OnePlus 5s contain code that allows them to manipulate benchmarks to achieve better performance, something the end user cannot see, claims the trusted tech site XDA Developers.
The device examination showed that the Android operating system used by devices that passed the reviews had been tampered with to produce comparative results that are not representative of real-world usage.
"Unfortunately, it is almost certain that every OnePlus 5 review will contain a benchmark with misleading results, as OnePlus provided benchmark sites with a device that can cheat the results," writes Mario Tomas Serrafero on XDA Developers.
“It is an unjustified move, because ultimately it is an attempt to mislead not only end users, but also the work of reviewers and journalists by giving misleading data that most are unable to check or verify. The results mislead both authors and readers as the performance analyses are based on tampered benchmarks.”
The cheat code is designed to manipulate results from the following reporting tools:
- AnTuTu
- Androbench
- Geekbench 4
- GFXBench
- Quadrant
- Nenamark 2
- Vellamo
The cheat code can fool the benchmark tool, showing that the system is running at a higher speed than the normal CPU speed during testing.
The charts below show the CPU frequencies when running GeekBench 4 compared to the XDA Developer “hidden build”.
“In case it’s not obvious from the graph above,” Serrafero continues, “we tested the CPU frequency every 100ms and overall only 24.4% of the measurements returned the maximum frequency of 1.9GHz when we disabled cheating. With cheating enabled it passed with a staggering 95 percent in the maximum frequency state.”
The cheat bell boosts the OnePlus 5's multi-core performance by about 5%, which doesn't sound like much, but as Serrafero points out, "this boost is enough to propel the device ahead of other Snapdragon 835-powered devices.".
OnePlus responded with the following statement:
“Users use benchmark apps to see how their device performs, and we want them to see the real-world performance of the OnePlus 5. So, we have allowed benchmark apps to run in a state similar to everyday use. Additionally, when launching apps, the OnePlus 5 runs in a similar state to increase the speed at which apps are opened. We are not overclocking the device, but showcasing the performance potential of the OnePlus 5.”
This statement makes no sense, since this CPU performance increase only occurs when running selected benchmark tools.
This isn't the first time XDA Developers has reported that OnePlus is cheating in testing. In January, a cheating mechanism was found in the code of the OnePlus 3T.
