Tablets and smartphones are rapidly becoming the mainstream computing devices of the day. In fact, for people who are not computer gamers or who don’t need an office suite, there are several reasons these days to buy a laptop or PC. As a last resort, you can even use something like Samsung DEX and turn your phone into a desktop computer for a while.
The only reason this is possible is because the processors and graphics chips in our mobile devices are now in the desktop class when it comes to performance. Well, not the current desktop class. Good enough to run desktop-level applications like office suite, full-featured web browser, etc.
With this focus on performance, many benchmarking applications and tools have emerged over the past decade or so. They allow you to run tests on your device and then show how well it performed.
Why do you need this? First, you can compare the results with those of other users using the same model. Therefore, if something is wrong with your device, you can do an objective test to prove it. You can also check if your device is performing better or worse after updating the operating system.
Maybe you want to know if that new tablet or phone that you have been eyeing is really worth buying compared to what you have.
AnTuTu (iOS and Android
AnTuTu has long been a darling of phone and tablet reviewers. The program actually hails from China and was first released in 2011, shortly after the modern smartphone revolution really began.
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AnTuTu provides a single numerical score after testing your device. This score consists of benchmarks that address multiple areas of device performance. This makes it pretty easy to see exactly where a device is having problems or performance deficiencies.
UX (user experience) scores are especially useful because they show how quickly a device can complete day to day tasks. However, to the delight of the mobile review industry, it appears that there is a benchmark for every component and performance metric of a smart device. This makes it easier to diagnose and compare your device to everything else.
Geekbench 4 (iOS & Android
Geekbench is positioned as cross-platform. Besides running on Android and iOS, it is also available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Earlier versions of Geekbench have been criticized for favoring the ARM chips used in mobile devices. This is not a problem if you want to compare devices using this architecture, but it is not so good if you add x86 processors to the mix. Fortunately, version 4 has largely addressed these issues.
Geekbench is quite thorough and provides separate benchmarks for single-core and multi-core processors. It also has benchmarking tests that are not purely synthetic but attempt to create a realistic load on the system.
What makes Geekbench attractive is that you can compare something like a high-end tablet to a laptop. This will help you decide if your tablet is powerful enough to handle workloads like the laptop you’re currently using.
3D Mark (iOS and Android
PC gamers are familiar with the name 3D Mark. For decades, it has been one of the key testing tools to demonstrate how much horsepower your fancy computer is putting out.
In addition, 3D Mark software has always contained some pretty promising features. Graphic technologies and techniques that are still far from the mainstream. This not only pushes the system towards perfection, as a good test should, but also gives us an idea of ??tomorrow’s schedule today. 3D Mark benches from day one deserve to just look at the beautiful pictures.
Getting to know the different versions of 3D Mark can be a little confusing. However, if you pay attention to the market segment recommended by 3DMark for each benchmark, you will have numbers that match your specific device.
It’s also a great way to show what your phone is capable of. Honestly, this is the best test for mobile.
Sunspider (browser based)
Sunspider (browser based)
Sunspider is an interesting benchmarking tool as it is not tied to any particular platform. It is browser based making it platform independent. As long as the device in question can run JavaScript, it can run SunSpider.
This means that we can do various interesting things with it. This also means that the water is somewhat cloudy because we are also testing browser performance. Even using the same browser on different platforms can lead to additional performance fluctuations not related to sheer hardware power. However, this is a real test of a particular application doing the same job on all machines.
It’s also a great way to see how much new hardware has improved, as the ability to run JavaScript spans across generations of hardware.
The last big reason to use Sunspider is comparing different browsers on the same system or comparing browser updates. Mobile devices are primarily used to browse the web, so the inconvenience is a big deal.
You should be aware that Sunspider is no longer supported and it is recommended that you use a newer version of Jettream. However, because there is such an extensive database of Sunspider test results, it remains a useful tool for comparing devices over time and will remain so for a long time to come.
Scream if you want faster!
Scream if you want to go faster!
Thanks to these performance testing tools, you can now show off to your friends how fast your latest phone is, too. And that’s great when you need to play mobile games to make up for a sudden lack of someone to hang out with.
All kidding aside, it’s important to make sure you get your money’s worth or that there’s something wrong with your phone. Instead of constantly suspecting that something is wrong, you will have accurate numbers that somehow confirm it. Isn’t it worth a few minutes to run a few benches?
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