Category: tech press

XPRT mentions in the tech press

on April 4, 2024

One of the ways we monitor the effectiveness of the XPRT family of benchmarks is to regularly track XPRT usage and reach in the global tech press. Many tech journalists invest a lot of time and effort into producing thorough device reviews, and relevant and reliable benchmarks such as the XPRTs often serve as indispensable parts of a reviewer’s toolkit. Trust is hard-earned and easily lost in the benchmarking community, so we’re happy when our benchmarks consistently achieve “go-to” status for a growing number of tech assessment professionals around the world.

Because some of our newer readers may be unaware of the wide variety of outlets that regularly use the XPRTs, we occasionally like to share an overview of recent XPRT-related tech press activity. For today’s blog, we want to give readers a sampling of the press mentions we’ve seen over the past few months.

Recent mentions include:

AnandTech used WebXPRT 4 to assess the performance of the ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-7840U and GEEKOM A5 mini-PCs.
Android Headlines used CrXPRT 2 to measure the performance of the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34.
Mashable measured the performance and battery life of the HP Chromebook Plus x360 14c with CrXPRT 2.
Notebookcheck used WebXPRT 4 in dozens of device reviews, including evaluations of the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024), the HP Omen 16 (2024), the HP Spectre x360 16, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G12, and the Valve Steam Deck.
PCMag used WebXPRT 4 in a review of the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024).
TechPowerUp used WebXPRT 4 in a review of the Intel Core i9-14900KS processor.
Tom’s Guide used WebXPRT 4 to compare the performance of the Snapdragon and Exynos variants of the Samsung Galaxy S24.
Other outlets that have published articles, ads, or reviews mentioning the XPRTs in the last few months include: 3DNews (Russia), Android Authority, Benchlife.info, Delkom (Poland), DigitalWorld Italia, Digitec (Switzerland), Expert Reviews, Galaxus (Germany), Hardware.info, HIPC (Japan), ITC.ua (Ukraine), ITWorld (Korea), iXBT.com (Russia), PCMag, PC-Welt (Germany), QQ.com (China), SMZDM (China), and Tweakers.

Each month, we send out a BenchmarkXPRT Development Community newsletter that contains the latest updates from the XPRT world and provides a summary of the previous month’s XPRT-related activity, including new mentions of the XPRTs in the tech press. If you don’t currently receive the monthly BenchmarkXPRT newsletter but would like to join the mailing list, please let us know! There is no cost to join, and we will not publish or sell any of the contact information you provide. We will send only the monthly newsletter and occasional benchmark-related announcements, such as news about patches or new releases.

Justin

Posted in AnandTech, Apple, ASUS, battery life, benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chromebooks, CrXPRT, HP, Lenovo, Performance benchmarking, Performance of computing devices, Samsung, tech press, What makes a good benchmark? | Tagged AnandTech, Android, Apple, ASRock, ASUS, GEEKOM, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Mashable, Notebookcheck, PCMag, PCWorld, Samsung, TechPowerUp, Tom's Hardware, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 |

Working with the WebXPRT 4 source code

By Justin Greene

on March 21, 2024

In our last blog post, we discussed the WebXPRT 4 source code and how you can contact us to request free access to the build package. In this post, we’ll address two questions that users sometimes ask about code access. The first question is, “How do I build a local instance of WebXPRT?” The second is, “What can I do with it?”

How to build a local WebXPRT 4 instance

After we receive your request, we’ll send you a secure link to the current WebXPRT 4 build package, which contains all the necessary source code files and installation instructions. You will need a system to use as a server, and you will need to be familiar with Apache, PHP, and MySQL configuration to follow the build instructions. WebXPRT 4 uses a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) setup on the “server” side, but it’s also possible to set up an instance with a WAMP or XAMPP stack.

The build instructions include a step-by-step methodology for setup. If you are familiar with LAMP stack configuration, the build and configuration process should take about two to three hours, depending on whether your LAMP-related extensions and libraries are current.

What you can do with a local WebXPRT 4 instance

We allow users to set up their own WebXPRT 4 instances for purposes of review, internal testing, or experimentation.

One use-case example is internal OEM lab testing. Some labs use WebXPRT to conduct extensive testing on preproduction hardware, and they follow stringent security guidelines to avoid the possibility of any hardware or test information leaving the lab. Even though we have our own strict policies about how we handle the little amount of data that WebXPRT gathers from tests, a local WebXPRT 4 instance provides those labs with an extra layer of security for sensitive tests.

We do ask that users publish results only from tests that they run on WebXPRT.com. As we mentioned in our most recent post, benchmarking requires a product that is consistent to enable valid comparisons over time. We allow people to download the source, but we reserve the right to control derivative works and which products can use the name “WebXPRT.” That way, when people see WebXPRT scores in tech press articles or vendor marketing materials, they can run their own tests on WebXPRT.com and be confident that they’re using the same standard for comparison.

If you have any questions about using the WebXPRT 4 source code, let us know!

Justin

Posted in Apache, benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, browser performance, Browser-based benchmarks, Cross-platform benchmarks, LAMP, Linux, MySQL, Performance benchmarking, PHP, Source code, tech press, WAMP, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4, XAMPP | Tagged Apache, benchmark, browser benchmark, browser performance, LAMP, Linux, MySQL, PHP, source code, tech press, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 |

Looking back on 2023 with the XPRTs

By Justin Greene

on January 4, 2024

Around the beginning of each new year, we like to take the opportunity to look back and summarize the XPRT highlights from the previous year. Readers of our newsletter are familiar with the stats and updates we include each month, but for our blog readers who don’t receive the newsletter, we’ve compiled highlights from 2023 below.

Benchmarks
In March, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of WebXPRT! WebXPRT 4 has now taken the lead as the most commonly-used version of WebXPRT, even as the overall number of runs has continued to grow.

XPRTs in the media
Journalists, advertisers, and analysts referenced the XPRTs thousands of times in 2023. It’s always rewarding to know that the XPRTs have proven to be useful and reliable assessment tools for technology publications around the world. Media sites that used the XPRTs in 2023 include 3DNews (Russia), AnandTech, Benchlife.info (China), CHIP.pl (Poland), ComputerBase (Germany), eTeknix, Expert Reviews, Gadgetrip (Japan), Gadgets 360, Gizmodo, Hardware.info, IT168.com (China), ITC.ua (Ukraine), ITWorld (Korea), iXBT.com (Russia), Lyd & Bilde (Norway), Notebookcheck, Onchrome (Germany), PCMag, PCWorld, QQ.com (China), Tech Advisor, TechPowerUp, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, TweakTown, Yesky.com (China), and ZDNet.

Downloads and confirmed runs
In 2023, we had more than 16,800 benchmark downloads and 296,800 confirmed runs. Users have run our most popular benchmark, WebXPRT, more than 1,376,500 times since its debut in 2013! WebXPRT continues to be a go-to, industry-standard performance benchmark for OEM labs, vendors, and leading tech press outlets around the globe.

Trade shows
In January, Justin attended the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Las Vegas. In March, Mark attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona. You can view Justin’s recap of CES here and Mark’s thoughts from MWC here.

We’re thankful for everyone who used the XPRTs and sent questions and suggestions throughout 2023. We’re excited to see what’s in store for the XPRTs in 2024!

Justin

Posted in Barcelona, benchmark, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, CES, Collaborative benchmark development, Consumer Electronics Show, History of benchmarking, Las Vegas, Mobile World Congress, Performance benchmarking, results, results submission, tech press, Trade Shows, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 | Tagged 3DNews, AnandTech, Barcelona, CES, ComputerBase, Gadgets360, Gizmodo, Hardware.info, Las Vegas, MWC, Notebookcheck, PCMag, PCWorld, QQ.com, results, tech press, TechPowerUp, TechRadar, Tom's Hardware, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4, ZDNet |

The XPRTs are a great back-to-school shopping resource

By Justin Greene

on August 10, 2023

Students of all ages will be starting a new school year over the next few weeks, and many learners will be shopping for tech devices that can help them excel in their studies. The tech marketplace can be confusing, and competing claims can be hard to navigate. The XPRTs are here to help! Whether you’re shopping for a new laptop, desktop, Chromebook, tablet, or phone, the XPRTs can provide reliable, industry-trusted performance scores that can cut through all the noise.

A good place to start looking for scores is the WebXPRT 4 results viewer. The viewer displays WebXPRT 4 scores from almost 500 devices—including many hot new releases—and we’re adding new scores all the time. To learn more about the viewer’s capabilities and how you can use it to compare devices, check out this blog post.

Another resource we offer is the XPRT results browser. The browser is the most efficient way to access the XPRT results database, which currently holds more than 3,400 test results from over 140 sources, including major tech review publications around the world, OEMs, and independent testers. It offers a wealth of current and historical performance data across all of the XPRT benchmarks and hundreds of devices. You can read more about how to use the results browser here.

Also, if you’re considering a popular device, chances are good that a recent tech review includes an XPRT score for that device. Two quick ways to find these reviews: (1) go to your favorite tech review site and search for “XPRT” and (2) go to a search engine and enter the device name and XPRT name (e.g. “Lenovo ThinkPad” and “WebXPRT”). Here are a few recent tech reviews that use one of the XPRTs to evaluate a popular device:

Notebookcheck used WebXPRT in reviews of the Acer Predator Helios 16, Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE, Apple MacBook Air 15 (M2, 2023), Google Pixel 7a, and in a recent article titled, “The Best Smartphones.”
Gadgets360 used WebXPRT in reviews of the Apple Mac Mini (M2 Pro, 2023) and Apple MacBook Air 15 (M2, 2023).
PCMag used CrXPRT 2 to review the Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook, Acer Chromebook 315, and Acer Chromebook Vero 514.
PCWorld used CrXPRT 2 in features called, “Best Chromebooks 2023: Best overall, best battery life, and more” and “The best laptops for kids: Best overall, best battery life, and more.”
Tom’s Guide used HDXPRT 4 in reviews of the Alienware Aurora R15 and Dell XPS 8960 desktops.

The XPRTs can help back-to-school shoppers make better-informed and more confident tech purchases. As this school year begins, 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!

Justin

Posted in ASUS, benchmark, Benchmarking, Chromebooks, Education, Laptops, PCs, Performance benchmarking, Phones, results, Tablets, tech press | Tagged Acer, Apple, Back-to-School, benchmark, BenchmarkXPRT, desktop, education, Gadgets360, Google, laptop, Lenovo, PCMag, PCWorld, phone, results, school, tablet, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 |

Celebrating 10 years of WebXPRT!

By Justin Greene

on March 30, 2023

We’re excited to announce that it’s been 10 years since the initial launch of WebXPRT! In early 2013, we introduced WebXPRT as a unique browser performance benchmark in a market space that was already crowded with a variety of specialized measurement tools. Our goal was to offer a benchmark that could compare the performance of almost any web-enabled device, using scenarios created to mirror real-world tasks. We wanted it to be a free, easily accessible, easy-to-run, useful, and appealing testing option for OEM labs, vendors, and the tech press.

When we look back on the last 10 years of WebXPRT, we can’t help but conclude that our efforts have been successful. Since those early days, the WebXPRT market presence has grown from humble beginnings into a worldwide industry standard. Hundreds of tech press publications have used WebXPRT in thousands of articles and reviews, and testers have now run the benchmark well over 1.1 million times.

Below, I’ve listed some of the WebXPRT team’s accomplishments over the last decade. If you’ve been following WebXPRT from the beginning, this may all be familiar, but if you’re new to the community, it may be interesting to see some of the steps that contributed to making WebXPRT what it is today.

We published four versions of the benchmark: WebXPRT 2013, WebXPRT 2015, WebXPRT 3, and WebXPRT 4.
We added subtests and updated existing workloads along the way to measure browser performance with newer HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly technologies.
We added Simplified Chinese and German language options to the WebXPRT UI.
We added a WebXPRT host server in Singapore for testers in East Asia.
We published six WebXPRT white papers, along with three results calculation spreadsheets.
We published the WebXPRT: See how well your device handles common web tasks and What is WebXPRT and why should I care? videos.
We developed the WebXPRT 3 Processor Comparison Chart.
We developed the WebXPRT 4 results viewer tool.

In future blog posts, we’ll look at how the number of WebXPRT runs has grown over time, and how WebXPRT use has grown among OEMs, vendors, and the tech press worldwide. Do you have any thoughts that you’d like to share from your WebXPRT testing experience? If so, let us know!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, Browser-based benchmarks, Cross-platform benchmarks, German, History of benchmarking, JavaScript, Performance benchmarking, results, Simplified Chinese, tech press, WebAssembly, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2013, WebXPRT 2015, WebXPRT 3, WebXPRT 4, WebXPRT Processor Comparison Chart, White papers | Tagged browser, browser benchmark, browser performance, German, HTML5, JavaScript, results, Simplified Chinese, WebAssembly, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015, WebXPRT 3, WebXPRT 4, white paper |

We have a new XPRTs around the world infographic!

By Justin Greene

on October 20, 2022

If you’ve followed the XPRT blog for a while, you know that we occasionally update the community on some of the reach metrics we track by publishing a new version of the “XPRTs around the world” infographic. The metrics we track include 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 XPRT tools, and updating the infographic helps readers and community members see the impact the XPRTs are having around the world.

This week, we published a new infographic, which includes the following highlights:

The XPRTs have been mentioned more than 19,500 times on over 4,000 unique sites.
Those mentions include more than 12,300 articles and reviews.
Users have tested gear with the XPRTs in over 924 cities located in 81 countries on six continents. New cities of note include Dhaka, Bangladesh; Zagreb, Croatia; Hamilton, New Zealand; and Medina, Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the reach metrics we mention above, the XPRTs have now delivered more than 1,330,000 real-world results! We’re grateful for everyone who’s helped us get this far. Your participation is vital to our achieving our goal: to provide benchmark tools that are reliable, relevant, and easy to use.

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, results, tech press | Tagged benchmark, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, infographic, results, XPRTs |

Category: tech press

XPRT mentions in the tech press

Working with the WebXPRT 4 source code

Looking back on 2023 with the XPRTs

The XPRTs are a great back-to-school shopping resource

Celebrating 10 years of WebXPRT!

We have a new XPRTs around the world infographic!

Check out the other XPRTs: