HUAWEI is now more than just smartphones. They are an ecosystem of products that forms a bigger picture of Internet of Things (IoT). HUAWEI has been making products other than smartphones for a while now though. The only issue is that you do not know about it because they do not make those things available in Malaysia.

One of their most successful products from China is their televisions. Yes, you read that right, televisions. Now, you can experience that too, in the HUAWEI Vision S, touted to be available in Malaysia now.

Here is the thing though; why should you buy a television from HUAWEI? There are other smart TVs around that you probably have been eyeing for a while now. You get really good options from the likes of Sony, LG, and Samsung. If you need something that fits a smaller budget, and still want 4K with smart TV functions, there are manufacturers like HAIER, TLC, and even HiSense.

The HUAWEI Vision S 65 is and interesting and compelling product on its own though. It has its own smart TV functions, and its packs quite powerful speakers. All of that costs less than MYR 5,000 too. That said, should you actually consider buying this hardware? We find out.

Design

Right out of the bat though, we have a problem with the 65-incher HUAWEI Vision S. It barely fits our TV surface. Then again, our TV surface is made for TVs at up to 55-inch. The good news is that its legs still fit on the surface and we can work with the TV at a comfortable angle. That is more of an us problem than HUAWEI problem though.

They say that the simply straight and somewhat plain legs that comes with the TV is inspired by ice skates. But its design and angle help make the TV look like it is somewhat floating when you place it on any surface. It hides itself well is what we are saying. Its minimalist design cues help the projecting surface stand out a little bit more and does not leave too much dead space below the TV. In that sense, we like that very much.

The rest of the front silhouette of the TV is pretty much an expected thing. It has thin bezels, like any modern smart TV you can buy today, even the super cheap ones. Really, the thing that should stand out on a modern TV should be its projecting panel, in this case the LCD panel on this large glass thing in front of you.

Once you move to the side of the TV though, there is a small difference between this HUAWEI Vision S and a lot of the modern Smart TVs. The I/O panel is on the right side of the TV instead of the left. While it is not that big of an issue in most cases, if you are used to something that came out of Sony, or LG, or even Samsung, you might want to reconsider rearranging some of your things to fit that layout. Either that, or make sure that you extend your HDMI or AUX cables a little bit.

Other than those though, nothing really makes the HUAWEI Vision S stands out compared to other TVs with its projection panel turned off. Just like any other modern Smart TV, it is just a slab of glass you can either rest on a shelf or hang on the wall. You can turn it into a digital photo frame if you really want too.

Features

What differentiates a TV from one another is usually their features. What separates this HUAWEI Smart TV and other Smart TVs in the market is the Operating System (OS) on it. That OS is also unique to this TV only and will come in the other HUAWEI TV that will come later. They call it HarmonyOS, and it is unlike any other TV OS we have come across, which may not be entirely a good thing.

Keep in mind that the unit we are reviewing is a China unit and there may be some differences between it and the official Malaysian unit. For one, the Malaysian unit will not have VMall pre-installed, and there will not be any exercise guide app. The Malaysian unit also will not have as much content within the App Gallery.

Webcam – MeeTime and Family Photo Time

While we are going to go into HarmonyOS, we first have to talk about the thing that is sticking out of the TV, or the optional item that could stick out of the top of the TV, its camera. When we say optional, it comes with the TV when you buy it. You can choose to keep it detached, however.

If you choose to attach it to the TV, the procedure is pretty simple. Just line up the gold pins to the port on the back of the top of the TV and the webcam will snap in place. HUAWEI also includes a cap to protect the gold pins on the TV just in case you do not want the webcam in place. For a TV, the webcam sticking out looks quite odd to us. If you are buying this for a meeting room though, you might be glad to know that it comes with a webcam, and you do not need to buy one

There is a caveat however, it is a HUAWEI device after all. That also means that it does not work like an Android TV and it has limited apps available to it. That means, you cannot just pick up the TV remote and start a video call on it on any app.

There is only one app you can use for video calls on the HUAWEI Vision S currently and that is MeeTime. MeeTime, as you may have found, can only be used with other HUAWEI devices. So, if your entire office uses HUAWEI’s most current devices, you are good. If not, you are out of luck, because you cannot use it to make calls to anyone else.

If you do have friends with a current HUAWEI device that supports MeeTime though, you are going to get a very cool Full HD video calling capability That also means that you get very crisp, very clear videos transmissions. Audio is not half bad too. Sadly, we do not have enough people using MeeTime in the office to test it out.

Of course, you can also use the webcam to take a family photo of sorts. It is a 13-Megapixel camera, good enough for most social media use and even sharing it with your friends or family. Of course, you need to make sure to share the photo to your smartphone first before sharing it out. That, or you can just use it as a wallpaper for the TV. Make sure you have the Home Vision app for that though.

