HUAWEI launched the P60 series of devices not too long ago this year. Of course, being HUAWEI’s biggest market outside of China, you would expect them to launch the P60 series sometime soon in Malaysia. They did just that.
They launched the P60 Pro last week alongside a few new shiny devices, including a rather interesting foldable smartphone that we thought looked rather slick. No matter though, the star of the show was supposed to be the HUAWEI P60 Pro, their latest photography flagship smartphone.
To recap, the HUAWEI P60 Pro was launched in China sometime in March 2023. Within the device is a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ gen1 4G platform. No 5G technology here, no thanks to the trade ban. You get up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512G of on-board storage with the powerful System on a Chip (SoC).
It is not Android that powers the device either, as we all have come to expect it. Instead, you get an in-house developed EMUI 13.1. While the main architecture and design of EMUI 13.1 is based mostly on Android, HUAWEI’s P60 Pro will not be coming with Google Play Store on-board.
Source: HUAWEI
EMUI 13.1 is displayed in all its glory on a 6.67-inch LTPO OLED display that offers up to 120Hz in refresh rate. It is not a Full HD display; you get 1,220 by 2,700 pixels, not quite QHD either. Still, the display offers brilliant OLED vividness and saturation at P3 wide colour gamut.
Out the back is a powerful 48-Megapixel main shooter that can also capture 4K videos. There is also a 13-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter alongside a 48-Megapixel telephoto camera to support the main camera and offer users more variety in their photos. Out the front is a 13-Megapixel selfie camera that also offers 4K video recording capabilities.
Keeping the device running and charged up the entire day is a 4,815mAh internal battery that should last for more than a day even with constant usage. If that is not enough, you can charge the device at up to 88W with a compatible charger and cable combination. If you prefer to keep your device unplugged, the device can still be charged at up to 50W using Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge technology.
The HUAWEi P60 Pro is now available for pre-orders at MYR 4,699 until 19th of May 2023 at select HUAWEI Experience Stores. You can select between Rococo Pearl and Black colour options. Device collection can be done the day after the pre-order period ends. Each pre-order entitles you to a selection of gift vouchers for various services and products. If you collect your device on the 20th of May 2023, you are also entitled to an MYR 200 Touch n Go voucher and a chance at winning a HUAWEI Vision S television worth MYR 3,499. You can learn more about the HUAWEI P60 Pro on their website.
Pre-orders will also get access to an enticing selection of vouchers from renowned brands including:
HUAWEI has now spent more than 3 years outside the Google ecosystem. Since 2019, HUAWEI has launched the HUAWEI Mate 30 series without Google’s Play Store installed. They have also launched the HUAWEI P40 series, Mate 40 series, and P50 series.
Ever since HUAWEI stopped sporting Google’s Play Store too, they have been developing their own App Gallery to fill the gap left by Google’s app marketspace. The App Gallery is not exactly new for HUAWEI devices though, even before 2019. The HUAWEI App Gallery, while has been running alongside the Google Play Store for a while, was not a fully matured platform just yet.
This was 3 years ago. HUAWEI’s App Gallery has grown quite a lot since then. HUAWEI has done everything it can to push and even attract new developers for their platform. They have collaborated with anyone willing to develop on their platform. This means that HUAWEI’s App Gallery is now the third-largest app marketplace in the world.
Does that mean that HUAWEI devices are now worth a look? Should you consider running a HUAWEI secondary driver, or even a primary one? We attempt to answer all of that with the HUAWEI Nova 8.
Design
The HUAWEI Nova 8 is built of similar materials you find on any modern smartphones. You have two pieces of glass that sandwiches an aluminium frame. The top and bottom of the device features a flat taper. The flat sections are flat enough for you to stand your Nova 8 on its own – we tried.
The glass back is nothing special in terms of materials too. The device looks rather pretty though. The Blush Gold on this Nova 8 makes it feel a little more special than it is though.
At the same time, the device is built to a premium standard. The way the metallic side of the device tappers seamlessly to the display helps the illusion of a single solid piece. Even the milled holes on the device looks precise albeit some alignment issues. The only indication that this is still a mid-range device would be its NOVA branding at the glass.
The oval camera housing is a nod to the older HUAWEI devices like the P30 series. While the main camera takes up nearly half the module, it does not look imposing. They arranged the three other smaller lenses in a way that complements main camera.
Hardware
As mentioned, the HUAWEI Nova 8 is a Kirin device. You have HUAWEI’s own Kirin 820E System on a Chip (SoC) powering the HUAWEI Nova 8. It is still a highly respectable ARM Cortex-A76 and Cortex-55 blend in today’s smartphone standard.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 does not come with HUAWEI’s Harmony OS 2. Instead, it is the trusty EMUI 12 based on Android. This is also their third iteration of EMUI since losing Google Play Store.
While the iterations of EMUI have not changed a lot in terms of look and feel between the HUAWEI devices, there are differences between 11 and 12. If you look closely, HUAWEI Nova 8’s EMUI 12 does not feature an “Android Version” category anymore in the About Phone submenu. That does not mean that the HUAWEI EMUI 12 is a completely different breed of Operating System (OS) though, they are still Android based, as far as we can tell anyway.
HUAWEI App Gallery
You still do not have access to Google’s curated apps. HUAWEI’s App gallery has grown tremendously though. With HUAWEI’s Petal Search integration, the App Gallery now searches the web for alternatives or APK files of your searched app. Either that, or you access a web version of apps like Google Drive.
