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Recent XPRT mentions in articles, reviews, and more!

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on April 10, 2025

Here at the XPRTs, our primary goal is to provide free, easy-to-use benchmark tools that can help everyone—from OEM labs to tech press journalists to individual consumers—understand how well devices will perform while completing everyday computing tasks. We track progress toward that goal in several ways, but one of the most important is how much people use and discuss the XPRTs. When the name of one of our apps appears in an ad, article, or tech review, we call it a “mention.” Tracking mentions helps us gauge our reach.

We occasionally like to share a sample of recent XPRT mentions here in the blog. If you just started following the XPRTs, it may be surprising to see our program’s global reach. If you’re a longtime reader and you’re used to seeing WebXPRT or CrXPRT in major tech press articles, it may be surprising to learn more about overseas tech press publications or see how some government agencies use the XPRTs to make decisions. In any case, we hope you’ll enjoy exploring the links below!

Recent mentions include:

If you’d like to receive monthly updates on XPRT-related news and activity, we encourage you to sign up for the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community newsletter. It’s completely free, and all you need to do to join the newsletter mailing list is let us know! We won’t publish, share, or sell any of the contact information you provide, and we’ll only send you the monthly newsletter and occasional benchmark-related announcements, such as important news about patches or releases.

If you have any questions about the XPRTs, suggestions, or requests for future blog topics, please feel free to contact us.

Justin

Posted in AI, benchmark, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chromebooks, CrXPRT, Dell, iPhone, Laptops, Simplified Chinese, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Archiving AIXPRT and CloudXPRT

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on March 13, 2025

Some of our readers have been following the XPRTs since the early days, and they may remember using legacy versions of benchmarks such as HDXPRT 2014 or WebXPRT 2013. For many years, whenever we released a new version of a benchmark, we would maintain a link to the previous version on the benchmark’s main page. However, as interest in the older versions understandably waned and we stopped formally supporting them, many of those legacy XPRTs stopped working on the latest versions of the operating systems or browsers that we designed them to test. While we wanted to continue to provide a way for users to access those legacy XPRTs, we also wanted to avoid potential confusion for new users who might see links to old versions on our site. We decided that the best solution was to archive older tests in a separate section of the site—the XPRT archive.

Recently, as we discussed XPRT plans for 2025, it became clear that we needed to add AIXPRT and CloudXPRT to the archive. Both benchmarks represent landmark efforts toward our ongoing goal of providing cutting-edge performance assessment tools, but even though a few tech press publications and OEM labs experimented with them, neither benchmark gained enough widespread adoption to justify their continued support. As a result, we decided to focus our resources elsewhere and halt development on both benchmarks. Since then, ongoing updates to their respective software components and target platforms have rendered them largely unusable. By archiving both benchmarks, we hope to avoid any future confusion for visitors who may otherwise try to use them.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be moving the AIXPRT and CloudXPRT installation packages to the XPRT archive page. We’re grateful to everyone who has used AIXPRT and CloudXPRT in the past, and we apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause.

If you have any questions or concerns about access to either of these benchmarks—or about anything else related to the XPRTs, please let us know! 

Justin

Posted in AI, AIXPRT, Battery life, benchmark, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Cloud, CloudXPRT, Cross-platform benchmarks, HDXPRT, HDXPRT 2014, History of benchmarking, Performance benchmarking, WebXPRT, What makes a good benchmark? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , |

February 2025 WebXPRT 4 browser performance comparisons

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on February 20, 2025

Once or twice per year, we refresh our ongoing series of WebXPRT comparison tests to see if software version updates have reordered the performance rankings of popular web browsers. We published our most recent comparison last June, when we used WebXPRT 4 to compare the performance of five browsers—Brave, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera—on a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 3. When assessing performance differences, it’s worth noting that all the browsers—except for Firefox—are built on a Chromium foundation. In the last round of tests, the scores were very tight, with a difference of only four percent between the last-place browser (Brave) and the winner (Chrome). Firefox’s score landed squarely in the middle of the pack.

Recently, we conducted a new set of tests to see how performance scores may have changed. To maintain continuity with our last comparison, we stuck with the same ThinkPad T14s as our reference system. That laptop is still in line with current mid-range laptops, so our comparison scores are likely to fall within the range of scores we would see from a typical user today. The ThinkPad is equipped with an Intel Core i7-1270P processor and 16 GB of RAM, and it’s running Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2 (22631.4890).

Before testing, we installed all current Windows updates, and we updated each of the browsers to the latest available stable version. After the update process was complete, we turned off updates to prevent any interference with test runs. We ran WebXPRT 4 five times on each of the five browsers. In Figure 1 below, each browser’s score is the median of the five test runs.

In this round of tests, the gap widened a bit between first and last place scores, with a difference of just over six percent between the lowest median score of 303 (Brave) and the highest median score of 322 (Firefox).

Figure 1: The median scores from running WebXPRT 4 five times with each browser on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 3.

In this round of tests, the distribution of scores indicates that most users would not see a significant performance difference if they switched between the latest versions of these browsers. The one exception may be a change from the latest version of Brave to the latest version of Firefox. Even then, the quality of your browsing experience will often depend on other factors. The types of things you do on the web (e.g., gaming, media consumption, or multi-tab browsing), the type and number of extensions you’ve installed, and how frequently the browsers issue updates and integrate new technologies—among other things—can all affect browser performance over time. It’s important to keep such variables in mind when thinking about how browser performance comparison results may translate to your everyday web experience.

