March was not an easy month for Samsung Electronics. The disputes over the performance of Samsung Electronic’s latest product Galaxy S22 had quickly spread since its launch in March. The company’s top executive had to make an apology to the public due to the fierce backlash.

Galaxy S22 Samsung Game Optimising Service

The controversy was mainly about Galaxy S22’s game optimising service. According to the company’s explanation, GOS is an application that adjusts the performance of devices when playing mobile games to extend battery life and prevent devices from overheating. 

However, users have been complaining that GOS is active when using other apps that are not games too, such as Netflix, Samsung Pay, and Instagram. 

What’s worse, users of Galaxy S22 cannot turn off the GOS app on their phones. Samsung Electronics had GOS installed in their Galaxy series since 2017, but users could turn the app off if they wanted to. But in Galaxy G22, GOS is pre-installed and automatically turns on when using high-end applications. 

Because of GOS, the product’s overall performance can be limited to 53.9 per cent of the advertised performance on single-core, Geekbench, a platform for smartphone performance reviews, reported. The platform also delisted Galaxy G22 and other latest launches of Samsung Electronics that use GOS from their review browser.

Some Galaxy G22 buyers have decided to file a lawsuit against the tech giant to resolve the GOS issue. The case has been also submitted to the Fair Trade Commission in South Korea, reports say.

Promised Improvements

Samsung Electronics promised improvements for the product’s GOS. The company will “secure safety using a heat control algorithm” and it will “continue to add new functions to prevent overheating”, Vice Chairman and co-CEO Han Jong-see said at a shareholder meeting held at the Suwon Convention Center in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, in March.

The company also plans to develop another application processor for the Galaxy series soon to resolve the GOS issue, a report says. 

Roh Tae-moon, president and head of MX Business at Samsung Electronics, reportedly said at a town hall meeting held in March that the company is considering “developing customised AP for the Galaxy series” as a solution to the GOS issue.

The Galaxy series currently uses Exynos, an AP that is also used in their other products and smartphones from other brands, such as Xiaomi. The new AP is expected to be only used for Samsung Electronic’s smartphone series.

Numbers Are Still Looking Good

Despite the controversy over GOS, the sales volume of the Galaxy S22 does not look so bad. 

The company said that it sold more than one million units in South Korea alone within the first six weeks since the product’s launch in March. This is the highest-selling record for the company’s 5G smartphone series since 2019. 

The company added that the sales of the Galaxy S22 have increased by 20 per cent compared to its previous product in the same series. 

“The domestic sales (of Galaxy S22) turned out great, considering how the domestic smartphone market’s demand for new products in the first quarter has decreased over 10 per cent compared to last year, and intensified disruptions in the global supply chain,” an official of the company told the Dong-a Ilbo.