New Android benchmark tests coming on October 13

When we released PCMark for Android two years ago, we introduced a fresh approach to benchmarking smartphones and tablets. We focussed on testing the whole device with tests based on everyday activities like browsing websites, watching videos, working with text, and editing photos. 

A modern smartphone is a complex system of interconnected parts. Everyday activities like catching up on social media, writing an email or taking a photo place different demands on the CPU, GPU, memory, and storage. Narrow synthetic tests that only stress a single component in isolation cannot provide a realistic view of these real-world demands. Only by looking at the device as a complete system can you measure its real-world performance.

"[PCMark] tends to test every aspect of a mobile device, unlike microbenchmarks that can often miss aspects of the system that can affect performance." - Joshua Ho, AnandTech Senior Editor

On October 13, we'll release a major update for PCMark for Android. The update will add two new benchmark tests and an exciting new way to compare devices across Android OS versions. 

We'll be sharing more details about these new tests and features over the next few days. For now, here's an introduction to what's coming.

Work 2.0 performance benchmark and battery life test

Use the Work 2.0 benchmark to see how your device handles common productivity tasks  - browsing the web, editing videos, working with documents and data, and editing photos. Work 2.0 measures performance and battery life with tests based on real applications using native APIs.

Work 2.0 is an improved version of the original Work benchmark. It updates the Web Browsing, Writing, and Photo Editing tests and adds two all-new tests for Video Editing and Data Manipulation.

Computer Vision benchmark

Computer Vision is an exciting field with opportunities for a range of innovative mobile apps and services. The new Computer Vision benchmark uses popular open-source libraries to test your device's performance for image recognition, graphical barcode scanning, and optical character recognition tasks.

Compare performance across Android OS versions

The in-app Best Devices list is a great way to compare your device with the latest smartphones and tablets. The update will add the ability to filter the scores by Android OS version number. It's a neat way to see how software updates affect the performance of a device.

Download

PCMark for Android is a free benchmark app available now from Google Play. The update will be available at 10:00 UTC on Thursday, October 13.