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  • krumme - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Great article for us that develops business :) - thanx
  • zeeBomb - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Wow... A beautifully written journal of your past experiences Ian! First time I've actually get to see the Anandtech bunch in a photo too. Great story man!
  • Ryan Smith - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    In the interest of transparency, I have removed 3 comments from this discussion thread. I don't believe attacking my editors or other editors based on their looks is appropriate, even with our liberal comment policy.
  • Amazing2u - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Ryan, Seriously?! WOW... some people really have no class! WTH gives anyone the right to comment on the looks of someone else? how shallow can you be. geez.
  • JKflipflop98 - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link

    Only every person you've ever met or ever will meet. The first thing they (and you) do when meeting people is judge them by their looks. It's automatic.
  • AndrewJacksonZA - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    That caused me to raise an eyebrow.

    Thanks for curating Ryan.
  • AndrewJacksonZA - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    Err, moderating.
  • Scipio Africanus - Wednesday, December 9, 2015 - link

    Wow really? Who'd do that? You guys need more group photos. Its cool to see after reading this site for so long. The guys from Ars have always had a smattering of group photos through the years.
  • jjj - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    In 2014 Huawei's R&D spending was 40.8B CNY so some 6.5 billion $ at the time and about the same as Apple.Ofc for Huawei it was some 14.5% of revenue while Apple is at a bit above 3%.

    In the end Huawei is not really Chinese, they behave just as bad as Western companies, eager to ripoff their customers and sell them overpriced garbage if they get the chance. This year pretty much all their devices are that.
    In design at least they might get it that hey need to shrink the upper and lower bezels or that home buttons are insane but they haven't shown more than that so far.No innovation that matters, not even the minimal inspiration to use a fast SoC in almost everything. The 950 should be used across the board, all in all it would be a huge upside for them. But they won't do that because they are just as blind as Samsung and all the others and given their pricing 2016 is likely to be a poor year for them.
    So, for now, Huawei is yet to show us that the world would be poorer without them. Nobody needs another Apple or another Samsung or LG. We have way too many of those already.
  • jjj - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Source for the R&D numbers (get the PDF, check page 37) http://www.huawei.com/en/about-huawei/annual-repor...
  • lilmoe - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    "eager to ripoff their customers and sell them overpriced garbage if they get the chance"

    History has proven that that's exactly what people want (consumers, power users and reviewers alike)... I don't accept it, but I'm living with it. You should too.

    People just want a working, OK product with "amazing presentation", and they're willing to pay a big buck for that.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Yeah, Huawei is despicable in selling cheap tech wrapped in flashy shells as "high end", but look at all those fools who bought them.
  • londedoganet - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    > In the end Huawei is not really Chinese, they behave just as bad as Western companies, eager to ripoff their customers and sell them overpriced garbage if they get the chance.

    I fail to see the link between being Western and ripping customers off. Dishonesty in dealing is not an exclusively Western trait, neither is being honest and fair-dealing an exclusively Chinese trait.
  • Cinnabuns - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    As a Chinese person who grew up in Hong Kong, I have no idea what jjj is talking about.

    As a person who reads story after story about Chinese knockoff devices of questionable quality being sold to consumers, I still have no idea what jjj is talking about.
  • dawei86 - Sunday, January 10, 2016 - link

    is that you are fucking retard???
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    In the interest of transparency, let it be known that I have removed 6 comments from this discussion thread. Racism will NOT be tolerated, end of story. This is a technology news website, and while I like to give you guys a wide berth, there are some matters that we simply will not humor and are not appropriate for this website.
  • Goyim - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    In the End iPhone is not American, for it is Made in China.
  • V900 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    "Eager to ripoff their customers and sell them overpriced garbage "

    What a load of pearl-clutching, pseudo intellectual prattle
  • tipoo - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    So other Chinese companies are eager to squander all profit margins in reverence of the consumer?
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    They're not in a position not to. Huawei, however, is soon leaving that position, as you can see from the pricing of its P7, P8, Mate 7 and Mate S devices.

    They'd gone the furthest with Mate S, using the worst possible technology in a flagship and charging outrageous prices. P8 and Mate 7 already had ancient technology at normal to high prices, but Mate S was the worst offender.

