Dev iconDevAug 16, 2026 ~1 min source read

What the browser can actually tell you about your hardware (and what it can't)

I spent a while building browser-based hardware diagnostics and came away with a much clearer sense of where the web platform is genuinely capable and where it quietly lies to you. Notes below, with live demos for each API so you can poke at them yourself.

What the browser can actually tell you about your hardware (and what it can't)

Share this story

Send the public story page.

Useful takeaways from this story.

I spent a while building browser-based hardware diagnostics and came away with a much clearer sense of where the web platform is genuinely capable and where it quietly lies to you.

Notes below, with live demos for each API so you can poke at them yourself.

Refresh rate: requestAnimationFrame is the only signal you get There's no screen.refreshRate.

Building the complete brief

The page is ready to read now. The fuller skim-friendly version will appear here automatically.

The useful part

I spent a while building browser-based hardware diagnostics and came away with a much clearer sense of where the web platform is genuinely capable and where it quietly lies to you. Notes below, with live demos for each API so you can poke at them yourself. Refresh rate: requestAnimationFrame is the only signal you get There's no screen.refreshRate.

Keep reading in the app

Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.

Open in app