Speedometer 2.0 lets you put your browser speed through its paces

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Speedometer
A benchmark for modern web app responsiveness.
Photo: Apple

Apple has released Speedometer 2.0, a benchmark that lets you test your browser’s web app responsiveness. The tool is part of Apple’s contribution to WebKit, a collaboration between Apple, Adobe Systems, Google, KDE, and others.

Speedometer 2.0 works by simulating “user interactions.” Essentially, it runs 480 tasks and then measures how long it takes your browser’s speed in carrying these out, before providing you with a report.

Apple introduced the first Speedometer 1.0 back in 2014. As Apple explains, however, the web developer ecosystem has evolved significantly since then — therefore necessitating the introduction of Speedometer 2.0.

In particular, libraries, frameworks, and programming paradigms have changed substantially. “Developers now commonly use transpilers, module bundlers, and recently-introduced frameworks when creating new sites,” Apple notes. “This is why, for the last year, engineers from WebKit and Chromium have been collaborating on a new version of Speedometer that better reflects the frameworks, tools, and patterns in wide use today.”

You can find more information about Speedometer 2.0 here. Among its changes versus the first-generation tool is the fact that it now supports new JavaScript APIs and libraries, ES2015 JavaScript and Babel, TypeScrpt, Elm and PureScript. It also changes the way that speed calculations are carried out.

If you’re interested in running the test, you can check it out here.

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