    They probably didn't sell much though, as they quickly reverted with the pricing of the Mate 8. With much improved internals, it's cheaper than Mate S still(they made an excuse that Mate S is the real flagship while Mate 8 is a semi-flagship, semi-flagship with better internals than the actual flagship, LMAO) and close to what a Chinese manufacturer would usually charge.

    Xi JinPing's propaganda is basically turning the less educated 90% of the Chinese population into Nazis. All media are tightly controlled and this is some of what they're spreading: 1. The oppressors are at the gates and we rightfully expand our military presence. 2. We Chinese are the righteous(controversial territorial claims, repeating colonial age history over and over etc.) 3.We Chinese are the best(playing with numbers, telling little stories etc.), and western economies are collapsing. Imported merchandise are overpriced rip-offs, buy our own which are at least as good(claims "proven" through ridiculous "experiments" that only serve to feed the nationalists what they want to see). See something familiar here? Remember what Hitler was feeding to the Germans before he waged war on the world?

    This is what Huawei is using, because, as I said before, the name itself can be loosely translated into "China is capable", it's also usually how the fanboys interpret the name, so the nationalistic ultra-lefts with brittle self-esteem would have an orgasm to see it sell. When they brainwash enough ultra-lefts to follow them to the death, see to it that they start cashing in on that.
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Hi operation earnest voice.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Then why am I defending the practices of other Chinese companies, you smartass?
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    There's a little clarification of terminology needed here as the CCP are self-proclaimed "revolutionists", they're always "left", so the other people that are generally against their practices are "right', so it's basically backwards in China, for those who don't know.
  • dawei86 - Sunday, January 10, 2016 - link

    the motherFK stupid guy ever u are..
  • MrSpadge - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    > eager to ripoff their customers and sell them overpriced garbage if they get the chance

    I get the feeling you'd say that about every single company on the planet.
  • Shadow7037932 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    > It was at this point that it was suggested by Andrei that the ultimate tech press clickbait article would be ‘An In-Depth Look at Huawei’s Architecture’ and it being about the buildings and landscapes of the campus, rather than insights into the company's silicon or devices.

    Do this for April 1st please! :P
  • geniekid - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I would be okay with a serious article about Huawei's buildings and landscapes :)
  • Uritziel - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    This article suffers from a significant lack of editing.
  • Uritziel - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Now that I've read a few more pages, I have to amend my statement. It appears that this article has undergone NO editing. Since when did Anandtech publish rough drafts?
  • bji - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    If you don't supply specifics, your comments are pointless.
  • londedoganet - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Since you so nicely asked (that was sarcasm), here's comments for the first three pages. I got too irritated by that point to continue:

    -Page 1-

    > I could certainly imagine members of my family seeing the name ‘Huawei’ and not having an idea to pronounce it.

    "having an idea OF HOW to pronounce it"

    > then from the outside HiSilicon's Kirin lineup seems to eying the former development.

    "seems to eying"? "seems to BE eyeing", perhaps.

    > the devices we have tested so far do not necessarily produce anything new into the ecosystem.

    "produce anything new"? Was the author trying to say "introduce anything new"?

    > an overview of the Huawei media tour combined a look into corporate strategy,

    "combined WITH a look"

    -Page 2-

    > with a back-thought to large towns of 10,000+ people devoted to one factory

    "with a back-thought"? I don't know what that means.

    > the crucial part of accepting these trip offers is to talk and understand the people that matter most

    "talk TO and understand the people"

    > and as a journalist you either keep pumping out more of the same, rather than trying to be the best you can be and generate the sort of traffic that makes who you write for unique.

    The "either" is missing an "or" clause, and is therefore redundant.

    > so we were under no disillusion of the circumstances

    "under no ILLUSION"

    > VP of the Handset Product Line and the announcement of the Kirin 950.

    I don't think you can be "VP of... the announcement of the Kirin 950", so the phrasing is awkward.

    -Page 3-

    > This dichotomy between ‘on-show corporate’ and ‘the general workforce’ is mirrored in companies around the world, to the extent that we also had lunch in a special canteen for guests with a background band as you entered.

