HUAWEI LAUNCHES NEW P8 SMARTPHONE, WEARABLE TECH at COMMUNICASIA 2015

 

MARINA BAY SANDS, SINGAPORE June 2, 2015– Global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider Huawei, today made a strong statement about strengthening its consumer electronics business as it launched its new flagship smartphone, the Huawei P8, and previewed three new wearable devices at the CommunicAsia 2015.

CommunicAsia is one of the region’s most comprehensive information and communications technology conventions.

This is the first time Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, presented the Huawei P8 to Southern Pacific Region media since the smartphone was first globally launched in London in April this year. Yu’s presence demonstrates a strategic focus on Southern Pacific, a region consisting of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines and Singapore.

“We are quickly improving and increasing our market share,” Yu said during the launch.

For the Philippines, Huawei said they are confident of their growth prospects after cornering about a tenth of the domestic market.

“The Philippines is among the first growth countries where we have achieved over 10 percent market share,” Peter Tong, Huawei president of Huawei’s South Pacific region business group, said through an interpreter. “With our strong R&D capability and extensive local partnerships, we can make even further improvements in the Philippine market.”

Huawei also highlighted their ‘Wei To’ campaign, which is anchored to their consumer brand.

“Huawei has been known as a B2B (business-to-business) company. But now we are working to being known as a loved consumer brand,” said Henry Hsu, Huawei Southern Pacific CEO. “That is our key objective this year and even moving forward.”
Designed to Inspire. Inspired to design.
As if to highlight the creative possibilities of the Huawei P8, Singaporean sand artist Lawrence Koh performed a light-and-sand show that told the brand story of the company, with each transition highlighting the milestones of the company within such a short time period.

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Richard Yu then took the stage to further emphasize the achievements of Huawei such as the 30 percent increase in revenue and 45 percent increase in units sold in 2014.

Founded in 1987, Huawei has been known for manufacturing an array of networking equipment to enterprises such as telcos, but was relatively unknown in the mobile phone market until it launched the P1 in 2012.

“When we first introduced the P1, no one really knew Huawei,” Yu recalled.

Today, Huawei has become one of the most aggressive players, challenging both Samsung and Apple with well-designed devices packed with advance features and a lower price tag and has become part of the Best Global Brands of 2014.

Yu explained the principle of the Huawei P8 as based on a deep understanding of human-machine design delivering a new level of usability for applications impacting everyday life –at work and at play.

Yu then boldly compared several of the P8’s build and features to rivals Samsung Galaxy S6 and Apple iPhone6, (which are both priced much higher than the P8).

The P8 boasts of a solid metal unibody, made by cutting edge engineering and precision nano molding, making it one, if not the thinnest smartphone at 6.4 mm while having the largest screen-to-body ratio at 78.3 percent (compared to the 65.8% of the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S6’s 70.8 percent). It’s 5.2 inch IPS-NEO display is also brighter, sharper and lasts longer according to Yu.

You can even use the P8 in the rain because of its spill resistant nano-coating. Just don’t dip it in the pool though as the ports are not covered.

The P8 is powered by Kirin 930 Octa-Core 64-bit chipset that promises 80 percent higher CPU performance and a 100 percent increase in 3D graphics performance compared to the P7. It runs on runs on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system although iPhone users will feel very much at home with its iOS-esque EMUI interface.

The P8 also boasts of the world’s 1st APPs power consumption firewall that blocks all abnormal power usage from Apps, gaining an extra 2.3 days standby time. Housed in such a thin body is a 2680mAh battery which can last 1.5 days on normal use.

However, it is in its new camera design where the P8 really shines. Unlike the protruding camera of the iPhone 6Plus and the Galaxy S6, the P8’s rear camera is seamless, sleek and without any bump. It also takes users to the next level of beauty and creativity with its picture quality and unique features.

Sporting a 13-megapixel rear camera the Huawei P8 introduces a new camera design by leveraging a combination of hardware, software and proprietary algorithms to help users capture beautiful photographs, even in the worst lighting conditions.

The P8 is the first one with a four-color RGBW sensor to capture more details during low-light and high-contrast situations. The RGBW sensor enhances brightness by 32 percent in high contrast lighting situations, reduces it by 78 percent in low light environments. DSLR-level independent image processor enabling noise reduction when shooting and intelligent detection of a high-contrast lighting environment.

It also has an industry-leading Optical Image Stabilizer technology up to 1.2°, enabling high-quality photos and videos, and managing camera shake so images are consistently sharp.

Four professional quality low-light shooting modes giving users access to a virtual photo and video studio to capture artistic inspirations.

One of the four professional quality low-light shooting modes is the Light Painting mode that leverages the Huawei P8’s manual camera shutter to capture broad swaths of light. Light Painting mode can capture a rolling ferris wheel at night, showing the circular streams of light in an artistic photo.

Users can also “light paint” their own freehand pictures using a small torchlight in the dark. Another industry first low light technology is the light check and preview mode. By giving users a preview of what the shot will look like, the device makes it easier to experiment creatively with light sources in the dark.

For budding filmmakers, the Huawei P8’s Director mode presents the industry’s first professional-level video capture function on a smartphone. It allows users to direct and control up to three other Android phones when shooting a video scene from four angles simultaneously, while also synchronize video clip editing.

Finally, for those who love to take selfies, you’ll be glad to know that Huawei takes selfies to the next level with the Perfect Selfie mode. This mode allows you to input a number of beauty presets that automatically get applied each and every time you take selfie—or groufie, making for a consistent look across all your self portraits!

Added features of the Huawei P8 include Speech Awareness and Knuckle Sense. If you often misplace your phone or forget where you last hid it then Speech Awareness will be a lot of help. All you have to do is call out “Okay Emy” (which you can thankfully change) and the phone will automatically ring and reply “I’m here!”

Knuckle sense meanwhile allows you to screencap just by tapping the screen or crop up a specific area of the screen just by encircling it with your knuckles.

The Huawei P8 has re-defined the industry benchmark for seamless network connectivity through 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. Additionally, the devices’ Signal+ enhances the call connection rate, even when users are travelling on a train at a speed of up to 300 kilometers per hour.

Huawei’s extremely stylish P series has achieved great success around the world. Global sales of the Huawei P6 have totaled 5 million units in 60 countries and the Huawei P7 surpassed 4 million sales across more than 100 countries in just six months. The success of the Huawei P6 and P7 indicates a strong potential demand for the Huawei P8.

The P8 comes in mystic champagne and titanium grey colors and will be available this month of June with a price that will probably range from around Php21,990 to Php22,990.