News & Reviews:   Huawei Mate 7

It isn't a secret that Huawei and LEICA have made a partnership, the only question would be when or for which device. From this leaked image it looks like this could be the upcoming Huawei P9. Set for a 6 April 2016 announcement, this leaked image clearly shows the LEICA logo with a SUMMARIT and f/2.2 aperture and 27mm focal length on the strip where the camera is located, along with dual cameras, what appears to be dual laser autofocus sensors and a finger print sensor below it. But then again, these do not match with previous leaked images.

It's been about a month now since the Huawei Mate 8 landed in Malaysia, and it has gained quite a buzz due to how fast and “lag-less” it was due to the new Kirin 950 SoC chipset. That being said, it's been only a year since the Mate 7 came out and if you're wondering whether you should upgrade your device or not, we got you covered with a comparison below so read on to find out! 

This MWC 2016, Huawei have announced their rumoured Huawei MateBook 2-in-1 tablet notebook. Powered by a 6th Gen Intel Core m processor and Windows 10, the aluminum unibody device is a thin 6.9mm with a compact 110g pocket charger. The 12-inch display tablet slots out of the super thin Surface like keyboard complete with touchpad (that is also spill proof and over-current protected) and folio case and is surprisingly lightweight at 610g.

Aimed squarely at the business user it also has the world's first side single-touch fingerprint sensor and the MatePen stylus which also has a built-in laser pointer. No Malaysia release dates or pricing details yet but Huawei say that it will be coming worldwide soon. The MateBook with Intel Core M3 processor, 4GB RAM and 128GB storage will be priced from $699 (RM2941) while the keyboard case will go from $129 (RM542). The MatePen will be priced from $59 (RM247) but you can get it with a headset in a bundle called MateDock for $89 (RM373). In the meantime, you can check the full tech specs, images and video in this article.

Huawei recently announced that they got an improved listing on Interbrand's 2015 Best Global Brands report. Previously, Huawei was listed on the 2014 Best Global Brands report at #94 but this year's listing of #88 is mainly due to robust growth in all business segments. For 2014, they recorded US$46.5 billion in annual revenue, a year-over-year increase of 20.6%. Net profits reached US$4.5 billion which is a year-over-year increase of 32.7%.

According to some leaked roadmaps, certain Huawei and Honor smartphones should be getting their Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates. Of course, they'll all be using EMUI so we expect the current EMUI 3.1 to get an upgrade as well. No Malaysia release dates just yet but rumours indicate that the builds will start being made in November, so you can probably expect updates to appear either the end of the year or in 2016. For now, you can check out the lists below to find out if your Huawei or Honor device will be getting an Android 6.0 Marshmallow update.

• Huawei P8
• Huawei Mate 7
• Huawei Mate S
• Huawei P8 Youth Edition
• Huawei P8 Max
• Maimang 4 (Huawei G8 in China)
• Huawei G7 Plus
• Huawei G7
• Honor 7
• Honor 7i
• Honor 6 Plus
• Honor 6
• Honor X2
• Honor 4X
• Honor Play 4C

The honor 7 was launched just a bit more than a week ago and it looks like we'll be getting the review unit soon. Priced at a competitive RM1399 the honor 7 looks to bring a number of upgraded tech specs and existing features from previous Huawei and honor smartphones like the honor 6 and even the recently launched Huawei P8 flagship. We're certainly looking forward to it but while we wait for it to arrive, here are some of the various features we are looking forward to in the Honor 7.

The honor 7 was launched just a bit more than a week ago and it looks like we'll be getting the review unit soon. Priced at a competitive RM1399 the honor 7 looks to bring a number of upgraded tech specs and existing features from previous Huawei and honor smartphones like the honor 6 and even the recently launched Huawei P8 flagship. We're certainly looking forward to it but while we wait for it to arrive, here are some of the various features we are looking forward to in the Honor 7.

Huawei have officially announced their Honor 7 smartphone today for Malaysia and like the Honor 6 Plus before it, it comes with many flagship features for a very affordable price tag. This time around, the Honor 7 offers a full metal unibody frame and backplate with ceramic coating complete with a fingerprint scanner like the Huawei Mate 7. It is also the first Honor smartphone to come with a 20MP rear camera which also comes with phase detection auto-focus, dual tone LED flash and a sapphire protective glass layer. Tech specs include a 64-bit 2.2GHz octa-core Kirin 935 processor, 3GB RAM, 5.2-inch FHD display, 8MP front camera, 3100 mAh battery, fast charging and Android 5.0 Lollipop. Pricing is set at RM1399 for the dual SIM 4G LTE version with 16GB storage. The phone will be available for pre-order starting from 22 September 2015 to 27 September 2015 with an extra RM50 VMALL.my discount voucher, 6 months one-to-one exchange warranty and a 32GB microSD card for the first 1000 participants.

The Huawei Honor 7 smartphone was officially announced for Europe recently with a full metal body airbrushed with a ceramic coating, fingerprint sensor and 20MP rear camera with phase detection auto focus. Other tech specs include a 64-bit 2.2GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 935 processor, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage + microSD support, 5.2-inch FHD display, 20MP rear camera, 8MP front camera, 3100 mAh battery and fingerprint sensor. The Honor 7 measures in at 143.2 x 71.9 x 8.5mm and weighs in at 157g which is quite light still for a full metal smartphone. While Europe is getting just the gray and silver colour versions, we expect that the gold coloured version will also be available when it comes to Malaysia, estimated to be sometime in September 2015. Apart from that, there don't seem to be any other differences from the previous announcement. No specific Malaysia release dates or pricing details yet but the 16GB version is currently going for about $322 (RM1356) in Europe. You can also check out our comparisons with the Honor 7 vs Meizu MX5 or the OPPO R7 Plus vs Honor 7 vs Meizu MX5 as well.

Huawei recently announced its sales earnings for H1 2015 with a marked 30% increase year-on-year resulting in 175.9 billion CNY (RM107.9 billion). While many of these earnings come from the enterprise side of their busines it should be noted that their consumer smartphone business have done exceedingly well with the Huawei Mate 7 and P8 both doing well. Work and investments continue to focus on 4G networks while laying the foundation for future expansion. Check out what Huawei had to say about these achievements below.

"In the first half of 2015, Huawei achieved stable and healthy growth in all of its three business segments. In the enterprise business, our innovative products and solutions have laid the foundation for building strong competitiveness and been widely recognized by customers, and we have started to experience accelerated growth. Thanks to the extensive application of our cloud computing, storage, agile network, and other flagship products and solutions in the smart city, finance, education, and ISP markets in and outside of China, our growth in the enterprise business began to pick up in the first half of this year. Huawei's mid-range and high-end smartphones, Mate7 and P8 in particular, as well as Honor-branded phones, have made solid progress, helping us guarantee quality and sustainable growth in the consumer business. With Huawei's well-balanced, worldwide presence, we are confident that we will maintain effective growth and steady and healthy development in all business segments in 2015." Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's Chief Financial Officer