Ridiculous Xiaomi Redmi K30 Geekbench entry shows why healthy skepticism is a prerequisite when it comes to interpreting benchmark data

Geekbench is a popular benchmarking tool used to assess the CPU strength of processors — both x86 and ARM. While there have been occasional instances of fake Geekbench records in the past that have taken even seasoned tech journalists for a ride, this particular listing trumps everything. Moreover, this record is still available on the official Geekbench 5 database, which makes it all the more concerning. 

The listing we are talking about is that of the Xiaomi Redmi K30. The Redmi K30 is powered by a Snapdragon 730G SoC, so one wouldn't really expect it to shatter any records when compared to phones of this generation. But this particular record shows the Redmi K30 as having a single-core score of 5,441 and a multi-core score of 16,245! Who'd have expected a smartphone and that too, one with a mid-range chipset to have 4.2x the single-core and 1.14x the multi-core score of an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X, right?

We are not sure what could have caused such a large scoring. Even if we were to assume this is some sort of a device being mimicked on x86 hardware, such high scores are not possible when, in fact, the native performance of current mainstream x86 processors itself isn't that high. For perspective, a legit score of the Snapdragon 730G in Geekbench 5 would be around 543 points in single-core and about 1,727 points in multi-core.

We will check with Primate Labs as to what could be reason for this anomaly and update this article accordingly when we get a response. In the meanwhile, we advice readers to exercise due diligence while making judgements based on any single benchmark score. Androids OEMs face cut-throat competition across almost every price segment, so they often push high benchmark numbers as a differentiating feature.

While a high score in AnTuTu, Geekbench, or any such benchmark is definitely welcome, buyers should preferably adopt a holistic approach to evaluation before deciding whether a device is suitable for their use case or not. Remember that benchmark listings are not entirely fool-proof. In fact, this somewhat old but still relevant article from Android Pit shows how easy it is to fake benchmark listings.

Therefore, a little bit of discretion while reading news about benchmark leaks is essential similar to what we had shown before in the case of a fake Mi Mix 4 listing, for example.