Huawei - mobile phones....

Lynton

Lynton

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Lynton (yes really!)
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All,

It's coming around the time to upgrade / update the mobile phone.

Something different his piqued my Interest - the Huawei P9....... however a little voice at the back of my brain is saying no...

Have researched the internet (yes the entire lot of it) and for every review I see that says it's crap, I can find another that says it is great.

Just wondered if anyone out there has a Huawei phone, and what they think of it - would you recommend them as a brand etc?

It seems relatively unheard of in the UK, but big in China. Chinese made - which puts doubts in my mind about build quality / reliability etc, however it seems Leica have been involved with the development.
 
Bought Huawei smart phone from Sainsbury about 18 months ago. Cost £46. Still works ok. Has not fallen to bits yet.
 
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Guy here swears by a lot of these Chinese phones, he showed me a 5.5" one a few months ago that I have to see was very impressive for about £120 I think if you factor on 1 years use then yes they are pretty good value. I cannot see how the majors get away with the crazy pricing on Samsung and apple stuff. look on amazon that's where he says they are.
 
We bought my mother-in-law a Huawei last year as her first smart phone (mostly so she could join the family WhatsApp groups) and she's had no problems with it at all once it was set-up (there were some initial issues with Vodaphone but these weren't a problem with the phone).


You'll get cheaper still going for one of the GearBest/BangGood supplied brands, but there's always that heart-in-mouth period of "will it arrive" followed by "will it work" when going that route - but some of their phones are very highly reviewed and can get you features not so easy to find on UK/EU supplied models at a reasonable price (e.g. dual SIM - very handy for travelling or if you've family abroad).

Tough to compete with a Moto G for price/performance though. There came a point a couple of year ago when "upgrading" your phone became little more than Top Trumps for obsessives rather than something that delivered usable extra performance or features.
 
Have a look at the OnePlus 3, it's probably going to be my next phone :)
 
If you stick with the big manufacturers you should be fine Huawei, OnePlus, ZTE all make good kit. Buy from a local source if you can for extra safety.

I've owned one of the £100 no name Chinese clones and it was great for six weeks (not withstanding the non existent android version and less memory than the software stated) then the screen cracked from the inside and the seller lost the ability to speak English. Turned out to be a tiny bit of grit under the glass in one corner just where the touchscreen mylar was. It can only have got there in the manufacturing process which was probably a back garden shed in Shenzen and is much less likely to happen to a 'brand name' phone.

My current phone is a OnePlus2 and it's doing well.
 
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Yeah I've just picked up the new OnePlus 3, fantastic bit of kit for £309 (going up to £329 soon due to weak £ to $).

My old OnePlus 1 was excellent too (see classifieds).
 
Huawei as a manufacturer has been around for a very very long time. As a manufacturer I would have got no issues with them in general. So as long as you know what you are getting; which is a very cheap phone and adjust your expectations regarding build quality, service, support etc accordingly it will be absolutely fine. The market for cheap seemingly well specificied Android phones is very crowded. Just don't be taken in by the headline specs;

for example it isn't engineered by Leica it is certified. Sunny makes the camera module not Leica at all.

Then there is the controversy of using Canon shots whilst suggesting it was shot on the phone.
http://petapixel.com/2016/07/05/huawei-implies-dslr-image-taken-p9-smartphone-gets-slammed/

If you can forgive that than there is a reasonable phone.

However for the money; and if staying with Android, I'd rather look at One Plus or even the latest Wileyfox Spark models. Or if you want to spend that much a Google Nexus 6P (also made by Huawei) so at least you've got some good regular updates.

Just my 2p.
 
At the moment, yes. Things may differ.... 3 months to "renewal".. screen is fooked back and front on this, despite a £15 screen guard and a £30 case...
 
Yes they're good phones as are lots of chinese phones. Before the £ crashed you could buy phones from china very cheap not sure about that now though? :)
 
I have friends that bought his'n'hers huawei phones and were very pleased with them.

Just IMO it's more cost effective to buy a phone outright & then have a sim only PAYG monthly deal with giffgaff or similar. It also means that if you don't mangle your phone in 2 years then you aren't forced to pay for another, thus my motorola RAZRi is 3 1/2 years old and still functioning perfectly acceptably, and I pay £7.50/month for 250min/500MB/unlimited texts.
 
Lynton said:
would be on a 24m contract with O2 as never really had too much issue with them......
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So a SIM only contract then:
With you purchasing an unlocked phone?
 
ancient_mariner said:
I have friends that bought his'n'hers huawei phones and were very pleased with them.

Just IMO it's more cost effective to buy a phone outright & then have a sim only PAYG monthly deal with giffgaff or similar. It also means that if you don't mangle your phone in 2 years then you aren't forced to pay for another, thus my motorola RAZRi is 3 1/2 years old and still functioning perfectly acceptably, and I pay £7.50/month for 250min/500MB/unlimited texts.
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Yeah after a bit more research on the matter you are indeed correct... works out about 15 - 25% saving over 24 months... to be honest, most sims are x mins unlimited SMS now and data.....

I'd probably be looking at 200 mins a month (unsocial) , unlimited texts or say a 1000 (thats unlimited to me) and a few Gb of data... Nowadays doesn't matter on the network with all the VOIP apps for dialling from home..
 
