Smartphone OEMs and the curious case of false advertising

[Redaktion]

Competition in the smartphone industry has led to sketchy advertising practices, especially in China where such shenanigans are almost encouraged. Fake camera samples, technically correct claims, and a circus of intentional crookery.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Smartphone-OEMs-and-the-curious-case-of-false-advertising.309098.0.html

[Elbanderas]

Also Xiaomi tends to have lesser quality components or materials in the later batches of a phones production when there won't be new reviews.
One prime example of their ceramic phones. They use worse quality ceramic backs on the second half of production. One prime example is, I bought a Mi Mix from one of the last stocks and it does not exhibit nearly that level of scratch resistance as the review samples had...

[Dimitris]

From my point of view, specifically for the case described in the article, the problem is not false advertising from the company, but the huge media coverage of leaks and rumors from tech sites.
Rumor/leak news are way more common than actual tech news, and they are often misleading.
There have been plenty of times I googled for the specs of a phone and started reading an article, only to realise at some point that I'm only reading guesses and not actual manufacturer information...

[Wandile Tembe]

There is a deference between advertising and leaks.

[Ricci Rox]

From my point of view, specifically for the case described in the article, the problem is not false advertising from the company, but the huge media coverage of leaks and rumors from tech sites.
Rumor/leak news are way more common than actual tech news, and they are often misleading.
There have been plenty of times I googled for the specs of a phone and started reading an article, only to realise at some point that I'm only reading guesses and not actual manufacturer information...

Of all the examples, the only one that can even be remotely said to be a leak was the Lenovo Z5. And all leaks were officially posted by the company's VP, which makes it false advertising.

Not sure what your point is.

This isn't an issue of tech websites claiming possible features. It's companies flat out saying stuff and then not actually doing them.