We test a lot of Android phones here at Tech Advisor. It’s a good way to compare phones in terms of raw power, as well as providing metrics on graphics performance, battery life, and other areas. If you want to do the same thing at home and see how your phone compares to others, we’ll tell you how we do it.
The process is simple and mainly uses free apps.
Are benchmark test results useful?
One thing to consider before testing is that while benchmarks provide useful information, they should not be the only way to evaluate performance. While your phone may (or may not) score well in synthetic benchmark tests, the real test is how it performs for you on a daily basis in real-world conditions.
Besides bragging rights, benchmarking is simply an objective way to see how your phone compares to others in certain situations.
Apps You’ll Need to Compare an Android Phone
To get a good idea of your phone’s performance, you’ll need a few apps to run the tests. Here are the ones we use:
Geekbench 6 for Android
At the heart of your phone is a system-on-a-chip, or SoC. Unlike a PC where the CPU, GPU, and other components are separate, phones typically use a single chip that combines everything into one.
There is still a traditional processor that does the main calculation. Like desktops and laptops, a phone’s processor is made up of multiple cores. Many flagship Android phones these days have eight processor cores, but you’ll find different configurations. To test CPU performance, you’ll want to use Geekbench 6, as it can show the speed of single core activity as well as multiple cores together. The multi-core result is the one we pay the most attention to, because it best reflects real-world application performance.
Download Geekbench on your phone, then follow the steps below.
Open Geekbench
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To start the test you will need to press the Run a CPU benchmark option at the bottom of the screen. Everything is automatic, but you need to make sure your phone is not in power saving mode, which could affect the results.
Check the results
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Once the test is complete, you will be presented with scores for single-core and multi-core performance. On the Result You can scroll down to see more details on how the phone performed in various subtests. By pressing the Single-core Or Multi-core The tabs then show how your phone compares to other models that have been tested on Geekbench.
How to Test an Android Phone’s GPU Performance
Next to the CPU (Central Processing Unit) you will find the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) which manages all the rendered images you see on your screen. Testing it is useful because it tells you a phone’s ability to play games. To do this, you will need to use GFXBench. So, download, install and launch the app, then follow these steps:
1. Select benchmark tests
There are a wide range of tests, but you won’t need them all. When we test phones, we uncheck the off-screen versions of each test because these test the GPU without taking into account your phone’s screen resolution.
Press the Test selection then enable the tests you want to run. By default everything is checked.
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Here are the tests we perform:
- GFX T-Rex
- GFX Manhattan
- GFX Manhattan 3.1
- GFX Car Chase
- GFX Aztec Ruins Vulkan Normal
- GFX Aztec Ruins Vulkan High
- GFX Aztec Ruins OpenGL Normal
- GFX Aztec Ruins OpenGL High
Be sure to set your phone to its highest refresh rate (usually found in the display settings) if it has a screen with a frequency higher than 60 Hz. Otherwise, you will find that the results are limited to 60 frames per second.
When you have selected the tests you want to use, tap the Start option in the upper right corner to begin the test.
Let the phone run the tests, as you won’t be able to do anything else while they’re running.
2. Check the results
Once the tests are run, you will see the different scores displayed next to their tests. If you want to see how it stacks up against other devices, tap the Compare option at the bottom of the screen and you’ll see where the phone stacks up against its competitors.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
How to Test Battery Life on an Android Phone
Another essential part of any phone is battery life. Now you can of course charge your phone and then let it play a video on loop until it dies, but this can be a bit arduous and also requires you to be very careful in order to know exactly when the battery is low. exhausted.
A much simpler solution is to use the PCMark app for Android which runs a detailed battery monitoring test.
Again, download and install the app from the Google Play Store, then open it to start testing.
Running the benchmark
The benchmark you want is Work 3.0. This will need to be installed from the app, so press the button Install button below the test. When this is done, press the Run next to Work 3.0 battery life.
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Note: Your battery will need to be at least 80% charged before PCMark will allow you to run the test. We ensure that phones are fully charged before operating.
Once finished, plug in your phone and start it to check the test results.
Screen brightness affects the results of all battery tests, and we use a colorimeter (a Datacolor Spyder) to set each screen as close to 200 nits as possible, and turn off auto-brightness to ensure it stays at this setting for the duration of the test. test.
We’re assuming you won’t have a colorimeter, but there are various apps that can turn your old phone into a makeshift light meter.
How to Compare Loading Speeds on Your Android Phone
One last test worth doing, especially since the battery is now flat thanks to the PCMark benchmark for Android, is to see how long it takes to charge.
This test simply requires a timer. So, plug in your phone using the included charger and USB cable and set a limit of 15 minutes. When it rings, check the percentage, then check it after another 15 minutes. Many modern Android phones with fast charging can reach 60-90% in half an hour, but it’s useful to know how quickly your battery charges if you go out and need to quickly charge it for 15 minutes.
If, after carrying out the various tests, you find that the results are not quite what you hoped for, you can always use this as an excuse to upgrade to a new model. So be sure to take a look at our current recommendations for the best Android phones as well as the best mid-range phones.
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