In reply to http://ru.stackoverflow.com/a/445008/183331

results.txt

# JMH 1.10.3 (released 40 days ago)
# VM version: JDK 1.7.0_80, VM 24.80-b11
...
Benchmark        Mode  Cnt  Score   Error  Units
SplitTest.plain  avgt   30  0,107 ± 0,001  us/op
SplitTest.quote  avgt   30  0,393 ± 0,003  us/op

# JMH 1.10.3 (released 40 days ago)
# VM version: JDK 1.8.0_40, VM 25.40-b25
...
Benchmark        Mode  Cnt  Score   Error  Units
SplitTest.plain  avgt   30  0,108 ± 0,001  us/op
SplitTest.quote  avgt   30  0,380 ± 0,004  us/op

# JMH 1.10.3 (released 40 days ago)
# VM version: JDK 1.9.0-ea, VM 1.9.0-ea-b72
...
Benchmark        Mode  Cnt  Score   Error  Units
SplitTest.plain  avgt   30  0,108 ± 0,001  us/op
SplitTest.quote  avgt   30  0,375 ± 0,003  us/op

SplitTest.java

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

import org.openjdk.jmh.infra.Blackhole;
import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.*;
 
@Warmup(iterations = 5, time = 1000, timeUnit = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
@Measurement(iterations = 10, time = 1000, timeUnit = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
@BenchmarkMode(Mode.AverageTime)
@OutputTimeUnit(TimeUnit.MICROSECONDS)
@Fork(3)
@State(Scope.Benchmark)
public class SplitTest {
  String s = "aa?bb";

  @Benchmark
  public void quote(Blackhole bh) {
    bh.consume(s.split(Pattern.quote("?")));
  }

  @Benchmark
  public void plain(Blackhole bh) {
    bh.consume(s.split("\\?"));
  }
}