Hour ago, certain sites started reporting about how two Huawei phones with physical numeric keyboards have appeared on the website of TENAA, the Chinese Telecoms regulatory certifications agency. These two phones are simply identified as the Huawei R952 and the Huawei R662, and they looked out of place in this era of touchscreen smartphones.
Did someone just turned the wrong stone and we have drifted back in time? At a glance, both phones looks like those “brick phones” from an era gone by, something from circa year 2000. Even the venerable Nokia 3310 is more petite than it in physical size!
False Alarm
It turns out, it was a false alarm, Huawei didn’t go back to making candybar feature phones, but, these are actually very purpose built devices, designed for railway staff working in extreme conditions, and is able to withstand shocks and vibration, as well as various temperature (-25°C to +55°C) and humidity conditions. They even feature dedicated PTT (Push-To-Talk) buttons, which effectively made them walkie-talkies too.
Both phones share some similar specs:
- Kirin 620 octa-core processor
- 2GB of RAM with 16GB of Storage (microSD expandable up to 32GB)
- 2.4-inch LCD with 240 x 320 pixel resolution
- Large PTT and emergency button
- Standard Micro USB port for charging
- Bluetooth/GPS/WiFi/G-Sensor
- 13MP rear camera with no front camera
- 2000mAh (R662) / 3000mAh (R952) battery
The Huawei R662 is a GSM-R GPH (General Purpose Handheld) device, and is to be used as standard mobile from non-operational staff, while the Huawei R952 is a GSM-R OPH (Operational Purpose Handheld) device, and is fitted with higher capacity batteries suitable for use in low temperatures. The Huawei R952 is also has a IP65 rating. Both devices do not seem to be running any version of Android and most likely run some proprietary OS instead.
So, it looks like some false alarm. Huawei is not going backwards and start making feature phones. They are, afterall, not just a smartphone manufacturer, but is also the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world. This is probably some of the phones they made, that is not sold on the open market due to its very specific usage.
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