Don't trust those 'leaked' Microsoft Surface benchmarks (or any benchmarks)

Ahead of every large device launch, there comes the inevitable speculation on what new hardware and features are on the horizon. Watching the step of the evolving tech mural is what makes covering it and then much fun, and this annual cycle is very much a part of that.

However, at that place'southward one area of the annual refresh hype train in which it's salubrious to practice some genuine skepticism: criterion "leaks."

A tale of ii benchmarks

This week, we saw ii declared benchmarks pop upwards for what are reported to be upcoming Microsoft Surface devices. I is alleged to be for a Surface Go that sports an Intel Core m3 processor, while the other is thought to be either a Surface Pro or Surface Laptop with one of Intel's new "Ice Lake" CPUs.

Benchmarks can exist, and have been, faked.

Both are upgrades that would make sense for this refresh cycle. Plus, with this twelvemonth'south Surface event less than a month away, it's not surprising that nosotros might see Geekbench scores starting to trickle out (these scores were dated April and June, respectively). Digging up criterion scores from Geekbench, however, doesn't necessarily betoken anything concrete.

To put information technology only, benchmarks can be, and have been, faked.

This is particularly truthful in the Android space, just information technology tin can be done with PC hardware, also. Fifty-fifty if Geekbench reads straight from a processor for an ID, the data eventually has to pass through a network and awarding to be reported, which means it's possible for someone who wants to expend the time and effort to manipulate it.

Fakes and mistakes

That might sound like a lot of work for little proceeds, simply it's been washed before. Someone in the Android modding customs recently faked a benchmark for a Xiaomi "POCO F1 Low-cal" by running a Geekbench test on a phone that had some arrangement files modified to report a unlike device ID. I'll save yous the muddy details, simply XDA Developers has a great rundown of the whole saga, along with some examples of just how easy information technology is to pull this off.

Criterion leaks are an exceedingly unreliable indicator of what'southward coming downwards the pike.

At that place's also the complication of reports that might be legitimate just reverberate a configuration that never makes it to market. While it's unclear whether this was precisely the instance with the new Samsung Milky way Book S, it was widely rumored that the laptop would send with a Snapdragon 855 chip based on a "leaked" criterion. Once the Galaxy Book S was announced, it was revealed to be running on the Snapdragon 8cx platform.

As for why anyone would want to fake a benchmark, it's most probable "for the lulz" and trolling tech blogs, as was the case in the Xiaomi POCO F1 Low-cal case. What matters is that benchmark leaks are an exceedingly unreliable indicator of what's coming downward the pike, and information technology's worth exercising an abundance of caution when you see reports based on them.

Circling back to Surface, information technology's certainly possible that a Core m3-based Surface Go is in the works. Too, it would brand sense for Microsoft to slot Intel's new Ice Lake chips in a new Surface Pro or Surface Laptop. Only take any benchmarks you run into with a massive grain of salt.

As for me, I'm eagerly pending a tease for the rumored dual-screen Surface "Centaurus" ... though I'll beware any leaked benchmarks

All the new Surface hardware we look to see on Oct 2 in NYC