    While it can be taken from context (and the accompanying photo) that the "special canteen for guests" was at Huawei, some words to make the link explicit would have been better. For example, "This dichotomy between ‘on-show corporate’ and ‘the general workforce’ is mirrored in companies around the world, AND HUAWEI WAS NO EXCEPTION, to the extent that we also had lunch in a special canteen for guests with a background band as you entered."

    > we were not allowed to take images inside of the facilities.

    Images are usually "captured", while photos are usually "taken". This sentence mixes verbs in a non-standard manner.

    > they all need to perform similar tests dictated international and industry standards.

    "dictated BY international and industry standards"
  • cruzinforit - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    It's also interesting to note that I think a few of these can be explained by the difference in how people from the UK talk compared to Americans. Since you know, Ian is from the UK it makes sense his manner of talking/typing might include british-english idiosyncrasies that we don't have in American english.
  • phoenix_rizzen - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Nice theory, but that wouldn't explain why Canadian readers find it annoying since we align more with the Brits than the Yanks.
  • Ian Cutress - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Actually, it was looked over by five different sets of eyes, minimum. It seems I missed out a number of prepositions and conjunctions, and everyone's brain filled them in. Naturally when several thousands of readers look over, a couple of errors becomes a debate about a series of style choices or idiosyncrasies. But nevertheless, we're taking points on board always, especially with a mix of styles from our editors.

    I've taken the steps and adjusted most of what you've listed here - a couple were a bad mix of two half-sentences or missing punctuation mixed with non-standard rules (serial comma, for example). Some I disagree with, because they are how I would say them in company (and colloquially correct here at least). But with most, I totally agree with you.

    Thanks for the input, it is much appreciated. If any of our readers ever feel I've screwed up something linguistically, I'm happy to take an email as well (ian@anandtech.com). A few of our readers do already every now and again :)

    -Ian
  • SunnyNW - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    I am a Big fan of Anandtech but to be honest I have noticed quite a few mistakes in recent articles. Some seem so obvious that I am very surprised that they are looked over. I hate to be That guy pointing out grammar mistakes and the like in comments so I don't. Just to add, these are definitely errors and not just author specific style choices or idiosyncrasies. Common examples seem to be duplicate words in a sentence, simple misspellings, and/or missing words. I love the content of this site therefore please just take this as Constructive criticism, the site produces Top Quality material so I would hate for editing to become an issue. I have been reading the site for years and at least to my awareness the errors seem to have become more prominent recently, such as in the past month or two.
  • SunnyNW - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    My original comment had a few extra sentences but for some reason was being flagged as "Spam" and the site would not allow me to post. I started to randomly delete some sentences and it let me post but my post original comment was not harsh or "spam" in any way. It was very similar to what I posted above just with a few extra sentences none of which contained anything negative. I'm curious to know why my comment was being flagged as "spam" and what usually leads to this type of response, I've never encountered this before.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Indeed, a draft with lack of basic spelling check.
  • phoenix_rizzen - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Oh, good, I'm not the only one that's irritated by this.
  • londedoganet - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    "hugh-er-way"? That sounds

    A) Nothing like how it would be pronounced in Mandarin (i.e. "hwa-way"), and additionally
    B) More like the brand name for a laundry bleach ("Hue-Away, now with extra whitening power!")
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    The 2nd suggestion by Ian describes how the name would be pronounced in Beijing Dialect.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    No, just no. Hua is exactly the same in Beijing dialect as it would be in standard Mandarin. Stop pretending to know things that you don't.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    It does not. Hua in Beijing dialect is exactly as it is in standard Mandarin. Stop pretending to know things that you don't.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    It does not. Hua in Beijing dialect is exactly as it is in standard Mandarin. Stop pretending to know things that you don't.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    It does not. Hua in Beijing dialect is exactly as it is in standard Mandarin. Stop pretending to know things that you don't.
    Why do I have to post this over and over again, there's nothing special about this post and shouldn't be censored, except maybe by Chinese standards.
  • Murloc - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Hue-Away sounds like a brazilian repellant.
  • Goyim - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAqvpYLiGw
  • Shadowmaster625 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I dont get these guys. I almost bought a Mate 2 for its battery life. Why didnt they keep pushing it in that direction? Their newer devices seem like a constant regression.
  • name99 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Presumably because they want to sell to a larger population than JUST Shadowmaster625, and most people have made it clear that they prefer smaller(or at least thinner) phones over larger batteries...
    Is this so hard to understand?

