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Oppo Gets Caught in Benchmark Cheating, UL Benchmarks Pulls Find X and F7 for 'High and Misleading' Scores

Oppo Gets Caught in Benchmark Cheating, UL Benchmarks Pulls Find X and F7 for 'High and Misleading' Scores

By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 22 October 2018 11:02 IST

Affected Oppo models are found to score 41 percent higher on public 3DMark app than its private version

Highlights

UL Benchmarks has delisted Oppo Find X and F7
Both devices were found to artificially producing high benchmark results
Oppo is upgrading the system to compensate users

A month after Huawei being in the news for allegedly enhancing the performance of its devices to receive attractive benchmark scores, Oppo has now been caught in "artificially" producing "high and misleading" benchmark scores. UL Benchmarks, the makers of benchmarking app 3DMark, has delisted the Oppo Find X and F7 for unfairly boosting benchmark results. The company analysed the both affected models tweak the performance to receive up to 41 percent higher scores on the public 3DMark app than the scores from the private app that isn't available to end users and manufacturers. Oppo, in a separate statement, acknowledged the ability of its devices to detect benchmark apps to adjust their performance.

UL Benchmarks, on request of technology site Tech2, examined the performance of the Oppo Find X and later tested the F7. The company was able to confirm the flaw in both devices by using a private version of its 3DMark app and detected as much as 41 percent higher results on the public 3DMark app that is available to end users and manufacturers over what was received on the private version. "The difference in scores tells us that the devices are simply recognising the 3DMark app by name rather than adapting to the type of work in the test. This kind of detection and optimisation is forbidden by our rules for manufacturers," the company said in its detailed post.

Oppo admitted that that the Find X and F7 were detecting the public version of the 3DMark app, as mentioned by UL Benchmarks, and commented, "When we detect that the user is running applications like games or 3D Benchmarks that require high performance, we allow the SoC to run at full speed for the smoothest experience." The Chinese vendor also elaborates that for unknown apps, such as the private 3DMark app in the current case, the system adopts the default power optimisation strategy and after the user hasn't actively operated the handset for five to 10 sections, the hardware limits the system performance to 70 to 80 percent.

Photo Credit: UL Benchmarks

As a result of the latest findings, UL Benchmarks has delisted the Oppo Find X and F7. The impact is a significant blow for the Find X since it was ranked four in the list of Best Smartphones for 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme performance test.

Having said that, Oppo has suggested improvements to its existing approach to uplift the experience. "[W]e are working on upgrading the system, and strive to distinguish between the requirements of undetected apps or the subjective needs of users," the company said in its statement to UL Benchmarks.

It looks like Oppo is following in the footsteps of Huawei that was caught in a similar benchmark scandal last month and faced delisting of the Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Nova 3, and Honor Play for allegedly producing artificial benchmark results. The company reacted to the allegation and announced open access to the 'Performance Mode' in its EMUI 9.0 to let users decide when they need to maximise the performance of their devices.

Oppo Find X

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Stunning design
Good camera performance
Vivid display
Snappy performance

Bad
No IP rating
Hidden camera slows down face recognition

Read detailed Oppo Find X review

Display 6.42-inch

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 845

Front Camera 25-megapixel

Rear Camera 16-megapixel + 20-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 256GB

Battery Capacity 3730mAh

OS Android 8.1

Resolution 1080x2340 pixels

More Oppo mobiles Oppo mobiles price in India

Oppo F7

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS
Variants

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Very light
Good battery life
Speedy CPU
High-quality selfie camera

Bad
No fast charging
UI feels clunky and dated
Lacks premium feel

Read detailed Oppo F7 review

Display 6.23-inch

Processor MediaTek Helio P60 (MT6771)

Front Camera 25-megapixel

Rear Camera 16-megapixel

RAM 4GB

Storage 64GB

Battery Capacity 3400mAh

OS Android 8.1

Resolution 1080x2280 pixels

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