- Antutu called Realme for allegedly cheating on its benchmark.
- There is evidence that the Realme GT is using CPU scheduling and JPG decoding tricks to improve its score.
- Antutu has temporarily removed the phone’s score and issued an ultimatum to Realme to resolve the issue.
Smartphone companies aiming for high, if not honest, benchmarks are nothing new. The most recent apparent addition to the infamous benchmark scam group is Realme, specifically the Realme GT.
In a Weibo article (h / t GizmoChina) Antutu outperformed the Realme GT for allegedly cheating its benchmark. As a result, the phone’s ~ 750,000 points have also been removed from the database. That is considerably higher than the Xiaomi Mi 11’s value of ~ 708,000 per Antutu test. Antutu specifically noted (via machine translation) that this number “was not a manifestation of true strength but was obtained through deception and other means”.
How did the Realme GT supposedly cheat? Antutu cites its performance in terms of the multithreaded workload and JPG decode parts of its benchmark.
Continue reading: Gary Explains – Why and How Are OEMs Cheating Benchmarking?
The phone reportedly used thread delay tactics in order to run the multithreaded test on its fastest CPU cores as often as possible. This, according to Antutu, resulted in a higher score. The Realme GT also “modified” the reference JPG image used by Antutu. Instead of literally processing the image, mosaic color blocks were used instead to reduce the quality of the image. This in turn enabled shorter processing times.
-
- The Realme GT multi-thread test
-
- Realme GT’s JPG decoding test
Antutu notes that both tactics are against the spirit of the benchmark. The benchmark company has therefore removed the results from Realme GT for three months. It has also issued an ultimatum to Realme stating that if the company doesn’t change how the phone meets the benchmark, the company will permanently ban Antutu.
Benchmark fraud
Realme isn’t the first company to cheat benchmarks. Over the past year, several MediaTek-powered phones from Oppo and others have reportedly passed the PCMark test. Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus and Meizu have also been accused in the past.
For companies, benchmark numbers remain a simple marketing tool. Perhaps these numbers can help a buyer not focus entirely on other features or specifications. It also helps the Realme GT stand out from other competent Snapdragon 888 phones.
They are designed to standardize the performance of phones for a variety of common tasks. But companies that play the system ultimately cast doubt on the numbers. This is something that people like Antutu obviously want to protect themselves from.
Realme answers
Realme told Android Authority in an email that it believes the benchmark results are “all correct”. The company also announced that they are communicating with Antutu at the time of writing.
The company’s CMO Xu Qi Chase issued a statement to Weibo describing the results as “real data running on the current version” from Antutu. See the statement translated by Google above.
Do you really care when smartphone manufacturers cheat benchmarks? Vote in the poll above and let us know what you think in the comments below.