Dubai
Every flagship smartphone launched in the market has some unique features up its sleeves.
On Sunday, LG launched its unique screen display ratio to stand out with its G6, while Sony, on Monday, was looking to take the lead in display technology with the world’s first 4K HDR smartphone, which also has the ability to take ultra-slow motion videos of 960 frames per second.
And now, Huawei is focusing on photographic capabilities and better connectivity options with its P10 and P10 Plus to stand out from the newly-launched flagships in the market.
The Chinese manufacturer and the world’s number three ranked player is taking aim at the premium segment of the market, which is dominated by Apple and Samsung.
According to research firm Gartner, Huawei increased its market share to 8.9 per cent in 2016 to 139 million units compared to 7.3 per cent a year earlier.
The Chinese company aims to increase its global shipments by 25 per cent in 2017.
“With Huawei P10 and P10 Plus, we have created a smartphone that revolutionises and redefines portrait photography,” David Wang, country manager of Huawei Consumer Business Group in the UAE, told Gulf News after unveiling the devices.
He said that Huawei updates its smartphone cameras every six months, first half with ‘P’ series and second half with ‘Mate’ series. The P10 and the P10 Plus will make every shot a ‘cover shot’.
He said that P10 Plus have four antennas compared to the usual two found in other smartphones to offer better connectivity, both indoors and outdoors.
“The new devices will help us grow more than 30 per cent this year as our focus is consumer centric,” Wang said.
Daniel Gleeson, senior analyst for consumer technology at Ovum, told Gulf News that Huawei is continuing to grow very strongly, especially in Europe. The advantage of Huawei phones is the price point.
“It is able to offer premium features at an affordable price than LG, Sony, HTC and Samsung. It may not be the best known brand in the world but it is improving a lot every year,” he said.
He added that every smartphone maker has some unique camera features on their phones but it all depends how many customers are going to use it on a daily basis.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said at the recent Las Vegas consumer electronics show that Huawei is aiming to be the world’s biggest spender in research and development in the next couple of years as Huawei is pouring resources into its own chips, machine learning and artificial intelligence, to conserve power and keep the Android platform from slowing down over time.
He said that the company hopes to go from its current number three position to number two smartphone manufacturers within a year or two.
The Chinese company said that its light and sporty Huawei Watch 2 and a Watch 2 Classic [without SIM] will be available in the UAE later this month between Dh1,000 and Dh1,100 while Huawei is in talks with TRA for the embedded eSIM version.
Specs
• The 5.1-inch P10 is powered by 2.4GHz home-grown processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage capacity. The hybrid dual-SIM device can also support up to 256GB microSD card. It houses Leica 20MP and 12MP monochrome cameras at the rear and 8MP camera in the front. It sports 3,200mAh battery. It is priced at Dh1,899.
• The 5.5-inch P10 Plus is powered by 2.4GHz home-grown processor with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage capacity. The P10 Plus offers same camera specifications as P10 but the camera lenses are different. It is priced at Dh2,599.
• Both the models will be available from Thursday [April 13] with eight colours like dazzling gold, mystic silver, rose gold, prestige gold, ceramic white, graphite black, green and blue.
