In preparation of the upcoming P30 smartphone series launch later this month, Huawei has released some sample photos supposedly taken with the phone and its periscope zoom camera feature. Alas, the sample photos in question were actually stock images taken using a DSLR camera, and not by the Huawei P30 or P30 Pro as implied in the ads.
The discovery was made through a reader at GSMArena, who discovered Huawei’s blunder after a bit of sleuthing through the internet. Adding further insult to injury is the fact Huawei didn’t just post several of these supposed “sample images” online, but did so through its official Weibo account in China.
The pictures above and below are just one of several sample images Huawei tried to pass off as having been taken by its upcoming flagship smartphone. Though they made not be the same, the scenery, child and ducks in the picture are clearly identical. Another fake photo sample is one featuring an erupting volcano; it turns out that the stock image used was lifted off Getty Images, verbatim.
As many of you will know, this isn’t the first time Huawei has actually faked the camera capabilities of its smartphones. Back during August 2018, Huawei was outed for faking the selfie capabilities of its Nova 3 smartphone. Using a DSLR camera instead of the phone’s selfie camera.
At the time of writing, Huawei’s Weibo is still active, with all the ad teasers there as well. Needless to say, it’s only a matter of time before the brand takes them off in response to the discovery made against it.
Update (12 March 2019, 7:45pm): The severity of the blunder isn’t lost to Huawei, so much that the brand tried to cover it up by replacing the sample photos with images that include the disclaimers. Saying that the images used were for creative purposes only. Sadly, the switch was pointed out on a tweet by Richard Lai, Editor-in-Chief for Engadget.
Having compared the “fake” Huawei P30 sample shots grabbed by GSMAreana with the ones in Richard Yu’s weibo post, it’s safe to say that Huawei updated the pics with a disclaimer *after* being called out. This wouldn’t have been an issue if this was done in the first place. pic.twitter.com/8RmRPFWcIO
— Richard Lai (@richardlai) March 12, 2019
As Lai points out, Huawei could have avoided the media storm, had it actually put the disclaimer inside the picture from the start.
(Source: GSMArena via The Verge, Weibo, Jake Olson Studios, Gadgetmatch)
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