Pre-Order in Europe Starts for Huawei Mate S

Huawei made the Mate S official at the beginning of the month during its IFA press conference, and now the phablet has gone up for pre-order in Europe.

Huawei itself is offering the device straight to consumers through its official online store for the continent. You can currently pre-order the Mate S if you live in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, or the UK.

The handset can be bought in two color versions, Titanium Silver or Mystic Champagne. Pricing is as follows: £469 in the UK, €649 in the Eurozone, and CHF 649 in Switzerland. Pre-orders are only set to ship in about four to five weeks, so unfortunately you still have a lot of waiting to do if you're craving the Mate S.

The smartphone comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with OIS and dual-LED flash, an 8 MP selfie snapper with a LED flash of its own, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, a fingerprint scanner on the back, and a 2,700 mAh battery. It's powered by Huawei's own Kirin 935 chipset, with an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.2 GHz. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Emotion UI 3.1 on top.

Source | Via

Huawei's Honor 6 Plus smartphone arrives in UK

As confirmed by the company last month, Huawei's Honor 6 Plus smartphone, which was released back in December last year, is now available for purchase in the UK. Three UK is selling the SIM-free version (black color) of the device for £299 ($457).

It's worth noting that Three UK is the exclusive carrier partner for the device in the country, and those ordering the handset from the carrier will receive it starting May 6.

In addition, the SIM-free version of the device is also available for pre-order from Amazon UK, which has both white and black color models on offer, and will ship the device starting May 18.

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Huawei G Play Mini becomes official in Italy

Today Huawei has made a new smartphone official in Italy. It's called G Play Mini for whatever reason, and it's already available to purchase for €229 ($254) without a carrier contract.

The Huawei G Play Mini is rather intriguing, because it has the exact same specs as the Honor 4C which got official in China yesterday, but the design is slightly different. This is most obvious in the upper part of the front side of the two devices.

Why the company chose to pair the internals of the Honor 4C with another design and name instead of simply releasing that in Italy is still a mystery.

Anyway, if you're interested in the Huawei G Play Mini, know that it has a 5-inch 720p IPS touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP selfie snapper, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable internal storage, and a 2,550 mAh battery.

It's powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipset, which sports a 1.2 GHz octa-core CPU, and it has dual-SIM support (though no 4G LTE).

The G Play Mini could be making it to other European countries soon, now that it's gone official in Italy, but there's no information about time frames yet.

Source (in Italian)

Huawei launches Honor 4C budget smartphone in China

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has updated its Honor line of devices with a new budget smartphone. Dubbed Honor 4C, the device is priced at CNY 799 ($129), and will be available Black, Blue, Gold, Pink, and White color options.

Specs-wise, the Honor 4C is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipset with 1.2 GHz octa-core processor, and sports a 5-inch 720p display. It comes with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory (which can be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card), and packs in a 2550mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the device features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat with EM UI 3.0 skin on top. The smartphone is currently only available in China (via Tmall and Vmall online retailers), and it isn't yet known if and when it will be launched in other markets as well.

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Huawei P8 Lite goes up for pre-order in Germany for €249

It looks like Huawei might release the unannounced P8 Lite after all. The mid-range sibling of Huawei P8 and P8max appeared for pre-order in Germany with €249 price tag.

The smartphone is available to order in black and silver/gold color scheme. According to the retail listing, the Huawei P8 Lite will begin shipping to customers on May 15.

As its name suggests, Huawei P8 Lite is a toned down version of the recently announced P8 flagship. Its specs include 5” 720p IPS display, Kirin 620 SoC with octa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 13MP main camera, and 5MP front-facing unit,

Source (in German) | Via

Huawei to unveil three new devices on April 28

Just a few days ago, Huawei sent out invites for its event on April 28, clearly indicating that it will announce a mid-range Honor 4C handset. However, if a latest teaser (see image below) posted on Chinese social media is to be believed, the company may announce not one but three new smartphones.

The three devices shown in the image above are said to be the Honor 4C Play, 4C Note, and 4C Max. Although the picture isn’t very clear, it's easy to figure out that the devices will differ in terms of display sizes.

