Huawei P9 Huawei P9
Durban - It’s been a busy few weeks for smartphone releases, leaving consumers more spoilt for choice than usual during this usually quiet midyear period. Here’s my pick of the recent launches.
Huawei P9
The big launch news was the arrival of Chinese rising star Huawei’s photography-focused P9 in South Africa.
It has big shoes to fill. Its predecessor, the P8 was a runaway success globally and one of the best selling smartphones in South Africa, with an astonishing 300 000 sales.
The good news for Huawei is that it seems to be onto another winner with the P9, at least from my brief first impressions at the launch.
Descriptions like superior-grade glass, diamond-cut edges and an aluminium unibody with curves in all the right places simply don’t do justice to what is a masterpiece of minimalist industrial design.
The P9 comes in three colours: Haze Gold, Ceramic White and Titanium Grey. The 5.2 inch screen has a resolution of 1080p, rather than the 4K of some competitors, no big handicap in my book as the difference is almost impossible to detect in a display this size.
Head-turning looks are one thing, but these days a winning flagship needs to have brains too. The P9 is no slouch in this regard. It’s powered by new-generation 2.5GHz processor and has a generously sized 3 000mAh battery, which should supply plenty of juice to get you through a busy working day and well into the evening.
The bigger P9 Plus packs a 5.5 inch display and a beefier 3 400mAh battery.
One of the few shortcomings of last year’s P8 was the lack of a fingerprint reader. The P9 remedies this with an enhanced fingerprint sensor, placed cleverly on the back of the phone within easy reach of your forefinger.
The standout feature for me is the clever dual camera system. One camera features an RGB sensor and the other a “monochrome sensor”. Huawei says this makes for superb low-light performance, allows you to snap moody black and white shots and produces richer colour photos.
Lots of high-resolution images require plenty of digital storage space and the P9 offers two options: 32GB and 64GB.
It’s available from all local operator networks with a recommended retail price of R12 999 for the P9 and R15 000 for the P9 Plus. Contracts start at around R500 per month.
If that’s a bit steep for your budget, look out for the P9 Lite. Its recommended price tag is a more palatable R4 499 and monthly contracts start at R249 – great value considering you get many of the features of its premium sibling, including the fingerprint reader, but not alas the dual camera.
Sony Xperia XA Ultra
If you’re on a quest to take the ultimate selfie, you may want to check out the latest addition to Sony’s Xperia X range.
That’s because the XA Ultra boasts a 16MP front camera, which Sony says will give you perfect poses, day or night and thanks to “low-light sensors you get sharp, bright, blur-free shots every time”.
Taking a selfie is made even easier with the “hand shutter” feature. “All it takes is raising a hand and the shutter timer will start to count down, leaving enough time to make the perfect pout and strike a pose,” says Sony.
Of course not all photography comprises selfies and when you to want to take the occasional conventional shot, you’ll get to use the 21.5 megapixel main camera featuring Sony’s hybrid autofocus and quick launch and capture, which lets you go from standby to capture in a fraction of a second.
The XA Ultra also comes with a big six-inch 1080p display, support for a 200GB MicroSD card and a claimed battery life of two days with rapid charge capability.
Prices weren’t available at the time of publication.
LG X Screen
Sony’s not the only manufacturer to use the letter X in naming its devices. LG’s X Screen is an oddball but appealing concept, coming as it does with two screens, one a conventional 4.93 inch full HD panel and another above it, with a 80×520 resolution.
The second screen, a feature introduced in the LG V10, provides app shortcuts, favourite contacts, music player controls and the like. The low power always-on display allows users to check basic information such as time, date and notifications without turning on the phone, the first mid-tier smartphone to offer this unique feature.
The rest of the specs are nothing to tweet home about: 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (you can boost this with a MicroSD card) and LG’s underwhelming Snapdragon 410 processor.
Ticking the other mid-range boxes are a 13MP rear camera, 8MP front camera and 2 300mAh battery, although the dual-SIM capability and glass fibre back are a welcome nod in the premium direction.
Contracts on the LG X Screen start at R269 per month. Expect to pay around R4 500 on prepaid.
LG Stylus 2
LG’s original stylus was a great value phablet, allowing those without the budget for a Samsung Galaxy Note to enjoy the benefits of a stylus.
The Stylus 2 continues that tradition, with a few additional bells and whistles to bring it up to date.
LG’s kept the 5.7 inch 720p screen and run-of-the-mill 410 processor, as well as the stylus that tucks away niftily into corner of the device.
Pleasingly, there’s now 16GB of internal storage, up from the laughably inadequate 8GB of the original, although you’ll almost certainly want to expand that further with an aftermarket MicroSD card.
The cameras also get refresh to 13 megapixels for the primary snapper and 8 megapixels for the front-facing selfie shooter.
The LG Stylus 2 runs Android 6.0 and is powered by a 3 000mAh removable battery, allowing road warriors to swap it out.
Buying it cash will set you back R4 269 and monthly contracts start at R229.
Sunday Tribune
l Follow Cooper on Twitter @alanqcooper.