    When I read these tech comments, I sometimes think I'm living in a world of three-year-olds, people with no theory of mind and absolutely no awareness that other people (MOST other people) have different preferences and desires from them.
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    I actually believe most people only need what Huawei provides: cheap crap in a flashy shell with a lot of battery. And they'll pay a lot for it. It doesn't take much to run the UI and beyond that, they only need to run a few SNS and make calls. They're not changing directions with the 950, look at it, T880MP4?? Samsung's going MP12 and I applaud their courage. Huawei meant for it to run the UI, camera(with the ISP to take off load), simple apps and sometimes a few videos, while MP4 keeps the die size down and it's all for an acceptable barebones experience with the lowest cost possible. They're never aiming for the top, in a technological sense, they're aiming solely at top profit and they make such a blatant show of it that it's repulsive.
  • Murloc - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    how is it repulsive?

    If you have 1000$ and you can make more money with it, don't you want to get the most out of it?

    How can you expect anybody to give up on profits to pursue some quest to make the best phone ever that is all in your head and nobody actually wants?

    Most people don't need anything else than messaging apps and decent battery life, get over it.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Why you certainly hold yourself to high standards! If you have $1000, you could try to get dirty rich with it, or you could try to fulfill some proper dream and make yourself some money in the progress. Their business practices make it very clear that they're preying off the ignorance of the masses, and they try very little to conceal it. That's why it's repulsive.
  • buhusky - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Did you bring a burner phone and laptop with you?
  • tipoo - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I agree with this entirely -

    "My argument was slightly different, especially if we compare to the industries I regularly write about; from my perspective, I’d prefer to test the popular devices. With a $600 smartphone, everyone has an opinion on the design, the hardware, the benchmark results, or simply fanboyism, but not everyone has $600 to spend. While a lot of users might discuss the virtues online, or debate over small details, the reality is that a good portion will opt for something around the $250-$300 range for their main device or family devices, depending on contract, region, availability and other features. This is similar to when we get $2000 laptops, or $500 motherboards – lots of discussion, but in reality fewer people will buy them and go for the $800 2-in-1s or sub-$160 motherboards."

    Budget-mid range laptop and smartphone reviews are just as interesting to me as the flagships.
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Indeed. Spending 600 USD on a phone made up of ~100-120 USD worth of essentially commodity parts is a reflection of the complete lack of consumer awareness or care for anything and everything other than fashion.

    Fashion being a primary concern of consumers is incompatible with capitalism as the only regulatory mechanism in capitalism is the consumer's purchase of the product (Homo economicus).
  • V900 - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    That is literally one of the dumbest things I read in the comments here for a very long time...

    The price of the materials and wool in a high quality, custom fit 400$ suit is also around 20$...

    Because guess what, there are many other factors involved in the retail price of something, than the price of the components involved.

    Even Apple, who have the highest margins in the business only makes about 200$ on a 6-700$ phone, which goes to show how meaningless BoM guesstimates of the price of components are...
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    One-up that.
  • Daniel Egger - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Interesting read but actually more due the information what you (and potentially whole leading countries on this planet) do not know about Huawei than some new facts.
  • Amandtec - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I was believing everything until you said the VP's name is Bruce Lee. April fools. Ha ha. You got me.
  • davegraham - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    did they mention their founder's ties to the PLA at all? I'm curious since that seems to be fudded around a bit and was one of the primary reasons why Huawei has had almost no penetration in the US MSP, Gov't, and other (I2, ES2, etc.) backbone space. Honestly asking, not trying to fluff.
  • name99 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    "Throughout all of this, it becomes clear that there is a white elephant in the room."

    Mixed metaphors. You can have a "white elephant" (a pointless project pursued for the sake of vanity and showing off) or "an elephant in the room" (an obvious point that everyone is aware of, but everyone is also embarrassed to bring up) but it's extremely rare that you want both in the same sentence and certainly not (yet) in this case. (IF Huawei's push into the US is very expensive and very unproductive, and becomes generally known as such, then in five years or so the sentence WOULD work and would be witty --- but not yet.)

