Huawei P9, via Connor McKenna
Huawei’s marketing work for its new camera-heavy P9 premium smartphone has hit the skids somewhat, after a photo not taken by the phone was used in a promotion.
Those flashing blue lights in the distance come from Android Police, quick to spot a bit of smoke and mirrors in a recent Huawei marketing campaign.
Promoting its P9 smartphone, which leads with the fact its camera leaves other phones in its wake, Huawei recently created a Google+ post on the photographic brilliance achieved by its dual 12MP Leica cameras.
Devil in the detail
The image (below in a tweet) was excellent, but it was so excellent that David Ruddock did some digging and, thanks to Google+ settings that preserve the EXIF data on posted images, found a problem.
“We managed to catch a beautiful sunrise with Deliciously Ella,” read the Huawei post. “The #HuaweiP9’s dual Leica cameras makes taking photos in low-light conditions like this a pleasure. Reinvent smartphone photography and share your sunrise pictures with us.”
The image attached, though, revealed that it came from a Canon 5D Mk III ($2,600 on Amazon), with a EF70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM ($2,000) lens.
Technicalities
Huawei never technically said the image was taken by the phone, but it’s fair to think some people may not have spotted that nuance. For example:
Huawei ha pubblicato su G+ questa foto con scritto: #HuaweiP9’s dual Leica cameras makes taking photos in low light pic.twitter.com/qg0uzYQgqt
— Stefano Guerrera (@StefanoGuerrera) July 5, 2016
Following the report, Huawei released a statement, saying the photo was actually “professionally taken while filming a Huawei P9 advert”, before being shared to “inspire our community”.
“We recognise though that we should have been clearer with the captions for this image. It was never our intention to mislead. We apologise for this and we have removed the image.”
Indeed the Google+ post is now gone.
Huawei P9, a fine phone
We recently reviewed the P9, with design and performance receiving top marks.
“Huawei has really upped the game in terms of smartphone-based photography and, for people who really put effort into snapping good pictures, the Leica dual-lens camera system makes the P9 stand out,” wrote John Kennedy.
All the more surprising that the actual camera was not used.
