Dxomark has diversified its expertise to include laptops. The company has developed a specialized testing suite to assess the user experience of laptops during video calling, music listening, and video watching. The choice to focus on laptops is due to their pivotal role as a bridge between work and entertainment, which has been further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased reliance on videoconferencing and laptop usage for professional and personal purposes has made it crucial to evaluate their performance in these areas.
Dxomark’s testing protocol for laptops centers around three core elements: camera, audio, and display. These aspects significantly impact the user experience during video calls and media consumption. In the video call use case, Dxomark considers the camera, audio, and display systems of laptops, as they need to work together seamlessly to provide a well-exposed and focused image and ensure clear and coherent voice transmission for effective video calls.
For the music and video use case, Dxomark focuses on the display and audio playback functionalities of laptops. They evaluate the laptop’s ability to reproduce colors and tones accurately for both SDR and HDR video content. Additionally, they assess the audio playback quality, ensuring that users can hear dialogue clearly and recognize music instruments even in the presence of background noise.
Dxomark provides an overall Laptop score for each device, considering its performance in the camera, audio, and display domains. In their Laptop ranking, Dxomark initially concentrates on the top part of the market, featuring devices that integrate the latest technologies and offer a best-in-class experience. Their testing list includes all major brands and operating systems, providing consumers with an overview of the current premium laptop market.
The current Dxomark Laptop ranking comprises 14 devices from 11 different brands, showcasing the leading options available in terms of camera, audio, and display performance. The Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (2023) is the current top of the table laptop.
During video calls, the MacBook Pro’s camera performs exceptionally well by providing a high level of detail in most conditions and effectively controlling visual noise in well-exposed scenes. The audio capture showcases a good tonal balance, ensuring voices sound warm, realistic, and clear. Playback of voices is excellent, offering intelligible and pleasant communication. The device excels in HDR video rendering with wide color gamut, accurate EOTF (electro-optical transfer function), and impressive peak brightness, delivering the best-in-class visual experience. Reflectance is handled well overall, reducing unwanted glare. However, there are a few drawbacks to note. Occasionally, the device may exhibit unnatural color rendering in challenging scenarios, affecting the visual output. In video calls, the audio capture is limited to mono, which can impede intelligibility in situations where stereo-capable voice calls are preferred. Additionally, there are some duplex handling issues that are impacted by gating, potentially affecting the overall performance of the device.