    At least you didn't also mix blind men and elephants, or pink elephants, into the sentence!
  • Ian Cutress - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I don't know why 'white' was in there. Removed.
  • 0iron - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    That's explained why 'a elephant' rather than 'an elephant' is (still) in the article
  • V900 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I'm surprised and quite disappointed that you didn't bring up Huawei's (supposedly) close ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex and the PLA.

    I'm not talking about a confrontational interview or an expose, but at least ask.

    You might not have gotten a satisfactory answer, but you owe your readers that much, and it would have lifted it above the fluffy factory tour-angle, that you're clearly trying to rise above.

    And for anybody who thinks that bringing this is up is "too political" or "irrelevant, doesn't have anything to do with technology" they really need to get with the times, since Anandtech deals with privacy issues on a regular basis.

    It's also extremely relevant, since Huawei's (again: supposed) ties to the PLA is the very reason why using their hardware is out of the question for many network administrators and IT buyers.

    (IT buyers as in buying network infrastructure for 1000 workstations spread out over three locations. Not IT buyer as in "I just bought a Mate2")
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Why would any foreign nations waste time and money putting backdoors in their private company's network infrastructure products when they can just use the gapingly huge backdoors that the US government conveniently requires to be put into all the devices and services US companies sell?
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Looks like you haven't heard of TOR, good like finding a backdoor there.
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Hmm, seems like operation earnest voice is in the house.

    Tor is 100% US government funded and developed, with the vast majority of the exit nodes being US government intercepted/funded.

    Man in the middle attacks are the US's thing.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    It's US funded, but it's out of the government's control. You never heard of terrorists using it??
  • Communism - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    You mean al-CIAda and ISISreal?

    Saudi America gotta look out for it's friends ofc.
  • Beany2013 - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    "You mean al-CIAda and ISISreal"

    Yeah, was pretty sure you were worth ignoring. Seems I'm right.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    Wow, you're an interesting nut. This is a new level of communist brainwashing I'm not familiar with!
  • Communism - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Intercepting and identifying those who use TOR is easy, just make sure most of the useful exit nodes are yours and you automatically have all the plaintext transit.

    After that, you simply have to gain access to all the relevant certificate authorities to man in the middle intercept and decrypt any encrypted traffic by setting up a lookalike site to the one you are impersonating and then simply tell the cisco routers, google routers, microsoft routers, etc. to route the traffic to your site.

    When all else fails you can just stuxnet to win. Issue yourself certificates with the microsoft certificate authority and push windows updates directly to their computer and RAT them.

    If that fails, you can just push Intel and/or AMD microcode updates directly to their motherboards and run level 0 and level -1 codes with direct access to the UEFI/Trust Chip.

    If that fails, you can just directly access their CPU on Ivy Bridge or higher though the on-chip random number generator entropy source that conveniently has a radio antenna (That's how the entropy source produces it's high quality random numbers).

    I could go on, but I would guess you get the point.
  • Communism - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    code* , not codes
  • Murloc - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    even if it's true they wouldn't tell an american journalist anything about it, so it's not even worth asking.
    You're free to decide on your own whether you trust them or not.
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    "I'm surprised and quite disappointed that you didn't bring up Huawei's (supposedly) close ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex and the PLA."

    Though it may be an interesting discussion, it's not one we're in an educated position to discuss. Nor really is it my desire for AT to be a political blog.

    Meanwhile the comments are fine and I don't see a need to remove them right now. But keep in mind that this is a tech news website, and I'd like to keep the comments focused on tech.
  • Despoiler - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Huawei must not have been too image conscious when they stole and integrated Cisco IP into their products. They even kept lying about it even after they settled.

    http://blogs.cisco.com/news/huawei-and-ciscos-sour...
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Why should anyone trust anything that proports to be "justice" that would side with "rounded corners" patents consistently?

