Samsung was detected limiting speed for several applications and games on its phones two weeks ago, including the brand-new Galaxy S22 series and dating back to the Galaxy S10. As a result of that action, the phones were removed from Geekbench's device library, presumably permanently, according to the company's existing regulations. In response to the prospect of a class-action lawsuit, Samsung has begun putting out an update that alters this behaviour, but Android Police has confirmed that the company's current Galaxy Tab S8 series of tablets is also impacted.
We discovered that the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra and S8+ throttled performance when a version of the Geekbench app with the Genshin Impact package name was running (essentially, convincing the system that it was playing a game rather than the benchmarking application), affecting the benchmark's resulting score. Single-threaded CPU performance dropped 18-24%, while multi-core performance dropped 6-11%.
Although we had previously noticed throttling on previous generations of Samsung phones, we didn't detect any comparable behaviour on previous generations of tablets, with the Tab S7 series and a Tab S5e seeming untouched in our tests. Any variations on such devices are within the predicted margin of error.
Some have claimed that Samsung was throttling performance for over 10,000 apps due to a list claiming to be associated with the Game Optimization Service, or GOS, but this is not entirely correct. Our own investigation into the code driving this throttling behaviour, as well as Samsung's claims, have proven that not all apps are affected, and the degree to which it throttles performance may and will fluctuate. In addition, Samsung has said, "GOS does not manage the performance of non-gaming apps.
According to our analysis of the logic, GOS is a very smart system that considers various aspects when throttling performance to varied degrees, including temperature, predicted FPS, power usage, temperature, and more. This might also explain why the tablets tested did not throttle as harshly as the Galaxy S22 series phones - greater room inside equals better heat dissipation, and the system can accommodate for such aspects.
Samsung did not reply promptly to concerns about the reported throttling behaviour on the Tab S8 series.
Although the Galaxy Tab S8 series has yet to be added to Geekbench's list of devices and does not yet show in search, the firm has stated that it intends to delist the tablet, as it did with the afflicted Galaxy S phones. Geekbench's policy, which was originally revealed to Android Police during the original throttling incident, signals that the tablets will not be returned even if the behaviour is fixed in a future release - though that policy is likely susceptible to change.
