Essay · Long read

The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024

Alex Russell · Infrequently Noted (Alex Russell) Free Advanced

Alex Russell, a Chrome engineer, puts hard numbers on what most of the world's phones can actually do, and the gap between them and the laptop on your desk is brutal. He picks a specific budget Android device and a slow network as the baseline you should build to, then shows how much JavaScript and page weight that budget really leaves you. If you only read one thing to recalibrate your sense of what is fast, read this.

  • A quarter of your users are on devices slower than the baseline you should target
  • Set an explicit byte and CPU budget per screen, then hold the line
  • The fastest device in the room is a terrible proxy for your real user
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The question it answers

  1. How do I design for users in India who are on cheap Android phones and slow, patchy internet?

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