We're all too familiar with JavaScript tests like Sunspider -- we use them all the time to gauge browser speeds on phones and tablets. Most of these have little direct correlation to the sites we're visiting on our devices, however, and seldom acknowledge that we're testing with anything but a desktop. Google wants to drag the experience into this decade with its new Octane benchmark. The collection of tests uses real-life examples of JavaScript code -- who knew web-based Game Boy emulators were so popular? -- to generate results for a simple, more-is-better scoring system. Its interface also scales dynamically and should fit just about any screen size. While we can't guarantee that Octane will find a place within our own battery of tests, both the benchmark itself and the source code are available for anyone to investigate. Feel free to post and compare your results in the comments.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Internet

Google Octane benchmark tests JavaScript in the real world, scales to mobile sizes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.