TechPhonesAndroid PhonesGoogle doesn’t care about benchmarks on the Google Pixel 7 – but should we?The flagship Android phone was unimpressive on benchmarks, but Google says that doesn’t matterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechPhonesAndroid PhonesGoogle doesn’t care about benchmarks on the Google Pixel 7 – but should we?The flagship Android phone was unimpressive on benchmarks, but Google says that doesn’t matterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The flagship Android phone was unimpressive on benchmarks, but Google says that doesn’t matter
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Google)
(Image credit: Google)
TheGoogle Pixel 7andGoogle Pixel 7 Prowere released earlier this month, amid a wave of fanfare. Amongst a host of new software features, the duo featured the first public appearance of theTensor G2chip,Google’s latest in-house design.
Before the phones were released, the Tensor G2 got a lot of heat from commentators online. Why? Benchmark tests, which seemed to leak a rather weedy performance upgrade had leaked online.
Weeks before any members of the general public would have a chance to get their hands on these devices, many had written them off altogether based on the score it achieved in an online test. It’s fair to say it felt a little premature.
Now, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management, Monika Gupta, has said that Google is “perfectly comfortable” not winning benchmark tests. On a podcast with9to5Google, she said, “I think classical benchmarks served a purpose at some moment in time, but I think the industry has evolved since then. They may tell some story, but we don’t feel like they tell the complete story.”
So, do we as consumers need to pay less attention to benchmarks? I think so, and here’s why.
A good benchmark doesn’t make a good phone
Benchmark testing is very specific. In essence, the software will give your device a handful of tasks and time how quickly it completes them. This gives it a score, for both multi-core and single-core performance. But it’s hardly perfect.
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Because Gupta is right: the industry has evolved and raw CPU power is no longer the defining characteristic of thebest phones. AI and Machine Learning mean that devices can be more efficient and adapt to make better use of the processing power they have.
Plus, most phone users are unlikely to be pushing modern CPU’s to their breaking point. Perhaps if you’re an avidmobile gamer, though one of thebest gaming phonesmay be better if that’s the case.
It’s not entirely useless though. Benchmark testing is a great way of comparing raw CPU performance. That can be useful, particularly as more and more people buy tech products online without using them first.
But we need to reshape the narrative around what a benchmark means. Rather than treating it like the gold standard of whether or not a phone is worth your time, we need to treat it as one method of testing one aspect of a device.
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We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
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