Oppo's two latest Android phones were cheating on processor benchmarks

OPPO Find X
OPPO Find X (Image credit: Hayato Huseman / Android Central)

The Oppo Find X and F7, two of Oppo's latest Android phones, have recently been outed for cheating on processor benchmarks with the popular 3DMark benchmark app.

UL Benchmarks revealed this info on October 18, saying that the two Oppo phones were designed to know when 3DMark was running and then crank themselves into high-gear to get the best possible results. When a private version of 3DMark was used on the phones, results came in at 41% lower.

The Oppo Find X was previously listed as the #4 fastest phone in one of UL Benchmarks' tests, but following this new evidence, both it and the F7 have been delisted from the site.

Oppo responded to UL Benchmarks, saying:

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. For unknown applications, the system will adopt the default power optimization strategy...After the user has not actively operated for 5 to 10 seconds, the device limits the system performance to 70% to 80% of the maximum performance (according to different platforms)...When there is a user operation, it will immediately cancel the performance limit, to ensure that the user experience is not affected.

Along with that, Oppo also noted that it's working on "upgrading the system" and looking for ways to "distinguish between the requirements of undetected apps or the subjective needs of users."

OPPO Find X review: A beautiful disaster

Joe Maring

Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You can reach him on Twitter at @JoeMaring1.

8 Comments
  • I am not familiar with how benchmarks are achieved fairly, but if you ask me...if it is capable of achieving those stats and it actually achieves those stats, what does it matter when it achieves those stats? It doesn't sound like it was cheating at all. It sounds as though they make decisions on when to save processing power and when it is not saving processing power it hits those stats that are described. Am I missing related to that? The phone does get these numbers?
  • The issue is if you use the phone for anything else you will not get the performance the benchmark would suggest. If you are trying to buy the best gaming phone and it is cheating you may end up getting a phone that is actually worse at sustained gameplay vs a phone that doesn't cheat but gets slightly lower benchmarks. Any company can disable thermal protection and/or overclock or whatever for a 30 second benchmark. They can't do that if you are going to play a game or an hour.
  • LOL Benchmarks. Woopty F*ing Doo.
  • another **** thrown on Chinese efforts
  • Oh no! Companies are cheating on benchmark scores that don't mean anything anyway! For shame, Oppo. Obviously, all things being equal, a phone with a higher benchmark score should perform better than a phone with a lower benchmark score. But in reality, you would need to see phones side by side opening apps at the same time to even see any real difference in performance. If you buy a phone solely based on benchmark scores, you deserve what you get.
  • They shouldn't just be delisted they should have their scores zero'd and the reason (cheating) added.
  • Is this cheating or just putting best foot forward? I suspect that people who like these phones aren't going to change their minds over this.
  • Gee, I'm truly shocked, Lol.