{"id":114952,"date":"2015-05-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=114952"},"modified":"2015-05-10T11:42:54","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T11:42:54","slug":"huaweis-p8-android-smartphone-for-iphone-lovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/05\/huaweis-p8-android-smartphone-for-iphone-lovers\/","title":{"rendered":"Huawei’s P8; Android smartphone for iPhone lovers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Chinese smartphone giant Huawei has tried, for years, to create a compelling global flagship smartphone.<\/p>\n
Its phones often have great specifications, solid pricing and pleasant (though never very original) design, but none of them manage to wow consumers outside of China the way Apple’s iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones do.<\/p>\n
With the P8, the company’s latest flagship, Huawei takes another step in the same direction \u2014 it’s an elegant phone with great specifications at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n
However, for better or for worse, the P8 is in many ways reminiscent of the iPhone 6, more than any other Android we’ve seen.<\/p>\n
Can a phone’s design be too sleek?<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, you could make a similar claim for most modern smartphones \u2014 they’re all just rectangles consisting of a screen, a frame and little else; details such as materials, an extra speaker or a button here and there differentiate between them.<\/p>\n It’s no wonder big manufacturers such as Samsung and LG are opting for somewhat superfluous design elements \u2014 for customers, a “curved phone” or a “phone with curved edges” is easier to remember than a bunch of numbers on a spec sheet.<\/p>\n Huawei’s P8 doesn’t have anything like that. Aside from a few software tricks and one very odd accessory (I’ll get to that later), none of its features set it apart from the pack.<\/p>\n Combine that with\u00a0a design that borrows quite a few elements from Apple<\/span>, and you get a phone whose best quality is its likeness to the iPhone.<\/p>\n Don’t believe us? Check out the photo comparison between a P8 and an iPhone 6 Plus, below. Yes, the P8’s edges are a bit more square than the iPhone.<\/p>\n Yes, the buttons and ports are placed in different places.<\/p>\n But overall, every time I pulled the device out of my pocket I was greeted with the same question: What kind of iPhone is that?<\/p>\n To Huawei’s credit, the P8 is far from some cheap knockoff. It’s sleek, solidly built and really feels like a premium device.<\/p>\n Its 5.2-inch screen is crammed into a case that feels smaller than similarly-sized competitors.<\/p>\n All the buttons are in the right places. Similarities with iDevices aside, this is one of the best designed Android phones out there.<\/p>\n But that’s not saying much anymore; it feels like every company from big guys like Samsung to Chinese startups like Xiaomi are putting out Android phones with premium designs.<\/p>\n No lack of power<\/strong><\/p>\n Besides the full HD (1,920 x 1,080) screen, the P8 boasts a 13-megapixel rear camera (coupled with an 8-megapixel selfie cam on the front), a 2GHz\/1.5GHz octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD cards).<\/p>\n It also has a 2,680 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery, a solid capacity given the device’s 6.4mm thick profile.<\/p>\n None of these specs jump out, but you’d be hard pressed to find anything that’s really missing here<\/span>, with the exception of a fingerprint sensor, a feature that both the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 have.<\/p>\n Some similarly priced phones have a higher-resolution screen, but most people won’t be able to tell the difference.<\/p>\n Bring the P8 into broad daylight, however, and you’ll notice its screen pale compared to that of an iPhone 6.<\/p>\n As for performance, I did experience a noticeable lag here or there when the phone was busy doing a couple of things at once, but most of the time, it was on par with any flagship I’ve tried.<\/p>\n