Bucket Tech: Huawei P Smart - First Impressions

Huawei SA this week launched it's new P Smart device, a smart phone device with all the characteristics of a high level smart phone but at half the price. Yes, you read that correctly the first time, no need to read it again. So how have they done it? Well like with most of their devices, a lot of the tech they use gets moved into lower level devices, but there is compromise in certain areas which helps lower the price for the end user. No that it's a bad thing, it's just that you wont have enough RAM or as fast of a processor as the high level smartphones. 

Looking at the P Smart, Huawei have really went all out on this one, its the first phone in its category to feature a FullView Display, and its a 2.5D curved screen design which feels more compact in your hand. It also has dual lens technology camera, with a host of personalized photography functions. Combining 13MP+2MP rear dual cameras and 16-level dual shot blurring, Hauwei say the P Smart will make your photos impressive and stereoscopic. Further, with high-precision camera sensors, high-density phase detection pixels, the 13Mp HD camera focuses on real time, accuracy and speed, thus accurately capturing exciting moments. 

The P smart comes with the new EMUI 8.0 operating system, which is based on Android 8.0, which takes usability to new levels for fast and intuitive feature use. Chipset wise, the P Smart features Kirin 659 processor made with a process for med-range and high-end chips characterized by better engery performance, this also helps with battery life. The P Smart comes with a 3,000-mAh battery, combined with the Intelligent Power saving technology 6.0, which supports background real-time detection of power-hungry apps, comprehensive power consumption test and one-key optimization to save power significantly and help extend the battery life. 

Another nice feature is the unique on-touch split screen mode which the P smart has, which means you can use and run two applications simultaneously on your screen, offering you even more possibilities of mobile operations. The P smart also is equipped with Fingerprint 4.0 solution, fingerprint recognition within 0.3 seconds to bring an enhanced user experience, apart from just unlocking your phone, Huawei has also combined fingerprint recognition with other functions to develop ground-breaking apps such as fingerprint navigation, fingerprint shot and alarm clock deactivation with fingerprint. 

"Our new P smart brings you flagship features at an affordable price. It's the first time the industry will see both dual camera and FullView display at this price range and we are excited to introduce this to the South African market" - Likun Zhao GM, Huawei Consumer Business.  The Huawei P smart is available for purchase at all operators in South Africa from 13th February 2018 and the recommended retail price is R3999. 

Bucket Tech: Hisense C30 Rock

Many ask "what is the best phone on the market?" but often the answer to that is an over priced, smartphone of which 80% of the features you would never use. What about the other phones on offer then? Not the bottom end ones but like the mid range ones that are decently priced and are decent enough devices? Not much gets said about them and I often feel that they don't get as much attention as they deserve. One of those devices is the new Hisense C30 Rock and I had the opportunity to play around with one for the past three weeks and while it not be the best phone on the market it certainly did surprise me in many other aspects.

STYLING

Upon receiving the device, I was please that the box it came in was small and compact and not full of other junk that just ends up taking a lot of space. Unboxing the device was quick and easy and too my surprise the phone was much larger than I thought it would be. It looked great, with a rose goldish/ copper border and screws, rubber sides and what looked like a carbon fiber back (not sure if it was real carbon fiber or not). It gives the phone a real rugged but cool look, which is part of the image Hisense is trying to portray with the device seeing that it's one of the most durable and hardy phones on the market. 

DURABILITY

It's one of the only devices I know of that has an IP68 rating and IK04 shock resistant, so not only is it dust and waterproof but it can also withstand some heavy falls. Reading it on paper and testing it out for yourself is two different things, I was hesitant at first but as the tests went on I became more and more confident with the C30 Rock, where I went as far as pouring a glass of water over it at a crowded bar just to show people how waterproof it is. People we left amazed and so was I. There was a few drop test conducted as well, some purposely and some not so much on purpose, safe to say the C30 Rock didn't even get a scratch from any of them. So full marks on the durability tests and I agree 100% with them calling it "life-dimensional", where its ready to withstand whatever life throws at it. 

