Huawei launches P8 smartphone

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(Image: Huawei)

16 April 2015

Huawei has launched its new flagship smartphone, the P8 series, with an emphasis on design and usability, and enhanced creativity modes.

The P8 phone has a 132mm (5.2”) screen in a one piece aluminium body that allows for very thin (1.5mm) side surrounds to the screen. This allows the P8 to have very tight dimensions around the large screen, while measuring just 6.4mm thick. Joonsuh Kim, vice president, mobile design, Huawei, said that while the screen is larger, new manufacturing techniques had allowed Huawei to make the overall device smaller. It is light too, at just 144g.

The device is driven by Huawei’s own Kirin 930 64-bit Octa-Core chipset. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said that CPU power had almost doubled while GPU power had doubled over previous generations. However, the 2600mAh battery is maximised by automatic application monitoring that optimises operation and allows for a full day of what Yu termed heavy usage or a day and a half of regular usage on a full charge.

Carrier knowledge
Huawei has once again with the P8 used its in depth carrier knowledge to improve performance. The P8 features dual antennas at the top and bottom of the device which can work together, as seen in the P7, or switch automatically to ensure that device retains the optimal signal. Yu said that Huawei has also improved performance on the move, such as travelling on a train at speeds up to 300kph. Like its predecessor, the P8 also features dual SIM capability, where the SD card slot doubles as a secondary SIM card slot. The phone can also switch automatically between tariffs to ensure lowest cost performance.

Much was made of the camera and its capabilities as a creativity tool. The 13MP rear camera has what Yu described as a DSLR-quality independent Image Signal processor (ISP). This ISP can work in low light conditions to reduce image noise. It can, for example, take 4 shots where there are high dynamic conditions, such as areas of dark and light in a shot, and then combine the images to ensure that each area is presented optimally.

The P8 also features a group selfie mode with a wide angle to capture more, which also features facial recognition, allowing the user to specify which faces to automatically enhance. The 4 colour sensor is combined with industry leading image stabilisation, said Yu, for better overall performance at the extremes of photo conditions. The camera also has four different light shooting functions to capture various lighting effects, from streaming car taillights and silky water to light graffiti and star mode.

In video mode, there is an innovative feature called director mode where three other Android devices can be coordinated to shoot video and have the results combined with the output from the P8.

Lost device
There were other innovations too, such as the lost device function where a customisable voice instruction will wake the phone and have it respond with an alert to indicate where it is. The emphasis on usability covered a range of features and capabilities, from a water repellent coating to make the device easier to handle to automatic insertion of international codes when dialling contacts while roaming.

An interesting addition to the usual control repertoire is “knuckle sensing technology”. By double-tapping the screen with a knuckle a full screen shot is captured. This can then be easily edited by circling the desired content on the screen.

“The goal of Huawei P8 is to become the most user-friendly smartphone for consumers globally” said Yu, and the tag line for the launch was “ignite infinite creativity”. However the business user was not ignored, and the carrier expertise was again brought to bear on microphone performance, for the built-in and head set units, with noise cancellation, wind compensation and improved conference call performance with multiple voices around the device.

Ireland is in the first wave of availability for the P8. The standard version of the P8 is priced at €499, and features 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage in two colour options, champagne gold and grey. The premium version is priced at €599 and features 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, with black and gold colour options.

The premium P8 will be available shortly.

Watch this space for a full hands on review.

 

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