Samsung caught cheating artificially boosting benchmark for Note 3

Samsung got caught artificially boosting their benchmark results again, this time for the new Galaxy Note 3.

An in depth report by Ars Technica explores how Samsung utilises special code in its operating system to identify when benchmarking apps are running and boost CPU speeds accordingly in order to achieve higher scores.

Benchmarking is useful in providing an idea of a phone or tablet’s general performance. But the results showed that speeds on the Note 3 were 20% higher when benchmarking apps were running when compared to regular usage meaning that the scores achieved do not reflect everyday use. On occasions scores were inflated by as much as 50%.

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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.

On one hand, who cares? Synthetic benchmarks don’t mean as much as how fast a phone turns on, or powers down, or launches a game, or crunches a video, or does any of a thousand other things real people need them to do every day. Things that are far more important, and far harder to cheat at. On the other hand, given that, why bother? Especially if you’ve been caught before. You know you’ll be caught again, and you’ll give people who already dislike or distrust you yet another reason to pile on the internet wedgies, and all for absolutely no gain.