PROCESSING

While the device might be pretty impressive in terms of build quality and strength, one still has to remember that it still has to work. The phone has an impressive chipset with the efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core 64 bit processor at its heart. It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board storage, with it running Android OS, of which it is the latest version of Nougat, you have access to Google drive so your storage capacity could be endless depending on the size allocated to your account. The phone boasts a 3000mAh battery with quick charge. There's a lot you can do with this phone before the battery dies on you. It even has an automatic battery saving mode to ensure a prolonged battery life. While its not the fastest phone I've used, it still wasn't slow and coped with most of the tasks I used it for. 

DISPLAY

The C30 Rock does have a big screen, a 5.2" Full HD Display with 424 pixels per inch. Its a good screen but felt the quality of it did lack in brightness now and then but regardless, it was good quality to view on. The touch screen is extremely responsive with zero lag and the phone came with some handy tricks. For example, when watching a video, if my eyes for some reason deviate from watching the screen, the phone would pause the video and start playing it again when I focused on the screen again. 

CAMERA

The C30 Rock comes with a 16 megapixel Q-Shot primary camera with LED Flash and takes some decent quality pictures and videos of which I cannot show you none because my SD card that I had in it got corrupted... It's shutter speed isn't the fastest so make sure your hand is steady when taking pics and hold in place until after the picture is captured for perfect results. Pics in low light are decent quality as well. It has a host of modes and settings for you to play with to get the perfect snap.

VERDICT

For the overall product you getting and at the price you getting it at, the Hisense C30 Rock is an absolute steal. If you're not to bothered with too many features and want a good quality phone that does the job and not going to give you heart palpitations if it falls or gets liquid spilt on it, the C30 Rock is for you. 

Bucket Tech: Nokia 3310 - The Resurrection

Yesterday Nokia announced that it will be making one of it's famed model cellular telephones again, the 3310. Many websites reported it being "back from the dead", but did the phone really ever die? The popular model from the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer developed a cult status as the "never say die" phone in the early 2000's, with battery life lasting for over a week and what seemed like an unbreakable build even though the split faces popped out, no real damage was done to the body. The phone was also one of the smallest on the market, with a great design, feel and look, it also had changeable covers to make it the ultimate fashion accessory. Ever since the introduction of smartphones, models like the 3310 tend to fall away to the side with limited features and most importantly, no internet access. 

For some reason the phones popularity began to rise again of late through internet memes, many of which depicted the phone as the God among phones, with it's great battery life, such memes showed the phone being found buried somewhere for many years with it still have 90% battery life, or some memes showing buildings or floors breaking when the phone was dropped onto it. Whilst this was all great and funny, we never imagined the actual manufacturer to go back and build the phone again. Nokia say they will build a modern version of the device to sell, which would retail for about 59 Euros, that's roughly R850, Now while we don't exactly know what this new 3310 would be like, it is said to have the key features that made it great, i.e good build quality and great battery life. 

The device is said to launch later this month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Now I have my doubt's about this device, if it is just a 3310, it won't be the most practical phone around. It would be used purely for texting and calling, yes for the older generation it would have been perfect 2 years ago but with many in the late 60's to 80's age bracket adapting to modern technology and making use of applications like Skype, Whatsapp and Face Time, what would a phone like this be of use to them? Also, have you ever tried making your smartphone dumb? That is turning off data and reducing it to just GSM connectivity? You'd be surprised at how long your phone battery will last, at most some could go on for 10 times longer than usual.

For some, the nostalgia of owning a 3310 again might be something great and Nokia could have a great product on their hand in terms of re-marketing itself as a global competitor after the Microsoft disaster but I honestly don't see the need for this phone unless you planning on having it as an emergency phone stored away somewhere in a break-glass case when the Zombie Apocalypse begins. 

Bucket Tech: Huawei Mate 8 - First Impressions

Last week I was finally able to attend a Huawei launch as the previous times I had to decline due to various reasons, mostly due to my day job but I was looking forward to it as I've heard much about these famed launch parties that the cell phone giant hosts. Huawei are really pushing all the boundaries and attacking the market aggressively, with good reason too. Their products are great and most of which are a fraction of the cost compared to its competitors, it's taken the consumer some time to become accustom to the brand but I think they're making strides into warming into most of them. They certainly convinced me with the previous devices I've had to test from them. 

