Last week, a member of the tech press let us know that they encountered an error while preparing a system for HDXPRT 4 testing. Specifically, while attempting to install the trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) 2020, they encountered the following error:
Update Required
Your browser or operating system is no longer supported. You may need to install the latest updates to your operating system.
They were working with
an MSI Sword 15 A12UE, which had all the latest Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge
updates, and they were able to complete installation and testing on other
Windows 11 systems in their lab. This eliminates compatibility between the
Adobe PSE 2020 installer package and Windows 11 or Microsoft Edge as the issue.
We do not have the
same MSI Sword system in our lab, but we tried to replicate the issue by performing
the HDXPRT 4 installation and setup process on a Dell G7 15 laptop running on
an up-to-date version of Windows 11 (22H2, 22621.521). We successfully installed
Adobe PSE 2020 and completed several HDXPRT 4 iterations.
The error this user
encountered could be specific to their system or situation. However, we would
like to know if other HDXPRT 4 users have run into the same issue. If you’ve experienced
this issue in your testing, please contact us.
We may be able to identify and publish a solution.
Microsoft recently released a new Chromium-based version of the Edge browser, and several tech press outlets have released reviews and results from head-to-head browser performance comparison tests. Because WebXPRT is a go-to benchmark for evaluating browser performance, PCMag, PCWorld, and VentureBeat, among others, used WebXPRT 3 scores as part of the evaluation criteria for their reviews.
We thought we
would try a quick experiment of our own, so we grabbed a recent laptop from our
Spotlight testbed: a Dell XPS 13 7930 running
Windows 10 Home 1909 (18363.628) with an Intel Core i3-10110U processor and 4
GB of RAM. We tested on a clean system image after installing all current
Windows updates, and after the update process completed, we turned off updates
to prevent them from interfering with test runs. We ran WebXPRT 3 three times on
six browsers: a new browser called Brave, Google Chrome, the legacy version of
Microsoft Edge, the new version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.
The posted score for each browser is the median of the three test runs.
As you can
see in the chart below, five of the browsers (legacy Edge, Brave, Opera, Chrome,
and new Edge) produced scores that were nearly identical. Mozilla Firefox was
the only browser that produced a significantly different score. The parity
among Brave, Chrome, Opera, and the new Edge is not that surprising,
considering they are all Chromium-based browsers. The rank order and relative
scaling of these results is similar to the results published by the tech
outlets mentioned above.
Do these
results mean that Mozilla Firefox will provide you with a speedier web
experience? Generally, a device with a higher WebXPRT score is probably going
to feel faster to you 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 the browsers’ default installation settings reflect
how you would set up the same browsers 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 10 and Chrome on
Chrome OS. All of these variables are important to keep in mind when
considering how browser performance comparison results translate to your
everyday experience. In such a competitive market, and with so many variables
to consider, we’re happy that WebXPRT can help consumers by providing reliable,
objective results.
What are your
thoughts on today’s competitive browser market? We’d love to hear from you.
With the new school year approaching, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve just published our fourth 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 year’s most popular Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, and convertibles. After testing the devices in our lab using XPRT benchmarks, we’ve provided performance scores as well as photo galleries, PT-verified device specs, and prices. Parents, teachers, students, and administrators who are considering buying devices to use in their education environments have many options. The Roundup helps make their decisions easier by gathering product and performance facts in one convenient place.
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!
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