A phone that applies your make-up

A NEW SMARTPHONE boasting an elegant design and premium build as well as a good quality camera, the G7 Plus has a solid, gently curved body made of 90-per-cent aviation-grade aluminium that, according to Huawei, is manufactured using ceramic sand-blasting technology.

The 5.5-inch IPS display with 1080x1920 pixels, good for watching video clips and viewing photos, is protected by 2.5D cambered surface, which Huawei says helps protect the screen against cracks and scratches and is further strengthened with Gorilla Glass 3.

The G7 Plus has good performance too. Its touch screen and menus were responsive during the test and applications ran fast. It is powered by Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 616 Octa-core processor with four cores running at 1.5GHz and the other four at 1.2GHz.

It has plenty of working memory, namely 3 gigabytes of RAM, to enhance its multitasking performance and lots of internal storage too, with the option of expanding the 32 GB with a microSD card of up to 128 GB. And while you do need to be aware that the microSD card shares the same slot as the second SIM card, that second SIM slot only supports the 2G network, making it useless with most Thai service providers.

The G7 Plus, which is only called G8 in western countries (apparently “G8” does not sound polite in Chinese), runs on Google Android 5.1 operating system with EMUI 3.1 user interface to jazz up the look and feel.

Using the first SIM slot, I tested G7 Plus on TrueMove H’s LTE 4G network and I found that it had a very fast connection speed. My snapshots were posted to my Facebook wall in a snap.

I measured the speed of the connection with the Ookla speedtest app and found that the G7 Plus achieved a download speed of 47.29 Mbps and an upload speed of 22.15 Mbps.

Another nice feature of G7 Plus that it comes with Fingerprint Scanner 2.0 technology. The touch-type finger scanner allowed me to unlock the phone in just 0.5 seconds.

The fingerprint scanner is located at the back under the camera’s lens. The scanner is more accurate as it requires you to simply touch the scanner rather than swipe it.

When the screen is locked or turned off, you can touch the fingerprint scanner to turn on the screen and unlock it instantly.

To use the fingerprint ID security, you need to set a four-letter pin in case you are unable to unlock the phone with your fingerprint. Then, you must scan your fingerprint as a reference. The fingerprint ID can be used to lock your folders and your applications.

The fingerprint scanner can also be used as a shutter button and used to answer a call and stop an alarm.

The G7 Plus has good quality cameras. Its main camera uses a 13-megapixel BSI (backside illuminated) sensor with optical image stabilisation technology and a sapphire lens with a large aperture of f/2.0 and 28mm equivalent wide angle.

I found that the main camera had good performance even in low-light environments thanks to its BSI sensor. I could capture sharp and clean photos of the Bang Na-Trat highway at dusk with headlights and taillights of vehicles lighting up the road in nice contrast to the dark sky.

Several shooting modes are available for the main camera, including Best photo, Good foods, Panorama, HDR and Beauty, none of which needs further explanation.

The front-facing camera is fun for selfie shots thanks to a Makeup mode that lets you to choose one of eight filters to jazz up your shots, among them Nude, Cute, Sweet, Pink and Elegant.

When I used the Pink filter, the camera pinked my lips, powdered my face that lengthened my eyelashes!

The G7 Plus played good quality music but it does not support full high-resolution files of FLAC 24bit/192 kHz only FLAC 24bit/96 kHz

Huawei G7 Plus is available in gold and grey and costs Bt12,990.

 

Key Specs

- Display: 5.5-inches PS display with 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution:

- CPU: Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 616+ 1.5GHz + 1.2GHz Octa-core processor

- Operation System: |Android 5.1 + EMUI 3.1

- Memory: 3 GB

- Storage: 32 GB internal, upgradable with microSD of up to 128 GB

- Network: 4G LTE 850/900/2100 MHz, 3G: 850/900/2100 MHz

- GPS: GPS/AGPS/Glonass

- Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4G, USB2.0

- Sensors: Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass

- Camera: Main camera: 13.0 MP + Dual-fone flash, front camera: 5.0 MP 

- Battery: 3000 mAh

- Size: 152x76.5x7.5 mm.

- Weight: 167 g. (including battery)