News

Huawei faked several of its phones’ benchmark scores

Will launch a ‘performance mode’ to compensate

Published

September 8, 2018

Luigi Leonardo

Do you use benchmarks to judge phones? As the market matures, the once-lauded measurement has slowly deteriorated in integrity. Nowadays, most consumers review user experience, rather than read unquantifiable benchmarks scores. In fact, test scores have now ballooned to unintelligible hundreds of thousands.

As the benchmark nears natural obsolescence, companies have started hammering the final nails in the measurement’s coffin. Indirectly proving the test’s nearing extinction, Huawei and sister company Honor have abused the benchmark test to their advantage. Both companies have been caught faking their phones’ test scores.

Recently, tech website AnandTech has discovered the companies’ anomalies. Apparently, both Huawei and Honor have altered their phones’ responses to certain benchmarking apps. When users open these apps, the phones automatically ramp up their performance specifically to pump up the test’s numbers.

Basically, when you run a benchmarking test on these phones, the resulting score artificially amplifies how the phone really runs.

To be more specific, AnandTech proved this with popular benchmarking apps, 3DMark and GFXBench. Additionally, the affected phones include the Huawei P20 Pro, the Nova 3, and the Honor Play.

In response, 3DMark has officially delisted the phones from its catalog. The ban will remain until Huawei implements a fix for the fakery.

Surprisingly, Huawei has not denied the allegations. In fact, the company has indirectly confessed to the crime.

In a statement, Dr. Wang Chenglu, Huawei’s director of software, cites “other manufacturers also [misleading] with their numbers.” Additionally, he states that it is already “common practice in China.”

To further add evidence against their case, Huawei has announced a new “performance mode” for the upcoming EMUI 9.0. The new option will allow users to “overclock” their phones at the cost of more power. Ultimately, the company hopes that the boost will allow the phones to live up to their advertised benchmark scores.

Still, the damage remains. Like another fakery issue, Huawei has made the curious decision to puff up its high scores, despite already enjoying rave reviews.

Very likely, the shady marketing tactic will not bode well for Huawei’s perception in countries where it’s weak. Particularly, the company is still in hot water with the US government.

Related Topics:Honor Play Huawei Huawei Nova 3 Huawei P20 Pro

Laptops

Lenovo launches new generation ThinkPads, ThinkVision displays

Up your business game with these new devices

Published

July 16, 2019

Gab Orlina

Business professionals have to stay on top of their game while at work. Whether it’s in the office or in coffee shops, a professional’s business skills has to be coupled with a performance-driving machine. For Lenovo, their next generation ThinkPad and ThinkVision devices hope to provide the level of efficiency and portability for modern-day businesses.

Lenovo Philippines launched five new ThinkPad devices for the Philippine business market. The next generation ThinkPad brings the company’s longstanding premium features and performance.

The new Lenovo T490 spearheads the lineup, with an 8th-gen Intel processor and an optional NVIDIA MX250 graphics card. This device also has a high memory capacity that expands up to 48GB of RAM to couple with a solid state drive up to 512GB.

All other ThinkPad devices contain features on portability and enhanced performance. The Lenovo X390 is a lightweight device packed with a battery that lasts for 18 hours and charges fast through its Rapid Charge feature.

Meanwhile, the Lenovo L390 features a 13.3-inch touchscreen display for a more interactive experience with complex data sets. Finally, the entry level Lenovo E490 and E490s feature performance boosting features like Intel Optane memory and an optional AMD Radeon 540X graphics card.

New ThinkVision displays

Lenovo did not stop there as they’ve also announced their new ThinkVision displays in the ThinkVision M14 and S24e-10. The Lenovo ThinkVision M14 is a portable monitor that will serve as a secondary display on the go. The Lenovo ThinkVision S24e-10, meanwhile is 1080p FHD display that will deliver clear, crisp image quality fit for business presentations.

The new Lenovo ThinkPads start at PhP 43,990 (US$ 864), with the Lenovo 7490 starting at PhP 73,990 (US$ 1453). Meanwhile, the Lenovo ThinkVision displays start at PhP 8,990 (US$ 177) for the ThinkVision S24e-10 and PhP 13,990 (US$ 275) for the ThinkVision M14.

News

Budget Android One Nokia 2.2 arrives in PH

Most affordable stock Android phone

Published

July 16, 2019

Rodneil Quiteles

The Philippine market is welcoming a new budget contender with the Nokia 2.2. Best of all, this one comes with stock Android.

The Nokia 2.2 has a 5.71-inch LCD display with an HD+ resolution. A small notch houses the front camera and the back is made of plastic but designed to look like glass.

The phone is equipped with a quad-core MediaTek A22 processor and storage is expandable thanks to a microSD card slot. It has a 3000mAh battery that supports 5W charging and even has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the rear is a 13-megapixel single lens camera while the front has a 5-megapixel selfie shooter. A new low-light image fusion mode captures multiple pictures in dark surroundings to generate a better picture with less noise and improved sharpness. Other standard features include HDR, Colorize, and Beautify.

The Nokia 2.2 will retail for PHP 5,990 (US$ 118) and will be available in all Authorized Nokia Mobile reseller, official Nokia stores and kiosks nationwide.

Nokia 3.2 also coming to PH

Another Android One phone coming to the Philippines is the Nokia 3.2. It’s a slight step-up from the 2.2 featuring a Qualcomm Snadragon 420 processor along with 3GM of RAM and 32GB of storage that’s expandable up to 400GB thanks to a microSD card slot.

It has a 13MP rear camera along with a 5MP selfie shooter. The device looks like it’ll have plenty of juice with its 4000mAh battery. It also has a plastic body with the same glass-like design found on the Nokia 2.2.

The Nokia 3.2 will retail for PHP PHP 7,990 (US$ 157) exclusively at Shopee with a PHP 1,000 (US$ 20) discount voucher.

Both phones will be available for purchase starting July 19, 2019.

News

Nokia 8.1 launches in the Philippines

Better late than never

Published

July 16, 2019

Rodneil Quiteles

First announced back in December 2018, the Nokia 8.1 finally makes its way to the Philippines.

The smartphone also known as Nokia 7X in certain markets is part of the Android One program. This means the phone will run a stock Android OS out of the box.

Powering this device is the Snapdragon 710 SoC along with 4GB of RAM with 64GB of internal storage that’s expandable via a microSD card. It has a 6.18-inch Full HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 18.7:9 aspect ratio. The brand has emphasized its PureDisplay screen technology that offers a higher contrast ratio and sharper output along with HDR10 support. Backing these internals is a 3500mAh battery that supports 18W fast charging.

The phone ZEISS-powered 12- and 13-megapixel dual-cameras while the front has a single 20-megapixel selfie shooter. It has a very premium all-glass back. The body is built with 6000-series aluminum that has dual tone color coating.

Pricing and availability

The Nokia 8.1 will retail for PHP 19,999 (US$ 393) exclusively at Lazada starting July 19, 2019. It will come in a glamorous limited-edition Iron Steel color variant. The first 700 buyers will also get a free Philippine Airlines (PAL) travel voucher worth PHP1,000 and an extra special treatment CARE card for after sales support with VIP services.