You can use apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and even Instagram. They are not natively supported by HUAWEI App Gallery though. The only good news from that is that because HUAWEI’s EMUI 12 is essentially still Android, APK files works. The bad news is that you cannot transfer WhatsApp data between devices via cloud.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 does not have Google’s Mobile Services Framework, which also means it will not be able to unlock the use of Google’s suite of apps like Google Maps, for example. We tried installing Google Maps as an APK file, but it refuses to launch after.
The good news is that Malaysia is a big supporter of HUAWEI’s App Gallery. That also means that plenty of the local banking and e-wallet apps are available from HUAWEI App Gallery. You even have the MySejahtera COVID tracking app on HUAWEI’s AppGallery.
Always-On Display
Always-on display can find its roots in Samsung’s implementation of Android in TouchWiz. But because it is a function loved by users, Google made always-on display a feature on their own smartphones and eventually the function makes its way into other Android devices.
On the HUAWEI Nova 8, the always-on display is a clever system that keeps your battery life optimised when not in use. That also means that the always-on display is not constantly on. It only turns on when you interact with the device by tapping its display once.
Other than showing just time, we configured the always-on display to show date, battery percentage and other notifications. The time, date, and battery percentage show up nicely. Notifications will show up too, provided you have not seen any of it yet.
The only customisation you get is choosing how your clock looks in the always-on display menu. The always-on also displays a snippet of your notifications, including snippets of your WhatsApp, Telegram, or messages, just before you unlock your device and access the apps.
Separating Notifications and Quick Settings Access
HUAWEI EMUI 12 system, while still an Android overlay, feels a little different. HUAWEI now divides the notification bar into two sections. On the left side is the notification center, where all the latest updates to your apps, missed calls, messages gets displayed. When you swipe down from the right side, you get all your quick settings toggles. You also access the settings menu from here now.
It takes some getting used to, admittedly. Once you get used to it though, you start wondering why other Android devices do not implement similar features. It makes accessing the quick settings menu one gesture quicker.
We do have to say though that the quick settings menu does feel and look very much like what you get on an iOS. While it may not be a carbon copy of one, it still feels very much like it especially with the media player, WiFi, and Bluetooth widgets being standalone toggles.
No App Tray – Business as Usual
HUAWEI’s famous overlay of Android comes with no app tray like all of the EMUI that came before it. All its apps are organised on its home screen. You can hide apps you do not use very often, but you cannot find an app tray to access it later.
You can still add widgets and folders to the homescreens though. With EMUI 12 you simply pinch on the display and a menu will pop out at the bottom for you to add widgets, homepages, and even a folder. You can also group apps together now in enlarged folders for quicker access to the apps you want and to keep things tidy.
Performance
Modern mid-range devices like the HUAWEI Nova 8 are more than capable at running apps as smoothly and as fast as flagship device. Modern hardware has improved so much that performance differences between two classes of device are not quite apparent these days.
Call Quality and Connectivity
We solely relied on Yes 4G for the HUAWEI Nova 8 throughout our tests. On Yes 4G’s network the HUAWEI Nova 8 can make and receive VoLTE calls, which helps with call fidelity and quality of conversations. Of course, your call quality depends on the network strength as well.
There have not been any major dropped calls with the device. Even when the network is a little on the weak side, calls have come through and gone without hiccups until you lose the network completely. Data speeds may vary though in these instances. On the subject of data speeds, that is more a network provider issue than anything else.
Gaming
While the device has less power on paper than a flagship device, it does not necessarily mean it is that much worse. In fact, the HUAWEI Nova 8’s Kirin 820E is capable of running Mobile Legends: Bang Bang at its highest graphics settings without breaking too much of a sweat. The heat build up is never anywhere near uncomfortable in our time of use too.
Of course, a fast display helps very much in terms of immersion and experience in games. The games load smoothly and quickly when on the HUAWEI Nova 8. They even look pretty good thanks to the vivid colours of the OLED panel.
Multitasking and Productivity
Modern smartphones have been optimised to cope with multitasking instances on any given device. We had more than 20 tabs open in the HUAWEI Nova 8’s native browser and still keep do other things on the device without too much of an inconvenient lag.
Opening apps never felt sluggish or slow as well in our tests. At some point we were installing multiple apps from HUAWEI’s App Gallery at the same time, and still scrolling through the App Gallery without any issues. We also left multiple apps running at the same time without having to close any of the apps when we need to jump to another app.
Battery Life
HUAWEI’s legendary battery life status is down to their clever battery management system. The battery management system in the latest EMUI on the HUAWEI Nova 8 is cleverer and more sophisticated than the old system. It does not turn off selective apps anymore, but it still somehow ekes out as much life out of the 3,800 mAh battery as possible.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 on standby can last up to four days on a single charge. On a typical usage, with the device jumping between relying on WiFi and 4G networks, the device still lasts up to two days. A typical use in our case consists of some light WhatsApp texting, watching videos on YouTube (web), playing quick games of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, taking and making a few calls, and taking a few photos as well.
It also comes with a charger in the box. It charges up to 66W with the provided charger and USB Type-C cable. Most of the time, we charge the device when the battery hits 20%. In those cases, we get a full charge in just below two hours.
Display
The HUAWEI Nova 8 features a Full HD+ 6.7-inch OLED panel with up to 90Hz refresh rate. They did not mention its response rate, but do you really care? We do not, in this case at least.
OLED is known for its vivid colours that translates well on the HUAWEI Nova 8. The display is really bright, which also means you get to see some extra details when working with the device. The brightness also helps with visibility when you are outdoors.
