Nick Fernandez\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
TL;DR<\/p>\n
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- Nubia’s REDMAGIC 11 Pro phone was seen receiving performance improvements in an apparent effort to boost benchmark ratings.<\/li>\n
- UL Solutions later removed the phone for 3DMark rule violations.<\/li>\n
- In a series of new statements, Nubia defends the ethics of its practices, while UL Solutions details its findings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n
Much of the modern smartphone industry has fortunately moved on from the numbers game that plagued its early days, when manufacturers would promote their phones with the highest megapixel cameras, or the most CPU cores. And while we’re more focused on features and experience today, benchmark numbers still manage to attract attention \u2013 especially when we’re dealing with performance-geared gaming phones. This has tempted more than one company to game the system by artificially inflating those benchmark results, and today we have some updates to share on the latest scam to hit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nEarlier this week, we shared with you the saga of Nubia’s REDMAGIC 11 Pro phone. 3DMark parent UL Solutions removed the REDMAGIC 11 Pro and Pro+ from the benchmarks with the explanation that the phones were not following its benchmark rules. Typically, we see this when a company configures its devices to recognize when a benchmark app is running, and then disables things like power or thermal throttling, giving it an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIn some tests with the REDMAGIC 11 PRO, the phones would get so hot during those unthrottled benchmarks that they had to be shut down before completing the test.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIn those days, Android Authority<\/em> Nubia was contacted for comment and the manufacturer appeared to defend its practices. To a certain extent, this means one thing: it Is<\/em> After all the phone is showing real performance. But doesn’t performing better than usual during benchmarks seem a bit cheating?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nWe contacted Nubia again and asked the company specifically about Moral<\/em> There are concerns involved here. And now we have our response, with Nubia telling us:<\/p>\n
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We do not consider our performance profile to be unethical. Rather, we see them as transparency into the actual capabilities of the hardware.<\/p>\n
Unlike other smartphones, REDMAGIC is specifically engineered with an internal physical fan and liquid cooling to handle extreme thermal loads.<\/p>\n
With respect to “real world conditions”, these performance levels are fully accessible to our users. Through “Game Space” and enabling settings like “Diablo Mode”, players have a manual “key” to unlock the same high-wattage performance and thermal ceiling used in benchmarks for any demanding applications, such as high-end PC emulation.<\/p>\n
We believe the user should decide how to balance power and heat. Our benchmarks simply demonstrate what the hardware can achieve when user-accessible cooling and performance features are fully activated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But is this really what is happening here? It would be one thing if the phone asked the user to manually create All<\/strong> Decisions about performance throttling, but there are apparently separate profiles for when the phone recognizes specific apps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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