Huawei manager says it’s making another Nexus device
It’s now been seven months since Huawei began selling its first (very well made) Nexus smartphone and consumers are already looking at what Google has planned for its 2016 refresh. The search giant typically keeps its manufacturing partners close to its chest, so it’s fallen on the Chinese company to start teasing a future device on its behalf. In an interview with Gear Burn, Charlene Munilall, General Manager of its South African consumer business group, has suggested that Huawei is building another Nexus device, telling the gadget site “we’re doing the Nexus again this year, by the way.”
Huawei was one of two Nexus smartphone partners last year, with LG supplying the Nexus 5X. Google has said it will do the same thing this time around to cater for fans who like the option of a core Nexus handset or something more high end. Huawei could be placed to fill one of those spots, but early rumors have suggested that HTC is on board to make both Nexus smartphones, which are reported to be codenamed Marlin and Sailfish.
If that is the case, there is also the possibility that we’ll see a Huawei-made tablet. Google may want to follow up the release of the Pixel C — the first tablet that it designed completely in-house — with another Surface-like slate, and Huawei could be the one to provide it. That is if Huawei’s regional executive isn’t speaking out of turn, of course. We’re still a few months away from a potential Google event but we’ve reached out to the companies involved to clarify the manager’s statement.
Via: Pocket Lint
Source: Gear Burn
Huawei Watch Jewel review
One of the more common complaints when it comes to smartwatches is their big, bulky, and often industrial design that sometimes looks out of place even on average-sized wrists, and seem to be catered exclusively towards men. While not the most compact smartwatch out there either, Huawei attempted to address some of these concerns last year with their Android Wear offering, the Huawei Watch, which featured a very elegant design, and one of the classiest we’ve seen thus far.
- Huawei Watch review
However, there was a market requirement that needed to be filled, and Huawei did just that, with the introduction of the Huawei Watch Elegant and Huawei Watch Jewel, first unveiled at CES earlier this year. While these devices will look great on anybody’s wrists, they were certainly designed with women in mind. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at the latter, in this in-depth Huawei Watch Jewel review!
Buy the Huawei Watch Jewel now
Buy the Huawei Watch Elegant now
Unboxing
As was the case with the original Huawei Watch, the classy, elegant, and high-end experience that is on offer with the Huawei Watch Jewel starts not with the device itself, but the packaging as well. You get a beautiful unboxing experience with this smartwatch, with a stylish box that springs open to reveal the watch in all its glory, nestled within the soft, fuzzy, velvet interior, with the words, “timeless design, smart within,” printed at the top. Pulling up on the small gold handles, included to ease the struggle with lifting the internal cover, removes the encasing. Below this is where you will find the usual device documentation, the proprietary charging cable, the magnetic charging platform, and an AC wall plug.
Design
As mentioned, Huawei has released that two smartphones that have been designed to cater to women. The one we will be taking a closer look at in this review is the rose gold Huawei Watch Jewel, which gets its name from the 68 1.5 mm Swarovski Zirconia stones that border the display, while the other, the Huawei Watch Elegant, comes with a rose gold stainless steel body as well, but replaces the stones in favor of a knurled pattern ring around the screen.
As is the case with its namesake, the Huawei Watch Jewel comes with a round display, which is the direction more and more Android Wear device manufacturers are heading, allowing for a more traditional look and feel. The round display can make viewing some content a little bit difficult, but in terms of design, this is definitely the better option. The crown is positioned for easy access at the 2 o’ clock position, and while it does rotate, it only functions when pressing it. Pressing the crown turns the display on or off, and a long press will take you directly into the Settings menu.
There are a few options available when it comes to watch straps, with the standard version of the Jewel and Elegant coming with blue and white Italian leather straps respectively. However, this particular review unit features a white leather strap with a snakeskin pattern, that adds to the overall elegance of the watch. With a width of 18 mm, the band itself is thinner than the 21 mm strap that is available with the original, which not only puts a bigger emphasis on the watch itself, but allows for it to sit very comfortably on the wrist.
That said, the new designs mean the Huawei Watch Jewel body is actually larger than the original Huawei Watch, with the diameter increased to 44 mm from 42 mm, and the thickness bumped to 12.45 mm from 11.3 mm. The large size can take some getting used to, but actually adds to the elegance of the design by offering ample space for the larger number of stones. Yes, it’s certainly bigger but it’s not unbearable and considering the added stones and increased beauty, the larger design is not an issue.
This watch may be the rose gold version, but you don’t really see the pink hue that is usually associated with this color option. In fact, it looks much closer to the regular gold version, with a pink tinge appearing only when the body of the watch catches the light at the right angle.
