Could it have been the worst-kept tech secret from the last few weeks? Today, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei unveiled a new flagship smartphone in its fleet, the P8, at a global launch in London.
About 900 journalists from across the world arrived at Old Billingsgate to get a glimpse of the new smartphone, and htxt.africa was there to get all the details.
Interestingly, Huawei is no longer using the word ‘Ascend’ in its product names. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said that the company wants to start a new journey for his division, and that the new phone will take them there.
Yu explained that the phone has four fundamentals that contributed to its design and manufacture: Design, Camera, Connectivity and Usability.
The newly-announced P8 is one of the slimmest phones that the company has launched of late, coming in at only 6.4mm thick. Being 5.2 inches in size, the screen has a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels with roughly 424 ppi pixel density.
The company punts the phone for its “premium design” as P8 customers are “very creative but demand the best things”.
Running on Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop), the P8 is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 935 octa-core chipset CPU. It uses A53 enhanced chips (4 x 2.0Ghz) together with four 1.5GHz chips, which make up the octa-core. Huawei claims that this will result in a 20% improvement in power efficiency.
At its base model, the P8 is available with 32GB internal memory and 3GB RAM. Power is an issue for most smartphone manufacturers but Huawei thinks it has the answer with the P8’s 2 600mAh battery. In normal use, Huawei explained that this is enough to power the phone for a full day, meaning one would need to charge the device around every 18 to 19 hours. Impressive.
For the sleek design, the P8’s body is made from a solid-metal aluminium frame, and it looks great.
Cameras have become hugely important to smartphone owners over the last couple of years, and Huawei made sure to add a generous one to the P8. The 13MP back camera has a resolution of 4 160×3 120, while the front camera (perfect for selfies) comes in at 8MP. After all, what do you expect from a company that coined the term “groufie”, a goofy word that means “group selfie”.
Even with its 4mm macro lens capability, the biggest selling point around the P8’s snapper is its excellent low-light capabilities. “Our solution is to introduce the best-in-class 4-colour OIS 13MP RGBW imaging, while also including DSLR-level independent image signal processor technology,” Yu explained.
In essence, the P8’s camera will be one of the best low-light cameras on the market, using a range of technologies not included in other phones before. It will enjoy 78% less “noise” on images than other phone cameras… or so the company claims. Simply put, you can expect crisper images and more vivid colours.
If network connectivity is a concern, you’ll be pleased to know that the P8 has Signal+, which means a primary antenna for general reception but also a secondary antenna with which to quickly switch base stations. Huawei says that this technology will result in 50% less dropped calls; it is also the solution to the “dead hold” problem caused by the user’s hand blocking some signals from reaching the phone.
The Huawei P8 will be available in four colours, namely champagne, grey, gold and black, with the standard version retailing for around R6 400 ($530). South Africa is part of the initial launch cycle.
And just in case you missed the mysterious sci-fi teaser trailer from last week, have a look below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxmSfQiV0AA
