Tag: huawei

Huawei Unveils the Affordable Honor 4C with a 13MP Camera and 5-inch Display

After launching the Huawei P8 at an official event on 15th April, Huawei released yet another handset today, the Honor 4C. With a price tag of 799 Yuan (Rs. 8,150), the phone will directly compete against the Micromax Yu Yureka and Xiaomi Red Mi Note 4G.

From the specs point of view, the 2GB RAM Honor 4C sports a 5-inch 720p display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-Core processor and a HiSilicon Kiri 620 Octa-Core chipset. Camera specifications include a 13MP f2.0 aperture primary camera and a 5MP front camera. Internal memory offers 8GB of storage and a microSD slot. It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and feature a 2,550 mAh battery.

The phone is being offered in black, white, blue, gold and pink color options. For now, the handset is up for sale only in China and will be available through online portals only. The handset will be available on Huawei’s Vmall online store and Alibaba’s Tmall store on 7th May, registration are now open on both the online retailers.

Specifications	Honor 4C
Display	5-inch 720p Display
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-Core processor
RAM	2GB
Storage	8GB internal, microSD
Primary Camera	13MP
Front Camera	5MP
Battery	2,550mAh
Price	Rs. 8,150, (tentative)

April 28, 2015

What to Expect From Honor’s March 24 Event

Honor, which was the brand name for Huawei’s smartphone line-up, will be holding an event tomorrow where it will be launching two new devices for the Indian market. We gathered up all the available updates to give you a fair idea of what to expect from tomorrow’s event.

The Arrival of Honor 6 Plus

According to various sources, one of the major devices coming from Honor’s stable tomorrow is the Honor 6 Plus. The device features a 5.5 inch, Full HD display with a pixel density of 401 ppi. It is powered by Huawei’s own, HiSilicon Kirin octa-core processor and comes with 3 GB RAM. The device is juiced up by a massive 3600 mAh battery.

The Honor 6 Plus is available with a 16 GB internal storage option for the 3G device while the LTE device is offered in 16 and 32 GB storage options. All versions are expandable up to 128 GB, which makes it a delight for multimedia hoarders. It is not sure as of yet what variant the company would be offering in India.

A DSLR Quality Camera

On the camera front, the Honor 6 Plus features a dual 8 megapixel camera on the back. Honor in its invite also mentioned “two cameras” which means that it was indicating at the Honor 6 Plus. It is the first to flaunt a bionic parallel dual-lens camera. On the front end too, the camera holds an 8 megapixel camera for selfies.

Some leaked images made their way online and were found to be as good as professionally shot DSLR images. The accompanying write-up states that it was taken by a Honor device. Companies like Apple and Samsung have already exhibited unique camera features that produce images that are identical to professional cameras. Does the camera of the new Honor device have what it takes to take on the giants? We’ll find out soon when we get to play with the new devices.

The Rebirth of Honor

We might also get an answer to the question everyone is asking; why did Huawei spin-off Honor as an independent brand. Huawei is a recognizable brand which has been around for a while and is almost a household name. By leaving Honor to compete in the brutal smartphone market its own without the support of Huawei is a risky endeavor. We will learn more about the latest developments in Huawei’s household and the future of Honor as a smartphone brand tomorrow.

So tune in iGyaan tomorrow as we report on all the latest from the world of Honor.

March 23, 2015
Leaked Camera Samples of the Upcoming Honor Phone Suggest DSLR-Like Picture Quality

The countdown to Huawei’s Honor event has begun. The Chinese smartphone brand is set to disclose two fresh products, which will expand the Honor smartphone series.

Yesterday, Honor sent out press invites for an event scheduled on 24th March. The invite hinted that we were soon going to be seeing two new smartphones. It also teased the fact that the new handset may feature a dual camera. It has now been established that the same handset will be the first smartphone to feature a bionic parallel dual lens.

From the leak, the image quality of the camera seems outstanding. Check out the pictures below:

According to the leak, these shots have been taken from the new Honor smartphone. The quality of these pictures seem to replicate the quality of DSLR cameras; the clarity and the composition is stunning.

