It has long been quite usual for both computer manufacturer and computer enthusiasts to benchmark their systems. The former do this for advertising purposes, while the latter generally do it for one of two reasons – either to see how much better their system is than other peoples’ or to see what difference a hardware upgrade makes to performance in hard, concrete figures.

As with the desktop versions of the app, 3DMark works by running graphically intensive demonstration on your device to determine the speed at which the screen can be redrawn, polygons can be generated, and how many frames per second footage can be displayed at. There are two demos to work with – Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme – but you may find that different devices are only able to run one or the other.

Once the demos have run, your device will be assigned a score and you can check the device channel to see how this compares with other devices. If you feel that your phone or tablet has been performing a little sluggishly, this can be a good way to find out whether what you are experiencing is the norm or something out of the ordinary.

But this is an app that is about more than just benchmarking, it can also be used to discover more about the hardware inside you Android device. Of course you could always dig out the packaging that your phone or tablet came in, or look up the specifications online, but simply firing up 3DMark lets you know everything that happening under the hood.

Need to know how much storage space or RAM you have? 3DMark can help. Unsure of the spec of your camera or processor? The app can help here too. While the app is free of charge, it is gigantic download. The 283MB file is one that should certainly be downloaded on a wifi connection rather than racking up a data bill.