T3 India

Huawei

Huawei announces P40 series smartphones

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Continuing their fruitful partnership with Leica, Huawei last week announced three new smartphones under its flagship P40 series. Consisting of the Huawei P40 Pro+, P40 Pro and the Huawei P40, these three will up the photography game with the new hardware and software improvements.

Each of the P40 series smartphones boast varied camera specs and feature Huawei’s largest CMOS Ultra Vision Sensor to date. The Huawei P40 has a triple-camera setup with ultra-wide angle, wide-angle and telephoto lenses. The Huawei P40 Pro features a quad-cam system with a 5x optical telephoto camera, a powerful Ultra-wide Cine Camera and ToF Camera with a 50x SuperSensing Zoom feature. The P40 Pro also includes an RYYB colour filter. The Huawei P40 Pro+ outperforms all with a penta-camera system hosting the new 100x SuperZoom Array working in conjunction with an optically stabilised Ultra Wide Camera which is designed through a technologically-enhanced periscope that reflects light 5 times.

These camera systems are made more powerful through the computational superiority of Deep Learning algorithms, and along with feats like Multi-spectrum Colour Temperature Sensor, the Huawei P40 series smartphones have capabilities such as the Huawei ‘Golden Snap’, ‘IR Face Unlock’, ‘AI Remove Passerby’, ‘AI Remove Reflection’, and more. With a focal length of 18mm, the 40MP ultra-wide Cine camera in the P40 Pro and the P40 Pro+ delivers as a powerful pocket-sized video camera with the ability to capture Ultra Slow-Motion videos at 7680fps and 4K time-lapse videos too.

Take a step away from superior photography abilities, these P40 smartphones are powered by Kirin 990 5G that aids them in achieving efficient 5G connectivity and band support. They run on the latest EMUI 10.1 OS which provides a ton of new features such as the ‘Huawei Share’, ‘Mee Time’, ‘Vision TV’, and much more.  The Huawei P40 Pro and the Huawei P40 Pro+ are equipped with a 90Hz Quad-curve Overflow display with an updated graphics rendering engine.

The Huawei P40, Huawei P40 Pro and the Huawei P40 Pro+ will be available in April 2020, however, it won’t most likely reach the Indian shores. The P40 and the P40 Pro will sell in 3 glossy glass finishes – Ice White, Deep Sea Blue, and Black whereas the P40 Pro+ is available in Ceramic Black and Ceramic White.

Y9 Prime 2019 is the first pop-up camera smartphone from Huawei

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Following the recent tablet and smartwatch launch , Huawei is back again with the latest entrant in the Y series, Huawei Y9 Prime 2019. It is the first smartphone from the company with a pop-up camera.

The dual-SIM device sports a 6.59″ FHD+ (1080x2340p) TFT display with a 391ppi pixel density and 19:5:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 710 SoC and Mali-G51 GPU paired with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage expandable via microSD card up to 512GB. EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie OS runs on the device. Coming to the photography aspect, on the front is a 16MP pop-up selfie snapper with AI offering real time image optimisation in 8 seconds while also adjusting the retouch intensity. The lens is protected by Smart Fall Sense that auto retracts it during a fall and has a pressure resistance of 15Kg.

On the rear is a triple camera setup consisting of a 16MP (f/1.8 aperture) 1.12micron 6P lens, 8MP 6P 120 degree ultra wide angle camera (f/2.4) and 2MP (f/2.4) depth sensor. With the help of AI, the camera app is able to recognise 500 scenes across 22 categories in real time when using the rear setup. Both the front and rear are capable of 3D portrait that can retouch the shots with studio quality lighting effects to make them look professional.

Priced at Rs.15,999, Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 will be sold in two colours: Emerald Green and Sapphire Blue on Amazon India from 7 August exclusively for Prime members and 8 August for non-Prime. Launch offers include instant cashback of Rs.500 through Amazon Pay and 10% instant discount specially for SBI cardholders. There will be additional exchange discount of Rs.1,500 and no-cost EMI options for 6 months.

It will also be sold in retail stores and customers can pre-book it at Croma, Poorvika and other major outlets starting 5 August. Pre-booked orders will also get free Huawei Sport BT headphones and a 15,600mAh power bank both having a total value of Rs. 4,598.

  • Front
  • Rear
  • The pop-up selfie camera

Huawei enters into a partnership with Micromax for distribution

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Huawei Consumer Business group announced that they are entering into a strategic partnership with Micromax Informatics Ltd with an objective to expand its customer portfolio and presence in the offline market in India. The two companies will devise strategies that will help the brand gain a stronger foothold in the Indian consumer electronics market.

Currently, Huawei sells primarily through retail partners to reach out to existing and potential customers across the entirety of the country. Under the phased expansion plan, there is a planned presence to be in cities starting from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dehradun, Kolkata and Jaipur. Huawei currently has an R&D centre in Bengaluru which is driven by local talent who have significant contributions towards technological innovation.

R&D plays an important role in Huawei’s product offerings with the company investing around 10% of their revenue towards it. Their last year spending was over $15 billion and ranked 5th globally in the 2018 EU Industrial R&D investment scoreboard.

Announcing the partnership Mr. Tornado Pan, Country Head (Huawei Brand) Consumer Business Group, Huawei India said “Since our very entry into the Indian market, the brand has been witnessing overwhelming response from all section of consumers. With an aim to be present where our consumers are, we plan to focus on a robust offline distribution network catering to the needs of consumers in urban as well as the rural regions of the country and to make them experience the innovative technology that has won the hearts of customers’ world over.”

