Is cheating on benchmarks possible? That’s what some XDA developers are saying after testing a OnePlus 5 review unit. The idea isn’t entirely new because the dev community already called out OnePlus on this matter earlier this 2017. Other companies are also said to be practicing this which makes benchmark scores not reliable all the time.
OnePlus is believed to be manipulating the scores especially on newer versions of OxygenOS. The OnePlus 5 is now in hot water because according to XDA, reviewers are given units that cheat on benchmarks. This results to misleading data that reviewers and writers will write about.
The OnePlus 5 phone has been available for reviewers as early as ten days ago. XDA discovered the cheating is more blatant now compared to before. OnePlus is said to be reducing thermal throttling and variance.
We can’t say if it’s intentional by OnePlus but XDA is saying there is a culprit code that can be removed from the builds being sold to consumers. This is the second time XDA is denouncing the practice of OnePlus. This one should matter because the review units being sent to reviewers score higher than units used in everyday life. The company could be doing this overclocking just to get good reviews and numbers.
Read XDA’s full report HERE and you be the judge.
OnePlus quickly responded to the accusation and said:
People use benchmark apps in order to ascertain the performance of their device, and we want users to see the true performance of the OnePlus 5. Therefore, we have allowed benchmark apps to run in a state similar to daily usage, including the running of resource intensive apps and games. Additionally, when launching apps the OnePlus 5 runs at a similar state in order to increase the speed in which apps open. We are not overclocking the device, rather we are displaying the performance potential of the OnePlus 5.
We know that many are not convinced about the explanation but we suggest that XDA tests more units once the OnePlus 5 is available in the market. The more proof that there is cheating, the better, and so we can publicly call out this cheating behavior by the Chinese OEM.
VIA: XDA Developers
