OnePlus to throttle Series 9 phones: a good performance without consuming too much power
8.7.2021
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro are artificially getting throttled by their operating systems. Some of the phone’s «most popular apps, including Chrome» won’t make use of the lightning-fast Snapdragon 888 processor.
OnePlus has admitted that the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro will be throttled by their software. Or were. The company is officially passing the buck to its users. This according to the industry portal xdadevelopers.
In short: users complained about high temperatures and power consumption in their phones. In response, OnePlus fixed the problem on the software side. They throttled the current Series 9 flagships whenever «many of the most popular apps, including Chrome» are in use.
OnePlus isn’t alone in its approach of putting experience above performance, yet they did run into some trouble with it this year.
AnandTech discovers throttling
OnePlus mainly advertises its cameras – featuring Hasselblad software in its latest configuration – and its displays. Nevertheless, the phones also feature some other impressive bits: a Snapdragon 888 and 12 GB of RAM, for starters. Both of these specs alone allow for massive performance. Except, of course, when this performance is throttled by the operating system.
Andrei Frumusanu, editor for the tech portal AnandTech discovered that the OnePlus 9 and the 9 Pro have a blacklist. Apps such as Chrome will not be allowed to use the phone’s fastest processor cores. Benchmark apps – apps that exhaust the phone’s performance and measure it in numbers – on the other hand get full access to all system resources.
Andrei drew this conclusion after comparing the performance of a Snapdragon 888 on OnePlus devices with other smartphones using the same system-on-a-chip (SoC). Even after just one attempt, he was sure: there’s something wrong with the browser. Here’s what he found following some tests, which he recorded in video form: Chrome in particular is only allowed to access the phone’s small A55 processor cores. As when further tests were performed with the Vivaldi Browser, a far better performance was achieved. Put into numbers:
- Chrome: 61.5 runs per minute during the first test.
- Vivaldi: 105 runs per minute during the first test.
Further attempts produced a lower number, as by that time the smartphone has warmed up from use, throttling its power so the phone wouldn’t overheat.
At the end of his tests, Andrei had a series of results that showed one clear conclusion: there’s definitely something wrong.
A look into the code present in the phones then proved what he suspected.
I/OPPerf: perfAcquire # SPerfInfo{com.android.chrome 160 cpu_bouncing_02 0}As soon as Chrome is launched, something called cpu_bouncing_02 happens. It’s a modifier that changes the performance of an app. Whenever Chrome is opened, cpu_bouncing_02 intervenes. If Vivaldi is launched, the modifier stays out of it. Chrome isn’t the only app affected by this throttling on the part of the manufacturer. And there’s a second modifier: cpu_bouncing_01. Andrei tested a series of apps until he was sure that there was indeed something strange going on. Which is also why the following list isn’t complete.
cpu_bouncing_02
- us.zoom.videomeetings
- com.whatsapp
- com.facebook.katana
- com.zhiliaoapp.musically (TikTok)
- com.instagram.android
- com.snapchat.android
- com.google.android.youtube
- com.chrome.beta
- com.android.chrome
cpu_bouncing_01
- com.android.settings
- net.oneplus.launcher
- net.oneplus.forums
- net.oneplus.weather
- com.oneplus.backuprestore
- com.oneplus.filemanager
- com.oneplus.note
- com.oneplus.gallery
- com.oneplus.camera
- com.reddit.frontpage
- com.twitter.android
- com.amazon.mShop.android.shopping
- com.android.vending
- com.dropbox.android
- org.mozilla.firefox
- com.google.android.dialer
- com.google.android.gm
- com.google.android.documentsui
- com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.docs
- com.google.android.apps.photos
- com.google.android.apps.meetings
- com.google.android.apps.messaging
- com.linkedin.android
- com.discord
- com.netflix.mediaclient
- com.king.candycrushsaga
- com.adobe.lrmobile
- com.adobe.reader
- tv.twitch.android.app
- com.microsoft.emmx
- com.brave.browser
- com.nianticlabs.pokemongo
- com.microsoft.teams
- com.adobe.scan.android
- org.videolan.vlc
- com.strava
- com.amazon.avod.thirdpartyclient
- com.airbnb.android
- com.ubercab
- com.ubercab.eats
- com.microsoft.office.outlook
- com.microsoft.office.excel
- com.microsoft.office.powerpoint
- com.microsoft.office.officehubrow
- com.microsoft.office.word
Andrei concludes; «What’s evident here, is that this is not a mechanism solely applying to a handful of apps, but applies to pretty much everything that has any level of popularity in the Play Store[…]»
OnePlus replies
Andrei posed a philosophical question later in his investigation: how is subjective performance measured? The OnePlus 9 series has been on the market for a few months now, and according to him, no one has complained publicly. Obviously, users are satisfied with the phone and its performance.
Nevertheless, such an artificial performance limitation is upsetting. If you were the owner of a OnePlus 9 Pro, wouldn’t you want to exploit the full performance of your 1000-franc phone?
Most importantly, Andrei publicly asked for reasons to justify the throttling. Why did OnePlus bother to artificially slow down apps? OnePlus provided the answer itself. In a statement on xdadevelopers, OnePlus writes:
«Our top priority is always delivering a great user experience with our products, based in part on acting quickly on important user feedback. Following the launch of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro in March, some users told us about some areas where we could improve the devices’ battery life and heat management. As a result of this feedback, our R&D team has been working over the past few months to optimise the devices’ performance when using many of the most popular apps, including Chrome, by matching the app’s processor requirements with the most appropriate power. This has helped to provide a smooth experience while reducing power consumption. While this may impact the devices’ performance in some benchmarking apps, our focus as always is to do what we can to improve the performance of the device for our users.»
The statement, awkwardly phrased, implies a few things:
- The users are to blame.
- Throttling was introduced after the launch of the phones.
- OnePlus doesn’t prioritise performance, but the experience.
OnePlus isn’t alone with this last point. Apple has been doing this successfully for years. In those cases, it seems that specs are only as good as the performance of an overall product in the end. Which is why iPhones are never technologically top of the line while still running smoothly for years. However, we don’t know whether this philosophy has led to active app throttling at Apple.
OnePlus hasn’t announced what they’ll do in the future. Will throttling be removed again? Or is the group sticking to their guns?
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.