Shortly after Samsung began shipping its Galaxy S22 series phones, Korean customers noticed that they could no longer bypass Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS), software that limits game performance. frustration sparked a thorough investigation by Korean fans, who now claim that GOS throttles over 10,000 appsincluding Netflix and Chrome.
As explained by @GaryeonHan, the GOS software maintains a list of applications that require “optimization”. This list is quite long and includes almost every app you can think of, including first-party apps like Samsung Pay. Benchmarking apps are excluded from this list, perhaps to hide the fact that other apps aren’t running at optimal performance.
We can see the extent of this throttling in a Korean YouTube video, where a Galaxy S22 owner tricks his phone into believing 3DMark is Genshin Impact, a popular game. The phone immediately throttled 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme test, lowering its benchmark score from 2,618 to 1,141.
Samsung created an app called GOS and used it to limit game performance, which worsens the gaming experience. However, according to what the Korean community found out today, Samsung has confirmed that they have imposed performance to more than 10,000 applications… pic.twitter.com/U58AreZZoo
— 한가련 (@GaryeonHan) March 2, 2022
At the time of this writing, it is unknown which Galaxy phone models are affected by GOS. Some models come without the app, and while some customers see GOS on their Galaxy S22, others say they don’t have the app.
But why would Samsung reduce app performance on its flagship phones? These devices always come with the latest Snapdragon processors and are more than powerful enough to run Netflix. Our best guess is that much like OnePlus in 2021, Samsung is just trying to extend the battery life of its phones. Either that or the company blundered and is just as surprised as we are.
Samsung has not commented on this situation. That said, several Korean websites, such as Navar, suggest that Samsung was unaware of the limitation of Galaxy phones. Korean journalists liken the situation to the explosive Note 7 debacle, where Samsung poured all its resources into a huge, unexpected mistake. These claims are unverified, however, so take them with a grain of salt.
Source: Android Authority