Huawei (pronounced wah-way) isn’t a household name in Australia just yet, but that’s only a matter of time. This relatively-new tech giant is one of the few mobile handset manufacturers that managed true growth in 2014 with 75 million handsets sold worldwide, and is seeing that continue in 2015 thanks to the 55 million units it shipped in the first half of the year alone.
That’s not to say Huawei is a quantity over quality venture; its devices are consistently reliable, stylish and feature top-tier specs and hardware. In fact, listening to Howard Chen – Managing Director at Huawei Device Australia – talk, the company tends towards employing managerial staff with engineering, rather than marketing backgrounds. He believes that in time the quality of the products from this approach will speak for itself.
Once you’ve used a Huawei phone, and compared the experience to a price-tag that is downright affordable compared to the competition, it’s hard to disagree. They're not making an entirely new product; they're just making familiar, good smartphones at a comparatively low price.
Huawei G8 smartphone
The G8 is Huawei’s flagship in Australia for the second half of 2015. As a company representative put it, this is “a top-tier device for a mid-range price”. We’ve only had our hands on one for a couple of hours, but that statement has so far held mostly true, with the exception of the CPU and possibly the rear camera.
Pricing is not yet official, but it’ll apparently be somewhere between $500 and $700 when it launches. For $700 this would be a pretty good deal, for $500 you’ll be laughing.
Even better – Huawei is instituting its screen promise in Australia. Should you buy a G8 from any Australian vendor, you’re covered for a free screen repair within 12 months of purchase. That’s a broken screen for any reason. There’s a limit of one screen per customer, which is 1 screen better than anyone else is doing Down Under.
The 5.5 inch 1080p display might feature fewer pixels than a fully-fledged Android flagship does these days, but that figure still affords it a solid 401 pixels per inch (ppi). That’s the same ppi as the 5.5 inch screen on an iPhone 6s Plus, so it’s in good company.
Unlike the iPhone 6s line, whose cheapest options start at 16GB, the G8 is a 32GB phone. There’s also a microSD slot to expand that a further 128GB if need be. If you did buy that extra microSD card, the card + phone would still come in at under the cost of a 16GB iPhone 6s.
The 13MP rear camera seems decent so far. We’ll need a bit more time to check it out in detail, but for now it certainly passes muster. This is one area where the G8 is likely to have difficulty keeping up with the fully-priced flagships like the iPhone 6s or Galaxy S6, but at a mid-range price you've got to expect a sacrifice or two.
CPU-wise it comes running a 1.5GHz+1.2GHz 8-core processor. This is quite a bit less-powerful than the Snapdragon 810 and 808 we’re seeing in other smartphones. Once again, these are top-tier handsets we’re talking about; so that’s to be expected. This CPU should get the job done easily enough for a mid-ranger and, thanks to the 3GB of RAM, multitasking is likely to be a breeze.
Finally, we come to the design. The Huawei G8 doesn’t let its low price tag detract from its exterior one bit. The casing is metal, with a fingerprint scanner built in to the back right where your index finger sits. It’s a gorgeous, sensible design.
Huawei Watch
Hitting shelves in Australia next week on October 15, the Huawei Watch has been popularly-received by reviewers the world over. The company is aiming for a “fashion first” approach with this Android Wear smartwatch, which makes sense.
Android Wear (now compatible with iPhones) is such a restricted ecosystem that it’s all but impossible for manufacturers to differentiate their products with software or hardware features. Instead, they’re all turning to style and appearance to hawk their wares.
Huawei has done so with aplomb. The Huawei Watch comes in four varieties. All have metal faces, with clasps ranging from leather, to silver mesh, to steel clasp, up to the premium model with a black metallic clasp and black metal face.
- Silver & Black Leather Band - $549 RRP
- Silver & Silver Mesh Strap - $649 RRP
- Silver & Silver Link Bracelet - $649 RRP
- Black & Black Link Bracelet - $749 RRP
M2 MediaPad
The M2 looks like a bigger version of the G8. It’s fast, powerful, beautiful and is expected to hit shelves sometime in October for between $400 and $600.
There will be two M2 tablets available globally, one with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, and one with 32GB and 3GB. Both feature a microSD slot for stretching things up to a further 128GB. Everything else about the two is identical.
The body is 99.5% metal and just 7.8mm thick. Despite the hefty build material, it’s just 330g, making it light enough for long-term one-handed use.
The M2 is an 8-inch tablet with 1920 x 1200 resolution. Once again this puts it under the top-tier Android competition, but its 283 pixels per inch means it’s actually more-densely packed than an iPad Air 2 with 264ppi.
The CPU is a moderately-powerful 2.0GHz 8-core affair. If the M2 ends up falling towards the lower end of its prospective price range, this will be some serious bang-for-buck. If it ends up topping the price possibilities, it’s about what we’d expect; pretty darn good, not mind-blowing.
Overall this looks like either an amazing tablet (if it turns out to be cheap), or a pretty-good tablet (if it’s the more-expensive option). Either way, it’s a beautiful, compact little device from a manufacturer you can expect to hear about a lot more often in the coming years.
Alex Angove-Plumb
Digital Content Editor
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