Android benchmark comparison

Core principle

Treat a physical Android configuration comparison as a reproducible experiment: verify comparable workloads and device conditions before interpreting a ranking or choosing a default.

Procedure

1. State the decision, configurations, workloads, metric definitions, and repetitions. Preserve exact build identity, configuration, raw results, and traces; then verify every intended case and iteration ran. Distinguish missing, failed, and excluded runs; do not compare only the fastest survivors.
2. Control and record relevant device conditions, including device model and state, thermal and power mode, display brightness, background load, and network or input conditions. Keep device-specific commands and CPU masks in the project's runbook.
3. Balance or reverse run order and repeat the comparison. Report the spread and whether the ordering holds; do not discard slow iterations after seeing the result.
4. When rankings reverse or variability is material, investigate before making the decision. Use traces to check the measured interval and plausible causes such as CPU placement, contention, or thermal state. A fixed- performance setting does not prove CPU placement. If affinity is used, discover the device topology, verify placement during the measured trace interval, label the outcome a controlled comparison, and restore device settings afterwards.
5. Calculate summaries from unrounded observations, then round only for presentation. Name the aggregation explicitly: the mean of per-run percentiles is not a percentile of pooled observations. Choose an aggregation that answers the stated decision; do not prescribe one statistic universally.
6. Separate controlled-experiment evidence from normal user performance. If several conditions changed together, report the comparison as more controlled but do not attribute its whole difference to one control. Use CPU frame-duration evidence to inform a visual quality/performance decision, without claiming it measures GPU shader time.
7. Finish with the raw-evidence location, completed-case counts, variability, trace findings, controls and restoration status, plus the bounded decision or remaining uncertainty.

Boundaries

• A single stable benchmark run can support a narrow observation, but not a robust configuration ranking.
• Do not turn a device-specific CPU mask, brightness value, iteration count, or summary statistic into a permanent default.
• When traces or repeat coverage cannot resolve a reversal, keep the default unchanged or make a provisional decision with that limitation explicit.