In general, you should benchmark every device you test under the same conditions. For example, you should test every system in the same location, at room temperature, away from direct sunlight and other heat sources.

The precision of UL benchmarks scores is usually better than 3%. This means that running a benchmark repeatedly on a consistently performing device in a well-controlled environment will produce scores that fall within a 3% range.

Individual scores may occasionally fall outside the margin of error since the factors that influence the score cannot be completely controlled in a modern, multitasking operating system. There are also devices that simply do not offer consistent performance due to their design. In these cases, it is necessary to run the benchmark multiple times and then take either an average or a mode of the results.

To get accurate and consistent results you should close apps that may be running in the background, and disable notifications before running the benchmark. Some high-powered mobile devices use thermal throttling to avoid overheating the CPU, which can lead to lower scores on successive runs. To reduce this effect, we recommended waiting 15 minutes before and after PCMark runs to allow the device to cool down.

  • Running other apps during the benchmark will affect the results.
  • Avoid touching the screen while the tests are running.
  • Press your device's Back button if you want to stop the test.

Recommended process

  1. Install all device updates to ensure your operating system is up to date.
  2. Close other apps, especially those that run in the background.
  3. Run the benchmark.

Expert process

  1. Install all device updates to ensure your operating system is up to date.
  2. the device.
  3. Wait 2 minutes for startup to complete.
  4. Close all other apps, especially those that run in the background.
  5. Wait for 15 minutes.
  6. Run the benchmark.
  7. Repeat from step 2 at least three times to verify your results.