Huawei reveals Mate S
We really loved the Huawei Mate 7 when we got our hands on it earlier this year, but the time is about right for a new model.
So the Chinese firm has launched the oft-leaked Mate S phablet on Wednesday at the annual IFA event in Berlin.
What makes the Mate S so different?
Well, you're looking at 3GBs of RAM, a similar 64-bit Kirin 935 processor to the P8 and Android 5.1.
For starters, the screen has seen a reduction in size, from the Mate 7's 6-inches to 5.5-inches (it's still a full HD display though).
But in a rather interesting feature, Huawei has adopted the Force Touch feature, first seen on the Apple Watch and Macbook.
Force Touch will allow users to apply extra pressure to the screen for more functions (such as pressing harder to zoom in on a snap), but the screen can also serve as a scale for weighing objects. Crazy. Huawei is also soliciting your ideas for the Force Touch screen though.
Interestingly enough, Huawei is also eschewing traditional navigation keys in favour of a force touch approach for pressing keys.
The Mate 7 also stood out thanks to its practical fingerprint scanner and Huawei is claiming improvements here too. The company said its new scanner is 100 percent faster and 100 percent more sensitive than before.
Camera, battery and pricing?
In the camera department, the new phablet includes a similar 13MP camera to the P8 (complete with RGBW colour filter and optical image stabilisation), a professional mode for snaps and an 8MP front-facing shooter with "soft light".
Audio hasn't been neglected either (thank goodness, because the Mate 7 was disappointing), as Huawei has introduced a three-microphone system that recognises individual voices.
Unfortunately, the one area that has seen a regression is the battery department, with a drop from the Mate 7's 4100mAh pack to a mere 2700mAhs. But Huawei is offering fast charging that should get you two hours of talk time with ten minutes of charging.
The Mate S will be initially available in more than 30 countries including China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Spain, South Africa and UAE.
South African pricing and launch information hasn't been revealed just yet, but Europeans can expect to pay €649 for the 32GB model and €699 for the 64GB variant.
source : http://technology.iafrica.com/news/1004646.html