The fact that we may be able to achieve DSLR-like picture quality, using a smartphone has been an unachieved dream up until now. There is a race amongst major smartphone brands to bring out a smartphone with the best camera quality. Currently, the iPhone 6 Plus aces the game, with its top notch camera sensors and OIS. Is Honor planning to join the match with its next smartphone? Only time will tell.

March 22, 2015
Honor Slowly Drops Huawei to Rise as an Independent Brand

Chinese telecom company, Huawei has become an identifiable brand name. You are bound to come across a Huawei branded connectivity devices like modems and dongles. Huawei also makes smartphones, and its Honor line of smartphones have received favorable feedback from the market. There are some speculations in the market that Huawei will spin off Honor as an independent brand.

Huawei has sent out invites for the launch of the Honor 6 Plus. The press release sent along with the invite calls Honor an independent brand and puts stress on the Honor brand name throughout the write-up. The company has also launched a hashtag called #TestofHonor for marketing its new smartphone. The invite too is devoid of any mention of Huawei.

Honor as a smartphone brand has been in India since October 2014 when they launched their first phones on Flipkart. The brand is known for devices like the Honor Holly, 3C, and 3X. The devices run Emotion UI, which is based on Android OS. The devices are good on the design front and have generally received favorable response from the users.

Now it is unsure as to why Huawei would separate its recognizable brand name from its Honor line of smartphones. The brand would have to deal now with the onslaught of brands already competing in the brutal smartphone markets of the world.

March 21, 2015
Honor Teases Two New Smartphones, Sends Out Invites for March 24 Event

Huawei, the Shenzhen-based company, is geared to boost its Honor smartphone lineage. Today, the telecommunications company started rolling out media invites, and it says that two smartphones will be unveiled in the forthcoming Huawei event scheduled for Tuesday, i.e. March 24.

The firm sent out a teaser for the upcoming smartphones which read –

Join us to celebrate the launch of the two super cool, revolutionary, innovative and ‘brave’ Honor phones. And change the way you picture life.

From the bold statement Huawei has made, we sense something big is headed our way. One of the devices is said to sport two robust cameras; however, there are no details about their specifications. The invite came accompanied with an eyepatch which read “why see the world with just one eye?”. At this time, the cameras seem to be the highlight of the upcoming Honor phones.

More information about the Honor handsets should be revealed soon. Keep checking back for more details.

March 21, 2015
Pricing of Huawei’s Premium Smartwatch Revealed

The Chinese electronics producer Huawei, at the Mobile World Congress, announced its first Android-powered smartwatch last week. It was a wearable with timeless design and with all the major elements required to make a high-end watch. The Huawei Watch has finally got a price tag and as per Amazon.de, the wearable can be grabbed at €999 ($1,080 = more than Rs. 67,500).

The company was careful at the Mobile World Congress revealing only the basic information about the Watch, and not the price and availability. But through the Amazon listing, it is evident that all the three variants of the Huawei Watch (black, silver, and gold) will cost €999 with prime shipping.

Meanwhile, the e-commerce website doesn’t state any details about its release date. Moreover, it is little dubious of the three variants having the same price range, as gold and silver edition were expected to be priced a little higher than the black version.

Recalling the features,the Huawei Watch is undoubtedly an excellent choice and incorporates a sapphire crystal display that is absent is many smartwatches. A 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, along with 512MB is equipped with the device. The onboard storage capacity holds at 4GB, and additional features include a heart rate sensor, call notifications and many other essential features.

March 9, 2015
Report: Google Might Partner With LG and Huawei for Two New Nexus Devices

Google Nexus 6 from Motorola is one of the best Android devices in the market. The phone’s spec sheet consists of the top notch specs of its time of launch. This year around, it seems like Google has bigger plans for its Nexus and might involve its past partner, LG and join hands with Huawei for its new generation products.

The story is still a rumor so its authenticity cannot be established. A Weibo user who claims to have information on the next Nexus brought the story to light. According to him, LG would be bringing out a refreshed version of the Nexus 6 whereas Huawei might bring a Nexus 5-like product into the market.

Nexus 6 was designed by Motorola and looked like a bigger sibling of the 2nd generation Moto X. The handset is a monstrosity with its 5.9 inch Quad HD display. It also features a ring flash for the main camera and a top of the charts spec listing.

