Huawei is about the third largest smartphone maker in the world. While some people wonder how credible the Huawei brand is here in Nigeria and spoke to me that they’re not ready to pay close to NGN90,000 for a Huawei smartphone, Huawei is a top player in the global scene when we look at how their performance.
On Thursday 27th November at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos, Huwei unveiled the Huawei Ascend Mate7. It is the phone replacing the older Huawei Ascend Mate 2. The unveiling saw the likes of Alibaba and Omawunmi in attendance.
The phone was constantly being compared to other phones like the iPhone 5s, Samsung GALAXY Note 4 and a few other phones. There are a few things that I found to be striking about the phone. More on that later.
While companies like Tecno, Samsung, Gtide, Infinix are already taking the Nigerian market by storm, Huawei does not just want to be the third largest globally, but they want to be among the very top players in Nigeria too. That is their goal as they mentioned at the launch.
Tecno happen to be a more popular brand in Nigeria. But Huawei is big in Nigeria selling telecommunication equipment including Internet dongles and MIFi that Nigeria Telcos sell to there customers.
The Huawei Ascend Mate7 is a 6″ phone that doesn’t look 6″. One 6″ phone that I have used is the Nokia Lumia 1520. The reason the Ascend Mate7 looks this compact is that the screen-to-body ratio is 83%, a lot more than that of Samsung GALAXY Note 4 that is 80%. The aluminum unibody is superb in such a way that the back of the phone is designed with some kind of curvature that makes the phone seat comfortably in your hands, whether you are handling the phone with one hand or two hands.
The battery is 4,100 mAh. They promised that it is going to last long. But some folks that have already used and reviewed the phone did mention that the super crystal display of the phone wouldn’t allow the battery to last that long on a single charge.
One fantastic thing about the Mate7 is you can use it as a power bank. Yes, for real. There’s a cord that is enclosed for this function. So, if you have another phone you’re using and you need to get some charge, just connect the phone to your Mate7.
But why would you need a second phone? The Huawei Ascend Mate7 is a dual SIM phone. Supports Micro SIM and regular SIM. Another interesting thing is that the second slot for the second SIM can also serve as the slot for Micro SD card. This is a premium built phone that doesn’t look like a cheap adaptation of an original phone to make it dual SIM. The Samsung GALAXY Neo is somewhat an adaptation of the Samsung GALAXY Note 3 to provide dual SIM functionality to those that want that feature.
I think this phone will make a good companion when you are travelling abroad. You do not have to remove your local SIM while inserting an international SIM. When I visited Ghana, I went with my Nokia Lumia 1020. At some point, I bought Airtel Ghana SIM. As soon as I did that, I had to remove my Etisalat Nigeria SIM and inserted it in my pocket. I won’t have to do that if I had this Mate7.
The phone packs many functions. However some of those functions are not really innovations as they might not be the first to implement it. They did not first implement the fingerprint scanner—it is present in the iPhone 5s, Samsung GALAXY Note 4 and GALAXY S5.
Whether the Huawei Ascend Mate7 is going to live up to all these hype will be tested as soon as I have one in my hand and I can review it. Till then, these are the promises held out by Huawei. These are the beauty of the phone as painted by the manufacturers during the unveiling in Lagos.
By holding the phone briefly, I like a few things;
- The aluminum unibody design and the metal build;
- The edge to edge display and thin bezels that doesn’t make the phone look too bulky;
- The fact that it is a dual SIM like no other. I can choose to insert a SIM at the second SIM slot or a micro SD card;
- I can charge my other devices with the phone.
You can preorder the Huawei Ascend Mate7 from SLOT Nigeria Limited right now and enjoy some super bundled packages. Head over to the SLOT Nigeria website to preorder.
What features about the phone are strong enough reason for you to want to buy the phone?