From what is known till now, the Honor 4C Play will be powered by a Kirin 620 chipset with octa-core processor and sport a 5-inch 720p display. It will come with 2GB RAM and 8GB of expandable memory, and will pack in a 2550mAh battery. In terms of camera it will feature a 13MP rear unit and an 5MP front shooter. The device will run Android 5.0 Lollipop and will support 4G LTE networks.

Needless to say, none of this has been confirmed by the company, so take it with a pinch of salt.

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Huawei's P8 smartphone sells out at launch

Huawei's P8 smartphone, which was announced by the company last week, has sold out on its first day of release - the device was launched yesterday in China, where it was made available through the company's online shop Vmall for a price tag of 3,588 CNY ($579).

Specs-wise, the handset is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 930 chipset and sports a 5.2-inch 1080p display. It comes with 3 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory, and packs in a 2680 mAh battery. In terms of camera, the P8 features a 13 MP rear unit and an 8 MP front shooter. The 6.4 mm-thin device runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with Huawei's EMUI 3.1 interface on top.

The smartphone, which is expected to be released worldwide in May, will cost €499 in Europe, and should set you back around $500 in the US.

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ZTE sues Huawei over P8 and X2 camera patents

Huawei announced the P8 flagship last week and it packed innovative camera technology. Or did it – ZTE's Nubia division has filed a lawsuit against Huawei, alleging that the Huawei P8 and MediaPad X2 infringe on two patents owned by ZTE.

The first one is "Slow Shutter and Capture technology," which presumably relates to the light painting option in Huawei's camera. The second patent is more vague, "Imaging and Mobile terminal tech" (note that Google Translate often calls phones "terminals").

ZTE is asking Huawei to stop the manufacture on the infringing devices.

 
Some of the filed documents

The company announced the lawsuit on its official Weibo account, here's the statement (via Google Translate):

Nubian phone camera technology has been committed to research and development, and has started to obtain the relevant patents, we strive to promote the development of innovative technology to the mobile phone industry. Faced with a wide range of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. of plagiarism, we felt it was time to stand up and use the law to maintain order in the industry healthy competition.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

TrendForce: Global smartphone shipments declined 9.2% in Q1

Global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2015 stood at 291.2 million units, down 9.2% compared to the last quarter of 2014, according to a latest report from market research firm TrendForce.

"The decline, which was larger than the initial estimation, was attributed to the weak smartphone market in China," the research firm said in a press release, predicting that the market will recover in the latter half of Q2.

As far as smartphone manufacturers are concerned, Samsung claimed the top spot with 27.8% market share, followed by Apple with 19.9%. Huawei, LG, and Lenovo rounded-up the top five with 7, 6.2 and 6% market shares, respectively.

TrendForce projects that Samsung will ship over 80 million smartphone units in Q2, while the shipments of the South Korean company's latest flagships, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, will surpass 20M units. As for Apple, the report says the company will ship approximately 45 million smartphone units in the quarter.

Source

Huawei Honor 7 and Honor 7 Plus leak

Huawei, being the industry giant it is, is apparently not content with having just the P8 and P8  Max flagship pair out there and is working on another high end duo to represent the Honor brand. Rumor has it that there will be a larger Honor 7 Plus model and a more compact vanilla Honor 7.

From the images we've got it appears that the two devices will look rather different. The Honor 7 Plus is reported to sport a fingerprint sensor under its main camera on the back in an arrangement similar to the existing Huawei Ascend Mate7 phablet. Both the Honor badge and the overall design suggest that the pictured device might be the real thing.

 
Alleged Huawei Honor 7 Plus

Display size is expected to be 5.5 inches and screen resolution is more than likely going to be FullHD. The list of rumored specs goes on with an in-house Kirin 930 or 935 chipset, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

Meanwhile what is allegedly the regular Honor 7 model sports a dual-camera arrangement on the back, not unlike the currently available Honor 6 Plus. While on the Honor 6 Plus the two cameras are created equal, the Honor 7 seems to put an emphasis on one more than the other, possibly with a difference in aperture in favor of the bulkier one.

 
Alleged Huawei Honor 7

Now, this one has a few design clues borrowed from the Ascend G7, so it may end up being a continuation of that lineup, for all we know. No specs have been revealed on this second device.