The striking element of this design has to be the jewels, 68 1.5 mm Swarovski Zirconia stones, that are encrusted into the top ring. These stones don’t fail to sparkle regardless of what the lighting condition is, and will definitely catch the eye and turn heads. However, this ring around the frame sits high up and above the level of the display, which can make it a touch difficult to pull menus from the sides of the screen with your finger.
The Huawei Watch was already a stylish and flashy smartwatch to begin with, but the company takes things to a whole other level with the Watch Jewel. It may seem a little out of place in certain situations, and is difficult to pair with more casual attire. For example, the Watch Jewel will certainly stand out like a sore thumb if you are planning to wear it to the gym. That being said, the design is absolutely fantastic, and the rose gold version of the Huawei Watch Jewel is definitely one of the most flashy and luxurious smartwatches that is currently available in the Android Wear space.
Display
Apart from the design, everything else remains the same when comparing the Huawei Watch Jewel and its namesake. As such, the Watch Jewel also comes with a 1.4-inch AMOLED display, with a 400 x 400 resolution, and allows for one of the best smartwatch display experiences available right now.
Using an AMOLED display has its advantages, with it helping keep the watch from using too much power, given that for the majority of your day, the watch will be in an ambient mode, that utilizes a black background, with a white outline of your watch face. Not only does this look great, with the deep, inky blacks that are seen, but there is a lot of power saving here, with only around 10 percent of the display being lit.
The major gripe with the Huawei Watch is the lack of an ambient light sensor, which means that the brightness of the display has to manually be set by you. At the highest levels, it can be blindingly bright in low-light conditions, and will require a little more micromanagement than you’d like. The good news is that the brightness at the preset level proves to be good enough to allow for comfortable outdoor visibility.
Performance
As mentioned, things under the hood remain identical to the Huawei Watch. What you get here is a Snapdragon 400 processor, backed by 512 MB of RAM, which is the standard processing package as far as Android Wear devices are concerned. 4 GB of on-board storage is also available for those looking to locally store any data, like music. Android Wear isn’t very processor-intensive at all, and as such, the performance is as smooth and snappy as expected, with no notable performance issues found with the Watch Jewel.
The Watch Jewel comes with a 300 mAh battery, which stands up well to Huawei’s claims of the device allowing for 1.5 days of use. However, this does mean that you will find yourself having to at least top up the charge everyday. Included in the box is a magnetic charging platform, which isn’t the most elegant solution when it comes to charging your smartwatch. Although it is magnetic, you still have to make sure that the pins line up correctly before snapping it into place. It can be quite annoying to get this alignment right, and if you aren’t careful, you may end up with an uncharged watch the next day.
Software
The Huawei Watch Jewel is running Android Wear, and if you’ve ever used an Android Wear smartwatch before, you will be right at home with the software experience, given that it is identical across the board. Notifications are found in the form of cards, and you have the option to dismiss them, or swipe to the left to further interact with them. There’s a pull down menu for certain settings, and swiping to the left on the watch face brings up apps, contacts, and Google Now. It is a very streamlined and simple experience, and provides a great way to help avoid having to pull your phone out of your pocket every few minutes.
Android Wear can best be described as a notification center, and while Huawei as included their own Health suite, things remain largely the same. However, there are big exciting changes coming with Android Wear 2.0, which will take the Huawei Watch Jewel smartwatch experience to an entirely different level when it is released later this year.
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
The Huawei Watch Jewel is priced at $599.99, with the Elegant iteration without the Swarovski Zirconia stones available for $100 less.
So there you have it for this closer look at the Huawei Watch Jewel! Between the beautiful AMOLED display, and the elegant crystals that surround it, the Watch Jewel is in a class of its own. It is admittedly very flashy, which can be a turn off for some users, but some women will certainly appreciate that there is now a smartwatch available that was designed with them in mind.
- Huawei Watch Review
The Watch Jewel is also definitely on the higher side of the price spectrum, and if you are looking for something a little less showy, the Watch Elegant is priced at a 100 dollars cheaper. However, the new designs are certainly worth the price, and if you are in the market for a elegant, classy smartwatch, the Huawei Watch Jewel is one of the better options out there.
Buy the Huawei Watch Jewel now
Buy the Huawei Watch Elegant now
Huawei sues Samsung over cellphone patents
No, the fighting between top smartphone makers isn’t done just yet. Huawei has sued Samsung in both China and the US for allegedly violating its patents on cellular technology and software through its cellphones. Unlike what you see in many such lawsuits, though, the Chinese tech leader isn’t demanding a straight financial penalty — it wants a cross-licensing deal where the two sides share patents, much like the ones it has with “dozens” of other partners.
