back to article Ever own a Galaxy S4? Congrats, you're $10 richer as Samsung agrees payout over dodgy speed tests

Samsung has agreed to pay purchasers of its Galaxy S4 roughly $10 each over alleged cheating on benchmark tests. And in case you're wondering, yes, that's the same S4 that came out in 2013. The mobile giant has settled [PDF] a long-standing class-action lawsuit for $13.4m (two-and-a-half hours of profit), with $2.8m put into a …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    FAIL

    Oh, but of course

    "it is not legally obliged to tell consumers if it has included the code that would allow it to cheat"

    That is at Apple levels of "Your Honor, nobody in their right mind would believe a commercial".

    Congratulations, Samsung, you have just readjusted your level of confidence to Sleazy. Well done. Carry on.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Samsung's very own dieselgate

    1. Wellyboot Silver badge

      Except that there are no legal requirements to be met for benchmarking phones unlike VW who intentionally broke laws and lied about it.

      If the S4 had been pushing out a 2.4Ghz signal at 100w then this would be in Dieselgate territory.

      1. MiguelC Silver badge

        Not forgetting that breathing those extra diesel fumes is actually harmful to everyone's health, so it's a bit disingenuous to compare Samsung's actions to dieselgate

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          However,many of those Diesels replaced vehicles which had much worse emissions. There was most likely a net benefit, it was just less than claimed.

          Not that I am excusing VW, just pointing out that emissions are a fustercluck in which people can legally drive around old, heavily polluting vehicles until they stop repairing them, while newer vehicles can be taken off the road for failing an emissions test.

  3. JohnFen

    I bought one at that time!

    ...and I'm still using it to this day. I don't care about the $10, though.

    1. 2Nick3

      Re: I bought one at that time!

      $10 should be a good chunk of a new battery for it.

      1. JohnFen

        Re: I bought one at that time!

        True, but not really worth the bother.

        Plus, when I bought the thing, I didn't pay attention to (or even know about) these benchmarks -- so I can't honestly say that I was deceived by Samsung's practice, so it didn't harm me. Ethically, in my view, this means that I'm not really entitled to the $10.

        1. shah27

          Re: I bought one at that time!

          Just get the $10 dollar and buy yourself a very very large coffee.

          1. JohnFen

            Re: I bought one at that time!

            No thanks. If I'm going to do something that I consider unethical, I would have to get a lot more than $10 from it.

  4. Chris Gray 1
    Thumb Up

    I've got one too

    And I also don't care about $10. I just hope the phone runs forever. For at least the last couple of years, I haven't seen another phone that I would want to have.

    I'm quite happy with a 1920x1080 screen - longer than the standard 1080p seems silly. It has good cameras. It has a replaceable battery. It has a headphone jack. It has a microSD card slot inside. And it has no notch. Heck, it even has an IR emitter for messing with TV's, etc.

    1. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: I've got one too

      Heck, it even has an IR emitter for messing with TV's, etc.

      If only I could tell you how much I miss this on modern phones.

      1. Bonzo_red

        Re: If only I could tell you how much I miss this on modern phones.

        How about a Xiaomi Redmi Note 7?

        1. JohnFen

          Re: If only I could tell you how much I miss this on modern phones.

          It doesn't have a removable battery, though.

    2. JohnFen

      Re: I've got one too

      "For at least the last couple of years, I haven't seen another phone that I would want to have."

      This. For my wants and needs, the S4 appears to be the pinnacle of smartphone development.

      1. Solviva

        Re: I've got one too

        Wrong, the S5 was that... although you won't' get your $10 with it.

        Mine finally 'died' after it accidentally accelerated towards a stone floor at somewhat more than 1G in August. Screen completely shattered but it limped on for the next week whereupon the screen gradually developed more and more issues till it was completely dead.

        Ordered a cheap replacement display for £20 which was fine when I tested it just plugging it in to the phone but when putting it in the case to stick it down permanently it seems it was far too feeble to take any pressure and self destructed.

        Upside is I'm not forking out for another screen and learning how to get remote access to the phone via adb. Authorised my laptop via adb in recovery mode. Got the display streaming to my laptop, can manually enter clicks at any location and swipes. Just need to cobble together a gui to combine the two...

        1. JohnFen

          Re: I've got one too

          That could be... I forgot about the S5. I never moved to that because at the time it was released, nobody had figured out how to break the security to allow the installation of third-party ROMS.

  5. MrKrotos
    Pint

    S4 still running fine here :)

    Cant be arsed with the 10$ put it in the tip tin at the bar :P

    1. jbrownman

      Re: S4 still running fine here :)

      I'm also still rocking the S4 , i think samsung should pay me more than $10, if nothing else but as compensation for removing all that crappy bloatware they ram down your throat.

      Then i discovered Lineageos .... AAhhhhh what a breathe of fresh air

      1. JohnFen

        Re: S4 still running fine here :)

        Replacing the stock ROM was literally the first thing I did with my S4 when I bought it. I selected it in part because I already knew that I could do that.

