Over the past few days, there were some developments on the whole Huawei/Honor debacle regarding cheating in benchmarks. UL Benchmarks even delisted 4 of their smartphones. Then, Huawei/Honor and UL Benchmarks discussed about this issue, and came out with an official joint statement.
“Huawei and UL (creators of 3DMark) have held comprehensive discussions on benchmarking practices this week, and have reached a positive agreement on the next steps in working together.
“In the discussion, Huawei explained that its smartphones use an artificial intelligent resource scheduling mechanism. Because different scenarios have different resource needs, the latest Huawei handsets leverage innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to optimize resource allocation in a way so that the hardware can demonstrate its capabilities to the fullest extent, while fulfilling user demands across all scenarios.
“UL understands the intent of Huawei’s approach but is opposed to forcing the use of a “Performance Mode” by default when a benchmarking application is detected by the device. UL rules require the device to run the benchmark as if it were any other application.
“Huawei respects consumers’ right to choose what to do with their devices. Therefore, Huawei will provide users with open access to “Performance Mode” in EMUI 9.0, so that the user can choose when to use the maximum power of their device.
“Huawei and UL have also discussed current common benchmark testing methodologies in general. UL and Huawei would like to participate in an industry movement to develop benchmarking standards that best serve the needs of manufacturers, press, and consumers.
“To prevent confusion around current benchmarking results, after discussion, UL and Huawei have temporarily delisted the benchmark scores of a range of Huawei devices, and will reinstate them after Huawei grants all users of Huawei handsets access to the Performance Mode.”
– Source: UL Benchmarks
From here, we know that Huawei automatically switched to Performance mode when a benchmark app is detected. This is done without the user knowing (even during our review) and UL Benchmark delisted them because of it. Now, Huawei agrees and will provide the Performance Mode option to all users in EMUI 9.0.
Then, it is also stated that the 4 delisted smartphones are temporary, where they will be reinstated after Huawei grants all of their smartphones with Performance Mode option.
While that joint statement only mentioned the name Huawei, we actually received an email from Honor Malaysia (on a Saturday afternoon, yes) with their statement. When asked if this statement is applicable to Huawei Malaysia, we were told that it is for Honor Malaysia only. Perhaps another statement from Huawei Malaysia will come out, but we’ll have to wait.
Kuala Lumpur, September 8, 2018 – Honor always prioritizes the user experience rather than pursuing high benchmark scores – especially since there isn’t a direct connection between smartphone benchmarks and user experiences. Honor smartphones use advanced technologies such as AI to optimize the performance of hardware, including the CPU, GPU and NPU.
When someone launches a photography app or plays a graphically-intensive game, Honor’s intelligent software creates a smooth and stable user experience by applying the full capabilities of the hardware, while simultaneously managing the device’s temperature and power efficiency. For applications that aren’t as power intensive like browsing the web, it will only allocate the resources necessary to deliver the performance that’s needed.
In normal benchmarking scenarios, once Honor’s software recognizes a benchmarking application, it intelligently adapts to “Performance Mode” and delivers optimum performance. Honor is planning to provide users with access to “Performance Mode” so they can use the maximum power of their device when they need to.
Honor is willing to work with partners to find the best benchmarking standards that can accurately evaluate the user experience.
In Honor Malaysia’s statement, it is quite coherent with UL Benchmarks and Huawei’s joint statement. Performance Mode is coming to Honor devices as well – but we’ll have to wait until EMUI 9.0 comes.
In summary, what happened over the course of few days is indeed better for us consumers. Huawei/Honor will now provide the “Performance Mode” option in EMUI 9.0, and that means we consumers can actually push the hardware to its maximum limit.
Until then we hope to do more in-depth test on Huawei and Honor devices in the future and study the true potential of the Kirin 970 and Kirin 980 chipsets. Mate 20, the first phone to use Kirin 980 chipset – which isn’t that far away either. The Mate 20 will be launched in October.
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