No other details have been furnished as of now. Google might be trying to populate its Nexus product line-up and hence is on a lookout for new partners. Nexus 6 was appreciated, but its size was just too massive for the phablet. With its partnership with LG, Google might try to bring down the size of the device to a more comfortable size like the LG G3, which has a 5.5 inch Quad HD display. We’ll get to know more in the coming months, as the launch of the new generation Nexus draws near.

Till then, watch our hands on with the Google Nexus 6:

March 4, 2015
Huawei’s MediaPad X2 Flaunts a Slim Design With All Round Specs

Huawei has made an unexpected, huge entry in the ongoing Mobile World Congress with a slew of gadgets. The latest one to get our attention is a dual SIM phablet titled Huawei MediaPad X2. The device is the successor of MediaPad X1, and is the first ever device to hold a 64-bit ultra octa-core chipset with 4G-enabled LTE. The MediaPad X2 is launched in two variants – one with 2GB RAM + 16GB storage and the other with 3G RAM and 32GBstorage.

Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group made a statement –

Following the success of the Huawei MediaPad X1, and having inherited the signature feature of our large screen design, the Huawei MediaPad X2 represents our faith and commitment in creating better quality products with our technology and innovation.

At a thickness of 7.28 mm, the MediaPad X2 is the world’s slimmest 7-inch phablet. The HD IPS display is laminated and has a resolution of 1200 x 1920p, with pixel density of 323ppi. The 2.0GHz Kirin 930 ultra-octa chipset bundled with 64-bit GPU Mali-T628 is powerful and consumes less power. The phablet is juiced up through a 5,000 mAh Li-ion battery.

On the camera expect as well, the phablet stands at a good spot. It is equipped with a 13MP rear shooter and a 5MP front shooter which is ideal for selfie lovers. Connectivity options include LTE Cat6 and Wi-Fi; surprisingly Bluetooth is not an option in the Huawei phablet. The devices are available two colour option – amber gold and moonlight silver.

The phablet is undoubtedly one of the best and packs some incredible features that makes it stand out. Meanwhile, the price tag is missing, but the Chinese equipment producer is likely to disclose it soon.

March 2, 2015
Huawei Officially Announces Ascend P7 in India for Rs. 24,799

We have been waiting for the launch of Huawei’s new Ascend P7 since its launch and finally the day has arrived. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has released the phone for the Indian market. It is priced at Rs. 24,799. Ascend P7 stepped silently into the country last month through e-commerce website Flipkart.

The head of Consumer Business Group, Huawei Telecommunications India, Allen Wang, commented on the launch that the P7 has received positive response globally.

Huawei’s Premium ‘P’ series is one of the most popular series from Huawei’s next generation smartphone league. Earlier in 2014, we introduced a marquee product named Ascend P6 that received excellent response from Indian consumers. With the launch of Ascend P7 in India, we endeavour to strengthen our connect with the young and tech savvy consumers by redefining excellence in craftsmanship and camera experience. The Ascend P7 has already received very positive response globally and we hope to replicate the global success in India.

Ascend P7 comes with a 5-inch Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) display. It is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 910T quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. It runs on Emotion UI 2.3 which is based on Android 4.4 KitKat . The phone houses 2 GB of RAM and has 16 GB of internal storage capacity.

On the camera front, it is equipped with a 13MP Sony BSI sensor at back and the 8 MP camera at front takes care of your selfie needs. The 2500mAh battery provides enough juice to last for a whole day of normal usage. If you have some queries regarding this model, do check our review:

December 11, 2014

Huawei Ascend P7 Full Review

Huawei has added some rather interesting devices in its product range. Its recent addition Honor 6 was a unique piece of hardware primarily focused on performance. Now, the Chinese manufacturer has added another device to its smartphone portfolio with the launch of Ascend P7. The company apparently made some bold claims during the P7’s launch event in France saying that the phone can outclass the best of flagships including the likes of Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One. Last year’s release P6 was a gorgeous looking phone but struggled because of an underpowered chipset.

So, has the company rectified its past mistakes and is the P7 the mid-range smartphone that the company claims it to be?

