Huawei accused of cheeky reference deception, says everyone is doing it

Just when we thought that smartphone makers had abandoned their efforts to deceive critics and the public with reference numbers, Huawei's latest actions prove that the practice is still alive and well. This week, AnandTech discovered that the Chinese manufacturer Huawei installed software on some of its smartphones that detect when certain tests are performed.

As you might expect, when the software detects a popular benchmark, it increases system performance beyond what the device is normally able to do in its original configuration. Essentially, the company overclocks the SoC so that its devices have a benchmark appearance at the expense [potentially] to reduce the life of critical components.

We have seen examples through a litany of smartphone OEMs, most recently with OnePlus. However, most OEMs simply line up between their legs, admit defeat and promise not to install cheat software on future devices.

Huawei, meanwhile, defends the practice and says that it's actually a "feature" that harnesses artificial intelligence to ensure that the processor runs at peak performance at all times. "In normal benchmarking scenarios, once Huawei's software recognizes a benchmarking application, it adapts intelligently to" Performance Mode "and offers optimal performance," Huawei said in a statement. The applicant. "Huawei plans to provide users with access to" Performance Mode "so they can use the maximum power of their device when they need it."

On the one hand, Huawei seems to say that it's just about intelligent engineering, with its SoC Kirin 970 running at the limit (and beyond) when peak performance is required . However, in an impromptu interview with AnandTech At IFA 2018, Dr. Wang Chenglu, president of Huawei's Software Division, admitted that "others are doing the same tests, get high scores and Huawei can not remain silent".

This is an interesting way to look at the situation, because Wang complains that other Chinese equipment manufacturers – some of whom do not even sell equipment in the United States – play the system for better results on popular benchmarks.

Given Huawei's position on optimization cheat, we should play more closely the benchmark numbers that come from Huawei's upcoming Kirin 980 SoC, announced last week at IFA 2018. This is TSMC's first commercial 7nm chip to hold $ 6.9 billion of transistors. an overall performance gain of 20% compared to the Kirin 970.