Obviously, you should take all this info with a pinch of salt, as the Honor 7 and Honor 7 Plus are new to the rumor mill and all of the above may change as the the smartphones are being developed.

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Huawei P8 Lite stays under wraps, here's what it would have been

Rumors suggested that Huawei would unveil the P8 and P8 Lite, instead we got the P8 and P8max. For some reason the Huawei P8 Lite was pulled at the last moment. There was a product page for it and everything, but there was no mention of it during Huawei's press event.

That didn't stop a bunch of press photos from leaking online around the same time Huawei announced the other P8 devices.

The P8 Lite would have completed the P8 trio with a 5" screen, smaller than the 5.2" on the P8. Despite sharing in their flagship name, the device is actually a mid-ranger.

The phone wouldn't have a metal unibody and it would have been thicker too – if you can call 7.7mm thick. More disappointing is the 720p screen resolution. The chipset was also set for a downgrade - still an octa-core, but the Kirin 620 chip clocks its cores at 1.2GHz. Those are 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores, served by 2GB RAM, by the way.

The phone will run Emotion UI 3.1 built on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop, if and when it goes official. Storage comes 16GB of storage and there's a microSD card to expand it. Like the other two P8s the microSD slot could also house a second SIM card. 4G LTE and a 2,200mAh battery were also in the cards for the Huawei P8 Lite.

The camera department would combine a 13MP shooter on the back and a 5MP selfie camera on the front, but there was no mention of optical stabilization or an RGBW image sensor.

Early chatter suggested that the Huawei P8 Lite would have cost €270, which sounds about right considering the specs.

Source (in German)

Huawei P8max has a massive 6.8-inch screen, super thin bezels

Rumors had us expecting a P8 Lite, however Huawei went the polar opposite direction and unveiled the Huawei P8max. The device blurs the lines between phones and tablets with a whopping 6.8" screen. It covers a massive 83% of the front though resolution is less than you would expect for the size – 1080p.

Like its smaller sibling, the P8max has a metal unibody made of aerospace-grade aluminum. It measure 6.8mm and its internals feature a complicated 7 layer heat conducting structure, which helps keep the chipset running 5°C lower than competing devices.

To make use of its processing power – a Kirin 935 chipset with a 64-bit octa-core processor running at up to 2.2GHz – the custom software offers split-screen multitasking. Also, the homescreen has a landscape mode, just like a tablet.

The Huawei P8max brings a 13MP camera with OIS, though it's not clear if it uses the unique RGBW sensor of the smaller P8. The phone does have the DSLR-like image signal processor though. The selfie camera has a 5MP sensor.

The phablet is powered by a large 4,360mAh battery, which will last over 2 days of normal usage and about 1 day and a half of heavy usage, according to the company.

  
Huawei P8max

The Huawei P8max will work with a number of covers, including one made out of perforated leather, which sort of acts like HTC's DotView cases. Huawei's case has magnets that allow it to work as an adjustable kickstand for a better viewing experience.

The P8max can last 15 hours of playing back video and it will be loud doing it thanks to a 1W speaker on the bottom.

The Huawei P8max will launch in 30 countries about a month after the P8 and will cost €550 for the base version with 16GB of storage and €650 for the 64GB model. They also differ in color options.

Like the 5.2" flagship, the P8max is a dual-SIM, dual-standby device and its 4G LTE connection can reach up to 300Mbps.

Huawei P8 has a 6.4mm all-metal unibody, 5.2-inch screen

The Huawei P8 was brought up on stage by the company's CEO who wants to ignite "infinite creativity" among users. The new flagship follows in the footsteps of its predecessors with a metal frame and a 6.4mm thick body.

The design focuses on a modern, premium build with a full-metal unibody (unlike the metal and glass build of previos models). It takes 810 minutes to craft the body out of aluminum. Special nano-coating makes the phone splashproof, guarding it against accidental damage.

   
Huawei P8

The Huawei P8 has bigger 5.2" 1080p display though thanks to narrow bezels keeps the phone compact. The screen takes up 78.3% of the front, wasting less space on bezels than the Galaxy S6 and the like.