SUMMARY

Priced at Rs. 26,990, the P7 is certainly an expensive device from a budget manufacturer. It will be available for sale in the Indian market starting 30th November. To a certain extent, it defies Huawei’s image as a budget manufacturer as the Ascend P7 can be deemed as one of the fanciest phones produced by the company. It may not be as crammed with features like the other flagships, but is it better than other handsets in the same price bracket; we’ll find out.

HARDWARE

In comparison to its previous iteration, the Ascend P7’s hardware is cranked up a bit. It has Huawei’s in-house 1.8 GHz Kirin 910T quad-core CPU, Mali-450 GPU and 2 GB RAM on show, which should be up to the task.

Specifications	Ascend P7
Display	5-inch Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) 445ppi
Processor	HiSilicon Kirin 910T quad-core 1.8 GHz
Storage	16 GB + microSD
RAM	2 GB RAM
Camera	13 MP AF BSI F2.0, with Flash 8 MP Front
Battery	2500mAh
Operating System	Android 4.4 KitKat Emotion UI 2.3

BUILD AND DESIGN

At first glance, the Huawei Ascend P7 looks like a blend of the iPhone 4 and the Xperia Z. It’s a neat looking equipment and does feel like a premium built phone while in hand. Its slim form factor makes the phone slip easily into your pocket. It measures only 6.5 mm thick and weighs a mere 124 grams.

We were pretty impressed with the way phone looks and feels. It can easily compete with more established flagships when it comes to looks. The overall feel of the phone is quite brilliant. With the right size, it has just the right amount of chrome and metallic accents, subtle logos along with simply laid out buttons.

It has a nice minimalistic design and finish, so you won’t feel shy flaunting your device amongst your peers. The front houses a speaker, a light sensor, and a massive 8MP selfie cam. On the bottom, we have a microUSB port for charging, while the 3.5 mm jack rests on the top. The left-hand side has no keys and slots, so the right side houses the microSIM and microSD trays. Along with the trays lays the power button mounted in the centre, very reminiscent of Sony’s Xperia range. A nice metallic finish runs along the side of the device, giving it a more premium look.

Turn the phone around, and we see the elegant and subtle non-removable glass back panel with a neat looking finish.

The only downside with design would be the glass back, which makes the device slippery. So, if you have a tendency to slip your phone often, we recommend you to buy a case. In addition, the glass back is made up of very delicate plastic material, which can easily crack. So, make sure you have a case. Apart from that, the design and build of the phone is top notch.

DISPLAY AND CAMERA

The Huawei Ascend P7 has a 5-inch display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It has a Full HD 1080p display, which is quite impressive and is by far one of the best displays we’ve seen. The 5-inch screen is just lovely and bright with good viewing angles, and enough contrast allows users to watch even the gloomiest of flicks with crisp and sharp details. There are no flaws with the display and it was kind of hard to point out a fault with the phone’s display quality. Bright colours and sharp texts coupled with great viewing angles are as good as a smartphone’s display can get, well unless you get a device with a QHD display.

The optics on the Ascend P7 are quite remarkable. Both rear and front snappers are a delight, with the primary camera equipped with a 13MP Sony BSI sensor. Shutter Lag time is negligible, while response times are just too good. The auto focus is swift, and colours offer the right depth. Meanwhile, the staggering 8 MP front camera takes care of all your selfie needs. The front camera performs astonishingly well, with end results being more than satisfactory. It also includes a front-facing panorama option for wider shots and selfies. The camera app has the same overlay for its menu found in the Xperia Z2. Main options include a selection of shooting modes, with Huawei’s ‘Smart’ shooting feature coming as default. There are a lot of interesting filters, including HDR, Smile detection and Object tracking with a few minor tweaks offered by the manufacturer.

Overall, we were pretty satisfied with the phone’s camera performance. Images rendered were bright and clean and looked superb in full resolution. Have a look at the samples below:

While, video mode is not that impressive. It works fine and you’ll be able to record videos but we rather not talk about it.

