Samsung accused of cheating on hardware benchmarks ... again

Samsung has once again been accused of cheating in benchmark tests to inflate the apparent abilities of its hardware. The South Korean titan was said to have unfairly goosed Galaxy Note 3 phone benchmarks in 2013, and faced with similar allegations about the Galaxy S4 in 2018 settled that matter for $13.4 million. This time …

[sungazer]

Samsung are clearly cheating, as the smaller the area, the higher the peak brightness can be. There is no rational explanation as to why a 9% coverage white box should display with a lower brightness than a 10% coverage white box except the software knows that 10% is the exact area used in brightness tests, and has a little if(area>9.9&&area<10.1) maxbrightness*=2 buried somewhere in it.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you ain't . . .

"Samsung Electronics does not use any algorithm for the purpose of yielding specific test results."

There's an old American sports adage: "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying."

It appears to have become the philosophy of any number of real world companies.

[Teejay]

The old LCD screens from Samsung were quite good. With their, in my opinion massively wrong, decision to switch to only OLED in the future, I expect much more of this cheating.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Until we have inorganic LED TVs, both technology options are needed. LCD looks good in bright rooms but it can't be an amazing theater screen. It leaks light and has visible manufacturing variances, especially off-center. OLED has perfect blacks and looks better for more seating locations.

Unfortunately, OLED is inefficient and wears out. There's a fairly low peak brightness to avoid aging. In addition, there's a maximum global brightness to prevent excessive current through the panel. Some OLED TVs are like sports cars - they'll run beyond 100% for a limited time then back-off power. Early models backed-off so much that they are easily mistaken for defective.

[Tomato42]

The news on the street is that the QD OLED is the solution, time will tell if that's true.

[TheVogon]

That not true of the high end QLED models. Take a look at say the QN95A. Beats OLED hands down unless you watch in darkness.

[Anonymous Coward]

Samsung have not decided that at all. There is no end in sight to QLEDs and their stated future path is microLED TVs.

[EricB123]

This sounds familiar

A la Volkswagen TCI diesel.

[Mishak]

"without damaging the TV's backlight panel"

I guess they mean "the TV's OLED panel", as OLED's don't have backlights?

[Lord Elpuss]

Samsung are scum. At least as far as televisions are concerned. I'm on my 2nd Sammy 65", both have broken shortly after the 2-year warranty expired. The first developed a bright yellow line 1/3 of the way up the screen, my current one has lost every 10th horizontal line. Both faults are ribbon cable related, neither is covered by warranty and Samsung will do exactly nothing to help out. In the EU we have Fitness for Purpose legislation, Sammy's response is: take us to court.

The second - and arguably bigger - issue is that my TV has started pumping ads across the Smart Hub dock. Sammy added this as a 'feature' shortly after I bought my TV, and retroactively updated their T&Cs to say they were allowed to do it. I never signed up for that. My TV has now been fully disconnected from the Internet and serves as a dumb monitor only, but every time I switch between sources it throws up a message saying it's not connected to the Internet. Annoying doesn't even start to describe it.

I personally will NEVER buy a Samsung television again, regardless of how 'good' they sound on paper.

[OldCrow 1975]

Samsung a Congenital cheater

So we can in perpetuatity expect Samsung to confabulate all of their statements and announcements.

Samsung is the company that can be trusted to lie.

[MJI]

Got an old HDTV here

From a well know Japanese brand

11 - 12 years old

Picture still perfect.

I am scared to replace it even though I want HDR and 4K

Newer ones lose SCART, gain Android, will they last 10 years?

Note I have had 4 TVs in 4 decades

[tip pc]

Re: Got an old HDTV here

all my HDTV's are still running

2006 Samsung R series lcd 720p

2006 Panasonic vierra 37" plasma 720p

2012 Panasonic viera 50" plasma 1080p

2020 Panasonic Viera 55% oled 4k

2020 LG 40" LED 4k

2022 LG 50" LED 4k

the 2 LG LED's combined cost less than a quarter of each of those Viera's.

That 2006 Vierra is still going strong and shows a great picture. That 2006 Samsung is best for showing cartoons as the picture is great when showing uniform colours.

The LG 4k's compared to the Panasonic OLED show are not as smooth especially when showing sports & yes I've turned off all the gimmicks on both & am seeing similar things when comparing dolby vision on all 3 too, even side by side.

The LG's on their own show a great picture, its just that the OLED is clear and obviously better on a side by side comparison.

funnily enough 2012 plasma 1080p vs 2020 oled 4k vs 2020 lg led 4k watching sports and the plasma shows the most natural picture then the oled.

[MJI]

Re: Got an old HDTV here

Mine was bought 2008 or 2009

previous CRT in 1999

[tip pc]

Re: Got an old HDTV here

Mine was bought 2008 or 2009

previous CRT in 1999

Trinitron WEGA or equivalent?

Some quality crt’s where still valid until demolished by quality fhd sets.

My first Samsung was because my Philips widescreen crt stopped working when I moved home, it was just out of warranty and house insurance replaced it with the sanding r series, I’m sure I paid more in increased premiums than the r series cost.

[MJI]

Re: Got an old HDTV here

Yes a 32" Wega IDTV, was an excellent picture, took a really good LCD to replace it.

[JDPower666]

Re: Got an old HDTV here

I recently had to replace my main TV, never realised how much I'd miss a scart socket!

[MJI]

Re: Got an old HDTV here

Eeek booted up in installation mode and screen in black white this morning.

Changed to an HDMI (Humax HDR) input and back PHEW

Now to check new TVs just in case.

Oh dear

And I still use a few SCART.

PVR on HDMI, 2 consoles on HDMI, DVD, console RGB, video camera special leads to component.

[Bartholomew]

The truth is in there somewhere, just not obvious.

"Samsung Electronics does not use any algorithm for the purpose of yielding specific test results."

Samsung Electronics only uses algorithms for the purpose of yielding optimal results for generic benchmark tests.

That is how I would interpret the statement, if it was issued in legally correct double speak - which is generally used by government spy agencies (we do not spy on anyone, we do harvest vast quantities of data and have many computers process that data, but unless a human actually looks at the results then we have not surveilled anyone their fourth amendment rights are intact. 2013-03-12 Youtube video where James Clapper tells Senator Ron Wyden that the NSA does not collect data on millions of American, this was the tipping point or trigger event for Edward Snowden who left the US 2013-05-20).