The Mate 8 that was being launched is the flagship model from the Chinese brand and with the Mate S being around for about a year, it was interesting to see what major improvements were made to the device. The media were invited to a special presentation where we got to see and find out more about the device first hand from the Hauwei team. After an impressive promo video, Charlene Munilall, General Manager for Huawei Consumer Business Group SA addressed us, speaking about the Mate 8, she had this to say, "The Mate 8 represents the pinnacle of style, innovation and ground-breaking technology that introduces a new style of business. The Mate 8 has set a new standard in style that transcends its beautifully crafted exterior to deliver a mobile companion that meets the needs fo today's always-connected and sharing user"

The phone itself doesn't look much different to the Mate 7 or Mate S, it retains it's 6-inch Full HD screen while the screen size remains the same, the actual phone size has reduced to fit comfortably in your hand. It's encased in a super-slim metallic uni-body, which means no removable battery but one of the key features that grabbed my attention on the Mate 8 was it's SmartPower technology which optimises the allocation of the Mate 8's resources. It monitors and scans the devices apps and reduces the power consumption to background apps by half, thus pro-longing your battery life. I was really impressed with the Mate 7's battery life, as I am almost constantly on mine and the 7 used to give me just over a day of battery life. With the Mate 8, Huawei say it's impressive 4000mAh high-capacity battery will give you 1 and half days of heavy phone use, or 17 hours of continuous HD video, that it mighty impressive and something I have to test for myself. For regular uses, you can get much more battery life as regular use is said to be in the region of 2 and half days before you have to plug it into charge again. The Mate 8 will be available in two versions, the 32gig and 64gig both with dual 4G sim slots. 

Camera wise, the Mate 8 has a 16MP Sony camera with a proprietary image sensor processor for faster focusing, higher clarity and more accurate colours. The front facing camera is a 8MP wide-angel camera that introduces new dimensions in high-quality selfies. The Mate 8 processing power is quite impressive as well as it's the worlds first smartphone to use the latest Cortex-A72 CPU and high-performance Mali-T880 GPU. The revolutionary i5 intelligent processor is the most powerful coprocessor currently available and supports all the functions of a sensor hub as well as speech recognition, low-power consumption, MP3 playback, Fused Location Provider navigation and reduced location-based power consumption by nearly 70%. Which in essence makes this phone one of the fastest processing units available on the market, so the chances of your Mate 8 slowing down or freezing are extremely slim. The Mate 8 really seems to be the real deal when it comes to business smart phones, as they say it gives new meaning to "Doing Business". I've always been a fan of their build quality and features and even though they spending a lot of cash on marketing and improving their presence in the market, their products speak for themselves. 

Huawei also used this opportunity to announce the launch of their G Series of phones to the market. Aimed at the youth, these phones will be much more affordable than the Mate and P series and features on them will be directly targeted at the younger tech savvy generation. Hauwei have 3 models in the range, the G8, GR5 and GR3, all of which are currently available in SA.

Bucket Tech: Blackberry Passport

Surprisingly, the Canadian manufacturer is still around and hasn't filed for bankruptcy, whats even more surprising is that they're still allowed to make phones but the biggest surprise of them all is that their latest offering is actually quite good, in fact its more than good as it matches and beats most of the top smart phones in the market right now. The only problem with it is that it looks like a freaken tile!

It's called the Passport, because its the same size and shape as a passport in Canada/ USA. It adopts touch screen functionality and Blackbery's trust worthy QWERTY keyboard that made the brand so famous in the early 2000's. This phone is being marked as a turning point for the company as it is aimed at up class business people who need something versatile and smart enough to do things that you can only do on a PC, such as multi page spreadsheets, etc. But we've heard that before from the company, their Z10 (which I have) supposed to be the device that turned things around for them but with it having to use data and not their RIM server which incorporated BIS, people were not too keen and opted for other brands

Now I know what you're thinking, its a Blackbery and it's bound to give you endless shit after 1 year and that damn clock of death will show up sometime in its life span but here's the thing. After the success with the ranges of chat phones, they didn't really do much to improve on it but after the knock they took, they did have to reinvent the wheel. Although the Z10 didn't prove to be the market changer they had hoped it to be, it became the platform to develop from. The Z10 gave birth to BB10 OS which I must admit had it's flaws at first but after the last few updates, the OS is practically faultless. The Passport comes with the latest OS 10.3 which is custom made for the Passport. 

