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Shopping for back-to-school tech? The XPRTs can help!

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on August 8, 2024

For many students, the first day of school is just around the corner, and it’s now time to shop for new tech devices that can help set them up for success in the coming year. The tech marketplace can be confusing, however, with so many brands, options, and competing claims to sort through.

Fortunately, the XPRTs are here to help!

Whether you’re shopping for a new phone, tablet, Chromebook, laptop, or desktop, the XPRTs can provide industry-trusted performance scores that can give you confidence that you’re making a smart purchasing decision.

The WebXPRT 4 results viewer is a good place to start looking for device scores. The viewer displays WebXPRT 4 scores from over 700 devices—including many of the latest 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 3,700 test results from over 150 sources, including major tech review publications around the world, manufacturers, and independent testers. It offers a wealth of current and historical performance data across all 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, there’s a good chance that a recent tech review includes an XPRT score for that device. There are two quick ways to find these reviews: You can either (1) search for “XPRT” on your preferred tech review site or (2) use a search engine and input the device name and XPRT name, such as “Dell XPS” and “WebXPRT.”

Here are a few recent tech reviews that use one of the XPRTs to evaluate a popular device:

Lastly, here at Principled Technologies, we frequently publish reports that evaluate the performance of hot new consumer devices, and many of those reports include WebXPRT scores. For example, check out our extensive testing of HP ZBook G10 mobile workstations or our detailed comparison of Lenovo ThinkPad, ThinkBook, and ThinkCentre devices to their Apple Mac counterparts.

The XPRTs can help anyone stuck in the back-to-school shopping blues make better-informed and more confident tech purchases. As this new 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 Acer, Apple, ASUS, benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, browser performance, Browser-based benchmarks, Chromebooks, Cross-platform benchmarks, CrXPRT, Dell, Education, Laptops, Lenovo, Macbook, PCs, Performance benchmarking, results, tech press, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Updating our WebXPRT 4 browser performance comparisons with new gear

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on June 27, 2024

Once or twice per year, we refresh an ongoing series of WebXPRT comparison tests to see if recent updates have reordered the performance rankings of popular web browsers. We published our most recent comparison in January, when we used WebXPRT 4 to compare the performance of five browsers on the same system.

This time, we’re publishing an updated set of comparison scores sooner than we normally would because we chose to move our testing to a newer reference laptop. The previous system—a Dell XPS 13 7930 with an Intel Core i3-10110U processor and 4 GB of RAM—is now several years old. We wanted to transition to a system that is more in line with current mid-range laptops. By choosing to test on a capable mid-tier laptop, our comparison scores are more likely to fall within the range of scores we would see from an typical user today.

Our new reference system is a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 3 with an Intel Core i7-1270P processor and 16 GB of RAM. It’s running Windows 11 Home, updated to version 23H2 (22631.3527). Before testing, we installed all current Windows updates and tested on a clean system image. After the update process was complete, we turned off updates to prevent any further updates from interfering with test runs. We ran WebXPRT 4 three times each on five browsers: Brave, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. In Figure 1 below, each browser’s score is the median of the three test runs.

In our last round of tests—on the Dell XPS 13—the four Chromium-based browsers (Brave, Chrome, Edge, and Opera) produced close scores, with Edge taking a small lead among the four. Each of the Chromium browsers significantly outperformed Firefox, with the slowest of the Chromium browsers (Brave) outperforming Firefox by 13.5 percent.

In this round of tests—on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s—the scores were very tight, with a difference of only 4 percent between the last-place browser (Brave) and the winner (Chrome). Interestingly, Firefox no longer trailed the four Chromium browsers—it was squarely in the middle of the pack.

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

Unlike previous rounds that showed a higher degree of performance differentiation between the browsers, scores from this round of tests are close enough that most users wouldn’t notice a difference. Even if the difference between the highest and lowest scores was substantial, the quality of your browsing experience will often depend on factors such as the types of things you do on the web (e.g., gaming, media consumption, or multi-tab browsing), the impact of extensions on performance, and how frequently the browsers issue updates and integrate new technologies, among other things. 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 to test the speed of different browsers on the same system? If so, we’d love for you to tell us about it! Also, please tell us what other WebXPRT data you’d like to see!

Justin

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

Want to know how your device performs? Explore the XPRT results database

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on May 2, 2024

If you only recently started using the XPRT benchmarks, you may not know about one of the free resources we offer—the XPRT results database. Our results database currently holds more than 3,650 test results from over 150 sources, including global tech press outlets, OEM labs, and independent testers. It serves as a treasure trove of current and historical performance data across all the XPRT benchmarks and hundreds of devices. You can use these results and the results of the same XPRTs on your device to get a sense of how well your device performs.

We update the results database several times a week, adding selected results from our own internal lab testing, reliable media sources, and end-of-test user submissions. (After you run one of the XPRTs, you can choose to submit the results, but don’t worry—this is opt-in. Your results do not automatically appear in the database.) Before adding a result, we also look at any available system information and evaluate whether the score makes sense and is consistent with general expectations.

There are three primary ways that you can explore the XPRT results database.

The first is by visiting the main BenchmarkXPRT results browser, which displays results entries for all of the XPRT benchmarks in chronological order (see the screenshot below). You can filter the results by selecting a benchmark from the drop-down menu. You can also type values, such as a vendor name (e.g., Dell) or the name of a tech publication (e.g., PCWorld) into the free-form filter field. For results we’ve produced in our lab, clicking “PT” in the Source column takes you to a page with additional configuration information for the test system. For sources outside our lab, clicking the source name takes you to the original article or review that contains the result.

