How Many Android OEMs Cheat Benchmark Scores? Pretty Much All of Them

An anonymous reader writes "After Samsung got caught out cheating on benchmarks (Note 3, Galaxy S4) AnandTech has done a detailed analysis of the state of benchmark cheating amongst Android OEMs. With the exception of Motorola, literally every single OEM they've looked at ships (or has shipped) at least one device that does benchmark-specific CPU optimizations. AnandTech also thinks it will get worse before it gets better. 'The hilarious part of all of this is we’re still talking about small gains in performance. The impact on our CPU tests is 0 - 5%, and somewhere south of 10% on our GPU benchmarks as far as we can tell. I can't stress enough that it would be far less painful for the OEMs to just stop this nonsense and instead demand better performance/power efficiency from their silicon vendors.' The article notes that Apple doesn't do any of the frequency gaming stuff."

Easy solution

[TheRealMindChild]

The benchmark software should randomize the process name on launch

Re:And Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anonymously since I'm a motoroogle employee... you'll be disappointed. I certainly am. At this point, I expect google to shut us down or spin us off.

Re:Or, alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

On the contrary, the testers should just be bigger dicks. "We detected benchmark-specific optimizations in products #1, #2 and #3, so they all got zero points."

Re:And Apple

[Dixie_Flatline]

It's not a mid-range device. It's only mid-range if you look at the spec sheet and nothing else. Its (non-gamed) benchmarks are actually pretty good for all this talk of 'mid-range'. They did the same thing Apple did and tried to balance out performance with battery life. They didn't put the biggest screen in it, and they have optimised silicon to listen for commands without keeping the CPU on all the time.

Specs aren't the war that anyone should be trying to win in the mobile space. That kind of thinking is why there are phones that only last half the day.

Re:And Apple

[JanneM]

I've heard a number of people I trust comment on how the Moto X just feels really good in the hand and how the screen and size is just right. So the phone is certainly not bad at all, and most of us don't actually buy the high-end phones any more than we buy the high-end cars or bikes. A really good mid-range phone is exactly what I want; I'm already making calf-eyes toward the coming Sony Z1 Mini.

What's hurting Motorola for me, personally, is that it's simply not on sale in most of the world, and seems unlikely to ever be. It's not just about being able to get it where I live, but having a phone designed from the start to be usable in all major regions of the world as I travel.

Re:And Apple

[Trillian_1138]

Just picked up a Moto X to replace my aging Galaxy Nexus. I'm on Verizon, which makes me skeptical I'll see another Nexus phone anytime soon. I like the near-stock Moto X setup, and the little tweaks (active notifications, touchless control, etc) are pretty fun. It's a pretty great phone, and I hope it helps boost Motorola in the Android world. I do think they priced it too high (although I still bought it, so take that as you will..) but I highly recommend the phone to anyone who plays the occasional, not to graphic-intensive games, wants their phone to be quick and responsive, likes stock Android, etc. It's an awesome phone.