Samsung hasn’t commented yet (we’ve reached out for its take). However, you might not see this turn into a knock-down-drag-out courtroom battle. Huawei’s demands hint that the lawsuit is more of a bargaining chip than an attempt to punish a competitor. Unless Samsung outright refuses to make a deal, it’s entirely possible that the mobile rivals will settle this out of court.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: BBC
Duplicate Files Fixer review: automatically detect and remove duplicate items to save space.
Does your device run out of storage, forcing you to painstakingly go through your phone and delete your contents ? Too busy or just too tired to go through your contents? Worry no more! Duplicate Files Fixer(free), available and rated 4.5 stars on the Google Play Store, does all this for you.
Objective View
Entailing a simplistic and easy to use interface, this is a user-friendly application that can be operated 
by anyone. Within the program, you are met by several options including Scan Audio, Scan Videos, Scan Pictures, Scan Documents and Full Scan.
Upon inspecting the miscellaneous categories, your device will scan each for the respective content and display a screen with all the duplicates. It then has all the duplicates selected and gives you the ability to unmark the duplicates you intend on keeping. After pressing the delete button, you are asked to confirm your decision in the event of you making an error.
Although the purpose of this application is to optimize your tech by cleaning duplicate files, it does not include the option to delete the original file. Sometimes when choosing what to clean, you may come across files you have no intention of keeping and want to delete it as well as the duplicate, but alas, you can only remove the duplicate and have to locate the original afterwards. Perhaps developers would take a look into that matter.
Summary
I used this application for a mere few hours and found that it is an absolute blessing. I was able to delete approximately 800 megabytes of duplicate files alone, including pictures, voice notes, music tracks and documents. It’s a really simple program and has only one screen excluding 
the help menu which includes a basic tutorial of pictures. Despite the few flaws and improvements which could be made, Duplicate Files Fixer was definitely well thought out and has a smooth and polished UI.
In conclusion, this simple program is definitely worth downloading, and it will most definitely help you clean up your device and free some space for your more important information, but more so, it will help save your time.
Google Play Store – Duplicate File Fixer
The post Duplicate Files Fixer review: automatically detect and remove duplicate items to save space. appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Honor’s Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs. 8,499 in India from February 15
Moving on from the deluge of leaks about the upcoming Samsung, HTC, and LG flagships, and today we have Huawei’s Honor brand launching its Holly 2 Plus handset in India. The handset will be available exclusively via Flipkart and Amazon for Rs. 8,499 ($124) from February 15th in dark grey, white and gold colours.
The Holly 2 Plus has a 5-inch IPS LCD display with 720p resolution. Under the hood, the Holly 2 Plus is powered by MediaTek’s quad-core MT6735P processor(@1.3GHz), with 2GB of RAM for multitasking, and 16GB of internal storage that you can expand by up to 128GB via the included MicroSD card slot.
On the rear is the almost ubiquitous 13MP present on many budget-busting handsets, along with features such as AutoFocus, LED flash, Panorama, and touch to capture. There is a 5MP camera on the front for those selfie pictures.
The Holly 2 Plus has a couple of standout features. The first is that it boasts both CDMA and GSM (LTE) connectivity, which will prove handy when traveling overseas. Secondly, there’s a 4,000mAh battery providing the juice to get you through the day and then some. Elsewhere, you’ll find both GPS and GLONASS functionality, along with support for Bluetooth 4.0 LE and WiFi bands 802.11 b/g/n.
The Honor Holly 2 Plus runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 overlay. Huawei has confirmed that the Holly 2 Plus will receive an update to Marshmallow and EMUI 4.0 although no ETA has been given.
What do you think of Huawei’s latest offering in India? Is Rs. 8,499 a reasonable price, or would you rather spring a little extra for the Honor 5X? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Full Press Release:
The ‘Made for India‘ Phone is Exclusively Available at Flipkart and Amazon
Honor, which is Huawei’s smartphone e-brand for digital natives, under Huawei, today announced the sale commencement of its recently launched Holly 2 Plus. The newly launched phone is in line with the design philosophy of Honor and is aimed to meet the needs of digital natives through internet-optimized products which offer superior user experiences, inspire action, foster creativity and empower the young. Holly 2 Plus will be available in Dark Grey, White and Gold colors with the exclusive partners on 15th February, midnight.
Honor Holly 2 plus is Honor’s first smartphone which supports 4G for both CDMA and WCDMA.
Mr. P Sanjeev, Vice President Sales, Huawei India – Consumer Business Group said, “Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for India market with dual SIM 4G support and also one of the only smart phone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at this same time. Over the last 15 months, Honor in India has strived to come up with products which meet the unmet needs of the Indian customers by localized research and product development. With these new product introductions, Honor is optimistic of providing phones which suit the needs of Indian customers.”
Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for India market, and also one of the only smartphone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at the same time. The phone offers a 4000 mAH battery with a reverse charging to share your power with your friend via Micro-B USB to Micro-B USB Cable, Dual-mic noise cancellation technology with outstanding audio and integrated speaker experience. With SmartPower 3.0, you can go the extra distance by saving over 30% of energy. The phone offers 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera that helps to explain your best side. The phone offers an in-built memory of 16GB, expandable up to 128GB with a microSD Card. A 64-bit high speed processor and 2G RAM offer consumers more power and pleasure. Customers can enjoy longer battery life with the 4000 mAh battery with shorter charging times thanks to the quick charge feature.
Honor would be providing its customers regular software updates to ensure that the customers have access to latest and most up to date product experience. Honor has already come up with 7 HOTA updates and the Android M 6.0 marshmallow update for Honor 7 is available for download on the Honor official website. Honor saw an over 2X growth globally closing 6Bn sales value in 2015 compared to the 2.4 Bn closure in 2014. Honor is expecting the similar growth rate in this year.
About Honor:
Honor is Huawei’s smartphone e-brand which is also world’s leading smartphone e-brand. The target consumers of Honor are digital native generation, a group that live in the internet, spending more than one third of their time online for social and entertainment, shopping, studying or simply staying connected. Honor customers are young, vibrant and driven by passion. Honor brand has clocked sales of over 20 million Honor phones in 2014, accounting for a global revenue of about 2.4 billion USD with a 24 times increase and closed 2015 with a 6Bn global sales. Honor has been expanding aggressively in global markets, and has successfully launched in 74 global markets, entering the bestselling charts in most of the European countries honor launched. Accordingly, honor obtains a huge user base which has yielded powerful mouth-spreading asset. Honor products also enjoy global aesthetics, super processing technology and massive patent support. The three basic characteristics of honor product: best signals, long battery life and remarkable quality. Honor is born for ultimate tech innovation.
Come comment on this article: Honor’s Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs. 8,499 in India from February 15
Honor’s Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs. 8,499 in India from February 15
Moving on from the deluge of leaks about the upcoming Samsung, HTC, and LG flagships, and today we have Huawei’s Honor brand launching its Holly 2 Plus handset in India. The handset will be available exclusively via Flipkart and Amazon for Rs. 8,499 ($124) from February 15th in dark grey, white and gold colours.
The Holly 2 Plus has a 5-inch IPS LCD display with 720p resolution. Under the hood, the Holly 2 Plus is powered by MediaTek’s quad-core MT6735P processor(@1.3GHz), with 2GB of RAM for multitasking, and 16GB of internal storage that you can expand by up to 128GB via the included MicroSD card slot.
On the rear is the almost ubiquitous 13MP present on many budget-busting handsets, along with features such as AutoFocus, LED flash, Panorama, and touch to capture. There is a 5MP camera on the front for those selfie pictures.
The Holly 2 Plus has a couple of standout features. The first is that it boasts both CDMA and GSM (LTE) connectivity, which will prove handy when traveling overseas. Secondly, there’s a 4,000mAh battery providing the juice to get you through the day and then some. Elsewhere, you’ll find both GPS and GLONASS functionality, along with support for Bluetooth 4.0 LE and WiFi bands 802.11 b/g/n.
The Honor Holly 2 Plus runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 overlay. Huawei has confirmed that the Holly 2 Plus will receive an update to Marshmallow and EMUI 4.0 although no ETA has been given.
What do you think of Huawei’s latest offering in India? Is Rs. 8,499 a reasonable price, or would you rather spring a little extra for the Honor 5X? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Full Press Release:
The ‘Made for India‘ Phone is Exclusively Available at Flipkart and Amazon
Honor, which is Huawei’s smartphone e-brand for digital natives, under Huawei, today announced the sale commencement of its recently launched Holly 2 Plus. The newly launched phone is in line with the design philosophy of Honor and is aimed to meet the needs of digital natives through internet-optimized products which offer superior user experiences, inspire action, foster creativity and empower the young. Holly 2 Plus will be available in Dark Grey, White and Gold colors with the exclusive partners on 15th February, midnight.
Honor Holly 2 plus is Honor’s first smartphone which supports 4G for both CDMA and WCDMA.
Mr. P Sanjeev, Vice President Sales, Huawei India – Consumer Business Group said, “Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for India market with dual SIM 4G support and also one of the only smart phone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at this same time. Over the last 15 months, Honor in India has strived to come up with products which meet the unmet needs of the Indian customers by localized research and product development. With these new product introductions, Honor is optimistic of providing phones which suit the needs of Indian customers.”
Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for India market, and also one of the only smartphone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at the same time. The phone offers a 4000 mAH battery with a reverse charging to share your power with your friend via Micro-B USB to Micro-B USB Cable, Dual-mic noise cancellation technology with outstanding audio and integrated speaker experience. With SmartPower 3.0, you can go the extra distance by saving over 30% of energy. The phone offers 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera that helps to explain your best side. The phone offers an in-built memory of 16GB, expandable up to 128GB with a microSD Card. A 64-bit high speed processor and 2G RAM offer consumers more power and pleasure. Customers can enjoy longer battery life with the 4000 mAh battery with shorter charging times thanks to the quick charge feature.
Honor would be providing its customers regular software updates to ensure that the customers have access to latest and most up to date product experience. Honor has already come up with 7 HOTA updates and the Android M 6.0 marshmallow update for Honor 7 is available for download on the Honor official website. Honor saw an over 2X growth globally closing 6Bn sales value in 2015 compared to the 2.4 Bn closure in 2014. Honor is expecting the similar growth rate in this year.
About Honor:
Honor is Huawei’s smartphone e-brand which is also world’s leading smartphone e-brand. The target consumers of Honor are digital native generation, a group that live in the internet, spending more than one third of their time online for social and entertainment, shopping, studying or simply staying connected. Honor customers are young, vibrant and driven by passion. Honor brand has clocked sales of over 20 million Honor phones in 2014, accounting for a global revenue of about 2.4 billion USD with a 24 times increase and closed 2015 with a 6Bn global sales. Honor has been expanding aggressively in global markets, and has successfully launched in 74 global markets, entering the bestselling charts in most of the European countries honor launched. Accordingly, honor obtains a huge user base which has yielded powerful mouth-spreading asset. Honor products also enjoy global aesthetics, super processing technology and massive patent support. The three basic characteristics of honor product: best signals, long battery life and remarkable quality. Honor is born for ultimate tech innovation.
Come comment on this article: Honor’s Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs. 8,499 in India from February 15
Honor’s Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs. 8,499 in India from February 15
Moving on from the deluge of leaks about the upcoming Samsung, HTC, and LG flagships, and today we have Huawei’s Honor brand launching its Holly 2 Plus handset in India. The handset will be available exclusively via Flipkart and Amazon for Rs. 8,499 ($124) from February 15th in dark grey, white and gold colours.
The Holly 2 Plus has a 5-inch IPS LCD display with 720p resolution. Under the hood, the Holly 2 Plus is powered by MediaTek’s quad-core MT6735P processor(@1.3GHz), with 2GB of RAM for multitasking, and 16GB of internal storage that you can expand by up to 128GB via the included MicroSD card slot.
On the rear is the almost ubiquitous 13MP present on many budget-busting handsets, along with features such as AutoFocus, LED flash, Panorama, and touch to capture. There is a 5MP camera on the front for those selfie pictures.
The Holly 2 Plus has a couple of standout features. The first is that it boasts both CDMA and GSM (LTE) connectivity, which will prove handy when traveling overseas. Secondly, there’s a 4,000mAh battery providing the juice to get you through the day and then some. Elsewhere, you’ll find both GPS and GLONASS functionality, along with support for Bluetooth 4.0 LE and WiFi bands 802.11 b/g/n.
The Honor Holly 2 Plus runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 overlay. Huawei has confirmed that the Holly 2 Plus will receive an update to Marshmallow and EMUI 4.0 although no ETA has been given.
What do you think of Huawei’s latest offering in India? Is Rs. 8,499 a reasonable price, or would you rather spring a little extra for the Honor 5X? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Full Press Release:
The ‘Made for India‘ Phone is Exclusively Available at Flipkart and Amazon
Honor, which is Huawei’s smartphone e-brand for digital natives, under Huawei, today announced the sale commencement of its recently launched Holly 2 Plus. The newly launched phone is in line with the design philosophy of Honor and is aimed to meet the needs of digital natives through internet-optimized products which offer superior user experiences, inspire action, foster creativity and empower the young. Holly 2 Plus will be available in Dark Grey, White and Gold colors with the exclusive partners on 15th February, midnight.
Honor Holly 2 plus is Honor’s first smartphone which supports 4G for both CDMA and WCDMA.
Mr. P Sanjeev, Vice President Sales, Huawei India – Consumer Business Group said, “Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for India market with dual SIM 4G support and also one of the only smart phone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at this same time. Over the last 15 months, Honor in India has strived to come up with products which meet the unmet needs of the Indian customers by localized research and product development. With these new product introductions, Honor is optimistic of providing phones which suit the needs of Indian customers.”
Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for India market, and also one of the only smartphone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at the same time. The phone offers a 4000 mAH battery with a reverse charging to share your power with your friend via Micro-B USB to Micro-B USB Cable, Dual-mic noise cancellation technology with outstanding audio and integrated speaker experience. With SmartPower 3.0, you can go the extra distance by saving over 30% of energy. The phone offers 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera that helps to explain your best side. The phone offers an in-built memory of 16GB, expandable up to 128GB with a microSD Card. A 64-bit high speed processor and 2G RAM offer consumers more power and pleasure. Customers can enjoy longer battery life with the 4000 mAh battery with shorter charging times thanks to the quick charge feature.
Honor would be providing its customers regular software updates to ensure that the customers have access to latest and most up to date product experience. Honor has already come up with 7 HOTA updates and the Android M 6.0 marshmallow update for Honor 7 is available for download on the Honor official website. Honor saw an over 2X growth globally closing 6Bn sales value in 2015 compared to the 2.4 Bn closure in 2014. Honor is expecting the similar growth rate in this year.
About Honor:
Honor is Huawei’s smartphone e-brand which is also world’s leading smartphone e-brand. The target consumers of Honor are digital native generation, a group that live in the internet, spending more than one third of their time online for social and entertainment, shopping, studying or simply staying connected. Honor customers are young, vibrant and driven by passion. Honor brand has clocked sales of over 20 million Honor phones in 2014, accounting for a global revenue of about 2.4 billion USD with a 24 times increase and closed 2015 with a 6Bn global sales. Honor has been expanding aggressively in global markets, and has successfully launched in 74 global markets, entering the bestselling charts in most of the European countries honor launched. Accordingly, honor obtains a huge user base which has yielded powerful mouth-spreading asset. Honor products also enjoy global aesthetics, super processing technology and massive patent support. The three basic characteristics of honor product: best signals, long battery life and remarkable quality. Honor is born for ultimate tech innovation.
Come comment on this article: Honor’s Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs. 8,499 in India from February 15
Upgrading from Huawei Mate 7 to Huawei Mate 8
Back in early January I wrote about my experience going from a Nexus 6 over to the Nexus 6P. Shortly after that, I temporarily put away my Nexus 6P in order to explore another new phone I managed to get my hands on, the Huawei Mate 8.
Like the Nexus 6P in relation to the Nexus 6, I am very familiar with the Huawei Mate 8’s predecessor. In fact, before getting my hands on the Nexus 6, I had used the Mate 7 as my daily driver for nearly half a year. So I wanted to bring you my impressions of what it is like to go from the Mate 7 to the Mate 8, and, in the process, explore what direction Huawei is heading in. Spoiler: I like what I’m seeing.
With the Huawei Mate 8, the entire smartphone experience has taken a big step forward.
A couple weeks ago I wrote about how I loved Huawei’s phones, but wish they’d better optimize their software for the western world. While it’s true that the software experience could use some further refinement, don’t let that fool you, Huawei builds great devices and honestly, even the software has come a long way in just a year or so. It’s not just the software either, everything has taken a step forward.
While the Nexus 6P provides a small jump up in performance compared to the Nexus 6, I noted back in January that this improvement wasn’t necessarily that noticeable on a day-to-day basis. With the Mate 8, however, there’s a huge positive difference in performance, which I’ll get into more detail a bit later.
Instead of breaking this down like a formal review, I instead want to point out what I personally feel are the key differences between the Mate 7 and Mate 8, starting with design.
Design
When the Mate 8 was first announced, I remember thinking just how similar I thought the two phones are. Now that I’ve actually had them both in my hands at the same time, I see a lot of similarity yes, but there’s certainly some pretty striking differences.
Sure, both phones have the same weight (185g) and almost the exact same dimensions (Mate 7 – 157 x 81 x 7.9 mm, Mate 8 – 157.1 x 80.6 x 7.9 mm). The overall shape is also essentially the same, and the feel in the hands is pretty close as well. But despite all this sameness, the Mate 8 has a more modernized appeal to its design, including a ever so slight curve to the glass and other stylistic changes.
The rounded camera, rounded fingerprint scanner, even the flash, all have a look that just feels like the future. The bulkier design on the Mate 7 is still very nice, but personally I think the phone feels a bit more dated. The Mate 7’s fingerprint scanner also seemed to be a dirt/junk magnet for some reason, a problem I’m not facing with the Mate 8. Another thing to note, the speaker has been moved to the bottom this time, though the sound quality isn’t necessarily better. After spending a good deal of time with both, I can say they are mostly on par with one another, though the Mate 8 might hold a slight edge here.
