www.smh.com.au speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 13:18 UTC. Grade B (83/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 59 ms 20%
- TCP connect 47 ms 16%
- Server wait 186 ms 64%
Measured on the connection that fetched the HTML. Every other request on the page waits for the end of this bar before it can start.
How this page compares
Every report published here is in this comparison, so it is a reference population of pages tested from one server - not a benchmark of the whole web.
What these numbers mean
- The first byte arrived in 291 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 961.1 KB over 26 request(s). Images files are 82% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- 82% of the weight comes from other hosts (analytics, fonts, embeds), which also means their slow day becomes your slow day.
- The largest element painted at 1.12 s, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- The main thread was blocked for 719 ms, so taps and scrolling wait while scripts run.
Fix first: Image delivery and format - Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG fallback, size images to the space they occupy, and lazy-load anything below the fold. Images are usually more than half of a slow page.
Read on one shared server, not a visitor's phone: use it to compare pages against each other, not as a promise about every connection. We fix what these tests find.
Screenshot
What the page looks like
Loaded in headless Chromium on this server. Click an image to open it full size.
Browser render
The same URL loaded in a real browser, so these are the readings curl cannot produce. The grade above is still built from the server measurements.
Page weight by type
What the page is made of
Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 961.1 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Image delivery and format
high impact1 image(s) over 200 KB and 0 large image(s) still served as JPEG or PNG.
Fix: Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG fallback, size images to the space they occupy, and lazy-load anything below the fold. Images are usually more than half of a slow page.
Total page weight
medium impactThe page transfers 961.1 KB across 26 request(s), with the document itself at 170.9 KB.
Fix: Work through the heaviest assets first: images, then fonts, then third-party scripts.
Third-party weight
medium impact1 third-party host(s) serve 790.3 KB of this page. Each one is another DNS lookup, TLS handshake and point of failure you do not control.
Fix: Self-host the libraries you can, drop the tags you cannot justify, and preconnect the ones you keep.
HTML document size
medium impactThe document transfers 170.9 KB. A bloated document delays every other request, because nothing else can start until it is parsed.
Fix: Paginate long listings, move repeated markup into a template, and stop inlining large data URIs into the HTML.
Avoid extra redirects
medium impact1 redirect hop(s) before the page load started, each one a full round trip before the first byte.
Fix: Link to the canonical URL (and make sure http, the apex domain and www all point at it) so no visitor pays a redirect first.
Waterfall
Slowest requests
Each bar is one request's own response time, scaled to the slowest. Assets were fetched in parallel, so the bars overlap in real time rather than stacking. first party third party
| Request | Type | Status | Time | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.10088070456365092%2C$multiply_0.254%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_94%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/8b55c4cc88b2c16b1f51f98b38f5245031a85df6, 3rd party | other | 404 | 3.93 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.14274924471299094%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_172/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/1959f3c8bd925bbe931474632351314ea4a6c856, 3rd party | other | 404 | 3.45 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.8552%2C$multiply_0.1905%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_208%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Ce_sharpen:60%2Cf_auto/e213fc23334ab294b8544f710e328a3eaf2138cf, 3rd party | other | 404 | 3.31 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_1.575%2C$multiply_0.1905%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/5cf5f052d12055df57be14c11ce6517da0e7c6a1, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.85 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_40%2C$height_40/t_crop_fill/q_86%2Cf_auto/42e5a656a2b4a32eef38f6c884343134607a14b5, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.49 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_1.336%2C$multiply_0.254%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_457%2C$y_271/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Ce_sharpen:60%2Cf_auto/8668bfa038ad312b4a80c204cd6805e8052e594b, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.33 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.5908558030480656%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/1ce76411b458a37d988a2fa75a12218aa1688eb15e868472948d87303788cd9f, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.30 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.3949843260188088%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_64/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/980f8e82377d48b929dd0d4dccd3637e55a11962, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.28 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.2331%2C$multiply_0.254%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_111%2C$y_118/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/4dce5f3ec39eaf9bff252c58db13adb95cf103cd, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.26 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.369140625%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/c13690619bbd9ab44607c5a61efec811035b6932d7a1f077c87a05fd54e24cd9, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.23 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.1568%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_101%2C$y_67/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/7eb8e4d69a7aa0b8dc31d773ed4b15e440499fbb, 3rd party | other | 404 | 2.21 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.8552%2C$multiply_0.1905%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_208%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Ce_sharpen:60%2Cf_auto/e213fc23334ab294b8544f710e328a3eaf2138cf 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.29 s | 10.5 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.1905%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/53d7d862f701235b0f1dc4361b417c7c66748a29, 3rd party | images | 404 | 1.22 s | 0 B |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.2331%2C$multiply_0.254%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_111%2C$y_118/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/4dce5f3ec39eaf9bff252c58db13adb95cf103cd 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.22 s | 6.0 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.10088070456365092%2C$multiply_0.254%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_94%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/8b55c4cc88b2c16b1f51f98b38f5245031a85df6 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.20 s | 7.2 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.1568%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_101%2C$y_67/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/7eb8e4d69a7aa0b8dc31d773ed4b15e440499fbb 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.19 s | 32.5 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_1.575%2C$multiply_0.1905%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/5cf5f052d12055df57be14c11ce6517da0e7c6a1 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.18 s | 5.7 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_1.336%2C$multiply_0.254%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_457%2C$y_271/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Ce_sharpen:60%2Cf_auto/8668bfa038ad312b4a80c204cd6805e8052e594b 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.18 s | 52.1 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.3949843260188088%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_64/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/980f8e82377d48b929dd0d4dccd3637e55a11962 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.14 s | 43.5 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.5908558030480656%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/1ce76411b458a37d988a2fa75a12218aa1688eb15e868472948d87303788cd9f 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.14 s | 513.4 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_40%2C$height_40/t_crop_fill/q_86%2Cf_auto/0ec7187b93286dfb0f0abbff3fe1e9df3e81e2d6 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.13 s | 8.7 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_40%2C$height_40/t_crop_fill/q_86%2Cf_auto/42e5a656a2b4a32eef38f6c884343134607a14b5 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.11 s | 9.3 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.1905%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_378%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/53d7d862f701235b0f1dc4361b417c7c66748a29 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.08 s | 5.8 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.369140625%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/c13690619bbd9ab44607c5a61efec811035b6932d7a1f077c87a05fd54e24cd9 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.08 s | 54.9 KB |
| https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.14274924471299094%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_172/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/1959f3c8bd925bbe931474632351314ea4a6c856 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.06 s | 40.5 KB |
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