A few days ago, Huawei Kenya introduced a Huawei Y7p phone in the Kenyan market; And it is a unique phone indeed. The phone though still Android-based, has an alternative system from Google mobile services, and they call it Huawei Mobile services. It is important to understand that Andorid is an open source system, developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, with the main contributor and commercial marketer being Google. I am still studying the Huawei mobile services closely including the Apps Gallery, where you can download your apps and I will talk about it in depth in my next article. For today, I want to entirely look at the phone itself and try to figure out if it is different from the other Huawei phones that the public are used to.
To start with, there have been many phone companies that have centered their innovation around the cameras but I think Huawei has taken this to another level especially when you consider the cost of the phone, Ksh. 18,499. The 8MP selfie camera is uniquely placed at a punched hole in the top left corner of the 6.39” HD+LCD screen. I have been trying to remember if there is any other phone I know with the selfie camera placed at the top left corner of the screen and not at the top middle, and I cannot remember any. To be honest, phone designs these days, to say the least are boring. Left, right and center, the designs are normally the same and that is why I get excited when I see something new and different from the other bandwagons.
Back to the camera, the front camera uses AI Scene Recognition which enables it to recognize up to eight scenes including blue sky, plants, night scene and more, optimizing the settings required for the perfect shot. The front camera also supports Face Unlock 2.0 for speedy device unlock. After enrolling your face, you can unlock your device by looking at the screen. I noticed that the Face recognition conceals the full content of lock screen notifications from everyone else except for the owner of the phone.
It is not an exaggeration that the selfie camera in iteslf is good but wait until you meet the triple primary camera setup at the back. The setup is a combination of 48Mp main, 8MP ultarwide and 2MP depth sensor units. It is important to note that the 48 MP main is with an f/1.8 wide-aperture lens. In the world of photogrphy, a fast lens is that which has a wide aperture, typically f/1.4, f/1.8 or f/2.8. The wide aparture is good for low light photogarphy as it enables the camera to take more light. Another advantage for the wider apertures is that it allows for faster shutter speed and the outcome of that is the minimal camera shake and sharper images.
The 8MP ultra-wide angle camera supports a 120-degree field of view for scenic landscape shots, group photos and wide-angle video capture. So, when you have those big group photos at an event, this is the part of setup that would enable one to record the memory. Hopefully this corona virus thing will go way soon to enable people to enjoy social closing and not the distancing that we must practice now. For now, wash your hands, wear a mask, stay home or at least keep 2m distance from others and hydrate thoroughly until it is safe to be out there.
Storage
When a phone has a great camera, the next challenge would be where to store as many photos and videos that one might be tempted to take. With that in mind, I think it is fair to say that there is no ideal size suited for the photo and selfie thirsty generation but it would be good to know that Huawei Y7p comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded to 512GB with a micro SD card.
Performance
As a phone user, the question I usually ask myself when I get a new phone is whether it is going to work including multitasking without hanging on me and for that Y7p passed my simple test. As for the technical detail of the processor, the phone runs EMUI9.1 on karin 710F with an integrated octa-core processor. Karin 710F supports AI-powered scene regconition for photography, dual SIM, VoLTE for stable high speed connections. When I tried Safaricom VoLTE with Tecno CF7s, the experiene was one not to forget. The phone simply became mteja and I was not able to receive calls fo a while without knowing. In other words, the feature was simply not usable and I am glad that Huawei Y7p on Safaricom VoLTE does not have such a problem.
One can not finish talking about performance without looking at the gamers’ expereince. The phone comes with GPU Turbo 3.0 feature which boosts performance by enhancing graphics for more immersive gaming experience. Just for better understanding, GPU Turbo is a software feature which energizes gaming performance on Huwei Smartphones without snacking on the battery. The main advantages include smoother gaming experience and improved battery performance while gaming.
Battery
Others may see it differently but I think Battery is the only area that I feel all the smart phone manufacturers are still lagging behind. Despite all their efforts, we still can’t go days without carrying chargers around as we used to with feature phones. In the last few years, there have been imporvements, from a phone only lasting a few hours to somehow a full day, these days. In that front and within that premise, Huawei has done well especially with the introduction of AI power saving technology. That has helped in many of their phones that I have used before and Huawei Y7p is not different. It comes with 4000mAh battery and offer a reasonable battery life.
Conclusion
My first impression is that Huawei has given the world a great phone, much better than the other phones they have done in the same specs and price range. One question that I guess many might be asking is whether it is possible to use your favorites apps and the answer is yes. There are those already in their Apps Gallery and the others that you can download and install through the third party applications. At this point, I think the challenge for Huawei is to get the developers to populate the Apps Gallery with most heavily used apps. As I have said, you don’t have to worry about any app because you can get it on Huawei Y7p. And finally remember remember that the phone is available in select stores across the country including Jumia
