Huawei going big… aiming even bigger

Huawei has been an aggressive player in the region for quite a while now. With new innovations under the sleeve, Huawei has been punching and pushing competition with a new iteration of phones, laptops and wearables. This year it has brought out several such devices. Leading the way for Huawei this time is the P30 Series. P30 Series consists of three devices: P30 Pro, P30 and P30 Lite.

As the model denotes, P30 Pro is spearheading this series with features and specs that are bound to sweat the competition. P Series made headlines a few years back when it brought out P9 with Leica camera. Ever since that, photography enthusiasts globally have been keeping a keen eye on each iteration of the P Series.

This year wasn't an exception: P30, thanks to the buffed up specs, probably has made itself a clear competitor of Samsung, Google and Apple's flagship camera phones. The key feature of the P30 is three cameras on the back, and one of them has a 5x periscopic zoom (Mate 20 Pro had the 3x zooming lens).

I got my hands on the device at the grand launching of P30 Series in Malaysia on April 2nd. I found the camera ahead of the best camera phone I have used so far (Pixel 3 by Google). Even without the night-mode, the device was able to extremely detailed photos in a low light environment. No wonder the device scored a whopping 112 on DXOMARK.  

As I was able to play with the device for a little above half an hour, I couldn't test many other features of the phone that Huawei had installed. We will be able to provide the review soon as our Huawei Rep. said we will be getting a review unit soon. Also, find a short preview of P30 Pro in this week's issue of BYTES.

In Bangladesh, the reception has been incredible- the entire first batch of P30 Pro got pre-booked on less than 48 hours. The prices of the devices are P30 Pro Tk. 89,999/-; P30 Tk. 64,999/- and P30 Lite Tk. 29,999/-. The pre-bookers are going to get newly launched Huawei GT Watch worth Tk. 19,990/- for free with P30 Pro. Rest of the phones have attractive gifts too upon pre-booking.

GT smartwatch, which too was unveiled last week here in Malaysia, is a wearable that will be a perfect fit your outgoing lifestyle. Aesthetically, the watch is has been able to playfully strike the balance between sportiness and raw elegance.

Last but not least, on the portfolio of devices that were unveiled in the last week, is Huawei Matebook. Matebook, which draws inspiration from Apple directly, didn't offer anything groundbreaking. Rather the entire laptop portfolio maintained the momentum of progress.

So what's next for Huawei? From an underdog brand from the orient, Huawei has become a global brand in just a few years. In Malaysia, it has amassed a staggering 32% share in the market and in premium device segment (Mobiles worth more than $500) it has a 46% market share. In a cost-sensitive market like Bangladesh, Huawei saw a 4% growth YoY in Q4 2018 (IDC Report). Keeping the political turmoil with USA government aside, Huawei's business is expanding in every direction. The top brasses of Huawei Malaysia have made their intentions loud and clear: to be the biggest smartphone brand in the region (particularly in Malaysia) by 2019. But will it be able to keep on innovating at this pace in the near future? We will find out… soon.