The second way to access our published results is by visiting the results page for an individual XPRT benchmark. Start by going to the page of the benchmark that interests you (e.g., CrXPRT.com) , and looking for the blue View Results button. Clicking the button takes you to a page that displays results for only that benchmark. You can use the free-form filter on the page to filter those results, and you can use the Benchmarks drop-down menu to jump to the other individual XPRT results pages.

The third way to view our results database is with the WebXPRT 4 results viewer. The viewer provides an information-packed, interactive tool with which you can explore data from the curated set of WebXPRT 4 results we’ve published on our site. We’ll discuss the features of the WebXPRT 4 results viewer in more detail in a future post.

You can use any of these approaches to compare the results of an XPRT on your device with our many published results. We hope you’ll take some time to explore the information in our results database and that it proves to be helpful to you. If you have ideas for new features or suggestions for improvement, we’d love to hear from you!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, Browser-based benchmarks, CrXPRT, History of benchmarking, Performance benchmarking, results, results submission, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4 | Also tagged , , , , , , , ,

WebXPRT in PT reports

Mark Van Name
By Mark Van Name
on February 22, 2024

We don’t just make WebXPRT—we use it, too. If you normally come straight to BenchmarkXPRT.com or WebXPRT.com, you may not even realize that Principled Technologies (PT) does a lot more than just managing and administering the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. We’re also the tech world’s leading provider of hands-on testing and related fact-based marketing services. As part of that work, we’re frequent WebXPRT users.

We use the benchmark when we test devices such as Chromebooks, desktops, mobile workstations, and consumer laptops for our clients. (You can see a lot of that work and many of our clients on our public marketing portfolio page.) We run the benchmark for the same reasons that others do—it’s a reliable and easy-to-use tool for measuring how well devices handle web browsing and other web work.

We also sometimes use WebXPRT simply because our clients request it. They request it for the same reason the rest of us like and use it: it’s a great tool. Regardless of job titles and descriptions, most laptop and tablet users surf the web and access web-based applications every day. Because WebXPRT is a browser benchmark, higher scores on it could indicate that a device may provide a superior online experience.

Here are just a few of the recent PT reports that used WebXPRT:

  • In a project for Dell, we compared the performance of a Dell Latitude 7340 Ultralight to that of a 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (2022).
  • In this study for HP, we compared the performance of an HP ZBook Firefly G10, an HP ZBook Power G10, and an HP ZBook Fury G10.
  • Finally, in a set of comparisons for Lenovo, we evaluated the system performance and end-user experience of eight Lenovo ThinkBook, ThinkCentre, and ThinkPad systems along with their Apple counterparts.

All these projects, and many more, show how a variety of companies rely on PT—and on WebXPRT—to help buyers make informed decisions. P.S. If we publish scores from a client-commissioned study in the WebXPRT 4 results viewer, we will list the source as “PT”, because we did the testing.

By Mark L. Van Name and Justin Greene

Posted in Apple, benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, Benchmarking computing devices, BenchmarkXPRT, browser performance, Browser-based benchmarks, Chromebooks, Dell, HP, Laptops, Lenovo, Performance benchmarking, Principled Technologies, PT, Web-based testing, WebXPRT, webxprt 4 | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comparing the WebXPRT 4 performance of five popular browsers

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on January 25, 2024

Every so often, we like to refresh a series of in-house WebXPRT comparison tests to see if recent updates have changed the performance rankings of popular web browsers. We published our most recent comparison last February, when we used WebXPRT 4 to compare the performance of five browsers on the same system.

For this round of tests, we used the same Dell XPS 13 7930 laptop as last time, which features an Intel Core i3-10110U processor and 4 GB of RAM, running Windows 11 Home updated to version 23H2 (22631.307). We installed all current Windows updates, and updated each of the browsers under test: Brave, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.

After the update process completed, we turned off updates to prevent them from interfering with test runs. We ran WebXPRT 4 three times on each of the five browsers. The score we post for each browser is the median of the three test runs.

In our last round of tests, the range between high and low scores was tight, with an overall difference of only 4.3 percent. Edge squeaked out a win, with a 2.1 percent performance advantage over Chrome. Firefox came in last, but was only one overall score point behind the tied score of Brave and Opera.

In this round of testing, the rank order did not change, but we saw more differentiation in the range of scores. While the performance of each browser improved, the range between high and low scores widened to a 19.1 percent difference between first-place Edge and last-place Firefox. The scores of the four Chromium-based browsers (Brave, Opera, Chrome, and Edge) all improved by at least 21 points, while the Firefox score only improved by one point. 

Do these results mean that Microsoft Edge will always provide a faster web experience, or Firefox will always be slower than the others? Not necessarily. It’s true that a device with a higher WebXPRT score will probably feel faster during daily web activities than one with a much lower score, but your experience depends in part on the types of things you do on the web, along with your system’s privacy settings, memory load, ecosystem integration, extension activity, and web app capabilities.

In addition, browser speed can noticeably increase or decrease after an update, and OS-specific optimizations can affect performance, such as with Edge on Windows 11 and Chrome on Chrome OS. All these variables are important to keep in mind when considering how WebXPRT results may translate to your everyday experience.

Have you used WebXPRT 4 to compare browser performance on the same system? Let us know how it turned out!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, Brave, browser performance, Browser-based benchmarks, Chromium, Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla, Opera, Performance benchmarking, Web-based testing, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 4, Windows 11, Windows Update | Also tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Let us know if you encounter this Adobe PSE 2020 issue with HDXPRT 4

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on October 6, 2022

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. 

Justin

Posted in Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, benchmark, BenchmarkXPRT, HDXPRT, HDXPRT 4, Microsoft Edge, Performance benchmarking, Windows 11 | Also tagged , , , , , ,

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