Thursday, October 3, 2013

Most Android brands cheat in benchmarks

Recent benchmark results by Anandtech show that almost all Android smartphone brands, excluding Google/Motorola, incorporate questionable optimization schemes to score higher in benchmarks!

android benchmark cheat performance
As have been reported, Samsung was caught cheating through the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 device. The cheat was elaborate in the sense that it incorporated optimizations targeting the GPU of the device. Now, Anandtech has revealed even more horrifying data, which indicates that almost all Android smartphones vendors incorporate illegal overclocking or optimization means on the CPU level to score higher in benchmarks!

The recent results show that with the exception of Apple and Google/Motorola, in essence all other vendors have one or multiple smartphone models on the market which has various cheats incorporated, aiming to score higher in benchmarks. The table below (adapted from the Anandtech data) summarizes the findings. Something which is astonishing is that while cheating alone is bad enough, the performance gained by the CPU cheats only boost the final scores by about 10%. How someone can trade 10% in higher benchmark score for a severely hurt credibility and trust is completely beyond logic. Hopefully, the market will respond and punish the cheaters through appropriate means.

In addition, it is worth to mention that smartphones have started to reach a point where benchmark scores alone do not carry much meaning. The smartphones today are powerful enough that most users will never experience any sluggishness or slow-downs regardless if the smartphone scores 100 or 120 in a benchmark.

Smartphone modelCPUCheats in benchmark

3DMAnTuTuAndEBenchBasemark XGeekbench 3GFXB 2.7Vellamo
ASUS Padfone InfinityQualcomm Snapdragon 800NoYESNoNoNoNoYES
HTC OneQualcomm Snapdragon 600YESYESNoNoNoYESYES
HTC One miniQualcomm Snapdragon 400YESYESNoNoNoYESYES
LG G2Qualcomm Snapdragon 800NoYESNoNoNoNoYES
Moto RAZR iIntel Atom Z2460NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Moto XQualcomm Snapdragon S4 ProNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Nexus 4Qualcomm APQ8064NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Nexus 7Qualcomm Snapdragon 600NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Samsung Galaxy S 4Qualcomm Snapdragon 600NoYESYESNoNoNoYES
Samsung Galaxy Note 3Qualcomm Snapdragon 800YESYESYESYESYESNoYES
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1Intel Atom Z2560NoYESYESNoNoNoNo
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition)Samsung Exynos 5420YES(1,4x)YES(1,4x)YES(1,4x)YES(1,4x)YES(1,4x)NoYES(1,9x)
NVIDIA ShieldTegra 4NoNoNoNoNoNoNo

1 comment:

  1. A brand book is a set of rules and guidelines for the use of your brand. A standard if you must. A style guide, in a designer's context. It basically explains how to properly make use of elements to make sure that it is consistent with your brand. CEO Hospitality Soul