While it produces very vivid colours, it does not match the colour standards of the newer flagship devices like the HUAWEI P50 series and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. Unless you use your smartphone to colour grade your videos, edit your photos, or any other work with accurate colour requirements, you hardly notice that much in difference.
90Hz Smoothness
The HUAWEI Nova 8 shows that you do not need a display that refreshes at 120Hz. A display that refreshes at 90Hz is more than enough to make the smartphone feel snappy and smooth. While 90Hz is nothing to shout about, it is a reminder that high refresh rate displays could be overrated.
If you are a casual mobile gamer, you really are not missing out on a lot between 90Hz to 120Hz. You see as much as the next gamer with 120Hz in games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, or even Garena’s Free Fire. The differences are so marginal that in most cases, you hardly notice it.
Camera
The HUAWEI Nova 8 is a testament to how good the modern smartphone camera technology is. While it may not be representative and does not offer the best that the smartphone camera technology has to offer, it is not that far off.
You get a 64-Megapixel shooter that is capable of shooting RAW photos in Pro mode. In Pro Mode you get more granular controls to your ISO, shutter speed, AutoFocus metering, exposure, and manual focus.
In regular photo mode, the camera only takes 16-Megapixel photos instead of the full 64-Megapixel it is capable of. You only access all 64-Megapixel that your device can offer in Pro mode with RAW settings, or the high-res mode. You lose the AI function in either modes though.
You have more than enough for social media purposes though. At the same time, with AI on, the camera captures great looking photos with a lot of details and amazing looking colours.
We find that the most stunning camera feature from the HUAWEI Nova 8 is the Night Mode. Photos that look dark and grainy in regular mode looks bright and properly detailed. Of course, you can see that the details are softer once you zoom in.
The HUAWEI Nova 8 – Another Great HUAWEI Device, still a HUAWEI Though
The HUAWEI Nova 8 is a pretty device. As expected from a HUAWEI device, the build quality of the device is premium. At MYR 1,899, the HUAWEI Nova 8 is a compelling device too.
There is not much wrong with EMUI 12. It feels smooth, intuitive, and still works like other Android devices with HUAWEI’s usual tweaks. It feels so smooth and snappy on the 6.7-inch 90Hz display it feels like a flagship device.
It is not a 5G ready device. There are devices at lower price points that will sport 5G, which makes the HUAWEI Nova 8 a little of an anomaly in the sea of smartphones in the market. That is a relatively minor issue though.
The big issue is that it does not come with Google’s Play Store. You will not be able to work with Google Apps at all. You can use WhatsApp but you cannot transfer your chats via cloud. You do not get access to Netflix app as well.
At MYR 1,899, the HUAWEI Nova 8 is a worthy contender in the mid-range smartphone segment. Although, you must remember you cannot access and run Google’s suite of apps. Otherwise, you are getting a great mid-range smartphone that is more than capable as your daily driver, play any of your mobile games, and perform like any modern flagships.
It has been more than a year since the United States of America vs. HUAWEI debacle. That issue has affected the smartphone industry a major way. HUAWEI is not just banned from the United States of America (U.S.A.), but vendors from the country are not allowed to deal with HUAWEI. That also means that HUAWEI loses the majority of their suppliers and clients alike. The lose important partners like Google. That loss of support also means that modern HUAWEI devices for 2020 does not come with Google’s Play Store.
It started with the HUAWEI Mate 30 series introduced last year, the HUAWEI AppGallery. That app aggregator is supposed to replace the missing Google Play Store on HUAWEI devices, a sort of filling for a hole left by Google. AppGallery was not perfect though, far from it. It is still only the third biggest app ecosystem in the world at this point. While that may not seem to be entirely a bad thing, you have to remember that there were two major superpowers in the app ecosystem, and they are leading in the region of billions of apps available to users. The HUAWEI AppGallery, in contrast, has not even hit 100,000, in app population.
This also means that all HUAWEI devices are a little crippled when it comes out of the box. Surprisingly though, Malaysia holds itself as HUAWEI’s biggest market outside of China. Proof? The HUAWEI Mate 30 series’ first batch to Malaysia sold out within the first day.
Those are flagships with very compelling hardware to go though, the Mate 30 devices. They embody the best of HUAWEI and the latest of their innovations in almost every aspect. What about the more budget options? What about a HUAWEI Y6P, for example?
The HUAWEI Y6P is an MYR 559 package that seems basic enough to be a secondary smartphone. It is even wallet friendly enough that it could be your kids’ first smartphone. But is this a better buy than, let us say, a Xiaomi Redmi 9 for example? Is it a good buy at all, since you still do not get Google Play Store on the device? We delve in and find out.
Design
By now, if you are a regular, you should know that we like to start by looking at the entirety of the device and see if it is anywhere near attractive enough to make it into our pockets or not. In reality, smartphones look pretty much the same most of the times now. The HUAWEI Y6P is two slabs of thin and ultra-strong glass panels stuck together with nothing more than glue on what seems to be its aluminium chassis.
At least it looks modern with bezels so thin, you could get a papercut (not really, but you get the point). The lip bezel at the bottom of the device seems to be a little thicker to suggest that the display is perhaps not as high-end as you want it to be. It is a budget package that costs well under MYR 1,000 after all.
You pull your gaze further up the display and everything looks sublime until you reach the top of the device. You spot an old school notch that houses a front-facing camera. While the front-facing camera notch is not something from a decade ago, it still feels a little old compared to modern smartphones of today; a little old-fashioned.
Not that it is a bad thing though. The little notch is a still an elegant and valid solution to the near bezel-less displays of today. Still, we are never huge fans of notched displays or punch-hole displays.
