Monday, November 05, 2018

Who is Huawei? I see all their ads on Hockey Night and Canada, so I finally decided to have a look at their smartphone. Huawei (spoken wah wei) is one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure companies in the world providing telecom equipment for the latest wireless networks. It was started in 1987 in Shenzhen, China and has operations in over 21 locations worldwide with 180,000 employees. 

 

They emerged as a big world player in 2003 when USA firms started FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) dis-information campaigns and patent lawsuits to restrict their expansion into the USA. The latest salvo is a quote from a Chinese official in a Fortune article that says that President Trump should switch to a Huawei phone for better security. Huawei phones are banned in the USA market. Huawei is the second largest smartphone maker in the world after Samsung and slightly ahead of Apple. In Canada, they offer Android smartphones, Windows laptops/tablets and Android watches for consumers and equipment for the enterprise and telecom markets. 

 

Their latest smartphone the Huawei P20 Pro is device that offers some key differences that I should highlight. The first thing I noticed was the long battery life as it lasts 2-3 days based on usage, the second was the Leica 3 lens camera with a built in AI software that can adjust to the light and distance settings with an auto-focus capability. This camera shot better pictures than a Nikon SLR camera I use and it comes with a 5x zoom. 
 

 

 

Here is a photo of a deer I took at sunset, I used the zoom and night time setting and it automatically set up a time exposure of a few seconds to take the shot. There is other shot taken at my niece's hockey game, the photo  shows the mesh in focus and was shot through the plexi-glass. In a SLR camera the mesh is blurry. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The third was the Dolby Atmos sound that was generated from the device coupled along with the Huawei USB-C headphones. These headphones have  a second sound hole in it that created surround sound similar to ear muff headphones, which I found delivered better sound till now. The use of a new USB-C connection in this phone is the start of the next generation of phones without the 3.5mm headphone jack. 


The computer chip for this phone is the Kirin 970 CPU that was engineered by Huawei and offers a design with multiple cores for faster processing and energy efficiency. This high performance processing power enables the AI software to work and also explains why the battery life is so long on this phone versus other brands. The next generation chip the Kirin 980 is expected to improve energy efficiency by another 40% and will have 4 cores to handle the tasks on the smartphone.

 

Now, I have mentioned this before but I still find smartphone companies are under investing in the shell design for durability. So lets see if this smartphone can survive the “Oops I dropped it drop test”. The Samsung 8 did not make the cut as it chipped on the corner when dropped on a ceramic tile floor, but the glass did not break. I dropped the Huawei phone on the driveway pavement, the corner did not crack, but the glass did as I had a small fracture. So I went a got a rubber sleeve for it and it has survived unscathed since then.

 

The accidental touches that I experienced on this phone were different as the user interface is unique to Huawei’s customization of the Android operating system. When I was typing and hitting the space bar, I hit the home button by accident as the space bar is above the home button but too close for my fingers. Another accidental touch was a shortcut to change the keyboard that I kept hitting as it is located on the bottom right of the phone. I don’t know why there is as a shortcut for the keyboard, I don’t change it often. It comes up constantly for me and is now irritates me a bit. Now I am thinking the touch keyboard still is not as good as a regular keyboard.
 

I also noticed some unique features that I liked in the phone that included a short-cut to shut off my data without going into the settings app, the health app that can chart how many steps I day I walk and the location, distance, time, speed and calorie burn on my bike rides. It is kind a neat to hear a voice speaking English with a Chinese accent as the health app talks to you at different times during the bike ride. The emotions icon in addition to the standard happy faces, it had animated gifs like a happy dance to share that I thought was neat. 

 

Migrating all my stuff from the Samsung 8 phone was very simple. Since Android is Google based it works with all their apps so my music and photos can be access on either phone. My contacts required a Bluetooth pairing between the two to transfer the contact data.

 

The phone retails for $1,050 at Koodo which is a little steep for a phone that will last 2-3 years based on the current shell design. My demo cracked in the first week. The cost of the Leica 3 lens camera is a factor in the big ticket price for this phone. So at this price Huawei should provide a rubber sleeve accessory for this steep price so the phone does not break. Next phone on my list is the BB Android smartphone with the pull-out keyboard.
 

 





 

About Me
Martin Seto

 
Martin Seto is the producer of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPAS) with 30 years of life expereince in technology, advertising, media and creative exploration. He can be reached at marty(dot)seto(at)
reflexmediasales.com or 416-907-6562, and on LinkedIn.

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