Huawei P8

        

Smartphone of the future

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

LION CITY - Huawei’s chief executive officer Richard Yu introduced the flagship P8 smartphone recently to drumbeat a focused consumer shift in the Southern Pacific region. The eloquent CEO also showcased three wearable products (blue-tooth headset, health tracker and smartwatch) as he introduced the brand’s ‘Wei To’ inspirations at the recently concluded CommunicAsia 2015 summit inside the sprawling grand ballroom of the iconic Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

“The Southern Pacific is key part of our strategy to deepen and expand our presence in high-growth, high potential markets. We believe in inspiring our consumers to dream big and act bold to achieve great results and continue to make the impossible possible for our consumers into the future. We will be investing more energy and resources into engaging our consumers in this market and be on this journey with them,” intoned the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group.

Since the smartphone was first globally launched in London last April, Yu’s presence in the summit demonstrates a strategic focus on the Southern Pacific, a region comprised of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Philippines.

“We have huge investments in our R&D efforts to continually deliver innovations in technology. Consistency is what pushed the brand to the world’s Top 100 list. We are the 94^th best global brand. Our core values now are the same as when Huawei started in 1987.

“Ten years ago, we started our journey of transformation. From an ODM in 2012, we became an OEM the following year, creating our M and P series. In 2013, we assumed brand focus and became a player in the open market. We got Internet lead as well as user engagement with our Honor brand. We enjoy 70 per cent brand awareness and a 10 per cent market share that’s steadily increasing,” Yu continued.

Fully-loaded features & functions

The Huawei P8 is based on a deep understanding of human-machine design as it delivers a new level of usability for applications impacting everyday life, both at work and at play. With craftsmanship that pushes the bounds of possibility and new revolutionary light painting modes, the sleek device provides consumers with an inspiration for creativity.

It introduces a new camera design by leveraging on a combination of hardware, software and proprietary algorithms to help users capture beautiful photographs, even in the worst lighting conditions. The top-notch features include an industry-leading optical image stabilizer technology that’s up by 1.2 degrees, enabling high quality photos and videos while managing camera shakes so images are constantly sharp. It also has the world’s first four-color RGBW sensor that enhances brightness by 32 per cent in high contrast lighting solutions, reducing the same by 78 per cent in low light environments. A DSLR-level independent image processor enables noise reduction when shooting, coupled with an intelligent detection of a high-contrast lighting environment. Plus, four professional quality low-light shooting modes give users access to a virtual photo and video studio to capture artistic inspirations, including light painting and time lapse options.

The P6 revolutionized the macro view and selfie photography and the P7 started the ‘groufie’ craze while improving images under low light conditions. The P8, on the other hand, has more than the megapixels of its forebears with enhancements on low light as well as light contrast conditions. It has 32 per cent higher brightness on hi-contrast and 78 per cent less color noise in low light conditions, thus eliminating raw noise (900:1 contrast, F2.0 aperture). Its 4-color 13-megapixel RGBW imaging has a DLSR-level image signal processor. The anti-shake 1.2 degree function from its optical image stabilization (OIS) feature tops other brands employing only 0.6 degrees.

It also has a scene recognition tech for high contrast and a better auto exposure that can capture multi-frame, dynamic and/or time exposure shots. It can capture fab portrait photos in dark places with its built-in backlight as well. Plus it has an instant preview function that’s quite impossible on a DLSR camera.

The revolutionary touch screen experience is innate to consumers, of which double tapping a knuckle captures a full-length screen shot while drawing a circle on the screen quickly captures the marked content. Additionally, the ‘search phone by voice’ function allows users to call out to their misplaced smartphones, which in return will respond through its speakers to identify. Its Voice+ feature carries a 58 per cent audio enhancement yet reducing background noise by 90 per cent through the audio DSP (Hi6402 + Smart PA) system. The phone’s sensitive mic can capture voices in a conference call up to two meters hands-free. The single box audio chamber is ingeniously set in an ultra slim 6.4mm body.

“Each P8 unit can now assume a given name (other than the encoded default identity) as you can simply page and/or call it when misplaced through the remote voice capture feature. The device has escalated the next level of beauty with its muted fluidity and absolute flatness. Solidity and perfection plus advanced technology and sophisticated design are what give each P8 unit a balanced beauty wherever viewed.

“The P8 is a premium item, just like a wristwatch; a modern and fashionable essential sending a bold statement with its full metal aluminum uni-body in a 6.4 mm frame that’s even thinner than an IPhone 6 (6.9mm) and a Samsung S6 (6.8mm). We have reversed our hidden values, much like showing what’s underneath an iceberg.

