Huawei breaks silence on the P9’s ‘Leica’ camera sensor

Huawei have been dead central in terms of news in the tech world recently, and for good reason. Huawei announced its latest flagship device, the P9 (and Plus), on the 6th April and basically turned social media on its virtual head. Why has the hype train come into effect here? For a multitude of reasons, actually. One reason in-particular was to do with its camera sensor. Huawei stated in their press conference in London that the sensor was ‘co-engineered’ by camera mega-giants Leica. This, along with its unmistakably dashing good looks, puts it against any flagships that have been released this year so far.

Shortly after the launch of the device, the ‘Leica’ branding scheme came under fire by multiple tech sources, citing that the Leica co-engineering wasn’t as it seemed. First of all, the sensor appears to be made by Sunny Optical, who are one of the leading smartphone camera module providers. From our research into this, it would appear that the Leica branding on the device was a marketing ploy, but Huawei weren’t happy with the backlash, so an official statement was made by the Chinese company which can be seen below:

The P9 and P9 Plus were co-engineered between Huawei and Leica. This is the first collaboration between the two companies following a long-term partnership that was announced in February. From the very beginning, Leica has been deeply involved in the development of these devices. There has been significant technological collaboration between Huawei and Leica around many aspects of the camera, including optical design, imaging quality, image data processing, optimization, and the mechanical construction of the camera module to the graphic user interface. The devices meet Leica’s highest imaging quality standards.

Marketing Megapower

It appeared to be blatantly obvious since the device was announced that Huawei were pushing the Leica branding for the extra marketing of the device, which I don’t blame them for. Having such a massive company that are known for their excellence in optics behind them, they could be claimed king of smartphone cameras. Smartphones are currently in the midst of a slow phase right now, with no groundbreaking technologies to set manufacturers apart from the field, so OEMs are having to innovate in other fields to becoming the definitive Android manufacturer. The addition of a Leica engineered camera would certainly peak a lot of media attention, thus causing a lot more sales for Huawei.

The reason why journalists are slightly disappointed in Huawei for this whole camera debacle is mainly because Huawei lied to the consumer and technology journalists alike by boasting about the fact it’s a “Leica co-engineered” product, when it seems that this is more of a ‘Leica endorsed’ sensor, rather than it coming straight from the company themselves.

I highly doubt this will put a damper on Huawei’s sales of the P9, since the device is proving itself to be top dog in terms of all-round ability, camera aside. The company have proved with the Honor branding that the best way to innovate is to make some of the best looking devices on the market, with the best specs money can buy to accompany it.

What do you think to this whole situation? Blown completely out of proportion, or a warranted disappointment in Huawei for not mentioning this sooner? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Droid-Life