For those of you who are familiar with our smartphone reviews, you'll notice we typically use Antutu Benchmark as one of our aggregate benchmark tests. It's an app meant to find out how well a device's chipset handles a variety of different smartphone use cases. But guess what? The app has disappeared from the Google Play Store.
According to Android Police, Antutu Benchmark, Antutu 3DBench, and AItutu Benchmark can no longer be found in Google's app store. It is believed that Google has removed the apps due to the crackdown on parent company Cheetah Mobile, which has been notorious for multiple violations of Google's policies. An archive for the app page was last recorded on 22 February 2020, which means it was removed sometime within the last two weeks or so.
It seems Google is convinced that the Antutu suite of benchmarks belongs to Cheetah Mobile. The damning evidence can be found in the archive mentioned above, where the Privacy Policy linked back to the one on Cheetah Mobile's website. Antutu has already noticed the removable by now and has replaced all the Google Play Store links on its site to direct download links for the app's apk.
Having said all that, how many of you actually use Antutu Benchmark regularly? Do you prefer using other benchmark apps? Let us know on our Facebook page and stay tuned to TechNave.com for more news like this.
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