It’s been discovered that Samsung is throttling the performance of its smartphones for thousands of apps.
Twitter users GaryeonHan and Korean netizens (via Android Authority) have posted details of 10,000 apps that are subject to “performance limits” on Samsung phones.
It seems Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS), which is designed to balance a device’s performance and battery needs for high-intensity games, is exceeding its remit. Popular everyday apps such as Instagram, Netflix, Google Keep, TikTok, and Microsoft’s Office suite are also being throttled.
Amazingly, even some of Samsung’s own apps have made the list, with Secure Folder, Samsung Cloud, Samsung Pay, Samsung Pass, and the dialer app all subject to performance hits.
Unsurprisingly, the usual benchmarking apps have been exempted from Samsung’s heavy-handed throttling. However, the full effect of Samsung’s GOS has been illustrated by a Korean YouTuber, who changed the package name of popular benchmarking app 3DMark to that of Genshin Impact, the famously resource-intensive game.
The resulting benchmark score was less than half the usual figure, showing just how hard Samsung’s GOS is hitting the apps on the hitlist.
Interestingly, Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service app doesn’t appear to be present on or even compatible with at least certain versions of recent Samsung devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE.
Since the initial story was published, Samsung has apparently indicated that it is conducting an internal investigation into the matter. Hopefully we’ll be hearing an official statement soon.
It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t an unprecedented turn of events. All smartphone manufacturers balance out the performance of their smartphones to various degress, and some occasionally step over the mark.
Samsung isn’t the only manufacturer to be caught throttling performance. Last year, OnePlus was found to be throttling top Android apps, with real world performance failing to match benchmark results.