You move to the back, and you see pretty much what you can expect from a modern smartphone. You see a multi-camera set up surrounded by the usual glass or plastic material. In the case of the HUAWEI Y6P, you see a triple-camera set-up surrounded by glass.
There is another old-fashioned feature on the device too, at the back. There is a proper, physical dip for a fingerprint sensor. These days you get plenty of devices with their fingerprint sensor under their displays. In our opinion, the old physical fingerprint sensors are still the best to work with. They are still more accurate and faster compared to the modern under-display fingerprint readers.
Thing is, while this looks like a device that is a whole lot older than modern flagships, the design cues on the device is common in a non-flagship that sets you back less than MYR 1,000. The traditional fingerprint sensor out the back of the device, the notched display, and the fat bottom lip of the bezel are not that old as well. In fact, we saw these designs two years ago at most. Most of these design decisions were also made to counter one or two problems with trending designs at the time if you think about it.
Underneath the glass at the back is a unique design that looks like a wave under the lights. Again, this is the sort of design you can expect from smartphones from last year and two years ago maybe. That does not mean that it does not look good though.
The unit we have is a Phantom Purple variant, and we quite like the patterns from the glass back of the device. We think that some flagships should come with these kinds of backing instead of entry-level or mid-range devices. Still, we suspect that this kind of look might not age well.
Overall, there is nothing really that stands out for the device. It looks plain and simple enough to pass as a smartphone. It looks perfectly fitting as a secondary smartphone, a spare smartphone, or your kids’ first smartphone. The price fits too.
Hardware
Unlike its more premium siblings, the HUAWEI Y6P has to make do with a MediaTek MT6762R System on a Chip (SoC). It is still an octa-core processor though, which means it should still be a capable machine. Multi-core also means that this should be able to run most mobile made apps and processes smoothly and quickly enough. Of course, again, it will not be perfect. It only packs 4GB in RAM and its display is not even a Full HD+ panel.
Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.0 LE OTG Support MicroUSB
Camera (s)
REAR: 13-Megapixel (f/1.8, wide angle) 5-Megapixel (f/2.2, ultra-wide angle) 2-Megapixel (f/2.4, depth sensor) HDR Full HD 1080p video recording (30fps) FRONT: 8-Megapixel (f/2.0) Full HD video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass
User Interface
Nope, it does not run HUAWEI’s proprietary operating system (OS). It is still the very familiar EMUI 10.1 that is based on Android 10. There is no word yet on EMUI 11 that should be based on Android 11. Still, Android 10 is still a very capable OS by Google.
Again, sadly there is no Google Play Store available here. You cannot even install Google Play Services and Framework for that matter. Which also means that while it is an Android device, it is devoid of plenty of apps and functions that makes an Android device an Android device.
HUAWEI AppGallery – an Improvement, But Not Google Play Store Replacement
We have to give it to HUAWEI and the team that is responsible in responding to the whole issue with not having Google Play Store. They have been doing a good job maintaining a straight face in the whole crisis and developed the HUAWEI AppGallery anyway. Like EMUI, the app marketplace has gone from strength to strength and has become a unique app marketplace on its own.
Of course, they like to point out that the AppGallery is now the third largest app marketplace there is in the world. Take it with a pinch of salt though. They are currently not up against huge players in the market. There are only two other large names in the field of distributing mobile apps to the world. Those two names are, of course, Google and Apple.
Still, that claim to third should not be discounted too much though. The AppGallery is growing consistently. We do not think that it will ever reach the heights and the sizes that are the Google Play store and Apple App Store in the next five years. We even hope that a change in the U.S.A. political conditions might allow Googe’s Play Store to find its way back to HUAWEI’s devices.
That is not to say that AppGallery is not a pleasant space to be though. There are apps that you are used to that will not be there, and there are apps that you will not normally use recommended to you. There is also something they call QuickApps within the app.
You can have WhatsApp on your smartphone and even Facebook on the HUAWEI Y6P via the AppGallery. They are not exactly on the app though. They are still the official download links on the official app, so you are quite safe. On the AppGallery as well, you can find iflix as well, if you want, or Viu, if you prefer that. You can download and get Netflix to work, but not via AppGallery, so you are using the app at your own risk as well.
Most importantly though you still can find shopping apps like Shopee and Lazada on the AppGallery, and almost all the banking apps in Malaysia. This is important because that also means that there is some localisation going on here.
EMUI 10.1 – The HUAWEI Ecosystem, on the Front Page
It is not all bad though. EMUI 10.1 is still and Android based OS. You see the marks of Android on it too like widgets and folders. It is the familiar EMUI that you know from before too (if you are familiar with EMUI). It does not feature an app menu tray, and it never will.
Like any modern Android, EMUI 10.1 feels smooth, snappy, and easy. You can get it to work with gestures from the beginning if you want to. That also means that there are no visible buttons to work with. Instead you swipe from the left or right to go ‘back’, swipe up to quickly go back to ‘home’, and hold after you swipe up for ‘recent apps’.
What that does is make your home screen looks much cleaner and a lot more expansive. But a device with no clear buttons might be confusing to some people, trust me plenty of friends gets confused on how an Android works these days. We do think that gesture control is still the way to go though.
The EMUI 10.1 on this device is a little different from the EMUI 10.1 of a flagship device though. Of course, that is to accommodate for the hardware present on the device. At the same time too, of course you are not going to get the full EMUI experience with this one, it is a sub MYR 1,000 device.
