Huawei admitted that some of its phones run faster in benchmarking tests than in normal performance... then said everyone else does it too, and performance tests aren't real anyway.

3DMark's benchmarks are widely respected, and offer a standard way to compare performance across different devices, whether they run iOS, Android, or even Windows. They're often used in ads by manufacturers to show why their phones are better than the competition, giving handset makers an incentive to try to top the rankings.

AnandTech found that four Huawei devices (and one from sub-brand Honor) run faster in benchmarking tests than normal performance: The Nova 3, Honor Play, and the flagship P20 and P20 Pro. The phones literally get a boost in power by maxing out power consumption, delivering much better performance at the expense of battery life -- something impractical in normal use, as anyone who's seen their phone battery die before the day is out can attest to.

Funnily enough, Huawei -- who have in the past made a big deal about the AI capabilities of its handsets -- tried to spin it as a positive, telling us in a statement that the phone will "intelligently" switch to a high-performance mode when it detects a benchmarking app.