• It's not just Samsung, EVERYONE (save Motorola and Apple) has cheated benchmarks at least once recen
    34 replies, posted
[quote]Thanks to AndreiF7's excellent work on discovering it, we kicked off our investigations into Samsung’s CPU/GPU optimizations around the international Galaxy S 4 in July and came away with a couple of conclusions: 1) On the Exynos 5410, Samsung was detecting the presence of certain benchmarks and raising thermal limits (and thus max GPU frequency) in order to gain an edge on those benchmarks, and 2) On both Snapdragon 600 and Exynos 5410 SGS4 platforms, Samsung was detecting the presence of certain benchmarks and automatically driving CPU voltage/frequency to their highest state right away. Also on Snapdragon platforms, all cores are plugged in immediately upon benchmark detect. The first point applied exclusively to the Exynos 5410 equipped version of the Galaxy S 4. We did a lot of digging to confirm that max GPU frequency (450MHz) was never exceeded on the Snapdragon 600 version. The second point however applied to many, many more platforms.[/quote] [url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/7384/state-of-cheating-in-android-benchmarks]Source[/url] Really guys? [editline]3rd October 2013[/editline] Yes, I know the Nexus devices also don't cheat but they run stock android so that's kind of a given. Otherwise every Android device in existence would cheat the benchmarks.
*nobody cares* [highlight](User was banned for this post ("dumb snipe" - postal))[/highlight]
Basically what this means is, don't buy a phone based on it's horsepower. Didn't Google buy out Motorolas phone division or something?
[QUOTE=Del91;42391122]Basically what this means is, don't buy a phone based on it's horsepower. Didn't Google buy out Motorolas phone division or something?[/QUOTE] Yeah, in 2012 the merger was approved.
[QUOTE=Del91;42391122]Basically what this means is, don't buy a phone based on it's horsepower. [/QUOTE] That's nothing new though, phones are much more than just CPU speed, so you're stupid if that's the only thing you're looking after when getting a new phone.
Oh, you Samsung. Futuremark is already looking into this.
Android spec wars are a joke
Any high end android phone you buy will be fast enough. The Galaxy S4 is slightly faster than the One for example, but I barely notice anything between the two phones, and the One let's me take pictures in the dark and listen to loud music. Features are better than specs.
[QUOTE=person11;42394802]Any high end android phone you buy will be fast enough. The Galaxy S4 is slightly faster than the One for example, but I barely notice anything between the two phones, and the One let's me take pictures in the dark and listen to loud music. Features are better than specs.[/QUOTE] Wouldn't a removable battery and SD card slot be a feature?
[QUOTE=The Baconator;42394469]Android spec wars are a joke[/QUOTE] I strongly agree with this. Everything that's going on with the smartphone race are repeating the stupidest spec races in the history of technology. At first there manufacturers were only interested in the clock speed race, which wasn't so bad at the time because performance were noticeable between the different chips like the days of single core x86 CPUs. Things got ridiculous when they added the number of processor cores into the race as well instead of improving execution cycle efficiency. Just take a look at Samsung's current Octo-core CPU, it doesn't even run all 8 cores at once and neither is it significantly faster than the previous quad core CPU they had. It's just a pure gimmick. The camera megapixel race started too, like back in the early to mid 2000s when digitial cameras were becoming mainstream. Instead of actually improving the image quality and low light performance, they just wanna cram as many pixels as they possibly can, while gigantic megapixel count on a tiny sensor actually makes the image a lot worse in reality. Same thing with the screens, instead of focusing making the display better with sharpness and contrast, they decided to try and cram ridiculous amount of pixels onto a tiny surface and as much as they can, and the point where your eyes won't notice the difference through everyday use was reached was already reached at 720P-ish. This puts a lot of strain on the GPU and kills quite a bit of battery life.
... Giving a synthetic benchmark a synthetic environment (by ramping the cores to full instantly instead of waiting for the governor to scale up) is not cheating, it's reducing variation. If you want a real benchmark, use a real benchmark, don't take a synthetic benchmark and try to get some information out of that.
Android specs are inversely related with penis size. This is fact. Because the only people who care about specs beyond "does the phone not run like shit" are genuine losers. That's why I got the a Note 2 as opposed to the One or GS4. The phone works. I don't care about 1080p.