    Where the sole determiner of right and wrong is how many kick-backs and general corruption is present in a tug of war kind of way between the two parties arguing a case in this "justice" framework?
  • Daniel Egger - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    So I guess what you're saying is that everyone got it wrong and Cisco blatantly copied a full operating system from Huawei? Interesting thought but highly unlikely given the fact that Huawei is a Chinese company and their products much younger than Ciscos...
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    It's not even interesting. That guy is highly questionable in his intents.
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Hi operation earnest voice.
  • fanofanand - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I am curious to see the size of the back door on these devices, you know the Chinese Government requires it, what makes anyone think the devices sold globally would be any different? I get that the U.S. government, and probably several other governments are no different, but the Chinese government hasn't exactly have a strong record of acknowledging human rights....
  • pedjache - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    gitmo_prisoner likes this.
  • ats - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Chinese prisoner looks longingly at club gitmo, wonders what it would take to be transferred to that fantasy land.
  • mobutu - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    such an ugly hand, yuck, look for george costanza! :)
  • s.yu - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Indeed, Huawei is spreading fear domestically that Apple devices are spied on by the US, but if any device is spied on by a government, it's probably Huawei's own.
  • Communism - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Hi operation earnest voice.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Yes, says "Communism", lmao.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Why don't you just admit that you're from CCP instead?
  • techhound - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Earnest question to editors: Would you have gone if the trip wasn't free? If the answer is no then there is no legitimate rationalization you can make for editorial independence in your future reviews of Huawei products, notwithstanding the attempts at such on the "Why We Went" page.
  • Murloc - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    so in your opinion it's better not to go and thus not talk to anybody at any company and keep posting press releases and buying samples with their own money?
    How is that useful to the readers?
    The risk of being subconsciously biased by these things is low (also because every company does these) and worth it if it gets you industry analysis articles or allows you to learn new stuff.

    If a private company doesn't invite you, you cannot simply visit the company.
    Also having to pay for these trips would make it impossible because journalists usually don't have big money behind them.
  • techhound - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    The fact that this lengthy article exists is proof that the "risk of being subconsciously biased" is not low. How many other in-depth editorial articles are on this site for other Chinese companies, specifically those that weren't willing to pay for such content? Even for just this trip, which was already paid for by Huawei, did the editors reach out to other Chinese companies for invitations to tour their factories? The additional marginal cost to anandtech would be low since they're already there.
  • Ryan Smith - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    "Earnest question to editors: Would you have gone if the trip wasn't free?"

    No, honestly not. And that's not because we don't like covering Huawei - they're a big part of what's going on in the world of smartphones - but there is a major opportunity cost to a trip like that. One trip like that would cost as much as covering several companies in the US/EU for us. We do have to be mindful of our costs - I don't need to point out that many of our readers know how to use ad blockers - so foreign trips are not something we frequently get to make.

    But conversely that doesn't mean Huawei isn't worth covering. Only that it's in their own self-interest to invite us out if they want to make sure we have a chance to see their facilities. After all, we could always decline it if we weren't already interested.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    lol, on Edge, 100% ad pass-through.
  • ummduh - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    re: adblock

    This reminded me to turn on AdBlock's "allow some advertising" option, and then I went ahead and whitelisted Anadtech too, since I do quite enjoy reading and using this site. Reloaded Anandtech, and WHAM! Big ol pop up right in the middle of the screen that you have to click away to be able to continue. THIS is why we have AdBlockers. Whitelisting has been revoked.
  • masimilianzo - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Is Andrei the one on the right of Ian? Or on the left?
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Left.
  • s.yu - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    There seems to be some serious latency problems with the comment system, or are comments under this post heavily moderated because of heated discussion?
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    We do engage in very occasional moderation, but there's no "latency" in comment publication. Anything posted should be immediate.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    It really wasn't. The correction about the incorrect speculation on pronunciation I posted earlier, I posted it, went on to post some other reply, then flipped through the pages again and noticed that it was gone. So I reposted it and left a copy in the clipboard, hit refresh, came back to check, and it was gone again. So I pasted the copy directly, then refreshed, and it was gone again, tried again, and got the same results. The last time I tried I added another sentence, but again it disappeared after a refresh, but I wasn't so persistent to try a fifth time, so I left it that way. After a day, I came back, I found all four posts there. I don't know where the glitch might have been.