HarmonyOS on top of Honghu 818– Mirror, Control, and Mirror Control

This brings us to HarmonyOS, a sort of peculiar TV OS that is, on its own, quite brilliant. Once you compare it to other TV Systems though, it starts to show a lot of cracks. We do not know how to feel about the HUAWEI Vision S mostly because of HarmonyOS.

HarmonyOS looks great on the 65-inch panel. We are guessing that it will translate nicely on the smaller 55-inch display too. We like it because it looks pretty, it is smooth, it looks light.

Navigating through the interface is a breeze as well. Everything is laid out clearly and all of them are labelled properly. The settings make plenty of sense and is very intuitive as well.

We like how minimal and simple the remote is though. It is a far fetch from TV remotes of old. The minimalist approach is also remarkably similar to Samsung’s approach with TV remotes these days. The extra space below the buttons are not wasted too, because it is an NFC detection panel, for One Hop sharing features from your smartphone to the TV and vice versa.

That feature itself makes the Vision S a compelling purchase. Only thing is that it only works with HUAWEI devices. Then again, the unit we have is China unit. The HUAWEI Home Vision app will be available the Google Play Store when the official Malaysian units launches, so we do not know if HUAWEI will bring the One Hop feature for the Vision S TV available to other Android devices.

Home Vision App

The Home Vision app will allow you to do a few things with the TV via your smartphone. You can use your smartphone as a regular remote control. You can also control the TV via mirroring the TV on the smartphone screen itself.

You can fire up MeeTime directly from the app itself too. You do not need to go into the TV to even pick your contacts. All you have to do is go into the Home Vision app itself and fire up MeeTime from the home page.

Limited Screen Mirroring

Of course, all Smart TVs should be able to do simple screen mirroring from your smartphone today. The HUAWEI Vision S can do that too, of course. But take it with a pinch of salt though, it does not scale all the way to 4K. Most of the time, you get up to Full HD resolution when you mirror your smartphone to the display.

We use a HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro and a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra to mirror its contents to the display. This is also the only way you are going to get Netflix contents to project on the TV, if you are using the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro. If you are on other Android devices, you may not be able to get Netflix on the TV. You most likely will not get Amazon Prime Video on the TV panel, we tried on both the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

If you have a HUAWEI device though, you do not have to dig through your smartphone settings to mirror your display. All you need to do is to tap your device to the remote’s OneHop NFC receiver area, and you get your TV to display what your smartphone displays. Keep in mind that for you to get a full screen experience though, you want to make sure that you are displaying in HUAWEI Desktop Mode instead. Again, not all apps can be mirrored from the smartphone.

Hey Celia!

This is one feature we did not try extensively on the HUAWEI Vision S because the unit we have is a China unit. We got a quick hands-on the official Malaysian unit before its launch though. We have to say that the AI assistant is responsive and sensitive enough to voice inputs even though you may be sitting four feet away from the TV. That is a good thing, you can sort of lose your remote in this case. The only issue is that it is no Google Assistant, so there could only be so much you can do if you do not own other HUAWEI devices at home.

HUAWEI Video and Music

Despite the lack of Netflix, or Amazon Prime Video, or even YouTube, there are still things you can watch on the TV though. HUAWEI’s Video and Music platform still has a selection of movies and TV series to work with. Although, you will have to live with less contents than the likes of Netflix and Prime Video. Even HUAWEI Music’s library will not be as extensive as Spotify or even Tidal.

Performance

Yes, there are shortcoming on the HUAWEI Vision S. The shortcomings are mostly with the HarmonyOS. In that sense, its hardware does shine through.

65-inch of 120Hz 4K Goodness

 HUAWEI did not specify the sort of projection panel they use on the HUAWEI Vision S. We suspect that they are probably working with an IPS panel. There is a reason for our suspicion, more on that later.

HUAWEI claims a DCI-P3 colour gamut of up to 92%, and TUV Rheinland certified Low Blue Light and Flicker Free certification. They also claim that the panel produces vivid, vibrant colours very close to what you might see in real life. We believe them.

We say that the display could very well be an IPS display because of the colour reproduction of the TV panel. Videos and images looks amazing on the HUAWEI Vision S. While HUAWEI did not mention anything about local dimming features, there is very little colour bleeding on bring images with black background. The blacks are really deep as well when it needs to be.

Colours, as per HUAWEI, are super vivid and vibrant. Vibrant films like ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ shines on the Vision S. While it is a shame we could not test Netflix or Prime Video films natively on the Vision S, we were able to test the TV with our contents at 4K as well. Yes, they look really good too.

The Honghu 818 processor is also not just to keep the TV trundling along at a respectable pace. It can also upscale Full HD contents to 4K when it recognises it. Since it is also a 120Hz panel, the processor also scales to 120 frames a second when it can. That also means that you get very smooth viewing experience too at 4K.