MULTIMEDIA AND PERFORMANCE

A blend of advanced hardware combined with fantastic display, multimedia experience on the phone is rather satisfactory. The external speakers position is apt for watching movies and playing games, with sound coming from the centre of the device rather than from the sides. The audio output is quite impressive and should suffice without the need for putting on your headset. It is loud, clear and does not distort even at high volume. The Full HD 5-inch display just takes the whole experience of watching videos and playing games to a whole new level.

The phone’s benchmark scores fall way behind other flagships, but as we know with benchmarks, they do not tell the whole story. It can handle tweeting, making calls, browsing, watching a video at ease without any major hiccups or stutters.

We were a tad worried about its gaming performance looking at the benchmark scores, but boy the Ascend P7 proved us wrong. It ran graphically intensive 3D titles like Asphalt 8 and other games running on full juice without any hassles. The phone’s quite impressive when it comes to daily usage and the fluidity as it performs tasks pretty well and quick.

SOFTWARE

The Ascend P7 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with Huawei’s Emotion UI 2.3 skin atop. The first thing Android users will notice is the absence of the app tray. Huawei has removed Android’s two-stage launcher, so all apps rest on multiple pages of the home screen – just like iOS. Huawei has crammed several utilities into folders in an attempt to prevent the home screen look unnecessarily cluttered. But it happened the other way round, it just made the home screen look all the more cluttered. So one needs to get used to things a bit and do some shuffling around to get the desired results. Even the app icons look childish and are not so pleasing.

Meanwhile, the home screen comes preloaded with weather, music, gallery and Google search widgets. There’s also a ‘Me’ module, which apparently can offer instant access to single favourite contact, but it’s rather useless. However, there is a wide array of customisation options, and you can tweak the icons and environment according to your preference.

There’s also an option to add a suspend button – a floating launch button with a ring of shortcuts that hovers around the screen. It may come in handy for certain users, offering instant access to utilities like messaging, note-taking, and music playback.

In the Settings menu, Huawei has added two home screen styles, Standard and Simple. While ‘Standard’ is a regular application and widget layout, ‘Simple’ turns your home screen into more of a Windows Phone (adding massive icons to apps and features). It certainly will be useful for the first-time smartphone users or for those who may not have a very good eyesight.

Multitasking in the Ascend P7 is done in the usual Android style, with right hand on screen button popping up a list of recently used apps.

Meanwhile, the pull down notifications tab forms an integral part of the Android ecosystem, and here Huawei has tweaked a bit. A collection of five toggles are housed at the top when you first pull down the notifications, another pull down reveals more controls. These can be customised according to user’s preferences as a seperate menu lets you customise the order in which they appear.

All in all, there are no noticeable performance issues apart from a few home screen jerks when the phone was under heavy usage. It’s a snappy and reliable device. Though, users will notice a lot of battery saving notifications popping up time and again, which can be annoying at times. Along with that, the UI is not as standard and intuitive that we see with other smartphones.

PHONE NETWORKS AND BATTERY

Phone network is quite good. We had no issues with the audio quality of incoming or outgoing calls. It latches onto networks quite easily, and we did not experience any call drops both indoors as well as outdoors.

The Huawei Ascend P7 houses a 2500mAh battery, which is slightly less than the Galaxy S5 (2800mAh) and larger when compared to the 2300mAh battery of the Nexus 5. In our battery test, we ran a 90-minute media file on full brightness and with ‘Wi-Fi turned on’. By the end of the video, the battery went from 100% to 71%.

That’s not awful, but it’s neither great too. The battery can easily suffice for a whole day of normal usage.

CONCLUSION

From decent specs, great camera, awesome display to super sleek and good looks, Huawei Ascend P7 has all the features that you wish in a smartphone. If you’re to judge a phone solely on benchmark scores, the Ascend P7 might put you off but its real time performance is top notch.

At a price tag of Rs. 26,990, the Ascend P7 seems to be a little overpriced. There are a lot of worthy alternatives to consider like the Nexus 5, the Moto X, LG G2, Samsung Galaxy S5 in this price bracket.

The phone’s performance is satisfactory, though it would have been more of a catch if Huawei had created a budget marvel like the Moto G. On the contrary, the company has tried to match up the P7 with other top flagships, and it just falls short.

Had it been priced under Rs. 20,000, it would have been a great alternative to the mid-segment masters.