Some of things missing from EMUI on this device is things like HUAWEI Share and Multi-Screen Collaboration. Oh yes, it does not get Meetime as well, sadly. Or even air gesture controls like the HUAWEI P40 series.
So, what you are getting here is not really the full EMUI 10.1 that you get on flagship devices. Instead, it is the simplified version, the basic version that does just what you need a regular smartphone needs to do. It texts, it calls, and it plays videos, and that is just about it.
But it is not just because HUAWEI wants to encourage you to spend more money on your smartphones for all these features though. It is because they want you to buy this device as your secondary device, or just simplify it enough that it can truly be your first smartphone experience. That is why EMUI is simplified, for a simple device.
It does not have NFC, so why do you need HUAWEI Share? You might not need to use it on your PC or tablet, since it is a secondary device, so multi-collaboration is not needed. Air gesture would be clever and useful, but the hardware requirements will make it a lot more expensive that it is, so no. Camera? As an added bonus, the software will not be the bottleneck of the device, which also means you still get a smooth Android experience without spending an arm and a leg for it.
In that sense, the HUAWEI Y6P has done EMUI right. Our experience with the HUAWEI Y6P has been a smooth one. There are some noticeable lags here and there and plenty of apps open slower than what you can expect from flagship device. That is quite expected though, coming from a budget device. In that case, if you rely on your device for work that much and need to load a custom app quickly, maybe you want to consider using that app on your daily carry instead. We are quite confident that it will still run okay without any issues if you give it time though.
Sure, there are plenty of things that you might not be able to do with the HUAWEI Y6P over more expensive HUAWEI devices. Again, this is a budget device that is designed for a completely different market in mind. Expecting this to perform like a flagship device is quite unrealistic to begin with. The only drawback is that you do not have Google Play Store with it. But there are workarounds for that as well, if you are willing to take some risks and go through a little bit of hassle. Of course, you cannot be using any Google apps, since most Google apps need Google Framework installed, and this device does not have Google Framework installed within the system.
Performance
Of course, as we mentioned within the UI segment, you cannot expect magic to come out of the HUAWEI Y6P. It packs a MediaTek MT6762R SoC, which is not the most sophisticated or the most powerful SoC available for Android devices currently. While it is not the most powerful, it is good value and keeps the prices of the devices it powers cheap. It still has eight cores within the construction with four high-power cores and four low-power cores, the normal Big Little architecture that we see plenty of in today’s smartphone market.
It only packs 4GB in RAM as well, with 64GB in memory, to keep the device as budget friendly as possible. The amount of memory that the device has access to is also a good indication of how much processes it might be able to run at the same time. 4GB, while plenty for a mobile device, may not be adequate for high-load applications. Though, whether 4GB of RAM is enough really depends on how you work with your device.
We are not able to run any regular benchmarks for the HUAWEI Y6P because the regular apps we use for benchmarking a device does not exist on AppGallery. Downloading the apps via a third-party app aggregator works, but there is no guarantee that it works the same or is the most updated version. In that case we skip the benchmarks and continue the experience of the device.
Call Quality and Connectivity
We used the HUAWEI Y6P as our main driver. We stuck to Maxis because we are Maxis customers anyway. The device supports dual SIM capabilities, but we did not have a secondary SIM card to put into the device. It could also take a MicroSD card on the three-card slot tray, we stuck a 32GB MicroSD card in the device.
A three-card slot tray also means that you can have two SIM cards and a MicroSD card together in the device without compromise. We always thought that a flagship device should also include this kind of SIM tray, but none of the major flagships has gone this route yet. In that sense, we thought that his arrangement is the best there is.
The HUAWEI Y6P does not yet support 5G though. So, if you are trying to purchase a secondary smartphone or even a main driver that supports 5G; bad news, turn around, save up a little bit more. But 5G is not the point of this HUAWEI Y6P. 5G is not even commercially available in Malaysia just yet.
Making a call on the HUAWEI Y6P is as straightforward as making a call with any other smartphones. The layout of the buttons has never changed, the icon even looks somewhat the same with everything else in the market. That also means that it should come as a second nature to you at this point.
Of course, as a secondary device, you might want to use it for work mostly. That also means that you need to be making a lot of calls or even receive them. You are going to use this for your prime work conversation device. You will need good data signal too, to ensure you get all the messages in immediately and quickly reply.
In those departments, the HUAWEI Y6P excels as expected from a modern smartphone. Conversations are crisp and clear when you hear it from the earpiece. Unless the other person is on speakerphone, calls should not sound muddled or muted. But all those also depends on their environments.
On the other end, calls are reported to be mostly clear when there is a strong enough signal (at least one bar). Of course, with poor signal, you might get some dropped calls. In most cases in Kuala Lumpur though, you are going to be alright. The only times where signals are dropped is when you enter some basement parking areas, elevators, or known ‘black’ spots. Other than those, signals are usually more than 2 bars at a time. Of course, the other thing that you have to give credit to in modern smartphones are their dual mic configurations for noise cancellation.
If you are going to have a meeting with the device, the speakers might be loud enough that the crowd in a tiny meeting room can hear it. But not necessarily everyone in the room could have a proper conversation with the person on the other end of the line. You might want to be closer to the mics on the HUAWEI Y6P for that or get a wireless Speaker with Mic combination for conference calls.
Gaming
The HUAWEI AppGallery does not actually contain a lot of games that we play. Games like PUBG: Mobile, or Call of Duty Mobile is not available on the AppGallery, so you would have to download it via a third-party app aggregator. There is a problem with that though, you do not have Google Play Games on the device, which also means that if your progress is tied to your Google account, you have start from scratch.
