Samsung Again Caught Inflating Benchmarking Scores, Phil Schiller Calls 'Shenanigans'
Like it did with its Galaxy S 4 smartphone, Samsung has once again been caught artificially increasing CPU speeds on its Galaxy Note 3 phone when benchmark apps are running, reports Ars Technica.
Samsung uses special code inside its operating system to identify benchmarking apps by name to boost CPU clock speeds and prevent CPU cores from entering low-power modes. As a result, Ars discovered, Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks report CPU performance roughly 20 percent faster than most apps will experience on the device.
The difference is remarkable. In Geekbench's multicore test, the Note 3's benchmark mode gives the device a 20 percent boost over its "natural" score. With the benchmark boosting logic stripped away, the Note 3 drops down to LG G2 levels, which is where we initially expected the score to be given the identical SoCs. This big of a boost means that the Note 3 is not just messing with the CPU idle levels; significantly more oomph is unlocked when the device runs a benchmark.
Apple executive Phil Schiller -- senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and the most prolific tweeter amongst Apple's senior staff -- linked to the Ars article in a tweet, saying only "shenanigans".
Popular Stories
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are...
With the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch approaching, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at an interesting bit of Apple Watch history. After the Apple Watch was announced in 2014, and before it became available in 2015, Apple sent out custom Apple Watch iPad demo kiosks to retail stores. The Apple Watch and iPad units used for these devices were specially designed, had custom ...
Apple is holding at least five announcements for later in the year that will not arrive at the company's "Let loose" special event next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a report detailing his expectations for Apple's upcoming event, Gurman noted that there are a total of five things that the company is holding for later in the year: AI features: While Apple may tease new...
During today's earnings call covering the second fiscal quarter of 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook again spoke about Apple's work on generative AI. He said that Apple has "advantages" that will "differentiate" the company in the era of AI, and some "very exciting things" will be shared with customers in the near future. We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI. We are ...
While Apple's upcoming iPad Pro models have been expected to feature the M3 chip for over a year, recent reports have unexpectedly suggested that the new devices will instead feature the as-yet-unannounced M4 chip. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that he now believes there is a "strong possibility" that the upcoming iPad Pro ...
Top Rated Comments
Phil is ****ing awesome!
My guess is if they did, you'd get about 30 minutes of battery life...
Because its only unlocking the power for these benchmarks. You don't get to experience that power in everyday use.
Its analogous to a governor on a car. Yes, the engine can take you to 200mph but if the governor only lets you hit 130mph then you can never use that extra 70mph.