    BTW, the pronunciation is pretty easy, even in English, because it's not difficult to find English words as reference, so this helps in identifying the phonemes. I don't know what the problem was.

    So first, treat "Hua" as a full syllable, but treat "Hu" and "a" as half a syllable each. The "Hu" is highly similar to "who", in English, and it's probably the most accurate direct representation, so just pronounce the "Hu" as "who", only shorter, as its treated as half a syllable. As for the "a", it's nonexistent in American English, but exists in British English, like the stiff-tongued version of the "ar" in "hard". Again, shrink that stiff-tongued "ar" to half a syllable and pronounce it in a single syllable along with the "Hu", and you're past the "Hua".

    As for the "wei", really simple. It's basically a "way". There's no perceivable difference between the two, except for the tone. In regions around Beijing, the accent might turn the "w" into a "v", so you get a "vey", or the "vai" in "vain", but in standard Mandarin it's still "w".

    If you're even meticulous about the tone, then try pronouncing the two syllables like a question each, like "Hua?Wei?" And the tone would sound like the correct Chinese pronunciation too, but this is practically useless beyond actually communicating in Chinese.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    Oh, regarding the "who", the "English who" is again more accurate than the "American who", so try making a little more room in your mouth and don't let your tongue obstruct the air flow.
  • zodiacfml - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Wow, I did not learn anything nor found intriguing! Yet, there's something respectable about them with their approach which is almost like Apple, where they can sell their devices for a higher price than their competitors.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    No. Apple does use the newest, most advanced technology. Huawei doesn't upgrade unless it has to, and focuses on making old tech look like new to the consumer.

    Apple's started using NVMe, Huawei's still on eMMC. Look at that insane A9X(Yes I know it's tablet only), look at that puny Kirin950. Huawei's got the head start, of a month or two, but the Kirin will turn out the weakest of the next generation's flagship SoCs.

    Huawei only implemented Force Touch after Apple used it in the Watch(and they still haven't shipped it), but they've gotten the domestic ultra-nationalist fanboys to believe that Huawei came up with it first. Despicable.
  • mayankleoboy1 - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Since only samsung has their own fabs, here is a suggestion:

    Huawei buy all the fab capacity of TSMC using its own funds and that of the Chinese Government ? Apple will go to Samsung, which they are loathe to do. And Intel wont fab anything for
    Apple. So effectively, Apple will be able to produce only 10%-50% of their phones.
  • Goyim - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Proper Pronunciation.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAqvpYLiGw
  • garbagedisposal - Wednesday, December 9, 2015 - link

    Pronunciation in that video is wrong, see s.yu's comment above
  • Ethos Evoss - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link

    Don't understand anandatech in final words why u bringing usa into case?!?
    And problems with certifications or licences in USA..
    Anandatech are you so naive or you just pretending to be stupid?
    What you think why chinese companies has problems in USA?
    Because it is on purpose and because USA is scared chinas business like devil hy water..
    Anamdatech do you even know how politics works in ANY sphere of busines or facilities or governments?
    Everything is just on purpose to protect own busines.. (country)
    If would be allowed so easily hinese brands into USA, USA busines woud be DEVOURED by flipping fingers..
    And am telling you without China USA electronic brands wouldn't exist. as it is now..
    And in first you have to take in accout it isn't about brands which is better or which is on higher level because they are all on the same level MAIN reason is ADVERTISE and POPULARITY
    USA (bcos acoodring you it is don't know why main country of interest) will BAN prohibite any advertising of chinese brands in its country THAT is the main reason.. Bcos is scared
    Like you said you have bunch of kiddos readers which blabling about apple how it is best just bcos advertise allowed across the globe. BUT most of these poor peope doesn't own it..
    Ppl complainig about 4G not working in USA.. why it is perfectly working in rest of the world? BECAUSE USA om purpose won't allow them certification use their bands..
    And you just decide to strike in Huawei they are like ; WTF is this.. they has no idea and you e pecting they gonna tell you everything.. And you wondering why so many secrets..
    I tell you what, do same tour into Apple and demand all secrets wht they got I am really curious wht they would tell you
    PEACE!

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