If you’ve spent even a small amount of time reading about smartphones, you’ve probably seen various benchmark apps being mentioned and scores from different phones being compared. My goal today is not to explain how each benchmark works, but rather why it’s important to have such test results at our disposal.

Benchmark scores often start heated debates since they give a numeric value which objectively (ideally) shows how much better one phone performed than another. And with brands and models usually having their fair share of supporters, you often hear fans defending the “losing” phone ...