Samsung was recently caught slowing down its Galaxy smartphones using its Game Optimization Service (GOS) in thousands of apps. Now the latest report from Geekbench’s co-founder shows that Xiaomi is doing the same thing.
Geekbench executive John Poole claims that Xiaomi is throttling smartphone performance based on the name of apps. He noted that Xiaomi phones were slowing down single-core performance on Geekbench as much as 30% when it was renamed Fortnite. Multi-core performance declined by 15%.
The tests were performed on Xiaomi’s previous-generation flagship phone, the Mi 11.
Here are results from a Xiaomi Mi 11 running Geekbench and Geekbench disguised as Fortnite. Single-core scores are 30% lower, and multi-core scores are 15% lower, in the Fortnite build. https://t.co/wGAnSi73gR
— John Poole (@jfpoole) March 27, 2022
The executive observed similar behavior when Geekbench was renamed Genshin Impact, which is another popular video game. This is enough evidence to show that Xiaomi is doing the same thing as Samsung, but it is unclear whether it is being done to prevent overheating or battery drain.
This does not come as a surprise as multiple smartphone companies have been caught doing so in the past. OnePlus was caught in the act last year and it was quickly resolved through a patch fix. Samsung has also released an update to fix GOS, but the patch has only made it to Korean users for now.
There is no official word from Xiaomi yet, but we will update this space as soon as there is official information.