“The P8 has chamfered edges for a better grip sporting a 5.2-inch IPS-NEO display with a 15 per cent power reduction system. It has a 78.3 per cent screen to body radio as against Samsung S6 at 70.8 per cent and the Apple IPhone 6 at 65.8 per cent. There are five themes to choose from including Simplicity and Spark and four colors to opt for: Carbon Black, Prestige Gold, Mystique Champagne and Titanium Gray. Plus, it is spill resistant with its revolutionary nano-coating technology,” Yu added.

Unique power management creates a bridge between the P8’s slim design, power efficiency and stunning performance. The device contains a 2680mAh battery that, coupled with the Kirin 930 Octa-Core 64-bit chipset, delivers outstanding performance that outpaces the smartphone market by 20 per cent.

The Kirin 930/935 64-bit octa-core assures an 80 per cent higher CPU. P8 has also the world’s first app power consumption firewall that blocks all abnormal power usage from your apps, gaining you an extra 2-3 days power on stand-by mode. A single charge has longer usage: 1-5 days on normal usage and an entire day on heavy usage. And while some units simply tell you of an unknown caller, the P8’s caller ID will show you the origin of the call and therefore gives you an idea who rang you up.

The P8’s Director Mode is the industry’s first professional-level video capture function on a smartphone. It allows consumers to direct and control up to three other Android phones when shooting a video scene from four (or more) angles simultaneously, while also synchronizing video clip editing. It’s like doing the 360-degree The Matrix scene on a smaller scale but with the same visible results.

The professional video function is capable of story creations through four multi-angles in a single video, with three smartphones simultaneously capturing the same image, albeit from a different vantage point.

Wei To inspiration

The event also granted Huawei the opportunity to share a regional roll-out of its Wei To campaign that is anchored in its consumer business group segment and highlights the brand’s transition from being a B2B entity to a consumer-centric brand.

‘Wei To’ draws inspiration from Huawei’s global brand ideal (Make It Possible) which defines ‘it’ as the power of dream and innovation, as well as the building of intensive emotional connection with consumers. The brand innovates to help make dreams possible.

“The Wei To campaign encourages consumers to share their experiences through the digital social network platform via #weito. The P8 has VIP services that include four exclusive service centers, 51 integrated service centers and 60 collection points in six countries,” informed South Pacific region’s COO Henry Hsu.

‘Wei To’ is also a play on the Huawei brand to make it more relatable to consumers as it means getting connected; being a form of saying hello in most Asian cultures. ‘Wei’ pronounced in English as ‘way,’ essentially carries the same meaning of the word, of which Huawei is paving the ‘Wei To’ inspiring consumers to be bold and make things possible to achieve their dreams.

“Through Huawei’s continued commitment to ‘Make It Possible,’ all of our technologically innovative consumer products on display at the CommunicAsia exhibition booths deliver on that promise. We will continue to strengthen our brand presence and range of innovative flagship products in the Southern Pacific to cater to discerning tastes. This is the future of connected devices and we foresee that our consumer products will set standards across the smartphone and wearable devices markets within the region,” said Peter Tong, president for Southern Pacific region’s consumer business group.

The Huawei P8 has redefined the industry benchmark for seamless network connectivity through its proprietary Signal+ technology. The compact and powerful dual-antenna design plus rapid switching technology allows the smartphone to instantly switch between antennas, ensuring a continuous strong network connection. Also, the device’s Signal + enhances the call connection rate even when users are traveling on a train at a speed of up to 300 kilometers per hour.

“The P Series is a beautiful smartphone range that creates beautiful things. We have more than 5,000 core stores worldwide. It is edging closer to what once was an Apple and Samsung market,” CEO Yu concluded.

Huawei’s extremely stylish P series has achieved great success around the world since its inception in 2012. The success of the Huawei P6 and P7 has indicated a strong demand for the P8. The sleek smartphone will be available in the Philippines this month of July. It is foreseen that the Philippines might be the first Southeast Asian territory to attain the 10 per cent market share ahead of its neighbors in the region. The P8’s balanced aesthetics and topnotch engineering are what make it tick! And with automatic Wi-Fi capabilities in its dual SIM slots and dual 4G LTE configuration, you’ll never need another smartphone again.

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider with the aim to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world; acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler to the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by consumer-centric innovation and open partnerships, the company has established and end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing.

Its 170,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprise and consumers. The label’s innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over a third of the world’s population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.

For more information, simply visit their online site, www.huawei.com.