The thing is though, when you upscale contents, you tend to get some screen tears and even weird shadow flickers. You tend to not notice too much of that on the HUAWEI Vision S though. What we are trying to say is that even Full HD movies that plays at 30fps tend to look really good on the HUAWEI Vision S. Of course, you would get the full benefit of 4K and 120Hz when you game on it.

HUAWEI Sound – Do You Really Need a Soundbar

This is another thing we really liked about the HUAWEI Vision S. We usually would recommend our friends to get a good piece of sound bar to really elevate their entertainment experience. There are just a few TV out in the market that may not need a sound bar to work with, if you are on a budget.

The HUAWEI Vision S is one of those TVs that we think may not need a soundbar to work with. That is because HUAWEI bothered to fit this TV with four speakers within the TV. The result of the four speakers really changes what we know about modern Smart TVs with the kind of dimensions modern TVs boasts.

There is a lot of detail coming from the quad speaker array on the HUAWEI Vision S. We expected the speakers to sound a little on the weak side. That is the total opposite of what you will get on the HUAWEI Vision S though. The audio profile is pretty much powerful in all ranges of frequencies.

Of course, there will be some benefits to a soundbar. You get dedicated woofers that would really enhances the lower frequencies for bigger booms. But they have not forgotten on the higher frequencies too.

This also means that you can even enjoy music on the TV itself. To save some power the HUAWEI Vision S still can play audio without the display being on. Again though, the HUAWEI Music App is a little limited currently. You can connect your smartphones to the TV via screen mirroring and play music via Spotify or Tidal though.

Gaming on the HUAWEI Vision S

With 4K 120Hz, the HUAWEI Vision S is really made for the new next-gen gaming consoles. The Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X are made to handle games at 4K at up to 120fps to fully take advantage of high refresh-rate displays like the HUAWEI Vision S. Unfortunately, we do not posses any of the next-gen console just yet.

We have a PlayStation 4 Pro and Nintendo Switch though. We also tried plugging our gaming PCs to the TV, for the native high refresh-rate support. We must say that we are impressed here too.

While Nintendo Switch does not scale up to 4K, most of the games on Nintendo Switch are made with more vibrant colours and softer textures in mind compared to detailed, sharp graphics. Vibrant colours shine on the HUAWEI Vision S. Animal Crossing: New Horizons look gorgeous on the 65-inch panel because the colours look so vivid and sweet. God of War on PlayStation 4 Pro looks amazing too. Of course, there is no 120Hz here. Thing is HUAWEI’s Vision S will try to scale it up a little to 120Hz. It is barely noticeable though because you are just blown away by the colours and details you get on games like God of War. You technically can play CS:GO and push the fps boundaries to 120Hz if you connect your PC. But you would have to sit a little further away too. Thankfully though, the blacks are so black and detailed that you still can see the darker spots when you play games like PUBG.

HUAWEI’s website markets its gaming capabilities via your smartphone though. Obviously, we gave that a go. But then again, you are just mirroring your smartphone’s content on the display, so there is nothing too special there. There are also games within the HUAWEI Vision S’s HarmonyOS AppGallery. We did not try any of them though.

HUAWEI Vision S – Yes, But No

HUAWEI’s Vision S (65-inch as tested) commands MYR 3,999 in asking price. If you go for the one smaller, at 55-inch, it will set you back MYR 2,999. While you might want to say that the commanding price is what we call expensive, you might want to hold back your horses though. HUAWEI mentions that the Vision S is meant to go up against models like Samsung’s latest AU9000 series TV. That also means the HUAWEI is also in the league of Sony’s X80H TV and LG’s UN74 series TV.  Against the competition, the HUAWEI suddenly looks like a bargain at MYR 3,999. The difference in price is up to MYR 1,000 compared to its competition.

Where the HUAWEI Vision S falls apart though is the contents itself. It is the only Smart TV to feature the HarmonyOS and Honghu 818 CPU. In all fairness, HarmonyOS and Honghu 818 works like a charm, they work great; we like them.

While it does look like a bargain, I would still suggest you consider getting the Sony or the LG TV hard. While there can be a significant price difference between the TVs, we would say contents and compatibility matter. In the case of the HUAWEI Vision S, you might want to consider getting and Android TV box, or Apple TV box, or plug in a PC, and even a gaming console to get to contents you want and love. We resorted to relying on our Sony PlayStation 4 Pro to get Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and even Spotify working.

The HUAWEI Vision S is an enticing product, with its excellent colour reproduction that rivals even other higher end TVs. It even has sound system we can stand behind, because the four speakers are that good. But to us, its content matters. We really wanted to like it, but we could not.