If not though, you can technically get some of these games to work on the device and get your progress back with whatever you registered your accounts with. That may work for PUBG: Mobile or AOV since you can choose to use your Facebook account to save your progress with. Games like Brawl Stars, or Sky Force: Reloaded can work, but you will not have your previous progress.
When we do get them to work though, graphics are not impressive. All these things are quite expected from a device with 720p display though. PUBG also optimizes itself on difference devices, and that is why it reduced its graphical detail to ensure you get the best experience on the HUAWEI Y6P.
The thing is the device is not really made for these things. It is not made as a gaming device, not even a budget gaming device for that matter. It is made to be a value-for-money all-rounder. In that mindset, games are not on the priority list for the device.
Battery Life
This is probably the device’s best feature, considering everything else on the device is nothing to shout about. The HUAWEI Y6P packs a 5,000mAh battery. That is a larger battery size than any of the modern flagships currently. No doubt we will start seeing 5,000mAh battery packs in flagships in a few years’ time.
Still, there are no flagship at this point that packs a 5,000mAh juice pack within the device. Without a SIM card, the device could be on standby for nearly a month from a single charge. With a SIM card, you could leave it for about three days and still have enough battery to make a phone call and reply messages. You might even be able to look through your emails for a while before the battery dies. If you leave the device purely on standby with your SIM card plugged in and kept it in a WiFi environment, we believe it could even last for a whole week.
In normal use case, where we reply a few WhatsApp messages, Telegram messages, make or receive one or two phone calls, have one Whatsapp video call with a friend later in the day, and more Facebook and Instagram scrolls than anything, the device could last you about two days. The ultra-long battery life though is not only thanks to the low-powered processor that consumes little power for processes. Thanks to a lower resolution display at 720p as well, the battery life can be preserved even longer.
Display
As mentioned earlier, this only packs an HD+ 720p display, not even Full HD. That also means that when you put it against its competitors, the display of the other devices will look better and sharper. You cannot even compare them in terms of colour accuracy and aesthetics.
On its own though, you might not notice a difference between your HUAWEI Y6P and other devices at its price. Sure, there is only 1,600 by 720 pixels on board, but the 720p still looks decent. Colours are at least still sharp enough that you can enjoy YouTube (via the browser) videos on it. You can of course, enjoy Netlfix videos on the display but you cannot expect contrasts to be that great.
Of course, it is not an OLED display. While colours are sharp, they can look a little dull and washed out. Blacks are not truly black either, because this is not an OLED display. Again, nothing impressive in this department.
There is a good side to all this though. We did say the lower resolution helps in battery consumption, and that is true. Thanks to the lower power consumption in total, the device could last a little longer than its competition from a single charge. Of course, again, you might not be able to enjoy or appreciate details as much. Then again, this is not exactly an entertainment powerhouse is it?
Camera
The HUAWEI Y6P packs a 13-Megapixel main shooter supported by one 5-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter and one 2-Megapixel depth sensor. On the front is an 8-Megapixel shooter that sits pretty in the notch of the 6.3-inch display. Considering what most 12-Megapixel shooters can do today, 13-Megapixel as its main camera does not sound like a bad thing.
The thing is, the HUAWEI Y6P does not pack the same processor as its more premium siblings. The HUAWEI Y6P is also sort of a testament to the importance of processors for image processing and image quality. What you see from the 13-Megapixel sensor from the HUAWEI Y6P might shock your initial expectations to what photos should look like.
We tested it out first in a slightly darker conditions to be fair. In that sense lighting is at a premium and photos with most devices might not look good anyway. What we did not expect is how grainy and washed out the photos turn out. This is with HUAWEI’s clever AI turned on.
When there is enough lighting on your photos, they look fine. Not stellar, not breathtaking, simply fine. There is nothing to really shout about with the photos. They are not the most detailed photos or sharpest photos you can get from a smartphone. They are still useable though, and enough for Social Media use. We let the photos tell their own story though.
We are not particularly good with selfies. That is one reason why we did not upload a selfie photo for the review. The other reason is that the selfie camera is not particularly great as well. Photos look extremely washed out and cheap. They look like they are taken with a cheap polaroid with wrong the wrong colour contrast settings. Images from the 8-Megapixel sensor look soft on the edges.
Gallery
The HUAWEI Y6P – A Flawed Contender
The subheading might lead you to believe that the HUAWEI Y6P is a bad device. Let us get that out of the way first. We are not saying that it is a bad device. The HUAWEI Y6P does everything right, technically. We may not like its camera too much, but we do not expect this to replace our daily carry or even a DSLR anytime soon. It works just as it is intended.
There is nearly nothing wrong with the UI too, it is smooth and consistent. We never had anything against the UI because it is genuinely responsive. We only found that the lack of Google Play Store a little crippling.
Then there is the price. At MYR 559 (official price from HUAWEI’s Online Store), it is not expensive. If you put other devices of its class side by side though, it actually seems like a reasonable smartphone to work with. The Xiaomi Redmi 9, for example will set you back MYR 599 (equivalent spec). The OPPO A53 too is about MYR 699. Even Realme’s best offering that closely matches this device is MYR 150 more expensive. The closes thing to it is an HONOR 9CA that is MYR 549. You get 1GB less in RAM size though with the HONOR device.
