Geekbench delists OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro for benchmark manipulation after AnandTech's analysis

The OnePlus 9(₹ 54999 at amazon) and the OnePlus 9 Pro are the latest flagships from the company. Launched earlier in the year, the devices come with flagship Qualcomm chipsets -- the Snapdragon 888. These chipsets promise fast performance that's as good as anything available in the market. But if a new report from AnandTech is to be believed, the chipsets are being allowed to run full throttle only in certain applications such as benchmarks. 

An in-depth analysis of the phone's performance by the publication has revealed that the OnePlus 9 Pro has been running at full speeds only in benchmark apps but not applications such as Google Chrome and Twitter. This has prompted benchmarking application, Geekbench, to term it as benchmark manipulation and delist the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro from its platform. 

In a tweet, Geekbench said, "It's disappointing to see OnePlus handsets making performance decisions based on application identifiers rather than application behaviour. We view this as a form of benchmark manipulation. We've delisted the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro from our Android Benchmark chart."

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

Although AnandTech stopped shy of calling it benchmark manipulation, it did in its report list possible reasons behind the company's move to throttle performance in popular applications available on Google Play Store. In its report, it speculates that the performance throttling could be part of optimisation efforts to increase the battery life of the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. For example, by limiting the performance of the OnePlus 9 Pro in apps such as Chrome, OnePlus could be attempting to save energy and thus increase battery life. As the publication explains, this is the only real explanation for this issue. As it adds, “The only sensible rationale for such a decision is to improve a device’s power efficiency and battery life.” However, we're sure not many OnePlus fans, and especially the OnePlus 9 series phone buyers will accept this argument. 

We are yet to receive any word from OnePlus itself on the matter. However, with the way the issue appears to be blowing up on social media at the moment, it won't be long before OnePlus come out with a statement explaining its stance on the matter. As always, we'll be following this news closely, so watch this space for all the latest updates.