Huawei fakes P30 Pro photos and gets caught (again)

Feeling a sense of déjà vu? That's because we've been in this boat before. Huawei was caught using a similar stunt in August 2018 around the launch of the Nova 3. This time, Huawei published some image samples as part of a new advertising campaign for its upcoming flagship devices that appear to show off a periscope zoom lens. The image of a volcano, however, is a doctored DSLR image taken by Tom Pfeiffer. The images were put side by side by our friends at The Verge.

Huawei has been quick to clear things up, however, offering this official response: "We’ve been made aware that there might have been some misunderstanding regarding our recent HUAWEI P30 Series teaser posters. We would like to reiterate that those are, in fact, only teaser posters, and are only intended to hint at the unique new features that will come with the HUAWEI P30 Series.

"Huawei has acquired the licenses to the original images and the posters are artistic renditions of said features only. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the media for their interest in our posters. We have much to announce in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned."

So the photos used in the campaign are just to tease new features, and the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer never meant to deceive consumers into thinking they were taken with its P30 phone. You can draw your own conclusions as the authenticity of that claim.

The Huawei P30 is set to launch on March 26th at an event in Paris. Our own Luca Zaninello will be in attendance to report on the launch of the new devices. The P30 series is highly anticipated, at least in Europe. The camera, in particular, has been much discussed. Early leaks suggested that the phone would feature four rear cameras but at the MWC 2019 in Barcelona last month, a non-functioning P30 Pro prototype appeared with only three cameras on the back. We'll have to wait and see what is officially released in a couple of weeks to know for sure.

Other than the camera setup, we're expected HiSilicon's Kirin 980 SoC and probably an in-display fingerprint sensor similar to that on the Mate 20 Pro.

What do you think about the practice of using DSRL photos in smartphone marketing campaigns? Does this mislead consumer?

Source: GSMArena