PS4&XB1 browser comparison

[SlimJim]

Both consoles feature a browser, One might be behind a paywal, but that is not part of the comparison.
In this thread I want to gather benchmarks. Speed, HTML5 compliance, and so on.


I found a benchmark comparing Sunspider and Kracken performance.

XBO Sunspider: 2360.9
PS4 Sunspider: 1027.4
XBO Kracken: 111892.5
PS4 Kracken: 22768.7

You can see that PS4 has an advantage.
Could the XBoxOne performance be because of the fact that the browser can be snapped?

If anyone has any other benchmarks, please post them.

edit: facepalm, I just copied the numbers, didn't really know what they meant, but because MS is a software company I figured they mastered the art of creating a fast browser (IE on Surface is quite fast for example)

 

[djskribbles]

Those numbers are in ms (lower is better).

The source: http://anandtech.com/show/7528/the-xbox-one-mini-review-hardware-analysis/5

I threw in some browser based CPU benchmarks and power numbers as well. Both the Xbox One and PS4 ship with integrated web browsers. Neither experience is particularly well optimized for performance, but the PS4 definitely has the edge at least in javascript performance.

 

[babybumb]

These test a single threaded so i dont think there is any difference how they handle them

 

[Arwin]

Are you sure? Because it could be an interesting explanation of both the performance difference and the power draw difference.

Implications could be interesting too, if this means that the way the Xbox One multitasks means that the Apps only ever have 1-2 cores available to them, and the PS4's Apps will have all cores available. Then the sacrifice of being able to have snapped apps next to each other may be greater than initially anticipated. Who knows if they can refine this later though.

 

[Grall]

Hasn't it been said that due to the design of javascript it doesn't scale beyond one thread...? So if 2 or 8 jaguars are available to the browser shouldn't matter - that - much. The kracken test, whatever the hell that is/does, is ~5x faster on PS4 if the numbers represent time spent, that's rather significant for what's supposedly a single-core task...

 

[Cyan]

Are you sure? Because it could be an interesting explanation of both the performance difference and the power draw difference.

Implications could be interesting too, if this means that the way the Xbox One multitasks means that the Apps only ever have 1-2 cores available to them, and the PS4's Apps will have all cores available. Then the sacrifice of being able to have snapped apps next to each other may be greater than initially anticipated. Who knows if they can refine this later though.

That would be interesting. I think that the way Xbox One works they could deserve more cores when the console detects no games are being played. Even so a single core should be enough for a browser, imho, at least to run decently.

If the Xbox One browser runs as fast as Internet Explorer then people are in for a treat.

It would be cool if Digital Foundry made an article between WiiU, Xbox One, PS4 and PC browsers.

 

[patsu]

That's crazy because the PS4 web browser does not feel quick in practice.

My cellphone and iPad outperform it easily.

 

[Cornsnake]

Is it better then the PS3 browser at least?

 

[joker454]

People need to ignore benchmarks when looking at browsers. It's why people think Chrome is better than IE, but in real world use IE runs better for me and gives me much better laptop battery life, runs many websites faster and the fans on my Mac Air never kick up with IE whereas they kick up to the max much more often with Chrome. Same with the consoles, try the actual browsers rather than go by worthless sunspider benchmarks. I just read the pocket-lint review last night and they have comments on the browsers.

For PS4: http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/125255-playstation-4-review

Browser snippet:

But it's not all smooth sailing. Browsing the net is pretty awful - that's the best way to describe it on the PS4. It's as if the only reason Sony has included a browser for the console is to authenticate your Twitter feed. Turn to Xbox and you'll see Internet Explorer and all manner or integration.

If it's not the huge resolution that makes the text minuscule, it is the laggy experience the PS4 gives. To make matters worse, Sony has opted to allow you to zoom in by pressing R3 rather than using the small touch-sensitive pad on the top of the DualShock controller. Even connecting with the iPhone or Android app doest help. Although the app does bring the fun: you buy games, check up on your stats, and even double up as a second screen experience - handy if you've got text to type. You'll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network for it to work though.