Have you tried using WebXPRT 4 in your own browser performance comparison? If so, we’d love to hear about it! Also, please let us know if there are other types of WebXPRT comparisons you’d like to see!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, Brave, browser performance, Browser-based benchmarks, Chrome, Chromium, Cross-platform benchmarks, Firefox, Google Chrome, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Performance benchmarking, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4, Windows 11 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Check out the new XPRTs around the world infographic!

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on January 30, 2025

As we look forward to continued growth for the XPRTs in 2025, it’s also a fitting time to take stock of just how much their reach has already grown around the globe. In the marketing world, reach is often defined as the size of the audience that sees and/or engages with your content. We track XPRT reach with several metrics—including completed test runs, benchmark downloads, and mentions of the XPRTs in advertisements, articles, and tech reviews. Gathering this information gives us insight into how many people are using the XPRTs, and it provides a sense of the impact the XPRTs are having around the world. It also helps us understand the needs of those who use them.

From time to time, we publish an updated version of an “XPRTs around the world” infographic, which features highlights from the reach metrics we track. This week, we published a new version of the infographic that includes the following highlights:

  • Over 4,100 unique sites have collectively mentioned the XPRTs more than 20,500 times.
  • Those mentions include more than 12,900 tech articles and reviews.
  • XPRT tech press mentions and test runs have originated in over 983 cities located in 84 countries on six continents. New cities of note include San Salvador, El Salvador; Salamanca, Mexico; Fes, Morocco; Wanaka, New Zealand; and Luzern, Switzerland.

In addition to the reach metrics we mention above, the XPRTs have now delivered more than 2,020,000 real-world results! We’re grateful for everyone who’s used the XPRTs and has spread the word to others. Your active involvement makes it possible for us to achieve our overall goals: to provide benchmark tools that are reliable, relevant, free, and simple to use.

Justin

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, tech press, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 | Tagged , , , , , , , , |

An update on CrXPRT support in ChromeOS

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on January 16, 2025

CrXPRT users may remember that back in 2022, we discussed the ChromeOS team’s decision to end formal support for Chrome Apps and instead focus on Chrome extensions and Progressive Web Apps. This decision meant that we would not be able to publish any future fixes or updates for CrXPRT 2, although moving forward, we weren’t sure how it would affect the app’s functionality.

After receiving a lot of feedback regarding their original timeline, the ChromeOS team decided to extend Chrome App support for Enterprise and Education account customers through January 2025. Because we publish CrXPRT through a private BenchmarkXPRT developer account, we assumed at the time that the support extension would not apply to CrXPRT.

Recently, the ChromeOS team released new information about their scheduled support timeline. Now, they plan to end formal support for all user-installed Chrome Apps in July 2025 (Chrome 138). In February 2028, the Chrome 168 release will mark the end of life for all Chrome Apps.

The good news is that—in spite of a lack of formal ChromeOS support over the past couple of years—the CrXPRT 2 performance and battery life tests have continued to run without any known issues. As of today, the app functions normally up through the Beta release of ChromeOS version 132.0.6834.52.

We will continue to run the benchmark on a regular basis to monitor functionality, and we will disclose any future issues here in the blog and on CrXPRT.com. We hope the app will continue to run both performance and battery life tests well into the future. However, given the frequency of Chrome updates, it’s difficult for us to predict how long the benchmark will remain viable.

If you have any questions about CrXPRT, please let us know!

Justin

Posted in battery life, benchmark, BenchmarkXPRT, Chrome, Chrome OS, Chromebooks, CrXPRT, Google Chrome, Performance benchmarking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

The XPRTs: What would you like to see in 2025?

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on December 19, 2024

If you’re a new follower of the XPRT family of benchmarks, you may not be aware of one of the characteristics of the XPRTs that sets them apart from many benchmarking efforts—our openness and commitment to valuing the feedback of tech journalists, lab engineers, and anyone else that uses the XPRTs on a regular basis. That feedback helps us to ensure that as the XPRTs grow and evolve, the resources we offer will continue to meet the needs of those that use them.

In the past, user feedback has influenced specific aspects of our benchmarks, such as the length of test runs, UI features, results presentation, and the addition or subtraction of specific workloads. More broadly, we have also received suggestions for entirely new XPRTs and ways we might target emerging technologies or industry use cases.

As we look forward to what’s in store for the XPRTs in 2025, we’d love to hear your ideas about new XPRTs—or new features for existing XPRTs. Are you aware of hardware form factors, software platforms, new technologies, or prominent applications that are difficult or impossible to evaluate using existing performance benchmarks? Should we incorporate additional or different technologies into existing XPRTs through new workloads? Do you have suggestions for ways to improve any of the XPRTs or XPRT-related tools, such as results viewers?

We’re especially interested in your thoughts about the next steps for WebXPRT. If our recent blog posts about the potential addition of an AI-focused auxiliary workload, what a WebXPRT battery life test would entail, or possible WebAssembly-based test scenarios have piqued your interest, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

We’re genuinely interested in your answers to these questions and any other ideas you have, so please feel free to contact us. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and working together to figure out how they could help shape the XPRTs in 2025!

Justin

Posted in AI, Battery life, benchmark, BenchmarkXPRT, browser performance, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, Performance benchmarking, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4, What makes a good benchmark? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

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