A hot potato: Samsung was recently criticized for over-promising performance for the Galaxy S22 series, which thermally throttles in thousands of popular apps, but not during benchmarks. In South Korea, where the outrage was greatest, the series is now being severely restricted.
Samsung has been integrating the Game Optimizing Service (GOS) into its phones since 2016. It preemptively reduces the SoC workload in games, but also in apps like Netflix and Spotify to prevent overheating and extend battery life. All phones have power management software with a similar purpose, but GOS tries to hide itself by only triggering when running apps from a pre-packaged list.
Previous Galaxy S devices had better cooling than the S22, making GOS less noticeable. But Geekbench discovered that GOS caps it at 46%. It decided to ban the S22, S21, S20 and S10 from its benchmark ranking, and later banned the Galaxy Tab S8 as well.
We consider this a form of benchmark manipulation as major benchmark apps including Geekbench are not restricted by this service.
— Geekbench (@geekbench) March 4, 2022
Last month, Samsung’s device experience CEO Jong-Hee Han apologized for the situation at Samsung’s 54th Annual General Meeting, saying the company will never sacrifice the quality of its devices to cut costs.
While the Galaxy S10 series and older models used vapor chambers for cooling, newcomers to the Galaxy S series used graphite pads that acted as heat sinks. However, the S22 Ultra has a new vapor chamber, which suggests Samsung was aware that the S22’s cooling wasn’t ideal.
Samsung reportedly decided to ditch the base-model S22’s vapor chamber to cut costs, and GOS has been accused of being a band-aid. But rather than boosting the device’s profit margins, the sketchy strategy has resulted in a drop in its selling price in South Korea, Reuters reports.
According to the outlet, the three major South Korean airlines have slashed the handset’s starting price by nearly half when purchasing it as part of their agreements. It was launched by airlines at 999,000 won (US$812) but has now dropped to 549,000 won (US$446).
Analysts say the rebate will likely be paid for by Samsung itself. They predict that the company’s reputation could suffer in the long run.
The iPhone 13, which has been five months longer than the S22, has only sporadically been discounted by 150,000 won ($122). Apple’s share of the $400-plus market in South Korea recently rose to 60%, while Samsung’s fell from 20% to 17% last year.
Samsung is also now grappling with a class action lawsuit signed by nearly two thousand of its customers seeking compensation for the allegedly misleading advertising. Samsung has since added a switch to disable GOS, but when it’s disabled the S22 is prone to overheating and could have shorter battery life.
Credit: Zana Latif