What’s ironic about this is, that before I got my hands on them both, I actually thought the Mate 7 looked better in photos. Sometimes photos just don’t do justice and there’s something to be said for seeing a new device in person. In short, the Mate 7 and Mate 8’s design are similar, but the difference is enough to make it feel like a solid upgrade.
Day to Day Performance
The Mate 7 was certainly a good performer that very much felt like a 2014 flagship, but it wasn’t without flaws. With the Mate 7, running in smart battery mode meant putting up with some minor sluggishness in the UI, and so running it in “full performance” mode was pretty much a requirement if you wanted the smoothest experience possible. Even then, things weren’t perfect, as some areas of the UI would occasionally lag. Bottom-line, the Mate 7 was a good device that performed admirably enough, but there were other high-end phones on the market at the time that provided a slightly better experience when it came to raw performance.
In contrast, the Mate 8 is an exceptional performer with few rivals.
The Mate 8 is every bit as fast as the Nexus 6P and other late-2015 flagships, if not faster. No matter what I do on the Mate 8, there’s virtually no lag, from media consumption to browsing, using the multi-tasking menu, all UI elements, gaming — nothing gets in the way. Oh, and that’s with the Mate 8 running on “smart mode”. There’s also a full performance mode that gives you even more oomph but is more taxing on the battery. Honestly, the performance is so good here that I have never felt the need to turn it on, outside of briefly testing it out.
What’s also really important to point out is that Huawei’s EMUI is a fairly resource intensive skin, whereas the Nexus 6P runs stock Android. The fact that the performance between these two devices is so close is just further testament to how good Huawei’s Kirin 950 processor is, or how much better software/hardware optimization is in the Mate 8 compared to the Mate 7. Honestly, it is probably a bit of both.
EMUI has come a long, long way
Yes, I recently gave some constructive criticism about the software experience and how it could better appeal to the western market. Yes, EMUI is probably the only major sore point for would-be buyers that aren’t into such a highly customized take on Android. That said, looking at EMUI 4.0 and comparing it to EMUI 3.0 (the version that first shipped with the Mate 7), it’s clear to see how far the out-of-box experience has come.
With the Mate 7, I was never a fan of the white backgrounds in the notifications shade. I also honestly disliked EMUI’s recent apps implementation, which stacked everything into a grid. Not only was the layout a bit odd to me, it also was the only major area of the UI that lagged. With the Mate 8 and the Marshmallow-based EMUI 4.0, both of these issues are resolved.
Throughout the whole experience you’ll find that things just perform faster, and while the EMUI look is still one that takes getting used to, I have to admit it’s clear that Huawei has made some real progress here. Another area where Huawei has made huge strides in terms of software is upgrade frequency.
Quick charging + big battery = epic experience
The Mate 7 had wonderful battery life, easily getting 2 days with moderate use, and probably closer to three days with light use. Despite a slightly smaller battery (4000 mAh, not 4100 mAh), you can expect the same kind of battery life with the Mate 8. That said, the addition of quick charging here is a game changer. With the Mate 7, I found that if I let my phone get close to bone dry, charging was a long and tedious affair. With the Mate 8, I no longer charge my phone overnight — ever.
In fact, if you could spare just 30 minutes a day to charge your phone, you’d likely never run out of juice. Yes, the quick charger is that good. From completely empty, it obviously still takes a bit, but the point is that with a little bit of planning, you’ll never run into the issue with battery life. There’s something about not having to plug my phone in at night that feels liberating. Yes, I’m a nerd.
Update frequency
During the entire six months that I used the Huawei Mate 7, I had a total of zero updates grace the device. This meant that, in an age where Lollipop had fully taken root, I was stuck using a version of EMUI that was based on Android 4.4 KitKat. While Huawei promised the phone would eventually see Lollipop, it only recently started rolling out in mass to global Mate 7 owners, with my colleague Bogdan Petrovan (based out of Europe) noting that he received an update for his Mate 7 about a month or so ago now. That means it basically took Huawei an entire year to roll out the Lollipop-based EMUI 3.1.
Bottom-line, when it comes to timely updates, Huawei has a poor track record. The good news is that Huawei seems to finally understand the importance of more frequent updates on flagship devices.
The Huawei Mate 8 runs EMUI 4.0 out of the box, which is built on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the latest version of Android. So that’s one point in its favor. A second, even bigger, sign that Huawei is finally getting onboard the update train is the fact that in the time I’ve been using this phone (about two to three weeks), it has received two updates. That’s two more updates than I ever received with the Mate 7 during the entire time I used it as my primary device.
The first update added a new health app and some tweaks the camera. The second had to do with general performance and optimizing how well 3rd party apps run. Sure, none of these updates brought massive changes or amazing new features, but they show a commitment to improving the Mate 8 throughout its life, and not just saying “okay, we got you to buy it, our business here is over”.
