Robert Treggs / Android Authority
tl; DR
- Samsung is allegedly throttling the performance of 10,000 apps on its phones.
- The company’s Game Optimizing Service app is believed to be to blame.
Update: March 3, 2022 (1:27AM ET): It looks like Samsung is investigating the GOS issue described below. According to the circulation of information on navigatorThe company is conducting an internal investigation and is taking the issue as seriously as the Galaxy Note 7 debacle. Samsung is also expected to make an official announcement regarding the matter soon.
Original article: March 2, 2022 (2:49 PM ET): We’ve seen many cases over the years of smartphone manufacturers limiting the performance of a specific number of apps, ostensibly in order to restore battery life. Now, it looks like Samsung might do the same.
The so-called list is not limited to games, as here we see notable applications such as Instagram, Microsoft Office applications, Netflix, Google Keep and TikTok. Even Samsung’s own apps and services are listed here, such as Secure Folder, Samsung Cloud, Samsung Pay, Samsung Pass, and Dialer.
It’s no surprise to hear that benchmark apps like 3DMark, Antutu, PCMark, GFXBench, and GeekBench 5 are not listed here. This indicates that Samsung is not subject to standard applications throttling. a korean youtube He went so far as to change the 3DMark package name to reflect the Genshin Impact (which appears in the list) and ran the benchmark. The renamed package achieved a significantly lower reference score and average frame rate. Check out a screenshot below, with the renamed package on the left.
For what it’s worth, the app doesn’t seem to be installed on Galaxy S22 series units. It appears on the Galaxy Store but pressing install shows that the app is not compatible with my S22 Plus review device. We also can’t see it on the Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S10e devices. However, a team member reported seeing the app on their Galaxy S21 Plus, and confirmed that it can’t be disabled.
On the other hand, it is understood that smartphone makers will strive to balance performance and battery life for many applications. On the other hand, there is a clear argument that users are not getting the performance they demanded. It is particularly suspicious that benchmarking applications are not included here, which means that these results will not be representative of actual experience.
It seems Samsung hasn’t learned from last year’s stifling OnePlus saga.
This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a mobile phone manufacturer engage in such ethically questionable practices. OnePlus was capture It “improved” the performance of popular apps with last year’s OnePlus 9 Pro, but it also kept benchmark apps out of the throttling.
We’ve contacted Samsung representatives to see if this list is accurate and to determine exactly what GOS does with these apps. We also asked the company if the modular apps are subject to GOS. We will update the article if/when Samsung gets back to us.