LONDON – Huawei is the biggest phone brand you may never have heard of, though that’s beginning to change. Two years ago it launched the Ascend P6 which was super-slim and aiming directly at the iPhone market, a phone which some would say the P6 resembled. Huawei’s handsets are priced much more keenly than Apple or Samsung products, however.
Last year’s Ascend P7 was less of a statement but this week in London the company revealed its latest flagship, the P8. The word Ascend has been dropped from the name, perhaps indicating the company has reached the summit.
Certainly the phone is a leap forward in design and build quality. It has an all-aluminium one-piece frame, a screen which reaches almost to the edges of the phone’s front. Huawei proudly boasted that a higher proportion (78.3 percent) of the front of the phone was screen than on rivals like the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6.
The edges are a touch sharp for my liking, especially since the smooth curves of the iPhone 6 and blunter corners of the Samsung Galaxy S6 have made comfier handsets the norm.
The wall-to-wall screen looks great, even if its HD resolution is less impressive than the Samsung Galaxy S6’s far higher pixel count. Even so, the screen looks attractive and full of rich, realistic colours and detail.
But Huawei was as much eager to show what the phone does differently from rivals as well as how it looks. It’s a mark, I think, of how difficult it is to really stand out just based on design, unless you have a gimmick like the sloping screen edges of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge.
As this is an Android handset, Huawei has been able to tailor the software experience, including the decision not to include an app tray. Instead, rather like the iPhone, all the apps are on display or in folders. It’s not a bad idea as such, but always seems like a slightly curious waste of Android’s capabilities.
Huawei is a company that for some time now has felt like it’s been on the brink of the big time. Sales are massive globally and maybe with the P8 the combination of glitzy looks, keen price and quirky extra features, those sales will be as golden as the handset. – The Independent