OnePlus 5s contain code that allows them to manipulate benchmarks to achieve better performance, which the final user can't see, claims the reliable tech site XDA Developers.
The examination of the device showed that the Android operating system used by devices that passed the reviews was tampered with to produce comparative results that are not representative of actual use.
"Unfortunately, it is almost certain that every review of the OnePlus 5 bears a point of reference with misleading results, as OnePlus has provided benchmark sites with a device that can deceive the results," Mario Tomas Serrafero wrote in XDA Developers.
"It is an unjustified one movement, because in the end it is an attempt to mislead not only end users, but also the work of judges and journalists by giving misleading data that most are unable to check or verify. The results mislead both authors and readers as performance analyzes are based on skewed benchmarks.”
The cheat code is designed to handle the following reporting tools:
- AnTuTu
- Androbench
- Geekbench 4
- GFXBench
- Quadrant
- Nenamark 2
- VellamoMenu
The cheat code can fool the reporting tool, indicating that the system is running at a higher speed than the normal CPU speed during the test.
The following diagrams show the CPU frequencies when running GeekBench 4 compared to the "hidden build" of XDA Developer.
“In case it's not obvious from the graph above,” Serrafero continues, “we've looked into it frequency of the CPU every 100ms and overall only 24,4% of the measurements returned the maximum frequency of 1,9GHz when we disabled the cheat. With the cheat enabled it passed with an amazing 95 percent in the maximum frequency mode.”
The cheat bell boosts the OnePlus 5's multi-core performance by about 5%, which sounds like a lot, but as Serrafero points out, "this boost is enough to propel the device ahead of other Snapdragon 835 devices."
OnePlus replied with the following statement:
"Users use reporting applications to determine the performance of their device and we want to see the actual performance of the OnePlus 5. Therefore, we have allowed reporting applications to run in a state similar to everyday use. In addition, when launching applications, OnePlus 5 runs in a similar state to increase the speed at which applications are open. We do not overlap the device, but show the performance potential of OnePlus 5. "
This statement makes no sense since this increase in CPU performance occurs only when selected reporting tools are running.
This is not the first time the XDA Developer reports that OnePlus steals the tests. In January, a fraud mechanism was found in the OnePlus 3T code.
