This phone tells you where you left it
The P8's voice command is "where are you?" It will answer back, and then takes stunning photos of the lights at night
A SLEEK AND well-built smartphone that’s an ace at picking up wireless signals, the P8 from Chinese firm Huawei is perhaps most enticing for its photographic possibilities. If you like capturing shots of the lights at night, it’s great in dim shooting situations, especially with its Light Painting mode.
The 6.4mm-thin body is a single piece of aluminium fashioned using a “nano-injection moulding” process to ensure sturdiness. The back cover is steel for extra rigidity. It comes in Mystic Champagne or Titanium Grey, like the beauty I tested.
Another big plus with the P8 is Voice Wakeup. Activate this function and record yourself saying, “Okay Amy” three times so the phone gets to recognise your speech. From now on, anytime you forget where the phone is, just say, “Okay Amy, where are you?” and the phone will play music, flash its screen and reply, “I am here!” Also, anytime you want to call someone, say, “Okay Amy” followed by “Call for pizza” – or whoever it is you want to reach!
You have plenty of power with Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin 930, eight-core, 64 bit, running at 2GHz, and plenty of working memory too – three gigabytes of RAM. The 16GB of internal storage can be expanded with a microSD card up to 128GB.
The 5.2-inch Full HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) display is quite bright with a pixel depth of 424ppi, good for viewing photos and videos.
The Google Android 5.0 operating system is backed up by Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 user-interface, with which you can, for example, grab screen shots by simply double-tapping the screen. The UI really brings the screen to life using a shifting parade of gorgeous magazine covers for the lock-screens.
And you have the dialler, contacts and messaging apps on one screen – just flick left or right to switch between them. Phone Manager is up front, too – an application-management and security app that guards against malware. Private mode conceals your personal information using a password and guest-unlock code of your choice.
The camera app, also part of the user-interface, is fun for capturing life’s wonderful moments. The P8’s main camera uses a 13-megapixel image sensor and an f/2.0 lens, while the front camera is eight megapixels, fine for selfies.
The main camera got beautiful shots during my test with its four-colour RBGW sensor and image-stability technology for added sharpness. Huawei says the sensor enhances brightness, while the DSLR-level independent image processor reduces noise.
The EMU 3.1 camera app has several terrific shooting modes, especially handy in low light. Light Painting is available in four professional-quality low-light modes – Tail Light Trails, Light Graffiti, Silky Water and Star Track – for which you need use a tripod. Light Painting will get amazing pictures of a moving Ferris wheel by night, rendering a circular stream of lights. You can preview the images first, making it easy to experiment creatively.
Light Graffiti captures artful shots of someone moving around a flashlight or torch. Silky Water gets those fantastic photos of waterfalls, smoothing the flow of the current. Tail Light Trails is for shooting moving traffic (or that Ferris wheel again), and Star Track is superb for catching the heavens at night.
There’s also Super Night mode, which keeps the shutter open for several seconds, and All-focus mode, with which you can actually adjust the focus after shooting.
The front camera has a “Perfect” mode for selfies, complete with facial enhancement and beautifying effects. And, when taking videos, the Time-lapse mode is great for slowly changing scenes such as sunsets and sunrise.
I found that the main camera captured sharp and clean shots in most lighting environments, especially in HDR (high dynamic range) mode.
You can use a 4G LTE connection. I tested the P8 on TrueMove H’s 4G network and the feed was fast and smooth. It uses Huawei’s own Signal+ technology – a compact but powerful dual-antenna design and rapid switching technology to instantly switch between antennae for continuous and strong network connection. Huawei says the Signal+ enhances the call-connection rate even when users are travelling on a train at up to 300 kilometres per hour (not that any trains in Thailand will be going that fast for a while yet).
Switch on the Wi-Fi connection and Wi-Fi+ technology kicks in to monitor both mobile data and available networks, automatically tapping the one with the best signal and speed.
I used the Ookla online speed test up to measure my 4G connection from TrueMove H. The download speed topped 54Mbps and uploads hit 21.7Mbps. So downloading and installing apps was very fast and I could upload snaps to Facebook in a breeze.
The touchscreen and menus are very responsive and screen scrolling was smooth.
It can play FLAC 24bit/96kHz music files, one step lower than the full high-resolution audio format. I listened to tracks through Sony MDR-1ABT hi-res headphones and the sound was sensational.
The battery’s lively. I could easily get through a day on a single charge since the Hisilicon Kirin 930 isn’t especially power-hungry.
The Huawei P8 has a suggested retail price of Bt15,990.
Key Specs
- Networks: 2G : GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz; 3G :HSPDA 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz; 4G LTE 1(2100), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)
- OS: Android 5.0
- CPU: Hisilicon Kirin 930, |eight-core 64-bit, 2GHz
- Memory: 3GB RAM
- Storage: 16GB internal storage, expandable with microSD card of up to 128GB
- Display: 5.2-inch FHD Screen, 1080p (1,920x1,080), 424ppi
- Camera: 13-megapixel main, OIS, RBGW sensor, 1080p video |recording/1080p video playback, F2.0, dual-colour temperature flash; Eight-megapixel front
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct support, BT 4.1+LE, MicroUSB
- Sensors: G-Sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity sensor, Compass, Accelerometer
- Battery: 2680mAh
- Dimensions: 144.9x72.1x6.4mm
- Weight: 144g
