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Smartphone benchmarking service Geekbench has banned several Samsung smartphones on its platform, including the all-new Galaxy S22 series. This is in response to the Korean firm throttling the performance of some (over 10,000) apps on its smartphones.
Samsung’s Games Optimization Service (GOS) was recently found to be limiting the performance of several popular apps on Galaxy smartphones. This performance throttling was supposedly for preventing devices from overheating and also improving battery life. But it was not just game apps that GOS was slowing down. The service was also stopping several other widely used apps such as Instagram, Netflix, TikTok, which aren’t as power-hungry as game apps, from running at their full potential.
Interestingly though, GOS wasn’t limiting the performance of benchmarking apps such as Geekbench and 3DMark. These services were able to explore the full potential of the devices. But the same level of performance was not available to users, at least not with all apps. This was seen as a deliberate move by Samsung to deceive users as many people use benchmarking results to determine whether a device is up to the task.
In response, popular benchmarking service Geekbench has now de-listed the Galaxy S22 trio from its platform. The company is also removing all Galaxy S21, Galaxy S20, and Galaxy S10 devices. GOS seemingly isn’t impacting the Galaxy Note and Galaxy A series devices as Geekbench is allowing them to stay up.
“Earlier this week, we were made aware of Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS) and how it throttles the performance of games and applications. GOS decides to throttle (or not to throttle) applications using application identifiers and not application behavior. We view this as a form of benchmark manipulation as major benchmark applications, including Geekbench, are not throttled by this service,” Geekbench said in a statement.
Samsung has promised to fix this shady performance throttling
Following the discovery of this shady performance throttling by GOS, Samsung has promised to fix it with a software update in the future. It will add an option that will allow users to manually control the gaming performance of their device. But it’s unclear whether it will be a system-wide option or the setting will be app-specific.
As far as the Geekbench listings of the affected devices are concerned, they aren’t coming back. The company doesn’t re-list manipulated devices, even if an update fixes the shady practice. Once it removes a device, it’s permanent. So the Galaxy S22 trio, as well as all other devices, aren’t coming back on Geekbench.
Samsung, meanwhile, has yet to provide a timeframe regarding the rollout of the promised update. Hopefully, it will not be a too-long wait. We will keep you posted.