We think that the HUAWEI Y6P should not be your first Android smartphone, just because it is so crippled by the lack of proper Google Play Store support. But we do think that as a second device the HUAWEI Y6P shines. Then again, you might still want Google Play Store support. In that case, the Xiaomi Redmi 9 seems like a good option.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone for the first time, you are going to get a little bit of a shock when you see the prices of mobile devices today. You are seeing devices hitting the MYR 7,000 ceiling these days and with spec sheet more complicated than the blueprints of a Death Star.
Of course, you pay for features and quality as well. You pay for being at the cutting edge, the state-of-the-art. That has become the definition of a mobile device in your pocket these days though. They are nearly buttonless slates that are very high-tech and awfully expensive, and at the same time strangely fragile. Yes, it is a strange world we live in.
When you first invest in a smartphone too, you might not want to spend more than MYR 1,000 on your smartphone. After all, feature phones did not exceed that kind of money even when they were brand new. There are a few options for you. One of them is the HUAWEI Y6P that is now available in Malaysia for MYR 559. That already ticks the ‘under MYR 1,000’ box.
Source: HUAWEI
Another thing that older feature devices have is a super long battery life. A single charge can take days to deplete while only taking an hour to charge. Premium smartphones these days can barely last a full 24 hours day before needing a plug in. The Y6P is not like that though. It comes with one of the largest battery capacities in the conventional smartphone market today. It comes with a 5,000mAh battery. No, you cannot swap it out, but it is still a large battery. That, combined with HUAWEI’s brilliant knowhow is battery life preservation means that you should easily last a day or two without ever needing a tether to your walls. ‘Long-lasting battery’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Of course, the move to smartphones have some major benefits. One of them is that you get properly nice photos from their high-resolution camera. Premium smartphones come with the latest and greatest of camera technology to produce the best possible photos and videos. Thing is, smartphone camera technology now progresses in diminishing returns. Certain mid-range and even entry-level smartphones have cameras that rival the premium smartphones in terms of Megapixel count, camera software and algorithm, and resulting photo and video quality.
The HUAWEI Y6P comes with dual cameras at the back. One is a 13-Megapixel camera that captures high-resolution, crisp photos that you can use to share with your family or family members. The other is an ultra-wide angle camera that can capture even more than the 13-Megapixel shooter. You can capture beautiful landscapes in expanded detail and tell the world of social media that you also can be a photographer.
It even comes with an 8-Megapixel front facing camera for you to shoot selfies or profile photos with. Obviously for your friends to identify you. If not, you can use the front-facing camera to take photos of yourself in your travels, just to show off a little bit maybe. ‘Cameras’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Of course, one of the biggest appeals in switching to a smartphone is the number of apps that you can access on a single small slate that fits in your palms and pockets. All this comes from the HUAWEI AppGallery for the HUAWEI Y6P. The AppGallery is currently the third largest app marketplace in the world. While there are some missing apps compared to Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, the HUAWEI AppGallery ecosystem is growing every day. The essential eWallet apps are already available on the AppGallery. Even some banking apps are already available. ‘Apps’, check.
With a high-resolution camera and access to endless number of apps, you are going to need a large storage to ensure that you have access to everything you need and put into the device in its lifetime. You get 64GB in storage with the HUAEI Y6P, which is ample space to work with for both your photos and apps. You even get a whole year of access to 15 extra GB of HUAWEI’s Cloud storage to offload some of your photos and files over when you need to. Or, insert a MicroSD card into the expansion slot to get up to 512GB of extra storage. Need multiple apps running at the same time? 4GB of RAM should be able to deal with that. Oh, and the MediaTek processor running within the device is more than capable enough to run multiple apps at the same time.
Source: HUAWEI
Now you are also wondering what else you can do with the 6.3-inch display. You can watch movies with it by either loading your downloaded movies into the native storage of the device. You can also look through HUAWEI’s Video app to see what you might want to watch. Of course, that is a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. You can also watch Viu contents through that 6.3-inch display though, for free no less. All you need to do to start watching endless Asian shows is claim the free membership of Viu through Member center on the HUAWEI Y6P. ‘Entertainment’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
The HUAWEI Y6P is now available via HUAWEI’s online store and retail partners across the nation for MYR 559. You can get your’s in three colour choices: Emerald Green, Phantom Purple and Midnight Black. The free Premium Access to Viu promotion is currently exclusive to the HUAWEI Y6P. For more information on the HUAWEI Y6P, you can visit their website.
Last night we saw a big fan fare of a smartphone launch. It was the very anticipated HUAWEI photography flagship, the HUAWEI P40 series. The ones we are going to see earlier is the HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro. There is a third model, the P40 Pro+ which will be coming way later. Still, HUAWEI finally announced their first 2020 flagship.
The HUAWEI P40 is really everything that you might want in a
HUAWEI flagship photography king. If you owned the P20, it is really the
smartphone that you naturally want to upgrade to. There is one thing that it
does not come with though: Google.
This means that the HUAWEI P40 series will not have Google’s very handy Play Store and is stuck to the ways of HUAWEI’s own proprietary Mobile Services (HMS) and its AppGallery. We are not saying that it is a terrible thing though. It may sound bad, but you never know until you try right?
The Test Bed – The HUAWEI Nova 7i
Our test bed is a HUAWEI Nova 7i. In some markets, they know
it as the HUAWEI P40 Lite. We do not understand that half the time, so we will
just stick to Malaysia’s official name for it, we guess; the HUAWEI Nova 7i.
