A day after the OnePlus 5 was finally revealed, controversy quickly struck the much-awaited flagship killer. OnePlus is being accused of cheating after it was discovered that the benchmark test results for the OnePlus 5 were manipulated.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that OnePlus has been called out for cheating. Allegations of cheating first surfaced a few months ago after "XDA-Developers" found out that the benchmark test results of the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T were manipulated.
Apparently, the OnePlus 5 also utilized the same technique it used with the two previous OnePlus handsets to attain its impressive benchmark test results. The technique in question involves a mechanism that maximizes the performance of the Snapdragon 835 chipset while undergoing the benchmark tests.
GSMArena explained further how the cheat was accomplished. Once the OnePlus 5 detected the benchmark, four of the cores were locked in a way that they kept running at the maximum possible clock speed of 1.9GHz. While this is not an overclock, it does prevent thermal throttling which normally occurs with a sustained load. What happens is the results of the benchmark test for the multi-core category are pushed as high as possible while the single-core benchmark results remain the same.
XDA-Developers further explained that when the mechanism was shut down, the cores attained the highest frequency for only 24.4 percent of the time. When the mechanism was re-enabled, the cores of the OnePlus 5 went back to running at 1.9GHz for 95 percent of the time.
As Android Authority pointed out, the company defended the supposed cheat saying they were merely showing what the OnePlus 5 is can potentially be capable of. XDA-Developers insisted that the results are misleading since they do not accurately represent the everyday use of the OnePlus 5.
Prior to its release, the OnePlus 5 was commended for its impressive benchmark test results. In fact, it surpassed the figures attained by the Samsung Galaxy S8, the first smartphone to use the Snapdragon 835 processor. It's not clear yet what the actual scores of the OnePlus 5 are.
Despite all the praises being heaped the OnePlus 5's way, it has been involved in another controversy even before it was officially unveiled. It has been accused of copying the design of Apple's iPhone 7 Plus. Placing the two smartphones side by side with the back side up, it is clear that OnePlus 5 looks a lot like the said iPhone. In fact, if not for the logos at the center of each phone, it would be hard to distinguish one from the other.
