Samsung Fudging Benchmarks Again On Galaxy Note 3 258
tlhIngan writes "A few months ago, Samsung was caught gaming benchmarks on the Galaxy S4 (International version). They would lock the GPU at a higher-than-normal frequency when certain applications were run, including many popular Android benchmarking programs. These had the expected result of boosting the performance numbers. This time, the Galaxy Note 3 was caught doing the same thing, boosting CPU scores by 20% over the otherwise identical LG G2 (which uses the same SoC at the same clock). Samsung defends these claims by saying the other apps make use of such functionality, but Ars reversed-engineered the relevant code and discovered it applied only to benchmark applications. Even more damning was that the Note 3 was still faster than the G2 when run using 'stealth' (basically renamed) versions of the benchmarking apps which did not get the boost."
Should have done a battery benchmark (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:If this was Apple... (Score:3, Interesting)
Samsung denies also, i guess it's all fine then.
Refutation and denial are not synonymous terms. While the G5 case has decent responses, Samsung's responses have been less than honest.
With the Galaxy S4 GPU, their rationale was that other apps (not benchmarking tools) *can* enjoy the higher speed, yet to avoid heat issues this will be strictly limited in availability and time. Portable computing always has to strike this balance, so that's fine. But why then would benchmarking applications get carte blanche to run at higher speeds if the apps (including games) that people are actually using on the platform will either see no boost or a very time limited one?
To use a car analogy, Samsung have secretly inserted a "new car smell" dispenser in their cars, and set it to be triggered when the car is driven by motoring journalists. Hooray, the amazingly persistent new car smell is touted in reviews, and then in reality most owners find the smell gone within a week. Samsung's defence? The new car smell is not just a trick they put in to fox the reviewers. The smell is available to all owners, but in order to conserve the fluid used, it'll only run at unbridled full power if the driver is named Jeremy Clarkson.