Samsung Denied the Allegations Over Galaxy S4 Benchmark Results controversy

Negative publicity can hurt Samsung's image in the long run. The recent controversy surrounded around Galaxy S4, in context to manipulating device performance artificially to get favorable benchmark performance has resulted in consumer backlash. The controversy started when a forum member at Beyond3D panned Samsung's way to seeing Galaxy S4 performance based on benchmark results. Later AnandTech also run critical tests on the device.

Here's an excerpt taken from Beyond3D forum post

This GPU does not run 532MHz; that frequency level is solely reserved for Antutu and GLBenchmark* among things. The GPU on non-whitelisted applications is limited to 480MHz. The old GLBenchmark apps for example run at 532MHz while the new GFXBench app which is not whitelisted, runs at 480MHz. /facepalm"

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"We should see roughly an 11% increase in performance in GLBenchmark 2.5.1 over GFXBench 2.7.0, and we end up seeing a bit more than that. The reason for the difference? GLBenchmark 2.5.1 appears to be singled out as a benchmark that is allowed to run the GPU at the higher frequency/voltage setting." as per AnandTech.

According to The Verge, Samsung responded to the allegations made by AnandTech. The South Korean giant is now claiming to be innocent.

"Under normal conditions, the Galaxy S4 operates up to 533MHz at its best performance." The Korean manufacturer says certain "full screen apps" (any app in which the status bar isn't present) such as the camera, browser, video player, and benchmarking tools, are classified as requiring the highest performance available. Many games don't require the maximum clock speed to run, the company notes, claiming "the maximum GPU frequencies for the Galaxy S4 have been varied to provide optimal user experience for our customers, and were not intended to improve certain benchmark results."