Evaluating the performance of a smartphone has become a very complex task. Even within the same operating system and manufacturer, there can be huge differences due to component selection, pre-installed apps that cannot be removed, and lack of firmware optimizations. In an attempt to establish a broader comparison medium, and why not a standard in benchmarking, the folks at Futuremark offer a mobile version of their application PCMark.
Every user needs solid references to better understand the performance of their hardware, and that is where benchmarking tools come in. Naturally, if one of these tools places a product in a delicate position, its creator will come out to criticize the methods used, but when the opposite happens, there is no press release that isn't loaded with graphs and numbers. Personally, I have always defended benchmarks. It is a piece of information that every user deserves to have, no exceptions. The benchmarking path is much simpler on computers, since games are an excellent way to push hardware to its limit; however, the journey is a bit erratic on mobile devices. So far, AnTuTu and Geekbench have served as the main resources for evaluating SoCs, but it is also necessary to add PCMark from Futuremark.
The structure of PCMark compatible with mobile devices is divided into two parts: The first is a benchmark called "Work", whose objective is to provide general data on device performance and battery life. The latter aspect is critical for all users, and with the ability to compare results through the Web, there is a chance to confirm if the battery life is as expected, or if there is some kind of problem. The second part is a test on storage speed. No external optimization will rescue a smartphone from slow internal flash memory, and if that's the case, PCMark will let us know.
Now, like every benchmark, PCMark is not something we can call a definitive solution. First, its installation requires at least Android 5.0 and 1 GB of RAM, and second, the app download does not include the benchmarks themselves. This means that the software available in the store is just a launcher, and those who decide to run the benchmarks will have to wait for an additional download of hundreds of megabytes. In short: Installing and running PCMark is essentially one more independent test to determine if our smartphone's hardware is up to the task.