Still, the app can't fix the browser experience. Stick to your phone or tablet's native browser experience for that.

For XB1: http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/125132-xbox-one-review

Browser snippet:

Xbox One comes with Internet Explorer so you can browse to your favourite websites. It's a fully featured browser, although there's no support for Flash which limits some video content online - BBC iPlayer for example.

Full voice control of the browser is in place, so you can tell it where to go, to scroll up and down and even to click on links. It's pretty good at picking out links and when it gets confused, it will put numbers on them and ask which one, which keeps it simple.

There are protections in place, so you can have your browser set to be child friendly in an associated profile, for example, but if you want to get something online onto your TV, this is an easy way to do it.

I say it so often with graphics where I mention don't bother with screenshots, try the actual games on your actual tv and then decide. Same with the browsers, forget benchmarks they are not a good indicator of real world use. Try the actual browsers and then decide.

 

[patsu]

Is it better then the PS3 browser at least?

Yap. Slightly faster and haven't crashed on me yet. But I heard it may have memory leaks. Not sure if the latest patch fixed it. I will try more.

People need to ignore benchmarks when looking at browsers. It's why people think Chrome is better than IE, but in real world use IE runs better for me and gives me much better laptop battery life, runs many websites faster and the fans on my Mac Air never kick up with IE whereas they kick up to the max much more often with Chrome. Same with the consoles, try the actual browsers rather than go by worthless sunspider benchmarks. I just read the pocket-lint review last night and they have comments on the browsers.

For PS4: http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/125255-playstation-4-review

Browser snippet:

For XB1: http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/125132-xbox-one-review

Browser snippet:

I say it so often with graphics where I mention don't bother with screenshots, try the actual games on your actual tv and then decide. Same with the browsers, forget benchmarks they are not a good indicator of real world use. Try the actual browsers and then decide.

Voice navigation can indeed be more convenient here since it also masks the relatively slow performance of these browsers.

I think Sony should turn on their DS4 gyro pointer feature for the browser. That feature makes the virtual keyboard more intuitive (and convenient) to use.

 

[deathindustrial]

The PS4 browser is Ok, not great. The biggest issue I have with it is that they have chosen a stupid canvas size so what ends up happening on most sites is that you end up with a large amount of blank space on either side with a tiny texted pane in the middle. What they should have done is use the zoom to specify the width of the browser window and then scale that to fit the screen resolution. That way zooming in would not require tons of scrolling side to side to see anything and avoid the GUI control hassles.

If they fixed the canvas size / zoom and especially if they enabled the mouse pad for controls it would be OK. I was able to play a couple of simple HTML5 based games on it for what that's worth. And you can read this forum with it reasonably well (though the text is small in the default view).

Cheers

 

[patsu]

Actually, I take it back.

Seems snappy today post patch. Significantly faster than the PS3 version. They may have patched the browser ?

Will play with it more later. It's more pleasant to use at this speed.

EDIT: Press R3 zoom into the page. L3 does nothing.

Should use L3 to zoom, and leave R3 for turning on/off gyro pointer, like in the virtual keyboard.

Moving the pointer with the dual sticks is slow. They need to up the sensitivity. That is the greatest source of frustration. The gyro pointer is like an order of magnitude faster.

 

[archie4oz]

This is all amusing considering the moment you log in, you’re “in the browser…”

 

[patsu]

archie4oz... turn on the gyro pointer for the web apps, puh-lease ~


For PS4 browser speed, it was pretty slow on launch day though.

So you run 2 instances of WebKit when we launch the browser app ?

EDIT:
HTML5 tests show that the PS4 browser app does not support WebGL.
Yet we know the PS4 UI supports it.

Are you using 2 different version of WebKit ?

EDIT 2: Darn it archie4oz. Don't leave a one liner and run away.