Huawei introduced a unique new way to interact with the touchscreen - using your knuckles. You can double tap or just crop a part of the screen to grab a screenshot. This kind of functionality is usually reserved for a stylus. Anyway, the phone runs Emotion UI 3.1 built on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The camera on the P8 utilizes what's allegedly the world's first 13MP phone camera sensor capturing light in RGBW (red-green-blue-white) pattern. This will help the camera in the low-light, but the 13MP camera also features optical image stabilization. It can offset vibrations with an angle of up to 1.6°, which is reportedly, double what the iPhone 6 Plus camera manages. Huawei has also included an independent image processor, which it claims is DSLR-quality. The ISP takes care of noise reduction, automatic scene recognition, advanced face recognition, better white balance and exposure.

The camera only records 1080p video though, which is a letdown for a 2015 flagship. At least you get an 8MP selfie camera.

The Huawei P8 is powered by a Kirin 935 chipset. An octa-core Cortex-A53 processor delivers performance at a lower power usage. The company promises its flagship lasts 2.3 days, regardless of how many apps you have installed. Heavy users can expect 1.5 days, this is on a 2,680mAh battery.

The Huawei P8 uses the company's new Signal+ tech. It features two antennas (one on top and one on the bottom) and it can switch between them in just 33.5µs so your calls and data connection are not affected. The phone takes the best out of local networks with Wi-Fi+ which will automatically pick the best Wi-Fi signal.

Two antennas, two SIM slots too. The second slot is a nanoSIM/microSD combo so you can pop in a local card when you travel abroad and use more storage at home. Both SIM cards can use 4G LTE.

Huawei will offer a number cases for the P8, but most interesting is the e-ink cover, which adds a 4.3" display that's perfect for reading out in the sun.

The Huawei P8 will be available in two versions, differentiated by storage and color options. The 16GB model is €500, while 64GB costs €100 extra. Europe, the Middle East and South Affrica will be the first to get Huawei's new flagship.

Huawei Honor 4X goes on pre-order in the UK, ships on April 17

Back in March we found out that Huawei was planning to launch the Honor 4X in the UK sometime during the second quarter of this year. And while that starts in April and ends in June, the Chinese company has thankfully not kept people waiting too much.

That's because the Honor 4X is already up for pre-order at Amazon, in SIM-free form of course. Furthermore, the smartphone is set to be released on April 17, which is this Friday as you may know. So Huawei really nailed the first part of its intended launch time frame.

If you want an Honor 4X, you have to pay £144.99 for the privilege, and you get free shipping. You can choose between black and white color versions.

This Honor 4X is essentially the same device that launched in China, aside from one difference: the model sold in the UK sports Huawei's own Kirin 620 chipset, which comes with a 1.2 GHz octa-core CPU and Mali 450 MP4 GPU. The Chinese iteration meanwhile is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 410.

The Huawei Honor 4X has a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP front-facing snapper, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage, dual-SIM technology, 4G LTE, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat with Huawei's Emotion UI 3.0 on top.

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Huawei P8 leaks in promo poster, still missing a fingerprint sensor

Huawei is finding a hard time keeping the upcoming P8 flagship under wraps. The handset went as far as showing up in live images a few days ago and now a promotional poster has been leaked revealing its color options.

Apparently the smartphone will be available in a choice of 4 colors, with black, white, silver and gold models pictured. The black bar on the top of the smartphone's rear, at least on the gold model, does not look like a particularly stylish design decision though.

The poster is yet another confirmation of the smartphone's premium build showing the slim 6.6mm profile and extensive use of metal. The smartphone is set to pack a proprietary Kirin 935 chipset, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 5.2-inch FullHD display.

What it doesn't disclose is whether the smartphone will have a fingerprint reader of any sort. Previously leaked cases suggested a rear mounted unit, much like on the Ascend Mate7, but TENAA certification ruled that out and the latest rumor is that the feature will be implemented in the tiny power button on the side.

The Huawei P8 is set to debut tomorrow, so the wait is almost over, and we'll soon have official word on all the uncertainties in terms of the flagship's design and features.

Source | Via (in French)

Huawei P8 Lite leaked in a set of live images

It's no secret that parallel to its top-end P8 model, set to debut on April 15, Huawei is working on a smaller, more affordable device. Part of the P8 family, the P8 Lite went as far as receiving TENAA certification, without any official word from the company.

