UL and Huawei issue joint statement about benchmark optimization

Yesterday, we delisted several Huawei smartphones from our performance rankings for breaking our rules governing benchmark detection and optimization.

UL is committed to working with industry partners, and we have had open conversations with Huawei about this issue both before and since making our announcement.

Today, we are happy to announce that we are issuing a joint statement with Huawei that adds detail to Huawei's proposed solution and outlines a commitment to working together to develop future benchmarks tests.

We strongly believe that working with a wide range of industry partners is the best way to create benchmarks that are accurate, relevant, and fair.

We would like to commend Huawei for its positive decision to address the issue, and we are looking forward to working with them to create our next generation of smartphone benchmark tests.

Joint statement from Huawei and UL

"Huawei and UL (creators of 3DMark) have held comprehensive discussions on benchmarking practices this week, and have reached a positive agreement on the next steps in working together.

"In the discussion, Huawei explained that its smartphones use an artificial intelligent resource scheduling mechanism. Because different scenarios have different resource needs, the latest Huawei handsets leverage innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to optimize resource allocation in a way so that the hardware can demonstrate its capabilities to the fullest extent, while fulfilling user demands across all scenarios.

"UL understands the intent of Huawei’s approach but is opposed to forcing the use of a “Performance Mode” by default when a benchmarking application is detected by the device. UL rules require the device to run the benchmark as if it were any other application.

"Huawei respects consumers’ right to choose what to do with their devices. Therefore, Huawei will provide users with open access to “Performance Mode” in EMUI 9.0, so that the user can choose when to use the maximum power of their device.

"Huawei and UL have also discussed current common benchmark testing methodologies in general.  UL and Huawei would like to participate in an industry movement to develop benchmarking standards that best serve the needs of manufacturers, press, and consumers.

"To prevent confusion around current benchmarking results, after discussion, UL and Huawei have temporarily delisted the benchmark scores of a range of Huawei devices, and will reinstate them after Huawei grants all users of Huawei handsets access to the Performance Mode."