    2. ibmalone

      Re: S4 still running fine here :)

      Eventually had to give up my S4 mini because unlike the S4 it never made it to Lollipop and the memory was becoming just a bit too limited. Think the S4/S5 family were the high point for Samsung.

    3. the hatter

      Re: S4 still running fine here :)

      Not an option - the lawyers have already been paid, but any unclaimed compensation also generally goes to them, in cases like this. Do you want lawyers to get more money ?

  6. mark l 2 Silver badge

    '..offering a 16GB hard drive on the phone..'

    Hard drive? I know techy people still refer to SSD's as hard drives, but surely no one who works in the IT industry referred to the NAND flash memory in a phone as a 'hard drive'.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Are you saying NAND flash is soft, or floppy?

      1. Trixr

        A bunch of silicon transistors and traces of metal wrapped in plastic are not exactly "hard" in the same sense as a chunk of aluminium or glass coated in iron oxide, if you choose to ignore the well-established conventions for referring to these things.

        Me, I simply stick to "storage" when describing that component.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Can you just be satisfied that he didn't say "memory"?

  7. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Stop

    False equivalents

    Which is in stark contrast to what happened with Volkswagen when it was caught doing a very similar thing with emissions tests

    There is a huge difference between defrauding an official emissions test and tweaking an unofficial benchmark test and it is fatuous to suggest otherwise. Yes, Samsung's work was a little egregious but gaming benchmarks (OLAP, OLTP, Spec) is standard throughout the industry.

    1. JohnFen

      Re: False equivalents

      It was a lot egregious. That gaming benchmarks is common practice doesn't take away form that at all.

  8. Unicornpiss
    Flame

    In related news..

    ..it's still completely legal to be an asshole and/or douchebag. This case can be cited as proof.

  9. EnviableOne

    ok so i'm out $10

    never bought an s4 had an S3,5,7,9 and waiting on 11 as the odd numbers are usually a lot more stable than the even numbers, and fix the bad new inovations in their predecessor.

    TBF fuly agree with @Charlie Clark theres a huge difference between dieslegate and this, VW faked a statutory required test, SS just faked an indicative industry one, but benchmarks are bareley worth the paper they are printed on anyway.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: ok so i'm out $10

      Have to say that the S10e I got the other month is really good and that's before I discovered it had DeX. Before that I had (and still have two second-hand S5s), which are still great, not least because of the IR-blaster.

      The biggest improvement is probably onboard RAM – 128 GB – which means I currently have an SD-Card slot free for a second SIM. The second biggest improvement for me, because I use the phone to navigate when cycling, is that the screen is far less sensitive to water. With the S5 rain could be a real problem because the screen thought it was fingers. No problem at all with the S10, though I don't know if this is the screen or the factory-installed screen protector. More oomph and a bigger battery means that the phone lasts longer while navigating. But seeing as I always have a 5000 mAh powerpack with me, that's not so much of a problem. The screen is also more readable in bright sunshine, and I quite like the single punch hole for the camera. But, basically cumulative improvements that the S11 will have more of.

      Biggest bugbear is that it will be a struggle to put LOS on it once Samsung inevitably decides that it doesn't need to provide updates. It took me a while to deactivate most of the crap that the phone comes with and get a naked, dark theme.

      1. Updraft102

        Re: ok so i'm out $10

        The biggest improvement is probably onboard RAM – 128 GB

        Wow. That's seriously into high-end server territory.

  10. Snowy Silver badge
    Flame

    Settlement fund

    I see the settlement fund is way to low considering they sold 80 million of them. At 2.8 million that is only about 3.5 cents each.

    1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Settlement fund

      They're probably doing their settlement math using Equifax's payout calculator...

    2. JohnFen

      Re: Settlement fund

      In all class action settlements, most people who are eligible never bother to collect. The amount set aside likely anticipates this. Also, the amount had to be approved by the judge.

  11. The Nameless Mist
    Joke

    and in other news

    prices of Galaxy S4 on ebay surge

  12. TrumpSlurp the Troll

    US only presumably

    See title.

    1. crystallake
      Coat

      Re: US only presumably

      Speaking of Trump, I hear he still uses an S4.

  13. ma1010
    Coffee/keyboard

    El, Reg, you owe me...

    ...a new Irony Meter(TM). Mine caught fire when I read the end of the article. (Maybe it was made by Samsung?) Icon as close as I could come====>

    This is a really good system and it has worked extremely well to everyone's benefit – and anyone who tells you different is mad.

  14. ithehappy

    US only?

    I'm not from US. Am i eligible?

  15. ATurvey

    Own or buy from new?

    The title asks if you have ever OWNed a Galaxy S4. But from the text it looks like this only applies to someone who bought from new. Do you qualify if you bought it second hand?

    1. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: Own or buy from new?

      - You're commenting on a stale thread.

      - Yeah, even if you no longer own it, as they only need proof of purchase.

      - IANAL, though.

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