[tw-column width=”one-half”]

GOOD THINGS

Great Design and Build Quality
Awesome Full HD display
Superb Camera
8MP selfie Camera

[/tw-column]

[tw-column width=”one-half” position=”last”]

BAD THINGS

Video Recording below par
Low Benchmark score
Slippery back panel

[/tw-column]

November 24, 2014

Huawei Honor 6 Review

We have witnessed a surge in competitively priced phones this year, with the likes of Lenovo, Xiaomi and Oppo aggressively battling for the crown. However, there’s one smartphone manufacturer who is yet to make a mark on the Indian smartphone market – Huawei. With the launch of its latest smartphone, Honor 6, Huawei may well be on its way to create a stir. The smartphone boasts amazing specs which have the potential to give other manufacturers a run for their money. The Honor 6 only sounds great on paper, now let’s see if its worth it!

Overview

For starters, it’s the first smartphone with the new HiSilicon Kirin 920 SoC, an octa core processor coupled with 3GB RAM and a mammoth 3100 mAh battery. Ascend series have been the flagship models from Hauwei, but it seems the honor series is the hot property these days. The smartphone features an octa-core processor made of four Cortex A 15 cores and similar number of Cortex A7 cores. Available for Rs.19,999 via online retailers only, the phone seems to justify its price with what lies under the hood.

Hardware

Probably the most talked about aspect of the phone, the brand new HiSilicon Kirin 920 SoC. It is the next iteration of the Kirin 910T, which we have seen earlier on the Ascend P7. It features 4x Cortex A7 and 4x Cortex A15 clocked at 1.3GHz and 1.7GHz respectively, coupled with 3GB LPDDR 3 RAM. Yes, a deadly combo about which we will elaborate later. The phone comes with an impressive 16GB in built memory along with a microSD slot with an expandable capacity of up to 64GB.

Specs

Specifications	Honor 6
Display	5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels)
Processor	1.3Ghz Octa core Kirin 920 processor
Storage	16GB + microSD
RAM	3GB RAM
Camera	13MP primary camera, 5MP front camera
Battery	3,100mAh
Operating System	Android 4.4

In terms of connectivity, the phone offers Bluetooth 4.0, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, FM Radio along with a 3.5 mm jack. The smartphone is powered by a non removable 3100mAh battery.

Build and Design

The design of the Honor 6 is minimalistic, and it has a sleek form factor; with thickness of 7.5mm and weight of a mere 130g. Although, it appears Huawei didn’t really spend much time making the phone as pretty as much as it made it useful. The design is pretty close to what we saw on the iPhone 4, with a glass front and rear. The back of the glass has dotted textures, which don’t stand out predominantly. The sides are made out of metallic finish plastic. As a result of the combination of plastic and glass, the phone does feel a bit slippery in the hand.

However, Huawei has done a good job when it comes to button and port placement. The power button, volume rockers, microSIM slot and the microSD slot are all placed on the right side, leaving the left side clean. The USB port is located dead center on the bottom, while the on the top lies the 3.5 mm jack. The rear houses the 13MP camera with a dual LED flash.

Performance

With a Krin 920 octa-core along with Mali T628MP4 GPU, bundled with a 3GB DDR3 RAM, we were expecting some impressive benchmark figures from the Honor 6 and it did not disappoint. The phone scored an impressive 40,000 on AnTuTu which translates into real world performance. The massive memory pool available runs multiple apps at ease without any lags.

Devices	Antutu Benchmark	NenaMark 2	Quadrant
Honor 6	41900	59.1 fps	10939
Xiaomi Mi 3	30537	60.0 fps	20376
OnePlus One	37500	61.3 fps	23178

The 3100mAh battery can easily last a day of heavy usage, could extend to a day and a half under normal usage conditions. Users are also given an option to further enhance battery life by switching to the screen and power saving mode.

Coming to the OS, the smartphone runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Huawei’s in-house Emotion UI 2.3 on top. The overall design of the UI comes of a bit off beat with the vibrant colourful icons. Apps and widgets are laid out on the Home Screen, which appears slightly cluttered and can be overwhelming for a new user.

