OnePlus benchmark controversy, and more tech news today

OnePlus has been in the news all week for reducing the performance of its latest flagship phones, but now that the dust has settled, it’s worth taking a deep dive into what exactly happened and what the impact is.

In case you haven’t been following the news, here’s a quick recap:

• First discovered by Andrei at AnandTech, revealed that the latest OnePlus 9 Pro suffered from horrific browser benchmarks in routine tests.
• Upon closer inspection, Andrei found that the phones switched to the less powerful (and less power hungry) Cortex-A55 cores instead of the much faster X1 core.
• This saves some battery life, but significantly reduces performance.
• The list of affected apps includes 300 of the most popular apps on the Play Store including Chrome, Twitter, and others.
• Here is a quick 6 minute video that explains the problem in simple terms that anyone can understand.

Well, reducing performance isn’t necessarily a big deal, especially if it actually improves battery life. If you don’t notice the slower speeds in everyday use without benchmarking software, it seems like a win for consumers.

However, many fans are (rightly) annoyed that their new $ 1,000 smartphone, which promises to be the best in class performance, is throttling its processor in almost all daily apps.

• The topic here is transparency (and no, I’m not talking about that controversial X-ray camera that came with the OnePlus 8 Pro).
• Phones from Samsung and other OEMs offer the option to switch between power and battery saving modes.
• With the OP9 Pro, this “optimization” was done in secret, and turning off all battery saving options does not change the performance.
• If OnePlus cuts back on this, who knows what the company has saved on. The fact that OnePlus wasn’t direct suggests some kind of wrongdoing.
• The controversy also raises a number of questions:
• Is Oxygen OS just bloated and not optimized? Who decides which apps are affected? Will OnePlus optimize the performance of older devices, e.g. Apple paid a $ 113 million fine for this in 2020?
• And if no one has noticed by now, what does that say about the need for these high-performance devices? Aren’t budget or mid-range phones much better to buy?

This is also not the first time that OnePlus has tipped the scales in benchmarks, although in the past it has always been about creating cheaper numbers, not worse ones.

• The OnePlus 9 Pro was already there removed from Geekbench for software optimizations that the site considers to be a fraud.
• OnePlus has given an answer to the controversy, but it doesn’t do much to clear its name:
  • “… Our R&D team has been working over the past few months to optimize device performance when using many of the most popular apps, including Chrome, by matching the app’s processor requirements with the most appropriate performance. This has helped deliver a smooth experience while reducing power consumption. “
  • It goes on to say, “Although this may affect the performance of the devices in some benchmarking apps, our focus is as always on doing everything we can to improve the device’s performance for our users.”
• If performance was really the goal, optimizing the software and being able to choose the performance (battery or speed) that matters to it seems the obvious way to go, especially for an enthusiast brand like OnePlus.

Wrestling fans are known for their zeal, but lately that excitement has been channeled into an interesting realm: Japanese role-playing games. (above Kotaku)

More precisely, the question arises as to which Final Fantasy game is the best. Fans bring handwritten signs into the arena to wave as their favorite wrestlers beat each other in submission.

The dispute will only worsen as COVID restrictions are relaxed and more face-to-face events take place. Keep an eye on the drama behind the next big WWE event.

(PS The correct answer is Final Fantasy Tactics.)

Until next week,

Nick Fernandez, editor