Huawei accused of cheating on the 3Dmark benchmarks using AI

Benchmarks are usually the easiest way to find out how fast a phone works, but only if the manufacturer doesn't plan on cheating on the test. Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the creators of the 3DMark benchmark test, have accused Huawei of cheating on its benchmarks.

UL ran a few Huawei devices using two different benchmark tests only to find out that the results differed drastically. The first test was the publicly available 3DMark benchmark, while the second was a private version of 3Dmark.

Since the results differ a lot, UL has accused Huawei of using a discreet 'performance mode' that overrides the phone's usual performance to deliver artificial scores for the test.

Following the claims, UL also delisted Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Nova 3, and Honor Play from its website. Huawei in its defense said that the amplified scores are a result of AI optimized performance under specific scenarios. But, in that case, the performance should show same scores for other benchmarks as well. Instead, it's possible that Huawei had a performance mode explicitly for the 3DMark test.

Huawei has said that it would allow the users to access to the "Performance Mode" in EUMI 9.0, so users can choose when to enable the maximum power mode on the device.

This isn't the first time, Huawei has been caught false promoting its devices. The company was caught pulling off another act of deception, all thanks to the goof-up from the actress involved in the advertisement. Earlier, Huawei was found cheating with the fake P9 camera samples after the EXIF data was retained by a Google+ post. However, here there was no need for any EXIS data because an actual image of the camera sample being taken by a DSLR instead of Nova 3 came into light.

The Instagram picture posted by Sarah Elshamy, the actress featured in this Huawei Mobile Egypt marketing campaign, has been since-deleted. In one of the many pictures posted by her, the man can be seen stretching his arm in a selfie position. However, instead of the Nova 3, there's a DSLR camera on a tripod placed to mimic the position of a phone.

There are at least three other such instances in the ad where the man takes a selfie, and it'd be surprising if a DSLR wasn't used for all those shots. It's a known fact that a lot of editing goes in the aftermath of an advertisement. There's a possibility that all the OEMs use such tricks to promote their products, but only Huawei in unlucky enough to be caught.

What's more concerning is that the general population who aren't aware of these marketing strategies might think that the Nova 3 is capable of capturing such great pictures. This could be misleading for many, and the fact that the company was promoting a specific feature of the phone makes it even more deceptive.