A newly discover bug on some OnePlus 5 smartphones has owners of the device scrambling to find out if they are affected. The story of the OnePlus 5 911 bug took off after a post on Reddit. A user mentioned that their OnePlus 5 rebooted when they called 911. Not exactly the response you want from your smartphone in an emergency situation. An update to the Reddit post showed a video that replicated the error, causing the phone to reboot after dialing 911.
Other users have also been reporting the issue meaning that this is more than just a single, isolated incident. This is obviously very concerning for everyone. After all, it’s not often that a smartphone bug could cause people to die. Dialing 911 should be the most basic feature of any phone. What good is a device that can browse Facebook if it can’t get you help when you really need it?
Some users are speculating that the GPS on the device may be the cause of the OnePlus 5 911 bug. On the part of OnePlus, all they have said is that they have contacted the owner of the smartphone in the video and are investigating.
The OnePlus 5 911 bug is just another issue in what has been a rocky launch of the OnePlus 5. There have been reports that the display on the OnePlus 5 has a “jelly” effect while scrolling, and that videos played in landscape orientation play audio through the wrong channels; for example, the right channel plays from the left earbud while the left channel plays from the right earbud. The difference between those issues and the OnePlus 5 911 bug is literally life and death. A jelly effect on the screen is annoying. Not being able to call 911 is dangerous.
OnePlus, for their own sake, better have an answer for users soon. Their smartphone has not exactly been garnering the best press over the last few weeks. The last thing they need is to be the cause of someone losing their life because they couldn’t get through to 911. Hopefully this is simply a software bug that can easily be patched with an update. If this is hardware bug we could be looking at another mass recall like what Samsung experienced with the Note 7 only a year ago.
Of course, we do not recommend testing this bug if you own a OnePlus 5. Calling an emergency line in a non-emergency situation can be a crime in some localities. However, we would be interested in hearing from OnePlus 5 owners. Comment below if you are concerned about the OnePlus 5 911 bug and if it would influence your future smartphone buying decisions.
