Review: Huawei G8

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that dropping and thereby smashing your smartphone screen is not a smart move; this, however, is what I did with my Huawei P8 that I received at the Singapore launch back in June this year.  The Huawei free screen repair really saved my bacon, and after sweet talking their PR department, I was able to try a new G8 while my phone was in the shop.

When pictured next to my P8 (left), the G8 doesn’t seem much bigger, but it definitely is.  Sporting a 5.5 inch full HD screen, pixel density of 401ppi, it’s a crisp, clear screen.  The screen sort of curves up from the chassis of the phone, which I don’t personally like; I prefer the much more flush design of the P8.

It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop which Huawei’s Emotion UI sitting on top.  Reading a few of the other online reviews, I can see a lot of angst against this, however, I’m very comfortable with this, though it took a lot of getting used to having been in TouchWiz (Samsung) for so long.

On the back is a fingerprint reader, which at first glance seems to be a silly place to put (Nexus 5 users would obviously disagree), however it’s naturally where your index finger goes when picking up the phone.  The reader is super quick, and super accurate – trying it on a few friends, their were no false positive reads.

Great battery life (3000mAh) and the power saving functions of Emotion UI means I was easily able to get a full day’s use.  I did find that the phone would slow down when lots of apps were in use, however it’s unfair to expect the G8 to perform similarily to the top end phones.

Price point is fantastic.  At $575 from Noel Leeming, it’s only a little smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, but nearly half the price. 

For the average Android user, this is the perfect first foray into a phablet.  Not sure if I’ll be happy going back to my smaller P8.