Huawei admits buying a P10 or P10 Plus is a bit of a lottery

Huawei just admitted what Chinese users of the P10 and P10 Plus have been claiming for weeks.

In a statement released in response to an inquiry from Android Authority, the Chinese giant admitted it’s using storage and memory chips of multiple specifications on the recently launched Huawei P10 and Huawei P10 Plus.

While Huawei did not go into specifics, empiric checks show that the two phones can feature any combination of LPDDR3 or LPDDR4 RAM chips, and UFS 2.0, UFS 2.1, or eMMC 5.1 storage.

“Huawei has employed the standard industry practice of sourcing solutions from multiple trusted suppliers to ensure a balance between user experience, quality and sustainable supply,” the company said.

While it’s true that many electronic devices feature a small level of variance when it comes to their components, the differences shouldn’t have a noticeable effect on user experience. One well-known example of component variation is Samsung’s choice of SoCs on its flagship phones, which usually ship with Exynos or Qualcomm chips based on the market. In another recent example, the iPhone 7 Plus comes with modem chips from either Intel or Qualcomm; the latter offer a “significant performance edge” compared to the Intel variant, according to phone testing firm Cellular Insights.

LPDDR3 or LPDDR4 RAM? UFS 2.0, UFS 2.1, or eMMC 5.1? Who knows?

Huawei insists that it does not make any false claims when it comes to the P10. The company says its marketing makes no mention of the specific RAM and flash storage generation. “Among all Huawei P10 marketing collateral, there has been no commitment to the use of only one specific flash memory,” it said.

That might be true, but the performance difference between LPDDR3 and LPDDR4 chips, and UFS 2.0, UFS 2.1, or eMMC 5.1 storage chips respectively, can be significant. Understandably, P10 customers would like to know if they’re getting an older technology.

When it’s convenient, Huawei does advertise the use of LPDDR4 and UFS 2.1 chips. On the Mate 9 product page, for instance, both new standards are presented prominently and contrasted with the older and slower LPDDR3 and eMMC 5.1.

It looks like only some P10 and P10 Plus are “born fast.” No mention of the RAM and storage technology can be found on their specs pages.

Huawei says it’s using chips “randomly,” based on the component shipments it receives from suppliers. “There are no period batches or manual selection for chip batches,” the company said. What this means is that getting a “good” unit is a matter of luck. You could run benchmarks on the phone prior to purchasing it, but that’s simply not feasible in many cases.

Huawei denied any “discrimination or intention to defraud consumers.” “The performance of a single component can’t exactly reflect the overall system performance of a smartphone and these scores are not applicable in actual use scenarios.”

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