The notification panel comes with colour choices. They have given two tabs on the notifications panel, the notifications and short cuts, which come in quite handy enabling users to switch easily. Other nifty feature which the EMUI offers is the ‘Smart Asssistance’ option which includes Suspend button and provides on-screen controls, motion enabled controls like flip to mute, along with a gloves mode.

Camera

The Huawei Honor 6 offers a 13 MP rear shooter with a Sony BSI sensor along with a F2.0 28mm wide angle lens and a dual LED flash. The UI provided on the camera is standard. However, the image quality does not justify the camera specs, as they have a tendency to appear grainy. The camera can take decent shots during the day. Meanwhile, the front shooter also lacks sharpness and the finer details. The camera enables video recording at 1080p, though the lack of OIS becomes quite apparent. Overall, it is fair to say that the camera of the Honor 6 is one of its weak points.

Samples:

Display and Multimedia

The Huawei Honor 6 has a 5-inch Full HD 1080 x 1920 pixels LCD display with a pixel density of 445 pixels per inch. Well, that sounds and looks good. The smartphone can render excellent brightness even in very bright conditions. However, the panel is a non IPS which makes viewing angles a bit scruffy. However sunlight visibility and colour reproduction is top notch.

With a 5-inch display, playing games and watching movies is a fun ride with the Honor 6. The phone can easily withstand those frame rates, animations and transitions without any lag or stutters. Playing Asphalt 8 was also delight on the Full HD screen. It runs most games flawlessly, even at maximum graphic settings, while 3GB of RAM allows multitasking with ease and provides enough resources to run multiple apps in the background. All in all, gaming experience on the Honor 6 is quite immersive and seamless as it can run most games without any lags and stutters. Though, I was not really satisfied with the placement of phone’s loudspeaker as its housed at the back and blocks sound output while you’re holding the phone.

Conclusion

Considering its priced for Rs.19,999, Huawei Honor 6 is strategically coupled with the state of the art hardware. The EMUI 2.3 gives a lot of additional features without hampering the overall performance of the phone. The brand new HiSilicon’s Kirin 920 bundled with 3GB of RAM is a match made in heaven. The Honor 6 is a multimedia delight along with the 3100mAh battery performance. The phone has minimalistic look and build to it, though made out of good quality. The camera may be one of the weaker links in the Honor 6, but other aspects of the phone are top notch and can beat any phone under the given price bracket.

[tw-column width=”one-half”]

GOOD THINGS

Great Hardware
Good Display
Adequate Internal Memory
Easy-to-use UI

[/tw-column]

[tw-column width=”one-half” position=”last”]

BAD THINGS

Design
Weak Camera
Prone to Scratches

[/tw-column]

October 13, 2014

Huawei Brings Out Metal-Clad Honor Tablet T1 and Honor 6 Smartphone in India

Huawei has introduced two new devices, the Honor 6 smartphone and Honor T1 tablet in India priced at Rs 19,999 and Rs 9,999, respectively. The budget-friendly tablet and slightly-pricey smartphone will be sold exclusively through Flipkart 6th October onwards.

The Huawei Honor 6 runs on Android 4.2.2 KitKat with Emotion 2.3 UI and is powered by a Huawei Kirin 920 octa-core processor and comes with 3GB RAM. Huawei Honor 6 sports a 5-inch full-HD display (1920x1080p, 440ppi) with a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. The smartphone comes with a 3,100mAh battery.

The Honor 6 smartphone comes with 16GB internal storage variants and a microSD card slot (supports cards up to 64GB). In terms of connectivity options, the Huawei Honor 6 supports 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS.

The MediaPad Honor T1 tablet sports an 8-inch HD IPS display. Powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM, the tablet comes with 8GB storage. It sports a 5MP rear camera and comes with a 4,800mAh battery. The tablet runs Android 4.3 with Huawei’s Emotion UI.

Last week, Huawei had also launched the Honor 4 Play smartphone priced at approximately Rs. 7,900. The Honor 4 Play smartphone offers dual-SIM support and features a 5-inch HD IPS display with a 720×1280 pixel resolution. The smartphone runs on Android 4.4 KitKat paired with its native Emotion UI 2.3.

