OnePlus backtracks on the "Jelly effect" again. (Update: not really)

One of the few controversies that have emerged around the time users began to receive their OnePlus 5 devices is the so-called "jelly effect". Long story short — when you scroll up and down on some pages, such as your settings or a website in Chrome or whatever else, the display doesn't look like it refreshes evenly and the animation "wobbles" instead of scrolling smoothly and consistently.

Is it a big issue? That's certainly debatable. But it can sure get a bit confusing if you try to follow OnePlus' response on the matter. First, it was looking into the problem, then it claimed that the issue is only reported by a small number of users, is natural and not a concern. Hours after that, the company tweeted out that it'll be fixing the "jelly effect" via a future software update. Now, that last one raised some eyebrows, since it's theorized that the problem is caused by a hardware design mishap — the fact that the display panel is, apparently, installed upside down in order to make internal components fit.

We're not sure how plausible that theory is, seeing as not all OnePlus 5 have the issue. However, we're also not sure if it's fixable via a software update since the company has now deleted the tweet that said it's working on a fix and has, yet again, backtracked to calling it a natural phenomenon. The latest tweet from OnePlus support goes like this:



Yes, "persistence of vision" is a thing — it's the phenomenon which lets you see a light trail after a swinging lightbulb in a dark area. It's also the culprit behind why the "rubber pencil trick" is a thing — wiggling a pen between your fingers and observing it at the right angle makes it look like it's bending when in reality, it isn't. Basically, the stream from your eyes to your brain comes with a tiny delay, which causes all of these phenomena to occur.

On to OnePlus' latest explanation — we have a couple of gripes here. First, if it was caused purely by Persistence of vision, the "Jelly effect" wouldn't be observable on a slow-motion video. Second, by that logic, we should see the "Jelly effect" on every smartphone, not just some OnePlus 5 units.

Considering that the OnePlus 5 is a pretty solid phone for a very good price, we would say that a display being a bit wonky (only) when you are scrolling up or down on it is not really a huge deal. But how that issue is handled is a bit... baffling?