I said the phone matches and in some cases is better than some of the phones offered on the market today, how? Well to start of with, its running a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip set which is the best on the market with a Quad-core 2.26GHz Krait 400 CPU with 3 gigs of ram! Basically you're sitting with the V12 of processing plants when it comes to hand held devices. With this much ram and processing speeds, there shouldn't be a reason for the phone to run slow at all, even with bloatware. 

Memory wise, it has on board 32gig with MicroSD up to 128gig. The Passport comes with a 13 mega pixel primary camera with auto focus and optical image stabilizer. If the camera is anything like the Z10, its bound to be great. Secondary front facing camera is 2 mega pixel, again not bad. 

Cosmetic wise, the phone looks weird, the 4.5 inch square screen with the keyboard below is a first.. It will take a while to get used to a square phone but functionality wise, what is has on paper makes it a game changing phone for the company. Whether people will take to it is another story, the company already has so much bad reputation but like Apple there are some BB loyalist and some of the old users might get drawn back because of the keyboard but for me they're still playing catch up. In terms of quality of product, I think its great but in terms of things like apps for the phone, they going to need to do a lot of convincing to developers to make them create their app for Blackberry devices. It will be interesting to see how this one does as it really is a great phone but how the market will react to it remains to be seen.

MWEB WiFi High Street

Whether we like it or not, technology has taken over our lives, more often than not we will revert to our phones or computers for something or the other. Mobile devices have come along way from just making phone calls, with a host of social applications and high resolution camera's, a phone isn't merely a phone now a days, people want to share their moments, keep in contact and browse the internet on the go but data prices in SA have been steep, although there have been decreases in the pricing, it really isn't on par with the rest of the world. 

Hence a trip to a coffee shop or restaurant now won't only be decided upon if the coffee or food is good but if they offer free WiFi. On average, coffee shops offer 20mb per person which is hardly enough to update your Facebook status, instagram your food, post a selfie of you and your bestie to twitter and check in on Foursquare. Fear not though, MWEB have come to the rescue by introducing "WiFi High Street", in a first, MWEB have chosen streets around the country that have a big social hub and offered them good quality, high speed, uncapped WiFi! The initiative was launch two weeks back on Durban's iconic Florida Road. Speaking at the launch, MWEB's General Manger, Nathier Kasu said "Florida Road is a great place to demonstrate the possibilities that high-speed WiFi enables. We've created a Wifi zone, rather than a WiFi hotspot, to deliver superior experience to users, wherever they may be on the high street"

What is a WiFi Zone?

WiFi hotspots tend to be a single access points, with limited capacity and scalability as new users join the network, and a poorer overall performance. By contrast, a WiFi zone features multiple access points, meshed together in a single indoor or outdoor environment with more resilient infrastructure and powerful backhaul- with the result being consistent, fast internet access. 

I was skeptical about it but since the launch I have visited Florida Road many times and tested it out, even though I am not an MWEB client, obtaining a username and password was dead simple and within seconds I was connected and ready to go. This really is a great initiative from MWEB and with more of these WiFi Zones planned for SA, it can only make things better for us. 

Bucket Tech: Nokia 1520

Evolution, it's inevitable in life as it happens all around us, we as humans evolve and the things we use on a daily basis evolve. Cars, houses, appliances and of course, the cellular telephone, in fact over the past few years it has been the one piece of technology that has evolved the most. When the first cellphones came out, they were big bulky and were called "bricks" because they practically were. They were big, heavy and did pretty much nothing but make phone calls but as the years went by, the more the manufacturers improved the devices, making them smaller, adding more applications and eventually introducing other technologies to it like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, not too long later we had phones with camera's but then the smart phone came along and things started change.