When Android 7.0 (or whatever the next major update is) arrives will Huawei finally give us a swift upgrade? While no one knows the answer to this just yet, I can rest assured by the fact that by the time that happens, I’ll at least have had a more pleasant, frequent update experience than I ever had with its predecessor.
Should you upgrade?
There you have it, those are some of the biggest differences between the Mate 8 and its predecessor. Ultimately, despite many improvements in performance and a more modernized design, the Mate 8 feels very familiar, but that’s not a bad thing. Though not perfect, the Mate 7 was a wonderful phone and was really my first introduction to what Huawei was all about. Those who know me well can attest to the fact that I really enjoyed the Mate 7, so saying that the Mate 8 is a massive leap forward is truly a compliment.
With the Mate 8, Huawei proves that it isn’t holding still, and that its craft is only going to get better.
With the Mate 8, Huawei proves that it isn’t holding still, and that its craft is only going to get better. For me, I hope that means an eventual overhaul of the software experience, the really only weak point for Huawei. Even if it doesn’t make any dramatic changes in the near future, I’m pretty confident things are only going to get better as the company further pushes into the western markets. But for those that were enticed by the Mate 7 and purchased one, is this worthy of your upgrading dollars? Great question.
To be frank, if you are happy with the Mate 7 now, I’d wait for whatever is next from Huawei. That said, if you liked the Mate 7 but wish it had better performance, better updates, and an improved software experience, you’ll find that the Mate 8 is an exceptional choice that easily holds its own against any other flagship on the market. As for those that just can’t get past Huawei’s software? The Huawei Nexus 6P has many of the same pros — solid battery life (though not as good as the Mate 8), a premium aesthetic, blazing fast performance, but has a stock Android experience that might appeal better to those in the west.
What do you think? Anyone make the switch from the Mate 7 to the Mate 8, if so, what was it that compelled you to upgrade?
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The $350 Huawei GX8 is now available for purchase
Huawei is definitely on a mission to be the maker of your next smartphone. Getting its second phone out in the U.S. before Mobile World Congress is no small feat. In January Huawei launched the launched the Honor 5X which made a name for itself with its high-end build and starting price of just $200.
Huawei wants to compete in every price category and has just made the Huawei GX8 available for purchase at GetHuawei.com, BestBuy.com, newegg.com, and Amazon.com for $349.99. The GX8 was announced a month ago at CES 2016, and has quite a spec sheet for a mid-range price.
Huawei GX8 highlights:
- 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616, 8-core processor, 64 bit
- 16GB memory (expandable up to 128GB)
- 2GB RAM
- 5.5″ 1080p 2.5D display
- US Supports AT&T, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, and other GSM networks
- Colors: Horizon Gold, Space Grey or Mystic Champagne
- 13MP camera
- Android 5.1 Lollipop
The GX8 has s superior build being made from aircraft grade aluminum, and sports a fingerprint reader on the back of the phone similar to the Nexus 6P and Honor 5X. Huawei has been on a roll with fantastic devices in every price range, and should be atop your list of devices to check out if you’re interested in premium quality at budget prices. The GX8 comes free of contracts and can also be financed directly through Huawei if you can’t afford to put all $350 down at one time for as little as $20 per month.
Learn more at Huawei.com.
The post The $350 Huawei GX8 is now available for purchase appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Huawei GX8 arrives in the US, priced at $349 unlocked
Back in January we learned that Huawei would be bringing its GX8 over to the United States in the near future. True to their word, the phone has now landed, available through Huawei’s website and via Best Buy’s online store. The phone will also hit NewEgg and select Best Buy brick-and-mortar locations starting tomorrow.
The Huawei GX8 is a bit of a curious device, toting essentially identical specifications to the Huawei-made Honor 5X, as well as a very similar design language (it’s different, but not massively so). While having two phones with the same basic spec/design isn’t so strange, it is a bit odd that the GX8 is priced $150 higher, with a sale price of $349 unlocked in your choice of gold, gray, or champagne.
So what kind of hardware we talking about for this price point? The GX8 is powered a Snapdragon 615 with 2GB RAM. Other specs include 16GB storage, microSD, a 13MP main cam, 5MP rear cam, a 5.5-inch 1080p TFT display, Android 5.1 with EMUI 3.1, a 3000 mAh battery, and standard connectivity features (but no NFC). Like the Honor 5X, you also get Huawei’s high-quality fingerprint sensing tech baked in.
While the pricing isn’t bad for what you get, we can’t help but feel that the Honor 5X is the better deal. That said, if you prefer the Huawei brand over their sub-brand, honor, the GX8 could be worth a look.
AIVAnet 