Samsung DX CEO apologises for app throttling, the fix is rolling out now via software update

After the whole fiasco with the Samsung Galaxy S22 series experiencing performance issues, Samsung Device Experience (DX) CEO JH Han issued a formal apology. He even bowed down to shareholders during Samsung Electronics’ 54^th annual shareholder meeting. According to him, the apology was for the failure to understand customers’ concerns over the app and gaming performance.

The performance issues were caused by the Game Optimisation Service (GOS) aggressively throttling performance in apps to maintain optimal device temperature. To remedy this aggressive nature of the GOS, Samsung has started rolling out a software patch to the Galaxy S22 series smartphones.

Weighing in around 450MB, the patch is currently available for download in Korea and Europe. What it does is tweak the GOS so it doesn’t throttle performance as it did before. But for those who just want an uncapped performance out of their device, there is now an option to toggle it.

You will find it in the game booster settings, under Labs. This is an experimental feature and according to Samsung, “tends to cause heating”. How hot will the phone get remains to be seen. If your phone is enclosed in a thick case, I suggest removing it if you plan to enable this option.

Additionally, the update also allows for third-party apps to bypass the GOS. I’m assuming this is to address the GOS throttling performance for non-gaming apps like Netflix, Microsoft Office and TikTok.

The last update note worth mentioning is that the camera app is also receiving improvements. According to SamMobile, the camera app now performs much snappier.

GOS also runs on other Galaxy devices as old as the Galaxy S10 series but it’s unsure if Samsung will issue the same update to these devices.

How did Samsung end up in this mess?

This whole situation started with early adopters of the Galaxy S22 series taking to social media platforms to complain about experiencing performance issues on their brand-new flagship device. Up to 10,000 apps were identified to have performance throttling issues.

Tech-savvy users managed to narrow down the source of the issue to an application called the GOS. Its job was to optimise the performance to keep heat and battery consumption in check. But seemingly, it was doing its job too aggressively which took a huge toll on performance.  

Would you be happy if your brand-new flagship smartphone performed worse in games than the older Pixel 6 Pro? After all, Samsung did promise “best performance ever” in their marketing materials. As such, Korean users have filled a complaint with the Fair Trade Commission for false advertising.

What’s sketchier is that benchmarking apps like GeekBench were not affected by the GOS. As a result, GeekBench unlisted the Galaxy S22 series from their performance charts, citing benchmark manipulation. Furthermore, it also removed the S21, S20 and S10 series as GOS was also found running on these devices.  

Will Geekbench reinstate the Galaxy S22 series after the new software patch? We’ll have to wait and see, but for many, benchmarking numbers don’t mean anything. It’s just a bragging right to some people.  

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series experienced a rocky start since it started shipping to customers. Right before complaints of throttling issues started pouring in, some users of the Exynos powered Galaxy S22 Ultra were experiencing a display glitch. At the time of writing, Samsung has acknowledged this issue but is yet to issue a software patch.

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