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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 next in line to be punished by Geekbench

Published: Mar 14, 2022, 12:24 PM

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 next in line to be punished by Geekbench

Whether or not consumers use their smartphones to their full potential, no one likes to hear misleading claims about a phone's performance and finding out that their brand new, expensive handset has been slowed down intentionally by the vendor could lead to extreme steps like a lawsuit. If this story rings a bell it's because we are talking about Samsung's phone and tablet throttling issue and it looks like there is more trouble ahead for the South Korean company.

Samsung's Game Optimizing Service (GOS) app, which came pre-installed on some of its devices, was said to be limiting the performance of over 10,000 apps, including non-gaming apps such as Microsoft Office and YouTube.

That means the CPU and GPU were not operating at their full potential, and the screen was not as vivid as Samsung had promised. In the past, users were able to bypass the GOS app, but Samsung's latest One UI update made that impossible.

Samsung argued that it put these performance controls in place to prevent stuttering and improve temperature management to prevent the devices from overheating, and has so far not admitted that non-gaming apps were also affected.

Android Police has found that GOS is a sophisticated system that considers multiple factors including temperature and expected frame rate when limiting performance to varying degrees. Samsung is now rolling out an update that will allow you to disable GOS.

Still, the overarching impression was that Samsung was being dishonest, especially because benchmarking apps were excluded from the list of apps that were controlled by GOS, and this meant that they were overestimating the day-to-day performance of the phones.

As a result, Geekbench delisted the last four Galaxy S series smartphones, including the 2022 Galaxy S22 series, and it looks like the Galaxy Tab S8 line will be next. Android Police has found that GOS also affected the performance of Samsung's latest tablet series.

Geekbench now ready to show the door to Galaxy Tab S8 over GOS throttling

When the Geekbench app is renamed as the Genshin Impact game to trick the system into thinking it's not a benchmarking tool, the single-core and multi-core scores, which are a measure of performance, fall. Otherwise, Geekbench spits out much better numbers, which are not reflective of the tablets' actual performance.

This is true for all three slates - the Tab S8, S8 Plus, and S8 Ultra - but older models like the Tab S7 and Tab S5e were not impacted. Any differences mentioned in the table below are within the expected margin of error.

Benchmarking tools like Geekbench may have been overestimating the performance of the Tab S8

The outlet also notes the slates 'did not throttle as hard as the Galaxy S22 series phones,' probably because there is more room for heat dissipation because of their bigger size, which again solidifies the theory that Samsung's main intention was to keep things running smoothly.

After all, Samsung is not the first manufacturer to do this, and OnePlus and Apple have also been found guilty of similar behavior in the past.

Geekbench couldn't care less about the perceived intention and is all set to remove the Galaxy Tab S8 line. This in no way will affect consumers or the fact that the new tablets have a shot at becoming one of the best tablets of 2022. It will certainly affect Samsung's reputation though.

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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.