Coder blog, XDA Developers were reported to accuse the OnePlus 5 smartphone of using code cheat mechanisms upon displaying benchmark results. The U.K. manufacturer was said to take hold of the device sample ahead of its launch and concluded that OnePlus used “obvious” and “calculated” cheating mechanisms.
According to Tom’s Guide, XDA Developers noted that the OnePlus 5 obviously runs cheat codes through a system upon detecting benchmark apps. XDA stated that the smartphone usually runs at a lower clock speed compared to when it detects benchmark apps. The device’s OxygenOS Android skin was noted to feature the software containing the cheat codes.
With that said, affected benchmark apps were identified to include AnTuTu, Androbench, Geekbench 4, GFXBench, Quadrant, Nenamark 2 and Vellamo. XDA Developers said that upon noticing the download of the apps, the clock speed of the OnePlus 5 ramps up its performance to a maximum of 1.9Ghz. The code blog said that when the mechanism is turned off, the handset will only display 24.4 percent as its top speed compared to the 95 percent when the mechanism is used.
“We are not making it easier for the chipset to perform, for instance by changing to a lower resolution when detecting a benchmark app. We are not changing the performance of our chipset, for instance by overclocking it,” OnePlus company co-founder, Carl Pei stated on Reddit. Pei defended that they didn’t use any means to cheat like not overclocking the chip or lowering screen resolution.
OnePlus then said in a statement that they are not manipulating the clock speed of the device but instead shows the potential performance of the device. Pei then added that he believes that running benchmark apps aren’t useful for proxy in real life performance but only serves as something that would let users know what their smartphones are capable of per Phone Arena.
Aside from the aforementioned cheating accuse, OnePlus was also mentioned to receive benchmarking issues with its OnePlus 3T last February but was denied by the company as well. Yet, the 3D Mark app was stated to not be affected by the coding.