If you really have to know the specs of this MYR 1,099
device, it is is a mid-range smartphone that packs a relatively punchy
HiSilicon Kirin 810 system on a chip (SoC) and supported by 8GB of RAM and you
get 128GB of storage with that. The internals push EMUI 10.0.1.108 that is also
based on Android 10. So, when we say that it comes completely devoid of Google
stuff, I did not forget that this is still an Android device. We just mean that
the HUAWEI Nova 7i comes devoid of Google’s important frameworks that includes
the Google Play Store.
We are not focusing on the hardware capabilities of the
device, though. So, it does not really matter if the HUAWEI Nova 7i comes with
a 48-Megapixel camera and a Full HD display. What matters is that it represents
the collective of modern HUAWEI devices that are in the market right now,
starting with the era of the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. They all have one thing in
common, and that is HMS and AppGallery.
The focus of this write-up then, is what we can do with HMS
and what AppGallery can offer us. On paper, it does not look too good for the
write-up. The HUAWEI AppGallery is the third largest app marketplace behind
Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Which may not sound like much,
because there are not many major app marketplaces in the market. Since there
are two major camps of smartphone Operating Systems (OS) in the market, the two
largest ones are quite a given.
Starting-up HUAWEI’s EMUI 10.0.1
Let us still give this a chance though. We fire up the device
and everything feels just like a regular Android smartphone at first. It is an Android
10 based system after all, so it starts up very similar to any Android. Except,
you do not sign in with your Google account. You sign in with or sign up for a
HUAWEI ID account. We had one, so that was simple.
If you are familiar with an EMUI device that has Google Play
Store installed on it, like the HUAWEI P30 series, navigating the smartphone should
be nothing new really. It is still a very familiar EMUI to the EMUI’s of the past;
in that, there is no difference in experience at all. You cannot see Google’s Play
Store on the home screen though. So far, so good; familiarity with the
interface saves the face.
First set-up
No Play Store, no problem. There the HUAWEI AppGallery. First
thing I usually do with a new smartphone is download all the essential apps I
need. Those apps are Whatsapp, Telegram, Slack, Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter. Out of all those apps listed, I only found two – Facebook and Whatsapp.
They are not loaded into the AppGallery though.
What happens is that the HUAWEI AppGallery will lead you to a
third-party site to download the apk files of Facebook and Whatsapp. These are
the only two I found so far. Not looking good now. When we checked in, HUAWEI
says that these two sideloaded apps are safe because the AppGallery is the one
that leads us to the site.
That is not to say that you cannot sideload the rest of the
apps that I listed down though. You can still download the apk files from other
sites, no problem. Just be wary of the sources though.
Still, we worked with the two apps that we just downloaded.
They both work just like the Android version app should work. They look the
same too. The only question now is whether we can keep up with the most current
update packages or not.
Day 0 Wrap-up
We wrap the test up with that for now. We got our smartphone
running with the most essential WhatsApp up. Even Facebook is there, so far
that is the entertainment we are getting for the night.
Still, we are going to try to live through the HMS and
AppGallery as long as we can and go in-depth. The HMS is available on every new
HUAWEI smartphone you buy today. Yes, they are all running on EMUI 10 now too.
Still, the HUAWEI P40 that was announced last night is not
just that. When you buy a new HUAWEI smartphone today, you get a free 50GB
HUAWEI Cloud Storage subscription for the next year. If you already own a
HUAWEI smartphone device, you already have 5GB of HUAWEI Cloud Storage for free
anyway.
We will be looking to more apps next week with the HUAWEI Nova
7i. Until then, stay safe during this whole Movement Control Order period. To
the ones outside of Malaysia, you stay safe too.
HUAWEI’s nova series has always been a strong contender in the mid-range space with compelling specifications. The main draw of the series has always been its flagship class camera with a price point that makes it one of the most accessible offerings that’s worth your money on the market.
That said, the company recently announced the availability of their nova 6 series in China. It looks like the 6 isn’t making its way to Malaysia. Instead, HUAWEI is teasing a new entry: the nova 7i which will be available in Malaysia from 14 February 2020!
The new HUAWEI nova 7i looks to be coming with a HiSilicon Kirin 810 which was featured in the HONOR 9X and 9X Pro. That said, the new chipset promises power savings thanks to the 7nm fabrication process which allows the chip to have more performance while keeping the battery life. The processor is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. If 128GB isn’t enough, you’ll be able to add up to 256GB of extra memory with a nano memory card (NM card).
The display on the nova 7i is a 6.4-inch LTPS IPS LCD capable of reproducing 16 million colours. It’s a Full HD+ display with a resolution of 1080×2310 pixels. Unlike its flagship brethren, the new mid-ranger comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. HUAWEI included a large, 4,200mAh battery for all-day battery life. It also supports 40W supercharge charging which can provide 70% of battery with 30 minutes of charging.
More Cameras, More Better Pictures?
The camera setup on the smartphone is a quad camera array with a 48-megapixel main sensor. It is also capable of ultrawide and macro shots. HUAWEI hasn’t clarified if the ultrawide and macro features are due to individual sensors on the camera array. That said, the main sensor is a wide sensor with an f/1.8 aperture for better low light performance.
HUAWEI is touting the front camera’s enhanced selfie features. This is powered by a dual selfie camera setup. HUAWEI hasn’t divulged the exact sensors used in the setup. That said, the company has touted that the new setup will enable users to get “golden selfies”. In addition, it looks like the nova 7i comes with enhanced software that will allow users to get better performance on video calls and even when posting to social media such as TikTok and Instagram.
We don’t have any information on the price. However, given the previous price point of the nova 5T, we expect the nova 7i to be about MYR1,599. It is likely the smartphone may be priced higher due to the HUAWEI Y9s released last year.
