Huawei Benchmark Cheat Talks Lead To Performance Mode For All Users In EMUI 9.0
In the near future, a collection of Huawei smartphones will have a new "Performance Mode" enabled that makes them more powerful. This power comes at a cost, of course, as it's essentially an overclocking for a smartphone – it puts all emphasis on the processing power of which the phone is capable. This is the result of Huawei appearing to "cheat" on benchmark tests with 3D Mark – they've agreed to make their methods more accessible to all!
Huawei released some phones with a semi-secret Performance Mode in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This AI made Huawei phones enter Performance Mode whenever they detected the running of a benchmark test. This is not what the folks at UL (the makers of 3D Mark) want to happen with their benchmark test.
ALSO: Remember that Mobile benchmarks are still mostly pointless
It'd be like a biker doping up before a big race – not that that'd ever happen, but it might! The people who run the race don't want a race where those that secretly dope up are the most likely to win. So they test for dope and they eject all users of dope. Performance Mode is like a drug that puts a phone into overdrive, making it get some AWESOME benchmark results.
Apparently UL and Huawei had a talk. They released a statement that suggested they'd "reached a positive agreement on the next steps in working together" on "benchmarking practices." It's not clear whether Huawei will continue to force the Performance Mode in smartphones during benchmark tests.
What IS clear is that Huawei will enable users "open access to 'Performance Mode' in EMUI 9.0 "so that the user can choose when to use the maximum power of their device." So what we're hoping for here is a PERFORMANCE MODE button on all devices running EMUI 9.0 in the near future – but don't hold your breath!
Meanwhile "To prevent confusion around current benchmarking results, after discussion, UL and Huawei have temporarily delisted the benchmark scores of a range of Huawei devices, and will reinstate them after Huawei grants all users of Huawei handsets access to the Performance Mode."