Although OnePlus has gone and fixed that annoying glitch that rebooted OnePlus 5 units whenever users dialed an emergency number, many are still no doubt wondering what exactly caused the glitch in the first place. Well, the Chinese phone maker has recently released an official explanation, and it might be kind of awkward.
It turns out that there exists a particular problem related to the memory usage of a cellular modem, and the issue only presents itself whenever an emergency call is made while on a voice over LTE (VoLTE) network, thereby calling for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) protocol used for positioning during an emergency.
While it was clear on hindsight that the problem only appeared in a limited number of OnePlus 5 units, the issue was complicated enough to convince OnePlus to call for Qualcomm’s assistance in order to get rid of the glitch, once and for all.
Mobile manufacturers are no stranger to all kinds of bugs, and there are times when these glitches are discovered right after a particular mobile device has already launched. These glitches can range from minor stuff like software issues or rebooting problems, to very serious concerns (like a particular South Korean phablet’s incendiary battery problems).
But sometimes, a little transparency can go a long way. But the fact of the matter is: not all phone makers are that enthusiastic when it comes to offering an official explanation for every bug or glitch that comes along. Besides, once that bug is fixed, users tend forget about the whole thing and move on with their lives. So it might be refreshing for some to see that OnePlus has actually taken the time to offer an explanation of what went wrong.
The OnePlus 5 made its debut about a month ago, and it had managed to impress with some cool specifications and features, including 128 gigabytes of built in memory, a dual camera set up on the rear side, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chip set, and 8 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), which you don’t get to see much these days. But then after around three weeks, there were reports that OnePlus 5 users were complaining about some issues, particularly those that happen when trying to make an emergency call. These disgruntled users took to Reddit to air their frustrations, and some even posted videos of the glitch on social media. To OnePlus’ credit, it did address the issue quickly, and then immediately proceeded to working out a patch.
