benchmarks

Qualcomm has just announced its horse for the 2019 mobile platform race and much of its rhetoric revolved around technologies like 5G, AI, CV-ISP, XR, and the like. Of course, the Snapdragon 855 is expected to be faster, especially with its new three-tier octa-core layout, multi-core Neural Processing Units, and Adreno 640 GPU. But just how fast is it on a presumed upcoming device? Based on AnTuTu’s preliminary benchmarks, faster than almost everyone except Apple.

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The iPhone XR is a bit of an odd beast. Although by no means inexpensive, it is considerably cheaper than the cheapest iPhone XS model. That said, it differs from the more expensive 2018 iPhones in ways that may not mean much for regular consumers. All except one: the camera. With a single camera, some might presume the iPhone XR will fail terribly in that department. DxOMark’s review, however, claims otherwise.

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Although it’s not as bad as when it still made feature phones, Samsung still has quite a dizzying array of models and brands. Just as it did when it dropped the feature phones, Samsung will reportedly consolidate its Android lines into Galaxy S, Galaxy A, and Galaxy M (S,A, M) models. Either that or it will actually add one more breed to its stable to further confuse the market. Regardless, a Galaxy M phone might just be around the corner and, at least based on this first benchmark, it might not be so bad.

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This week the latest in Qualcomm Snapdragon processor tech appeared in a benchmark that shows mobile processing performance. This benchmark is not the end-all be-all of tests of this sort of thing, but it's a pretty OK test of general performance. What we're seeing here is the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chip out-performing Apple's latest processor by a significant margin.

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It’s open season on benchmark cheaters again. After Huawei’s recent high-profile and admittedly candid admission of guilt, reviewers and benchmark tool makers are again on high alert regarding phones and companies that may be trying to game the system just to get a higher score. UL, which own benchmark maker PCMark, has already delisted a number of Huawei’s phones for that misconduct. But as Huawei complained, it wasn’t the only one cheating and now another of its rivals and compatriots, OPPO, is getting the same sanction.

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Benchmarking is almost like a game. Well, it really is a numbers game where companies try to reach for the highest (or lowest, depending on the ranking system) figures through any means possible, sometimes even through cheating. Still, it's an interesting phenomenon to watch and to see how smartphone makers rank up in terms of perceived performance. AnTuTu, makers of one of the most popular smartphone benchmarking apps, has just released its September chart and, suffice it to say, the top-ranking phones are not what you might expect.

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Reviews, tests, and impressions about the iPhone XS and XS Max are piling up and things aren’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows. While DisplayMate did just crown the iPhone XS Max as the best smartphone display ever and iFixit gave it a passing grade, there are also reports of poor cellular reception and other “papercuts” making early iPhone XS buyers less than amused. The latest benchmark touches on the new iPhones’ battery life and, suffice it to say, Apple’s estimates might have been way too generous.

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And so it begins. In the past, Samsung and Apple each had their own separate thrones in DisplayMate’s kingdom, with Samsung lording it over OLED smartphones while Apple reigned triumphant among LCD mobile screens. With Apple’s switch to OLED in the iPhone X last year, the narrative was destined to become a pendulum swinging back and forth between the frenemies. Now that has become reality with DisplayMate giving the title of best smartphone display ever to Apple just a month after it said the same for the Galaxy Note 9.

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Some might not think of the iPhone XS, particularly the smaller one, as a big step forward in terms of design but it’s hard to deny that it’s a massive leap in terms of the things that you don’t see. For one, there’s the new A12 Bionic processor. But there’s one more that even more invisible but palpably felt the moment you start streaming videos. Yes, the 2019 iPhones have significantly faster LTE modems, and one of the earliest benchmarks shows exactly how much faster they are.

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New flagship smartphone, new benchmark rankings. DisplayMate came out with its review of the Galaxy Note 9 early and, perhaps to no one’s surprise, crowned Samsung’s latest as the best (OLED) display ever. Somewhat surprising, the folks at DxOMark wasn’t in a rush this time. While that may sound ominous, they did end up giving the Galaxy Note 9 high scores, it wasn’t high enough to unseat DxOMark’s top-ranking smartphones.

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In the near future, a collection of Huawei smartphones will have a new "Performance Mode" enabled that makes them more powerful. This power comes at a cost, of course, as it's essentially an overclocking for a smartphone - it puts all emphasis on the processing power of which the phone is capable. This is the result of Huawei appearing to "cheat" on benchmark tests with 3D Mark - they've agreed to make their methods more accessible to all!

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Huawei’s recent misstep was like opening up a wound we thought had gone away. And while Huawei did admit to cheating benchmarking tools, its justification for doing so only serves to highlight something that was brought up half a decade ago. Mobile benchmarks, while not completely useless, are still nowhere near the maturity of their PC counterparts. Worse, they have even served to further the agenda of manufacturers instead of helping consumers make better choices.

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