[QUOTE=Protocol7;42395025]Android specs are inversely related with penis size. This is fact. Because the only people who care about specs beyond "does the phone not run like shit" are genuine losers. That's why I got the a Note 2 as opposed to the One or GS4. The phone works. I don't care about 1080p.[/QUOTE] Considering the fact that a Note 2 is still a relatively high end phone, you must be implying something about your own dick size as well.
[QUOTE=B!N4RY;42394940]I strongly agree with this. Everything that's going on with the smartphone race are repeating the stupidest spec races in the history of technology. At first there manufacturers were only interested in the clock speed race, which wasn't so bad at the time because performance were noticeable between the different chips like the days of single core x86 CPUs. Things got ridiculous when they added the number of processor cores into the race as well instead of improving execution cycle efficiency. Just take a look at Samsung's current Octo-core CPU, it doesn't even run all 8 cores at once and neither is it significantly faster than the previous quad core CPU they had. It's just a pure gimmick. The camera megapixel race started too, like back in the early to mid 2000s when digitial cameras were becoming mainstream. Instead of actually improving the image quality and low light performance, they just wanna cram as many pixels as they possibly can, while gigantic megapixel count on a tiny sensor actually makes the image a lot worse in reality. Same thing with the screens, instead of focusing making the display better with sharpness and contract, they decided to try and cram ridiculous amount of pixels onto a tiny surface and as much as they can, and the point where your eyes won't notice the difference through everyday use was reached was already reached at 720P-ish. This puts a lot of strain on the GPU and kills quite a bit of battery life.[/QUOTE] Android phones at are reaching a certain point. Other than obvious improvements like RAM or storage space, it seems like throwing higher specs at a device and calling it good is reaching that point of "diminishing returns". Android device hardware isn't like it used to be 2-3 years ago. If you had an old device, you quite simply couldn't run a fair share of apps due to lack of processing power or RAM and really get bogged down by even basic web browsing. Now, even my Galaxy Nexus which is ~2 years old is still perfectly usable with its relatively modest dual-core and older GPU. Not mindblowing powerful or quick, but I'm not feeling the pinch to upgrade like I was with my Droid Eris. It can run most games and apps and hell, even run the latest Android OS no problem. I guess that's why a lot of the mobile hardware advancements don't interest me like I used to.
[QUOTE=Rika-chan;42394831]Wouldn't a removable battery and SD card slot be a feature?[/QUOTE] I guess. I never miss it. I can see why others would, though. I think that adding a cheap (and sometimes not functional) SD card slot is just an excuse for phone makers to put almost no storage in their phones. Remember how much of the paltry 16gb you get with a Galaxy S4 was filled up?
The only thing that seems to slow down my droid RAZR xt912 is lack of RAM. It all fills up with junk and it runs like a slug but if I use the memory boost feature of clean master it speeds up and is snappy. The only other thing I hate is the battery life and constantly plunging it in. Next phone I get will have a removable back so I can buy a beefy battery. And more RAM of course the extra cores on the CPU will just be a bonus :)
[QUOTE=apierce1289;42396628]The only thing that seems to slow down my droid RAZR xt912 is lack of RAM. It all fills up with junk and it runs like a slug but if I use the memory boost feature of clean master it speeds up and is snappy. The only other thing I hate is the battery life and constantly plunging it in. Next phone I get will have a removable back so I can buy a beefy battery. And more RAM of course the extra cores on the CPU will just be a bonus :)[/QUOTE] My S3+Zero Lemon battery runs for over 2 days, best $40 I ever spent [editline]3rd October 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=person11;42396499]I guess. I never miss it. I can see why others would, though. I think that adding a cheap (and sometimes not functional) SD card slot is just an excuse for phone makers to put almost no storage in their phones. Remember how much of the paltry 16gb you get with a Galaxy S4 was filled up?[/QUOTE] I guess I don't miss built in storage because I mean hey I still have 8gb left with the system only using a fraction of it plus my class 10 64gb microsd card which has never given me issues that I picked up for 40 bucks which is why cheaper than paying hundreds more for built in memory
[QUOTE=person11;42396499]I guess. I never miss it. I can see why others would, though. I think that adding a cheap (and sometimes not functional) SD card slot is just an excuse for phone makers to put almost no storage in their phones. Remember how much of the paltry 16gb you get with a Galaxy S4 was filled up?[/QUOTE] I honestly have not missed not having an SD card one bit. 32 GB is more than sufficient for my needs. Probably helps that I still have unlimited data and Verizon LTE so the coverage is really decent so Google Play is actually very usable.