The Honor 4 Play features a 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor, coupled with an Adreno 306 GPU (320MHz) and 1GB of RAM.

September 29, 2014
T-Mobile Sues Huawei for Stealing Phone-Testing Robot Technology

T-mobile is suing Chinese equipment makers Huawei claiming that some of its employees tried to infiltrate the premises of the phone company to steal propriety technology. At the center of the dispute is the phone testing robot. T-Mobile states that Huawei made millions in profits using their technology.

T-mobile claims that Huawei’s representatives took multiple photographs of their testing equipment. It is also said that those staffers also replace parts and tried to break into the facilities when they were banned from the premises.

However, Huawei isn’t showing a belligerent stance. The company says that they have information about the incidents and the people responsible for the illegal activities have been fired from their company.

Corporate espionage is a menace that exists everywhere. In an era of cut throat competition, profits can be made using the slightest advantages over the competition and this is what the companies look to gain. It is unsure if the people responsible for the break-in were directed by their higher-ups, but Huawei’s confession will make this case a short-lived inconvenience for both companies.

September 8, 2014
Huawei Teases to Reveal a New Device

Huawei has sent out press invites for an event to be held on the 4th of September. The invite features a huge number 7, hinting that the device to be released will either be the Ascend Mate 7 or the Ascend D7.

While the model name might not be known, a few specs are believed to feature in this soon-to-be-released device. The star of the show is believed to be a 6” Quad HD (2560×1440) display. The device might be powered by the company’s own Kirin 920 octa-core chipset and a healthy 3GB of RAM.

The minimalistic Invite doesn’t reveal much.

Huawei also believes that this device will be better than both the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S6. Now, those are some hefty claims. If Samsung doesn’t manage to bring in a Quad HD screen soon, Huawei’s claim may become true.

The rumours don’t stop here, however. If leaksters are to be believed, the company is also going to release a second device with a Full HD 1080p display and 2GB of RAM. This by no way is a mid-ranger, but will only be the lower speced sibling of the Quad HD monster to be released by Huawei.

Seems like September is going to be a busy season for the Smartphone moguls. The battle lines are drawn with Samsung set to release the Note 4, which will be followed by Apple’s iPhone 6 release. With Huawei also staking a claim to gadget greatness, things will surely get interesting for the consumers. Now we really can’t wait for September to come.

By Pranav Arora

August 13, 2014
Huawei Is All Set To Launch Ascend Mate2 4G in USA

Huawei Technologies Co. has been surrounded by controversies in USA about security concerns raised by lawmakers in Washington. But they believe it can trounce all that as it makes a larger push in the U.S. and tries to build on its successes elsewhere. While Apple and Samsung dictate the all-inclusive Smartphone market with a mutual market share of 46 percent, Huawei has a minor lead among the rest, with about 5 percent, recent data suggested.

Keeping up with the market’s pace, Huawei is all set to launch Ascend Mate2 4G, a mid-range Android phone touted as a reasonably priced substitute to high-end phones such as Apple’s iPhone 5s and Samsung’s Galaxy S5.

The Mate2 will go for $299 and will be sold directly by Huawei. It will work on AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s networks, but not on Verizon or Sprint. The new Mate2 is missing some of the features found in the iPhone or the S5, but it does well on the basics. In addition, it works with 4G cellular networks, while many cheaper devices are attuned only with the slower 3G networks.

The phone is huge, with a screen measuring 6.1 inches diagonally. The company says it’s targeting a few types of customers, such as those who watch a lot of video and those who need a big screen for heavy-duty email and other business functions. Further, it is equipped with impressive 3,900 milliamp-hour battery, allowing you to stream videos for almost 16 hours at a stretch.

The device also fashions 13MP rear camera and 5MP front one, which means sharper selfies and better video calling. The screen resolution is 1,280 pixels by 720 pixels comparably lower than the most Android phones.

Huawei has started taking orders, with phones starting to ship within the week. The Mate2 won’t equal a high-end phone, but it offers a lot for about half the price. That’s quite impressive for a phone of this size. It’s not a good deal if you’re already getting expensive phones at a subsidized price of $200, but it’s one to consider if you’re looking to get away from contracts and subsidies.

June 16, 2014