Google shared today that Android and Chrome have set “new performance records” for mobile web browsing.
The company is specifically using the Speedometer and LoadLine benchmarks to make this “fastest mobile platform for web browsing” claim.
Google cites two aspects to evaluating web performance, starting with responsiveness. Speedometer “simulates real-world user actions… to measure interaction latency” and is used by all major browser engines. High scores translate to a “more fluid, snappy feeling when you tap, scroll, or type on a website.”
While synthetic, Speedometer’s workloads offer high consistency and are built using relevant, state-of-the-art web frameworks, such as React, Angular or jQuery, and include to-do apps, text editors, chart rendering, and a mock news portal.
Speedometer and LoadLine
Meanwhile, LoadLine measures complete page load or “how fast a page appears after they click a link.” The Chrome and Android teams with SoC and OEM partners developed this benchmark that “simulates the complete process of loading a website.”
Where traditional benchmarks often focus on synthetic tasks, LoadLine uses recorded, stable versions of select real-world websites. This includes simpler and more complex sites with varied characteristics, reflecting the most important types of mobile web content, such as shopping, search, and news portals.
Google found that “top tier Android phones score up to 47% higher than non-Android competitors” (read: iOS). These tests were performed on three unnamed Android flagship phones against a “competing mobile phone platform”.
This “level of responsiveness previously unseen on mobile” is due to “deep vertical integration across hardware, the Android OS, and the Chrome engine.” The latter refers to both the Chrome for Android browser and WebView, which over 90% of Android apps utilize.
Tuning the entire stack is “critical to utilize the hardware effectively,” with Google optimizing Chrome and kernel scheduler policies in collaboration with SoC and OEM partners.
We encouraged our Android partners to evaluate and tune their devices against Speedometer and LoadLine.
The end result is “some Android flagship phones improv[ing] their Speedometer and LoadLine scores by 20-60% year-over-year, compared to their respective predecessor models.” That translates to page loads that are 4-6% faster and “high-percentile interactions 6-9% faster.”
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