Now, a sample unit has apparently fallen into the hands of a user, keen to share. The four live images of the P8 Lite reveal both the black and white version, front and back.

   
Huawei P8 Lite live photos

The dual-SIM handset is reported to sport a 5-inch 720p screen, and be powered by a 1.2GHz octa-core processor, joined by 2GB of RAM. A 13MP/5MP imaging combo will be on board, and the phone will boot EmotionUI-skinned Android 5.0.

The images are about as revealing as the one's in the Chinese authority's listing, which is to say - not much. What they do tell us, is that the smartphone is real and is on its way. Perhaps we could expect it to be announced alongside its bigger brother merely a few days from now.

Source | Via

Huawei SnapTo becomes official, will be released on April 17

A couple of days ago the Huawei SnapTo was spotted at Amazon, and now the Chinese company has officially announced it.

The SnapTo looks like a direct competitor to Motorola's Moto G, both in terms of pricing as well as when considering the specs in play.

The Huawei SnapTo has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 5 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2 MP front-facing shooter, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (which is expandable via microSD cards), and a 2,200 mAh battery.

It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 chipset, boasting a 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and Adreno 305 GPU. 4G LTE support is included, and software-wise we're looking at Android 4.4 KitKat with Huawei's Emotion UI 2.3 on top.

The phone is priced at $179.99, and you can pre-order one from Amazon in black or white. The release date is April 17 for the black model, while the white one is only expected in stock on May 15. Starting next week, the SnapTo will also be up for grabs at a few more retailers, including Best Buy, NewEgg, Fry's, as well as Huawei's official online store for the US.

Huawei P8, P8 Lite press images leaked

Huawei is set to launch the new P8 and P8 Lite smartphones on April 15. A recent promo video teased the P8 smartphone briefly and left many wondering what the final product would actually look like.

The Huawei P8 is set to arrive with a 5.2” 1080p display, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB storage. The Chinese company is reportedly using homegrown Kirin 935 chipset. At the rear is 13MP camera while a 5MP front snapper takes care of selfies. Running the Emotion UI based on Android 5.0 Lollipop it will pack a 2,520 mAh battery.

A slightly toned down version, the Huawei P8 Lite will have a 5” 720p display, 2GB RAM, a 13MP rear camera, and 5MP front camera. This device too will run Emotion UI based on Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Source

Alleged Huawei P8 prototype poses for the camera

Alleged live photos of a Huawei P8 prototype made the rounds online. The Chinese tech giant’s next flagship smartphone will make its official debut next week, on April 15.

The images reveal the upcoming smartphone in a case, which is designed to hide its identity. Manufacturers usually ship unannounced devices to in such covers to wireless carriers for testing.

A shot of the device’s settings menu reveals its specs. They include 1.8GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in memory, and 1080p display. The OS on board is Android 4.4. with EMUI 3.0.

Past rumors have pointed a 3GB of RAM for the device, though we won’t be surprised if Huawei offers different memory variant as it has don't in the past.The lower amount of RAM could also mean that the device in question is the previously leaked Huawei P8 Lite.

So far, it seems that Huawei P8 will be available in a number of different variants. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to find out what the company has in store.

Source (in French)

Huawei SnapTo is a Moto G rival with a $179.99 price tag

Huawei is about to launch a Motorola Moto G rival in the United States. Priced at $179.99 with no contract, the LTE-capable Huawei SnapTo will launch on Amazon across the Atlantic in a couple of days, on April 9.

The Chinese giant’s budget smartphone is already available for pre-order on Amazon in black or white color scheme. The retailer has listed the smartphone as Huawei Expo despite the fact that the promo materials point at a SnapTo name.

Huawei SnapTo packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 quad-core CPU and Adreno 305 GPU. There’s a gig of RAM and 8GB of expandable memory on board.

The device’s display is a 5” 720p LCD unit. A 5MP main camera, 2MP front-facing unit, 2,200mAh battery, and full connectivity suite are also among the highlights in the spec sheet. Huawei SnapTo boots Android 4.4 KitKat with Emotion UI v2.3.

Source