So I’m likely infamous now here for the number of rants I’ve gone on about benchmarks.
I had a meeting yesterday with a couple of long term customers and we got in to an extended discussion about our certification testing.
So just to emphasize our priority, in certification testing is the best experience with and best compatibility with, our custom devices. The fact that we get useful performance information is just a nice little side benefit.
Both customers asked if there was any widely available benchmarks that we do use, and Speedometer is one of them.
So again, to clarify, my problem with benchmarks generally is not the benchmarks themselves, but the misuse of them. In other words, if the benchmark(s) actually reflect something(s) that you actually use the system(s) for on an ongoing basis.
When I see RED is when so many “reviewers” land on two or three tests they like and declare it to be the definitive resource for all their tests (I’m looking at you, The Verge…)
So, extra long preamble out of the way, Speedometer for Mac/IOS is one we do use for two reasons.
One, is that by a good margin, most users spend the majority of their time, business or personal in the web browser.
Second, this tool is an excellent way to look at generational improvements such as M1 to M2
M2 Mac speeds for web browsing are the fastest ever seen (9to5mac.com)