Huawei’s P9 Leica Camera Is Certified by the German Camera Maker, Not ‘Co-Engineered’

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Published 20 Apr 2016

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Huawei P9

Earlier this month, when Huawei first launched the P9, it made a lot of noise about the handset’s dual-lens camera setup that it “co-engineered” with Leica. The German camera maker name and image quality prowess was continuously touted by Huawei while unveiling the handset.

This led many to believe that Huawei had really worked closely with Leica on the camera setup of the P9. As it turns out though, this was nothing more than a marketing gimmick. The dual-camera setup on the P9 is only “certified” by Leica, and is not manufactured or designed by it.

According to MyDrivers, the camera setup is made by Sunny Optical Technology, which is among the largest smartphone camera module makers in the world. This is not really an issue and expecting Leica to manufacture the camera module inside the P9 would have been too much to ask for.

However, Huawei has confirmed to Ubergizmo that the Leica branding on the P9 is nothing more than just a marketing collaborating between the two companies.

It has recently been discovered and subsequently confirmed by Huawei that the the P9’s camera module had simply been certified by Leica, and that the German camera maker had no hand in developing or producing the camera or its optics.

Leica did help Huawei in tweaking the “picture quality algorithm” of the P9, but that is not the same as co-engineering the camera setup on the phone.

Now, this in no way makes the dual-camera setup of the Huawei P9 a bad or terrible camera. But deceiving consumers with false marketing is not something that both companies should take part into.

[Via Ubergizmo, MyDrivers]