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Sunil Joon, Head – Strategy, Micromax Informatics Ltd. said “Over the past decade, Micromax has pioneered the democratization of technology in India – by offering affordable innovations through their product offerings and removing barriers for large scale adoption of advanced technologies. We are pleased to partner with Huawei telecommunications, with this long-term partnership we aim to reinforce our commitment towards consumers in India. Huawei has been consistently coming up with compelling technology focused for the Indian market in the premium device category, together, we aim to move a step closer in solving consumer needs with innovative offerings. Additionally, we are looking at boosting our services and strengthening our association with our existing and potential customers. The two brands will be seamlessly complementing each other as Huawei has its prowess in the premium smartphones segment and Micromax is popular in mass segment of smartphones.”

Huawei Watch GT Active smartwatch targets the fitness enthusiasts

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Huawei on Monday announced the availability of Watch GT Active in India. The smartwatch was previously showcased during the P30 series launch early this year in March.

Watch GT Active has a 1.39″ AMOLED HD display with 454x454p resolution having a 46mm size. It runs on the company’s own Lite OS that is compatible with both iOS and Android based smartphones. As the watch is lighter, it can be worn for an extended period of time without feeling much fatigue. Staying true to the ‘Active’ moniker, the smartwatch comes with various activity-based features. There is a Triathlon mode which tracks swimming, cycling and running data. A self-learning algorithm can detect and monitor both indoor as well as outdoor activities.

Additionally, TruSleep 2.0 helps keep track of sleep and suggests over 200 ways to improve sleep quality. TruSeen 3.0 has continuous heart rate monitoring to track the heartbeat throughout the day. A battery life of upto 2 weeks is promised on a single charge due to software optimisations and the inclusion of dual-chipsets that switch according to the task being performed. The smartwatch is 5ATM water resistant upto 50m making it great for swimming and other water-based activities that don’t make the wearer go too deep. For connectivity it includes Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO. There are sensors for Altitude barometer, compass and 3D distance sensor.

Available in orange and green colour variants, Huawei Watch GT Active is priced at Rs.15,990. It comes with a 1 year warranty and 10 day replacement guarantee from Flipkart.

  • Front of the Green variant
  • Back of the Green variant
  • Side of the Green variant

All you wanted to know about the Huawei saga

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The top tech story this week is not the new Macbooks or the new Redmi device but the fact that Huawei’s smartphone business could cease to exist. Despite being one of the top brands in the world, an executive order by the US President prohibits any US company to deal with the Chinese brand. This, as you’d expect, doesn’t bode well for Huawei as it uses technologies from Intel, Broadcom and Qualcomm along with the Android OS with Play services access from Google. The most recent development is the suspension of support from ARM, which In short, after the temporary license is over (till August 19), US companies will not be able to deal with anything related to Huawei.

The U.S. tech firm Google’s forceful suspension is the pivotal reason of the controversy wherein there will be no Google services access to Huawei phones.  Thus the Chinese brand has been put in the ‘entity-list’ by the US president Donald Trump due to the trade-clash. Presumably, neither of the companies would want to break ties given the gigantic losses they stand to incur. The temporary license is likely to allow companies such as Google to continue providing service and support, including software updates or patches, to Huawei smartphones that were available to the public on or before May 16. It also allows Huawei to engage in the development of standards for fifth-generation (5G) telecom networks.
The Android used on smartphones and tablets is made of multiple layers of software. In the west, these software layers are stacked from top to bottom like this:
• User interface which is the part users interact with called Emotion UI (EMUI) for Huawei or Magic UI for Honor.
• Google services – Google Play and the various Google apps (Gmail etc).
• Android operating system.
• System software that controls the various bits of hardware of the phone.

The Chinese company is still prohibited from buying American-made hardware and software to make new products without further, hard-to-obtain licenses which restricts Google Mobile Services (GMS) for the upcoming devices and limits the earlier system updates as well. Albeit it will not have much impact on the customers in China as most of the Google services, for instance YouTube, etc. are already banned in the country, but it’ll be a major blow for its western users.
As stated by the brand, “Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally,”.

“In short, this license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks,” Ross said.

Despite of the deprivation of Google’s services, Huawei does not lose all access to Android, as the core operating system is an open source project called the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Any manufacturer can modify and install it on their devices without having to get permission. Huawei will be able to deliver Android version updates via the AOSP, but will lose early access to the updated versions provided by Google such as the current beta of Android Q. New phones will not be certified, and as a consequence will not be able to have GMS pre-installed that includes a suite of Google’s own apps including:
• The Play stores for apps, music and other media
• Google Photos
• YouTube
• Google Maps
• Google Drive cloud storage
• Google Duo video calls

Some of these services will still be accessible via the web, but many would find that less convenient.

“The U.S. government’s actions at the moment underestimate our capabilities,” Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said in an interview with CCTV, countering the Pandits’ belief of selling the ‘Android blockaded phones’ being an uphill task, as the company has been preparing for such a scenario since a long time.

Sources said that the company is working on a ‘plan B’ that could come as a rescue for its users alike the one which is already being used in its smartwatches, but the blockade of Android will be the major issue. Moreover selling a smartphone without Google services won’t be a cake walk as in practice, all the major vendors rely on a lot of support from Google.