Lynton said:
A possibility....
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well there would be no point in getting a contract that came with a cheap Chinese phone really.
The whole point of contracts is you pay more and get a top of the line phone.

As folk on here say cheap phone and giff gaff SIM or other makes for pretty cheap.
 
unless its a sim only contract. jumped on a 12 month unlimited deal from Three for £18/month at the start of the year. already had a phone so didn't need them to fleece me for one.
 
I got the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 on an 18 month contract for £16 a month. 2000 minutes, unlimited texts and 2gb of data.
The phone's Chinese, but no idea who manufactures it, and is great. Big screen too.
 
I bought one about a year ago to replace my iphone, it's better in every way.
As for it being a Chinese phone, AFAIK nearly all phones are Chinese, there's nothing wrong with that. And I've been told that Huawei are the 3rd largest manufacturer in the world.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I bought one about a year ago to replace my iphone, it's better in every way.
As for it being a Chinese phone, AFAIK nearly all phones are Chinese, there's nothing wrong with that. And I've been told that Huawei are the 3rd largest manufacturer in the world.
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I think xiaomi might be third which is what I have. either way there bloody good phones
 
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Mr Bump said:
well there would be no point in getting a contract that came with a cheap Chinese phone really.
The whole point of contracts is you pay more and get a top of the line phone.

As folk on here say cheap phone and giff gaff SIM or other makes for pretty cheap.
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They're not all cheap phones the flagship Chinese models out spec everything on the market. Like the model the op is looking at the p9 it's a £500 phone over here.
 
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rjbell said:
They're not all cheap phones the flagship Chinese models out spec everything on the market. Like the model the op is looking at the p9 it's a £500 phone over here.
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Exactly. Not a cheap phone in my book. Not at all. Actually rather expensive for what it is with much better and cheaper alternatives as previously listed.

And yes nearly all are manufactured in China but let not make a mistake that all are designed and build to the same quality criteria, tolerances and support. There is a lot more to it.
 
No but all the big Chinese name brands mentioned in this thread are as good as any of the established brands.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
I have friends that bought his'n'hers huawei phones and were very pleased with them.

Just IMO it's more cost effective to buy a phone outright & then have a sim only PAYG monthly deal with giffgaff or similar. It also means that if you don't mangle your phone in 2 years then you aren't forced to pay for another, thus my motorola RAZRi is 3 1/2 years old and still functioning perfectly acceptably, and I pay £7.50/month for 250min/500MB/unlimited texts.
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I just changed to id (car phone warehouse) and got 30 day rolling contract ,200minutes ,5000 texts,1gb data for £5 a month
 
One Plus X is amazing

Iphone 6 is amazing.

Huawei P9 did win some award, like the best phone in Asia or something.

the vodafone one is pretty good also, far too good for the price.

Wiley fox are another good brand.
 
While we're listing deals......I got unlimited minutes & texts, & 2gb data on a Vodafone cashback deal. After cashback, I pay £5.50mth.

I much prefer to buy a phone outright - Moto G3, this time, as it has a quite impressive camera for the £'s. Vodaphone Smart has a very nice screen but a very mediocre camera.
 
Comfortably Numb said:
While we're listing deals......I got unlimited minutes & texts, & 2gb data on a Vodafone cashback deal. After cashback, I pay £5.50mth.

I much prefer to buy a phone outright - Moto G3, this time, as it has a quite impressive camera for the £'s. Vodaphone Smart has a very nice screen but a very mediocre camera.
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That is true.
For me, it's largely unimportant as I just wanted it to be a phone I can use for the internet without any faff, but I can understand how it would bug others.
 
viv1969 said:
That is true.
For me, it's largely unimportant as I just wanted it to be a phone I can use for the internet without any faff, but I can understand how it would bug others.
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Yep, it does make a great, cheap phablet. I specifically wanted a camera I would enjoy using, when I wasn't lugging my dslr around.

On the subject of updates- Motorola seem very quick to offer them, whereas my brother is still waiting to upgrade his Smart 6
 
Comfortably Numb said:
Yep, it does make a great, cheap phablet. I specifically wanted a camera I would enjoy using, when I wasn't lugging my dslr around.

On the subject of updates- Motorola seem very quick to offer them, whereas my brother is still waiting to upgrade his Smart 6
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software upgrade?
 
Yeah, I got an Android upgrade that allowed me to adjust permissions, which I was keen to do, but as yet it hasn't appeared for his phone
 
dejongj said:
Oh yes, constantly released, and most recently a rather long list of serious security flaws.
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I was specifically asking Daren re his Ulta 6.
 
viv1969 said:
I was specifically asking Daren re his Ulta 6.
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Smart Ultra 6 is using QUALCOMM ;) As ever, well like in the old days, patches are release, but are the manufacturers and carriers passing them on. That really is a big issue with a lot of these software dependant smart phones.
 
dejongj said:
Smart Ultra 6 is using QUALCOMM ;) As ever, well like in the old days, patches are release, but are the manufacturers and carriers passing them on. That really is a big issue with a lot of these software dependant smart phones.
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Yes I know. I own one.
 
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