Phones, although becoming smarter, they also started to increase in size again, hold on? Doesn't newer mean better and smaller? Well yes but in the smart phone's case, no. You see, the people who genuinely use these devices need it to do more than just make phone calls, they use it for instant messaging, social media, emails, view documents, edit documents, schedule meetings, basically the need their computer on their phone. For all this to be possible they going to need a nice big high resolution screen to work on, hence the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note and Sony Xperia T. Both quality devices but blody huge to carry around but it would be unfair to put them in the term "brick" as they may be bigger in size but do a hell of a lot more than the first phones plus they're way thinner, so they much rather be called small TV's or a term I created, since its an inbetweener of a phone and a tablet, I call them "Phablets".

All that rambling was for a purpose, it brings me down to the reason for the blog post. Just little over a month ago Nokia sent me there newest product that just hit the market, the Lumia 1520. Not knowing what to expect from the phone before it arrived and not doing any research on it, I expected it to be more like the Lumia 925 . I got a surprise to open the box and find a 6" monster lurking inside! To say it's huge is an understatement because at the time, the only other competitor on the market was the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 which comes with a 5.5" screen. It may sound like a fraction of the size but when put next to each other the difference is quite clear. 

From using a "normal size" cellphone with a standard issue 4.2" screen, it was quite an adjustment to move on to something so big and cumbersome but from the first day, you tend to get used to it. Maybe it was the human way of evolving to the phone? Yes in most cases one cannot use the phone with one hand, simply because it is impossible but you appreciate the size when you see exactly what it can do compared to your older phone. Carrying it around wasn't a big schelp either, it fitted in most of my pants pockets and apart from the odd bulge, I couldn't tell the difference to that or my regular phone. 

The Lumia 1520 comes with Windows 8 black operating system which in my opinion is one of the better OS's on smart phones today. Besides being easy to use and fast, it integrates and syncs so well with your desktop PC which makes moving from your work station to your phone feel like you're still at your desk. The phone gives you 7 gigs storage space to sky drive so retrieving documents is as easy as pie, the phones internal memory is 16 gigs and it comes with a MicroSD slot capable of housing a 64gig card, so you know storage space isn't going to be a problem. The phone is equipped with a 20 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics auto-focus lens, because of the screen size the lens is wide angled so you can take some brilliant horizontal snaps at 4992 x 3744 pixels, as demonstrated in the pic below of Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. It also records videos in full High Definiation with quality sound recording. The front face camera is a 1.2 megapixel camera which quality is more than sufficient for that selfie. 

Some of the key specifications of the phone is the Quad core 3.3 GHz Krait 400 processor with the chipset more than capible of making this device function to its optimal level. Speed on the OS is no problem, speed with regards to its telecommunications level is super fast as well with the phone being 4G/ LTE ready and its Wi-Fi speeds more than adequate to send or receive data in a flash. The stand out thing for me was the battery life, claimed stand by time is 768 hours but from using it, the phone gave me a solid 3 days use, that's with all the connections active, that is network, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. 

The big talking point for the phone as with many devices is the applications available for it, Windows App store gets populated on a daily basis so there are tons of apps available for the phone, being a social media geek, I went for all the popular ones as soon as I got the device, so Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Foursquare and LinkedIn were in the queue for download, granted some of the apps are still in beta testing form, they still work well. It also comes with Nokia story teller, which uses GPS co-ordinates to track your pictures when snapped, almost like leaving breadcrumbs to the places you've been so you can scroll over to Here Maps and search your steps by pictures taken at the various places you have visited.

The build quality of the phone is pretty remarkable, the screen being so big comes with trusty Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection so its safe from scratches and falls... I know, I dropped the test unit a few times and its pretty strong. Just don't drop it on your foot, it hurts. Another cool thing about the phone is the wireless charging, it comes with a unit which plugs into your wall socket but to charge the phone, one simply has to place it on the charger for it to charge. This may seem unnecessary but you try to charge your phone then receive a phone call or try to reply to a message with it still being plugged it!

Overall I think this is yet another quality product from Nokia, although aimed at the businessman it still is pretty useful to everyday people like you and me, if you prefer the bigger screen its a massive plus and streaming videos on it is almost as good as watching it on TV. The phone does what it says it can do and so much more, over time and with new apps coming out for it, the phone can only get better.

Some pics taken with the phone: