As is the case with most new smartphones, the early OnePlus 5 buyers have started complaining about technical problems with the flagship device. OnePlus 5 is undoubtedly an impressive phone with powerful specs with a price tag below $500. The phone is just a few days old and early users have started talking about a weird OnePlus 5 jelly effect. Users had previously also complained about camera and WiFi issues.
What is the OnePlus 5 jelly effect?
When a product undergoes testing ahead of its release, only a handful of individuals get the device for testing. Sometimes there are issues affecting a small percentage of users that are detected only after it is made available to the masses. The OnePlus 5 jelly effect seems to be one of them. Users have taken it to the OnePlus forum, Reddit, and XDA forum to complain about the jelly scrolling effect.
If your phone is affected by the problem, you might not even notice it at first. If you scroll slowly through web pages or Twitter feed, you would notice that the text bunches up together and stretches, taking a little longer to catch up to the rest of the feed. It means the screen refreshes at different rates. Affected users have started referring to it as the ‘jelly scrolling effect.’
One user wrote in OnePlus forum that the scrolling was “like wobbly jelly, like your scrolling under water, like vsync is disabled.” Another forum member posted a video to show the problem with touch latency. If you are still not able to see the problem, watch this video showing the issue in action. Though the video is nearly 22 minutes long, the flickering starts at around 8 minutes and 15 seconds mark.
Is OnePlus 5 jelly effect a hardware or software issue?
OnePlus told XDA Developers that it was aware of the issue, though it didn’t reveal what was causing the jelly effect on OnePlus 5. It appears that only a small percentage of OnePlus users are facing the problem. If it is a major hardware issue, consumers have every right to return the devices. But if it’s caused by a software bug, OnePlus could fix it with an over-the-air update.
It is too early to say what is causing the problem. Some forum members reported that the VSYNC was constantly being toggled on and off. VSYNC is a method to cap the frame rate at the display refresh rate of the device. XDA Developers noted that VSYNC is unlikely to be related to the OnePlus 5 jelly effect. A second theory being put forth is that some units might have the display mounted upside down.
To support this theory, a few users pointed out that holding any other phone upside down causes the same jelly effect on those smartphones. So, the OnePlus 5 display might have been mounted upside down. Experts at XDA Developers said an incorrect orientation of the display would make the phone’s screen look “totally wacky.” Chances are it could be just a software issue.
OnePlus 5 manipulated the benchmarks
The OnePlus 5 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor. Despite featuring the most powerful chipset available to Android vendors, OnePlus 5 was found to be manipulating benchmark tests to yield higher scores. XDA Developers found that four of its cores start performing at their maximum capacity as soon as they detect a benchmark app. But when the cheating mechanism was disabled or when the device is running non-benchmark apps, the cores performed at their maximum frequency only 24% of the time.
It was manipulating scores on all major benchmarking apps including GeekBench, AnTuTu, and Androbench. XDA Developers pointed out that the cheating mechanism was “consciously introduced” into the phone. It doesn’t mean OnePlus 5 lacks the processing power of a premium phone. It’s still one of the fastest and most powerful devices out there.
OnePlus 5 features and specs
OnePlus 5 is competing against the iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S8 by offering similar specs at incredibly lower prices. While many have criticized the device for its striking resemblance to the iPhone 7 Plus in terms of design, consumers have little to complain about. The phone is available in 6GB and 8GB RAM variants, meaning it has more RAM than most laptops.
The biggest highlight of OnePlus 5 is its horizontally arranged dual camera system on the back. The device has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. The rear camera setup includes a 20-megapixel sensor and a 16-megapixel sensor. It offers 2x optical zoom and iPhone 7 Plus-like Portrait mode where you can blur the background while keeping the subject in focus.
OnePlus 5 runs OxygenOS on top of Android 7.1.1. It doesn’t have heavy customizations or lots of preloaded apps to slow things down. The device features a 3,300mAh battery and OnePlus’ proprietary Dash Charging technology. It takes only about one hour to fully charge the battery. The device retains the 3.5mm headphone jack and dual SIM support.