Geekbench delists OnePlus 9 series for manipulating benchmarks | Pocketnow Leave a comment
OnePlus was found to do some very interesting optimizations to its OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro devices, especially when it comes to various apps. OxygenOS analyzes the apps individually and it will limit the performance of the handset for what we can assume is to extend the battery life. However, this behaviour does not seem to affect any benchmarking app, which is why Geekbench has called it cheating, and therefore decided to delist it from its application.
The investigation was carried out by AnandTech, and it can be read in full on this link. After the investigation was published, Geekbench has responded to it on Twitter with this post:
It’s disappointing to see OnePlus handsets making performance decisions based on application identifiers rather than application behavior. We view this as a form of benchmark manipulation. We’ve delisted the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro from our Android Benchmark chart. https://t.co/G40wmWeg7o
— Geekbench (@geekbench) July 6, 2021
Before the devices were delisted, Geekbench had commented the following “We will also test the other OnePlus handsets in our performance lab to see if these handsets also manipulate performance in the same way. If they do, we will delist them from the Android Benchmark chart.“ said in a separate tweet. 22 hours later, the latest OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro were delisted, however Geekbench hasn’t mentioned whether other OnePlus handsets were found to manipulate such behaviour.
The current hack isn’t the same as the normal ones that we’ve got used to. Instead of completely ignoring the thermal limitations, OxygenOS is running at full speed during benchmarks, while other apps are getting less power. Ultimately, it is very similar, but it’s not the same cheating mechanism.
This is certainly interesting, but not something totally new. Companies were found to manipulate their benchmark scores in the past, hoping that more customers would pick them up as a result. OnePlus has not yet commented on the issue so far, so we’ll have to wait if they have anything to say about it.
What are your thoughts about the new method and OnePlus’ strategy to get a higher position in benchmark apps? Are you surprised? Let us know in the comments!
