If You Owned a Galaxy S4, Samsung Owes You $10

When the Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched back in 2013 it was a top Android phone pick, but it was also caught cheating on benchmarks. Now Samsung is required to pay everyone in the US who owned an S4 $10 in compensation.

As The Register reports, a class-action lawsuit was filed by Daniel Norcia in 2014 after it was discovered Samsung had cheated on phone benchmarks to make the Galaxy S4 ($299.99 at Amazon) look artificially faster than the competition. Samsung detected when popular benchmark software was being run on the phone and increased the phone's Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor speed from 480MHz to 532Mhz in response. It also forced the use of all four processor cores, which when combined with the speed increase certainly helped on benchmarks.

Samsung's defense in the case was that under California law it's not "legally obliged" to inform customers the phone was setup to cheat on benchmarks. Subsequently, Samsung has spent years arguing against the charge and the case escalated all the way up to the Supreme Court.

With the case threatening to enter its seventh year and a trial looming, an agreement has finally been struck between the two parties to settle the matter. In total, Samsung will pay $13.4 million to make this case go away. Daniel Norcia will receive $7,500, a settlement fund gets $2.8 million, and the remaining $10.6 million will be injunctive relief. The lawyers fighting the case receive $1.5 million for their years of work.

For the 10 million people in the US who purchased a Galaxy S4, an email should be hitting your inbox soon allowing you to claim your $10 of the settlement. That assumes when you purchased the phone you handed over your email address and still use the same address. If you didn't or don't, then apparently purchasing the USA Today on Mondays is recommended as the details will eventually appear in the paper's Legal Notices or Money section.

As part of the settlement, Samsung agreed to not include software that increases phone performance during benckmark tests. However, it has only agreed to abide by that until 2024. The settlement also doesn't require Samsung to admit any wrongdoing.