[Cary Quinn]

OK, Benchmarks are important, but they don't tell the whole story.

For example: My old car was built to be able to do 100 Mph, and get 20 miles to the gallon; but it won't do both at the same time.

Faked benchmarks should upset people, but in this case Samsung was not "faking" the benchmark results. Their mistake was not admitting from the start that when "benchmark X" is run the phone will run at full speed (not overclocked) to show what the combination of processor and memory can really do, while the rest of the time the phone will try to run "just fast enough" to keep the screens from lagging, while using the battery saving features to keep it running as long as possible.

You can run the hardware at full speed, or make the battery last; but you can't do both at the same time.

Samsung's mistake was not admitting from the start that they have designed the phone(s) to recognize when certain programs are run and allow the CPU to perform at its best speed (without overclocking). If you want full speed, all you have to do is get your app recognized as one of those "need for speed" programs.

But then again, that holds true for every smartphone manufacturer, there have been CPU tweaks for both Android and iOS devices since shortly after the first root or jailbreak exploits were discovered. Ars mistake was trying to generate controversy by not pointing that fact out as well.

[KevLar72]

Seriously, do people still use benchmarks to judge a phone's performance???

I do .. BUT i don't judge just by that ...
A phone could have smoking benchmarks but if it does not have a removable battery and upgradeable memory I'm not buying it !

[power5]

Seriously, do people still use benchmarks to judge a phone's performance???

How do you compare phone performance? Synthetic benchmarks are just one aspect of a phone. All phones running the same benchmark takes all other variables out of the equation. You think the pocketnow way is better than a synthetic benchmark? At one point the doofus says that they are almost the same speed, then the next time he says "much" faster even though it looked to be the same difference in speed. When the 5 beat the 5s it was just a little bit faster even though it was faster by the same amount the 5s was in the other "test". If you just want to see what reviewers think of performance, be prepared to see what Bias does to the perception of a phones performance. It can often be very drastic. Everyone is susceptible to that bias as well.

I want to know how to automatically make my phone run at full speed for all game apps. Besides changing the name of all my games to geekbench.

[Haalcyon]

Seriously, do people still use benchmarks to judge a phone's performance???

Folks that are intensely interested in gaming and some phone enthusiasts are indeed concerned with benchmark performance.

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[UJ95x]

I've seen a video on YT where MKBHD (Well-known tech YouTuber) is doing a review of the phone, and the gallery app takes a couple seconds to open it, although it is the international version...
It happens at 8 minutes and 45 seconds. The voiceless commands are also slow and is nowhere near as good as the Moto X's voiceless commands

[MrMLK]

Just can't understand the disparity in the "professional" reviews.

Links please. I'm not saying you are making it up, but I have read a bunch of reviews, and non of them mentioned any lag.

[kilofoxtrot]

But over 2 minutes to open Gallery?

Would any other actual owners like to chime in and tell us if they
have the same problem?

I had this problem with the S4 until I unlinked my photos from Facebook and GPlus/Picasa in the Gallery. To me, is seemed like the Gallery App had to download the thumbnails everytime I opened the app instead of caching them.

[MrMLK]

I've seen a video on YT where MKBHD (Well-known tech YouTuber) is doing a review of the phone, and the gallery app takes a couple seconds to open it, although it is the international version

I wouldn't take problems with the gallery app as an indictment of the performance of the phone in general. Its a statement that the gallery apps is still terrible. I switched to Quickpic 11 months ago because it kept crashing on me.

[UJ95x]

True, Gallery JB+ opens a lot faster than the stock Gallery "app."

[mayconvert]

Could you please post a link to where the A7 spanks the Snapdragon 800. I have not seen this test and I am interested. Or are you saying the 5s outperforms the N3 in some tests like web rendering or stuff like that? Then you are talking about the OS performance and I dont think anyone will deny that android takes more horsepower to run than iOS or WP.

AnandTech | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review

In this review, there are a total of 20 benchmarks. The iPhone can't run every single test that android can because its not as "open"
The iPhone 5S is in 11 of those 20 test. The A7 Beats the Note 3 in 7 of 11 tests. But, the LG G2 also has a SD800 and the A7 beats it in 10 of 11 tests.
Samsung's version of the Note 3 SD800 is most likely a "special" version just like the SD600 in the S4.

Of course the A7 is a dual core clocked at nearly a full Ghz lower than the SD800. A7 GPU is quad core.

[mayconvert]

It is a gimmick right now in the iPhonie !
That 64bit processor (Made by Samsung) can not be utilized with only 1gig of ram. It's basically useless !
Apple iPhone 5s 64-bit A7 chip made by Samsung - Smartphones & PDA Phones
Once Samsung puts a 64bit in their devices with 4gigs of ram it'll blow everything out of the water !
iPhone 5S 64-bit chip is 'a gimmick with zero benefit' | CNET UK

The iphone5S isn't that much faster than the iphone 5 even with the 64gig chip.
This proves what I'm saying above.

Not according to this article and a few others. Apple's 64-bit A7 Processor: How It's Ushering In a New Era | Digital Trends

From the article:
Speed: The iPhone 5S does get performance benefits from going 64-bit. Early results from iPhone 5S review units tested with Primate Labs’ Geekbench tool (nods to private sources, AnandTech and Daring Fireball) for measuring processor performance show:
The iPhone 5S 64-bit mode outperformed 32-bit mode by up to 25 percent. That means most apps will get a free performance boost just for recompiling to 64-bit.
The iPhone 5S processor is about twice as fast as the iPhone 5 in everything but memory access (that’s 1.4x faster).
The iPhone 5S about 25 percent faster than the iPhone 5 for everyday Web browsing (some Javascript tests are twice as fast as 5).

