Samsung Accused of Rigging Benchmark Results (Again)

Samsung is allegedly cheating on benchmarks again, according to a report in Android Authority. The South Korean company previously was accused of manipulating phone benchmarks. The cheating was so egregious that Geekbench banned several Samsung flagship phones from its benchmarking platform. Now, this next round of cheating allegedly extends to the company’s television sets.

Samsung’s manipulation of the television benchmarks was first spotted by a reviewer from HDTV Test and then confirmed by the FlatPanelsHD website.

Samsung allegedly used an algorithm within the television software to detect benchmark software. When a TV noticed a benchmark test, it temporarily boosted the television’s luminance by up to 80 percent to pad the results.

This brightness could damage the panel if it is maintained for some time. Samsung also allegedly changed the colors on its TV set to boost performance.

FlatpanelsHD discovered this hack by changing the benchmark size from the standard ten percent of the display to nine percent. The results were different when they ran the test on smaller window sizes. The FlatPanelHD reviewer believes this smaller window size circumvents Samsung’s benchmark snooping algorithm. Consequently, these small-window tests more accurately measure the actual performance of the monitor.

Samsung denies these allegations and confirms that the company is “committed to relentless innovation to provide the best picture quality to our consumers.” The company added that it would roll out a software update to its television sets that “ensures consistent brightness of HDR contents across a wider range of window size beyond the industry standard.”

Samsung also told The Register that the peak brightness recorded by reviewers is “maintained at similar levels across window sizes without damaging the panel.” So in other words, Samsung denies cheating and claims all these inconsistencies are expected.