Tag: Huawei

It appears that Honor, Huawei’s junior brand, has begun accepting applications to the EMUI 5.0 (i.e. Android Nougat) beta program for the new Honor 6X.  When the 6X was released in January, one of the big disappointments was that it shipped with Marshmallow months after the release of Nougat.  At the time, Honor indicated that Nougat would be coming for the budget friendly device in the first quarter of 2017.  Now, at least, the beta program for it has started.

In a Tweet yesterday, Honor’s USA team posted that those who have an Honor 6X should email their IMEI number (both if you have the dual-SIM variant) to huaweifut@huawei.com.  And… that’s it.  No indication in the post was given on when the beta would kick off, how long it would last, how many applications are being accepted, etc.

Huawei has become the latest manufacture to announce a new flagship Android phone at Mobile World Congress.  The Huawei P10 will be available in March, sporting a 5.2″ HD display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.  There will also be a larger P10 Plus which will have a 5.5″ QHD display, 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage.  Both devices will have a Leica optics dual-camera configuration for the main camera.  The P10 will have a 20MP monochrome and 12MP RGB camera at f/2.2 while the P10 Plus will have an f/1.8 aperture.  Both will have image stabilization.

Processor wise, both phones are powered by the Kirin 960 processor, an 8-core SoC running at 2.4GHz.  The lineup is a dual SIM configuration with USB-C charging, NFC and MIMO antenna arrays for both LTE and Wi-Fi.

Probably the thing that stole the announcement for Huawei however was the colors available for the P10.  This is particularly true of the Greenery color which seems to have everyone smitten.  The phone will be available in Ceramic White, Dazzling Blue, Dazzling Gold, Prestige Gold (P10), Graphite Black, Mystic Silver, Rose Gold and Greenery.  Finishes on the colors will be High GLoss, Diamond-Cut and Sandblast.  These colors were developed in cooperation with the Pantone Color Institute so clearly Huawei is taking your color choice seriously.

While there were a few bright spots, the Android tablet market continued to constrict in the last quarter of 2016 according to Strategy Analytics.  The site Q4 2016 report is out and with it, you see that overall, Android tablet sales dropped by 10% year-over-year with Samsung seeing a 10% drop themselves year-over-year.  Interestingly, relatively new comer Huawei saw a 49% increase in growth over last year as they made their first significant efforts in the tablet space in 2016.  It seems to have paid off – at least for now.  Amazon also enjoyed a nice growth rate of 21% thanks to their Fire lineup of Android-powered tablets.

The news on tablet sales didn’t just impact Android.  Apple saw a 19% drop in iPad sales year-over-year in Q4 2016.

Today’s Deal is on a well appointed new tablet from Huawei.  The MediaPad M3 is their latest offering and the 8.4″ tablet sports 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 2560 x 1600 pixel IPS display for $299.  To make this an even sweeter deal, the M3 has Harmon Kardon tuned sound so you should have a great media experience with it on top of the great overall specs.  The new tablet from Huawei was announced in November and hit the Amazon digital shelves in December.  If you are an Amazon Prime customer, shipping is free.

The MediaPad M3 is powered by the Octa-Core Kirin 950 processor running at 2.3GHz and it is coupled with the Mali-T880 MP4 GPU.  This combination should do great for everyday use and you have plenty of RAM to support the processor which always helps.

Today’s Deal is on the solid performing and well priced Honor 5X from Huawei.  The 5.5″ phone is available in a Gold finish today for $169 on Amazon which is a great price on this solid mid-range phone.  It has an all metal and glass construction, has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot built into the phone.  Powering the phone is the octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor running at 1.4GHz coupled with the Adreno 405 GPU.  The 5X is a dual-SIM phone which is great for those who travel and has 13MP rear camera and a 5MP selfie camera.

The Honor 5X is sold unlocked and works with GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile here in the United States.  Sorry Sprint and Verizon customers, this phone won’t work on your network.  Here are the GSM and LTE bands of the 5x:

• HSDPA 850 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
• LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800)
• LTE band 2(1900), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 12(700), 17(700)

After being released in Europe in November, the Huawei Mate 9 is finally coming to the United States.  This 5.9″ phablet will be available at a wide range of online retailers, including Amazon, at the impressive price of $599.  So what does that get you?  a 5.9″ phone running Android Nougat, an octa-core processor running at 2.4GHz and Leica optics dual-camera setup shooting at 20MP and 12MP respectively with OIS.  The front facing selfie camera is 8MP shooter.  You also have 64GB of built-in storage that can be expanded up to an additional  256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Not bad at all for $599.

The Mate 9 is being sold unlocked so the question is always carrier compatibility.  For those of you on GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, you are good-to-go.  For those on Sprint and Verizon, the phone is CDMA compatible too. Here are the range of frequencies supported:

• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• CDMA 800 / 1900
• HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
• CDMA2000 1xEV-DO & TD-SCDMA
• LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 9(1800), 12(700), 17(700), 18(800), 19(800), 20(800), 26(850), 28(700), 29(700), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)

Those frequencies are going to cover every carrier here in the United States but as always, double-check with your carrier before ordering.