One Plus: The manufactured hype.

Courtesy- XDA Developers

Benchmarks are those applications that give a basic idea about the performance of a device. After testing a particular part or the device as a whole, the application returns a score of how powerful the device is. How the device will perform in daily usage is a different question altogether. Devices performing excellently during the benchmark testing have not lived up to the same expectations in the normal use and vice-versa. Either way, benchmark scores, as a numerical equivalent of a device's performance obviously affects a prospective buyer's choice to go for a device. This is somewhat exploited by the recently launched One Plus 5 in somewhat more "blatant" and "consciously introduced" way than it's predecessor.

The manipulation of the scores and the cheating mechanism has been reported by team XDA. The report states that it is the "obvious" method found in most flagships to artificially boost benchmark scores. As soon as the smartphone detects a benchmark app, the minimum frequency of the small cores rockets to the maximum frequency i.e. 1.9GHz. With this technique, OnePlus achieved some of the highest scores on GeekBench 4. The other benchmark apps it affects include AnTuTu, Androbench, GeekBench 4, GFXBench, Quadrant, Nenamark 2, and Vellamo.

Courtesy- XDA Developers

Without the cheating mechanism, the report claims that only 24.4 percent of results gave the 1.9GHz maximum frequency in the small cores, whereas when the manipulation was enabled, the number jumped to a jaw-dropping 95 percent of results. To this, One Plus co-founder Carl Pei issued a statement that the benchmarks are not the measure of real-life performance and they want their users "to see the full potential of their device without interference from tampering."

It is really disappointing that OnePlus has been caught the second time manipulating benchmark scores. It is how the reviewers compare different smartphones of same hardware capabilities and buyers to some extent- their device choice. Artificial boost to the performance is unacceptable and being caught twice is a hit on it's reputation. 

We expect OnePlus to rectify this mistake via a software update soon. No doubt that One Plus 5 is still the flagship killer but resorting to such means to prove it's potential disappoints us as tech enthusiasts.