"The 64-bit A7 isn’t just a marketing stunt. It delivers real performance benefits for apps right now."

Like I said, soon as android and samsung gets 64Bit, it will cease to be a "gimmick" No fandroid is going to admit that apple did something good or beneficial before android. That Cnet UK article is some guy blowing smoke out his ***. I love how he calls it a gimmick but says they are making a 64 bit chip as fast as they can.. hah. So if its a gimmick Why would you waste money to Copy Apple?
Haters gunna hate, even if they are proven wrong.....

[Haalcyon]

I believe the benefits of the iPhone's A7 are real, but not ever real enough to pull me away from the liberation that is Android. They could put a V8 powered by sunlight in that thing and I'd not go back.

[ansa82]

Woa what is up with the gallery taking that long to come up? That's nuts!

sent from my Galaxy Note 2

[Haalcyon]

Woa what is up with the gallery taking that long to come up? That's nuts!

sent from my Galaxy Note 2

It may be polling your Googled photos for thumbnails upon launch.

[Botti]

A message

You seem to forget, that the Apple's new CPU adds other features too than the 64bits. I think those mean much more in that phone than the wasted bits. The recompiling probably just took the new instructions and registers and used them for optimization, but there is no reason why the cpu designers couldn't have added those without 64bits. Samsung has now 3gb ram. Next year it might as well be the 4gb, and then the bits really start mattering.

In any case, Note3 just happens to be fastest multi-tasking phone on the planet. It also has screen more suitable to be actually used and the pen too for various purposes. I don't understand how iPhone could compete in a serious race for productivity.

[Hyunato]

In the past when viewing video reviews for Samsung phones, I always noticed the UI being laggy at times. This was because of TouchWiz. A lot of people had experience with iOS which didn't lag at all. (on the latest devices)
For me, I noticed the smoothness Android could provide with my 2012 Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus and HTC One. Note here that the HTC One has a skin on top of Android as well like Samsung.

I can definitely notice laggy UI on the Note 3, but I already expected that. I'm waiting for the Cyanogenmod installer so I never have to use TouchWiz again.
If you're coming from other Samsung devices, I don't think you need to worry. If you come from silky smooth experiences, you might want to play around with the phone in a store before you buy it.

[power5]

AnandTech | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review

In this review, there are a total of 20 benchmarks. The iPhone can't run every single test that android can because its not as "open"
The iPhone 5S is in 11 of those 20 test. The A7 Beats the Note 3 in 7 of 11 tests. But, the LG G2 also has a SD800 and the A7 beats it in 10 of 11 tests.
Samsung's version of the Note 3 SD800 is most likely a "special" version just like the SD600 in the S4.

Of course the A7 is a dual core clocked at nearly a full Ghz lower than the SD800. A7 GPU is quad core.

Again, you are comparing the phone and browser and OS in many of those benchmarks. Again, I do not doubt that the iphone is faster than android in most of those. Android OS has much more overhead. The browser tests is comparing just that. Yeah the CPU play a part, but that is not the whole story. Again, your original quote said that the A7 was better than the S800. I still disagree with that statement. The 5s is pretty much on par with the N3 in most tests.

Core count is not important. I have never thought it was. Look at intel vs AMD. AMD uses cores to offset their single threaded inefficiencies. 8 core is barely keeping up with intel 4 core.

[Preach2k]

You can't go by some of the reviews that come out. Some of them are icrap lovers, don't like big phones, hate Samsung all together and it comes out in there review. Now about the benchmark scam by Samsung. My question is how? When reviewers and owners ran their own benchmarks and got high scores. How does this have anything to do with Samsung?

Posted via Android Central App

[MrMLK]

My question is how? When reviewers and owners ran their own benchmarks and got high scores. How does this have anything to do with Samsung?

Apparently, Samsung (as well as most other manufacturers but not Apple or Motorola) put code into their version of Android to put the processor into a special state when it detected that certain programs were running. It appears that by simply renaming the specific programs, the GN3 numbers drop by up to 20%.

[Botti]

Apparently, Samsung (as well as most other manufacturers but not Apple or Motorola) put code into their version of Android to put the processor into a special state when it detected that certain programs were running. It appears that by simply renaming the specific programs, the GN3 numbers drop by up to 20%.

You don't have to do even that. Just keep repeating the testing and the phone slows down when it heats. At least I got worse points from every repeat of Antutu until I let it cool down display off, in which point the points went back to the top level.

[Botti]

I can definitely notice laggy UI on the Note 3, but I already expected that. I'm waiting for the Cyanogenmod installer so I never have to use TouchWiz again.
If you're coming from other Samsung devices, I don't think you need to worry. If you come from silky smooth experiences, you might want to play around with the phone in a store before you buy it.

Just remember, that some of the "lag" is artificially done in sake of animations and can be disabled from the developers menu (7x touch firmware number). Also, Samsung's bravado Smart Features can cause lot of overhead. Especially the ones with front camera involved. All this of course doesn't guarantee lag free environment and I very much doubt, that even the great iPhone can do so in reality with all possible applications.

[Raptor007]

The GN3 suffers from iOS lag where the reviewers bias says there is a lag where there clearly is none since they love iOS more.

[Haalcyon]

The GN3 suffers from iOS lag where the reviewers bias says there is a lag where there clearly is none since they love iOS more.

This pretty much sums it up.

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