OxygenOS 12 will let you choose between battery life and performance
It’s been a busy few weeks for OnePlus, and it’s not just because the company announced the Nord 2 and Buds Pro earlier today. Earlier this month, OnePlus was found to be intentionally throttling device performance on the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro. It wasn’t exactly trying to deceive benchmarks, but OnePlus claims these software optimizations were made in an effort to improve battery life.
After receiving quite a lot of backlash over the decision to not only throttle performance, but to keep things quiet, OnePlus seems to be coming to its senses. But we’ve also learned that these same software tweaks can be found in both the OnePlus 9R, along with the newly-introduced OnePlus Nord 2.
Speaking to Android Police, OnePlus confirmed as much, while also revealing plans to introduce a toggle for the optimization. Instead of deciding for itself that better battery life is the best option for everyone, OxygenOS 12 will give you the decision.
“Since different chips perform differently and we want to make sure to get the best performance and efficiency out of each one, we’ve implemented performance optimizations to varying degrees on the OnePlus 9R and Nord 2. However, given the clear feedback from users and media, our R&D team is currently working to add an option to let users turn on/off this optimized mode and have better control over the performance of their phones. We’re targeting to have this solution ready with one of the first builds of OxygenOS 12.”
Following things up, a post on the OnePlus Forums reiterated the statement provided to Android Police. When OxygenOS 12 rolls out later this year, there should be a toggle, allowing users to switch between better battery life or faster performance.
The crux of the issue has nothing to do with the fact that OnePlus wants to give its users the best battery life possible. Performance of the OnePlus 9 series is already incredible (for the most part) as it is. But the deception with not revealing these software changes, is why there was such an outcry over the report from Anandtech.
On the bright side, OnePlus plans to make the necessary changes, give the users back control over the power of their phones, and hopefully will learn from this in the future. This is a great example of what can happen when the community bands together, and the company actually listens to its users.