[QUOTE=B!N4RY;42395240]Considering the fact that a Note 2 is still a relatively high end phone, you must be implying something about your own dick size as well.[/QUOTE] I didn't buy it for specs, I bought it because I was sick and tired of the tiny iPhone screen. I'm talking about the people who go "lol my phone has more cores and GHz than my computer!!"
I just had a bad experience then. My 64g class ten card in my old Optimus G consistently failed on me, to the point that I was turned off of external memory forever.
[QUOTE=Demache;42397185]I honestly have not missed not having an SD card one bit. 32 GB is more than sufficient for my needs. Probably helps that I still have unlimited data and Verizon LTE so the coverage is really decent so Google Play is actually very usable.[/QUOTE] I share like 4-6gb with 5 people
[QUOTE=person11;42397204]I just had a bad experience then. My 64g class ten card in my old Optimus G consistently failed on me, to the point that I was turned off of external memory forever.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't be surprised if SD card manufacturers were skimping on SD card quality for this exact reason. I can't see anyone arguing external memory as a pro on Android because it's such a pain in the ass to work with unless you're just storing media on it.
[QUOTE=person11;42397204]I just had a bad experience then. My 64g class ten card in my old Optimus G consistently failed on me, to the point that I was turned off of external memory forever.[/QUOTE] I've only had one microSD card fail on me and that was on my Nokia E63. Its been 4 years, but I backed them up frequently on my Droid Eris just out of concern that they would fail learning that they are not reliable as I once thought. Great for holding replaceable media, but not good long term storage of pictures and videos.
[QUOTE=Protocol7;42397235]I wouldn't be surprised if SD card manufacturers were skimping on SD card quality for this exact reason. I can't see anyone arguing external memory as a pro on Android because it's such a pain in the ass to work with unless you're just storing media on it.[/QUOTE] SD cards are also good for custom ROM storage and backups, if you have to Idk a full wipe of your internal storage it is great to have.
[QUOTE=Rika-chan;42397293]SD cards are also good for custom ROM storage and backups, if you have to Idk a full wipe of your internal storage it is great to have.[/QUOTE] I will admit that doing full wipes were much easier with SD cards. Its a bit of a pain to wipe the internal SD proper then install a custom ROM.
[QUOTE=Rika-chan;42397293]SD cards are also good for custom ROM storage and backups, if you have to Idk a full wipe of your internal storage it is great to have.[/QUOTE] I keep backups on my desktop, no reason to leave otherwise perfectly good space filled on my phone.
[QUOTE=The golden;42394576]I actually buy phones that are under-spec. The only thing I do with it is surf the net, text, and maybe play basic board games on it. Having a high-spec dual core in there does nothing for me except waste the already limited battery. (And heat it up like a motherfucker every time it does anything)[/QUOTE] Actually buying an underspec phone might be worse for your battery life than buying a top spec one. Since the underspec chipsets often have worse power consumption than the newer top of the line ones.
[QUOTE=wraithcat;42397409]Actually buying an underspec phone might be worse for your battery life than buying a top spec one. Since the underspec chipsets often have worse power consumption than the newer top of the line ones.[/QUOTE] And they have to clock higher to get the same amount of work done on top of that. Most modern multicore phones will underclock/disable unused cores in real time. Slower phone =! less battery usage. [editline]3rd October 2013[/editline] Also, in my experience, the primary consumption of battery goes to the wireless radio and screen. Not the processor itself.
Recent chips also have the radios built into the CPU, at least for cell connections, which severely cuts down on that power drain. No more batteries shitting electrons when you want to check your email away from home!
Hmm, makes me kinda feel good that I have a Motorola phone.
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