app that runs on both x86 and ARM systems, it can evaluate how well a Windows device running on ARM hardware performs compared to traditional laptops and 2-in-1s. It’s easy to install, takes about 15 minutes to run, and you can download it directly from TouchXPRT.com or install it from the Microsoft Store. Labs can also automate testing using the command line or a script.

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. Read more details about TouchXPRT here, and please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.

Justin

Posted in Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, Mobile devices, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT results, Windows 10 |

The XPRTs in action

By Justin Greene

on March 22, 2018

In the near future, we’ll update our “XPRTs around the world” infographic, which provides a snapshot of how people are using the XPRTs worldwide. Among other stats, we include the number of XPRT web mentions, articles, and reviews that have appeared during a given period. Recently, we learned how one of those statistics—a single web site mention of WebXPRT—found its way to consumers in more places than we would have imagined.

Late last month, AnandTech published a performance comparison by Andrei Frumusanu examining the Samsung Galaxy S9’s Snapdragon 845 and Exynos 9810 variants and a number of other high-end phones. WebXPRT was one of the benchmarking tools used. The article stated that both versions of the brand-new S9 were slower than the iPhone X and, in some tests, were slower than even the iPhone 7.

A CNET video discussed the article and the role of WebXPRT in the performance comparison, and the article has been reposted to hundreds of tech media sites around the world. A quick survey shows reposts in Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Chile, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Italy Japan, Korea, Poland, Russia, Spain, Slovakia, Turkey, and many other countries.

The popularity of the article is not surprising, for it positions the newest flagship phones from the industry’s two largest phone makers in a head-to-head comparison with a somewhat unexpected outcome. AnandTech did nothing to stir controversy or sensationalize the test results, but simply provided readers with an objective, balanced assessment of how these devices compare so that they could draw their own conclusions. The XPRTs share this approach.

We’re grateful to Andrei and others at AnandTech who’ve used the XPRTs over the years to produce content that helps consumers make informed decisions. WebXPRT is just part of AnandTech’s toolkit, but it’s one that’s accessible to anybody free of charge. With the help of BenchmarkXPRT Development Community members, we’ll continue to publish XPRT tools that help users everywhere gain valuable insight into device performance.

Justin

Posted in AnandTech, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Browser-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, Mobile devices, Performance benchmarking, Performance of computing devices, Phones, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015 |

WebXPRT 3, Mobile World Congress, and the next HDXPRT

By Justin Greene

on February 8, 2018

We’re excited about everything that’s in store for the XPRTs, and we want to update community members on what to expect in the next few months.

The next major development is likely to be the WebXPRT 3 general release. We’re currently refining the UI and conducting extensive testing with the community preview build. We’re not ready to announce a firm release date, but hope to do so over the next few weeks. Please try the community preview and give us your feedback, if you haven’t already.

During the last week of February, Mark will be at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Each year, MWC offers a great opportunity to examine the new trends and technologies that will shape mobile technology in the years to come. We look forward to sharing Mark’s thoughts on this year’s hot topics. Will you be attending MWC this year? If so, let us know!

In addition, we’re hoping to have a community preview of the next HDXPRT ready in the spring. As we mentioned a few months ago, we’re updating the workloads, applications, and UI. For the converting photos scenario, we’re considering incorporating new Adobe Photoshop tools such as the “Open Closed Eyes” feature and an automatic fix for pictures that are out of focus due to handheld camera shake. For the converting videos scenario, we’re including 4K GoPro footage that represents the quality of video captured by today’s “prosumer” demographic.

What features would you like to see in the next HDXPRT? Let us know!

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Browser-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, Future of performance evaluation, HDXPRT, HDXPRT release cycle, Mobile devices, Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress, Performance benchmarking, Trade Shows, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 3 | Tagged HDXPRT, Mobile World Congress, MWC, WebXPRT |

Category: Mobile devices

Thoughts from MWC Shanghai 2018

More on the way for the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight

The value of speed

New opportunities for TouchXPRT

The XPRTs in action

WebXPRT 3, Mobile World Congress, and the next HDXPRT

Check out the other XPRTs: