BenchmarkXPRT Development Community Blog

WebXPRT delivers over 100,000 real-world results

on October 5, 2016

DURHAM, NC–(Marketwired – October 05, 2016) – Today, Principled Technologies (PT) announced that the popular WebXPRT tool recently crossed a milestone of 100,000 total runs.

WebXPRT lets users everywhere compare the performance of any web-enabled device—from iPad tablets to Android phones to Windows computers. Manufacturers, developers, consumers, and media outlets in more than 358 cities and 57 countries have used WebXPRT’s easy-to-understand results to compare how well different devices handle everyday tasks.

WebXPRT is available to the public for free and runs in almost any browser. To read more about WebXPRT and run the test, visit WebXPRT.com.

WebXPRT is part of the BenchmarkXPRT family of benchmarks (the XPRTs), a set of apps designed to help test how well devices handle everyday tasks such as editing photos, playing movies, and browsing the web. Some XPRT tools even measure battery life. All of the BenchmarkXPRT family (the XPRTs) of evaluation tools are available to the public for free.

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is a forum where registered members can contribute to the process of creating and improving the XPRTs. To learn more about the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community and the XPRT family of benchmarks, visit BenchmarkXPRT.com.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services. It administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. The company is located in Durham, North Carolina, in NC’s Research Triangle Park region. For more information, please visit PrincipledTechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite 300
Durham, NC 27703

Posted in Press Releases |

Rebalancing our portfolio

By Bill Catchings

on September 29, 2016

We’ve written recently about the many new ways people are using their devices, the growing breadth of types of devices, and how application environments also are changing. We’ve been thinking a lot about the ways benchmarks need to adapt and what new tests we should be developing.

As part of this process, we’re reviewing the XPRT portfolio. An example we wrote about recently was Google’s statement that they are bringing Android apps to Chrome OS and moving away from Chrome apps. Assuming the plan comes to fruition, it has big implications for CrXPRT, and possibly for WebXPRT as well. Another example is that once upon a time, HDXPRT included video playback tests. The increasing importance of 4K video might mean we should bring them back.

As always, we’re interested in your thoughts. Which tests do you see as the most useful going forward? Which ones do you think might be past their prime? What new areas do you like to see us start to address? Let us know!

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share our conclusions based on these market forces and your feedback. We’re excited about the possibilities and hope you are as well.

Bill

Posted in Android, Application-based benchmarks, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chrome OS, Collaborative benchmark development, CrXPRT, Future of performance evaluation, HDXPRT, WebXPRT, What makes a good benchmark? |

XPRT Spotlight: making it happen

By Justin Greene

on September 22, 2016

This week’s XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight features the Apple iPhone 7, one of the bigger launches in a year of relatively few big phone releases. We like to feature a wide array of devices in Spotlight, but events like the iPhone 7 launch are good opportunities for us to provide quick data for buyers who are considering taking the plunge.

As those of you who need to have the new hot device on the first day know, getting that device can be a trial. Even though we preordered our iPhone 7, last Friday I found myself standing in line at the Apple store for almost two hours. However, that was much shorter than the half-day-plus wait for those who hadn’t ordered ahead.

We also ordered an iPhone 7 Plus. We’ll feature it in Spotlight as soon as it arrives, but we don’t expect it to ship until October.

Have you waited in line for a popular device this year? We’d love to hear your story. As always, if there are any devices that you’d like to see in Spotlight, let us know!

Justin

Posted in Apple, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight |

XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight Shines on the Apple iPhone 7

By Eric Hale

on September 21, 2016

DURHAM, NC–(Marketwired – September 21, 2016) – Today, Principled Technologies (PT) released performance results for the Apple iPhone 7 on the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight. The iPhone 7 is one of this year’s most anticipated new smartphones.

The Apple iPhone 7, released on September 16, combines the new Apple A10 Fusion processor, 2 GB of RAM, and iOS 10 with a 4.7″ screen, 1334 x 750 display resolution, and 4K video-recording capabilities. The Spotlight includes performance scores from the WebXPRT 2015 benchmark, which uses six browser-based workloads to compare the performance of almost any Web-enabled device.

The XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight posts PT-verified BenchmarkXPRT performance results and specs online for new devices as they come to market. These results give buyers the facts they need to make informed buying decisions based on individual needs and preferences.

To see the full list of tested devices, go to the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight page.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Company Contact

Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite #300
Durham, NC 27703
Email contact

Posted in Press Releases |

How we do it

By Eric Hale

on September 15, 2016

In the modern world, we’re awash in statistics and it’s interesting how they sometimes contradict each other. In this season, polls are an obvious example. They seldom agree and sometimes, as in the case of Brexit, they can be spectacularly wrong.

The real world is complicated and there are many ways to look at the data. An approach can be valid for certain cases, but less so for others. This is why it’s so important to explain your methods and calculations.

We’ve talked before about the statistics we use in the XPRTs. There are a set of white papers that describe how the tests work and how we perform the calculations. If you’re interested, a great place to start is the WebXPRT 2013 results calculation and confidence interval white paper, which describes the statistics in detail and links to a spreadsheet with a detailed example.

Any methodology can be improved, so if you have any ideas, let us know!

Eric

Posted in WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2013, WebXPRT 2013 results, White papers |

Doing things a little differently

By Eric Hale

on September 8, 2016

I enjoyed watching the Apple Event live yesterday. There were some very impressive announcements. (And a few which were not so impressive – the Breathe app would get on my nerves really fast!)

One thing that I was very impressed by was the ability of the iPhone 7 Plus camera to create depth-of-field effects. Some of the photos demonstrated how the phone used machine learning to identify people in the shot and keep them in focus while blurring the background, creating a shallow depth of field. This causes the subjects in a photo to really stand out. The way we take photos is not the only thing that’s changing. There was a mention of machine learning being part of Apple’s QuickType keyboard, to help with “contextual prediction.”

This is only one product announcement, but it’s a reminder that we need to be constantly examining every part of the XPRTs. Recently, we talked a bit about how people will be using their devices in new ways in the coming months, and we need to be developing tests for these new applications. However, we must also stay focused on keeping existing tests fresh. People will keep taking photos, but today’s photo editing tests may not be relevant a year or two from now.

Were there any announcements yesterday that got you excited? Let us know!

Eric

Posted in Apple, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, Future of performance evaluation, Machine learning, Phones, What makes a good benchmark? |

WebXPRT delivers over 100,000 real-world results

Rebalancing our portfolio

XPRT Spotlight: making it happen

XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight Shines on the Apple iPhone 7

How we do it

Doing things a little differently

Check out the other XPRTs: