As of today, Huawei’s new P8 Lite smartphone and TalkBand B2 fitness tracker/Bluetooth headset are available on GetHuawei.com and Amazon. The P8 Lite will also be available B&H in-store/online, Fry’s Electronics in-store/online and Target.com with availability in Best Buy coming soon. The two new devices were announced yesterday in New York City as part of Huawei’s goal to become a bigger player in the U.S.A.’s smartphone market. They are not currently partnering with a major carrier, so the P8 Lite will be sold unlocked for use on any GSM compatible network. Huawei has found that more than 42% of consumers already use or would be willing to purchase an unlocked phone, so that’s what Huawei is focusing on. They’re also offering a 2 year warranty so that customers will have proper support for the device in the U.S. and there’s a payment plan option on GetHuawei.com in case you don’t feel like paying for it all at once. This is very similar to the payment plans that other carriers have switch to when selling phones along with service.
Huawei P8 Lite
The Huawei P8 Lite is a variation of the P8 that’s been available elsewhere in the world for a while now. It runs an MSM8939 1.5Ghz Oca-Core processor with 2GB of RAM, 16Gb ROM, and a MicroSD slot, but the Micro SD slot doubles as a secondary SIM card slot in case you want to use two SIMs at the same time. It’s also running Android 4.4.4 (KitKat) with Huawei’s Emotion UI 3.0.
The screen is 5 inches with a 720 x 1280 pixel resolution.
On the edge, you can see the dual SIM card slots. As mentioned, you can use one of them for a MicroSD card storage expansion if you want.
The Huawei P8 lite has GSM bands 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS B1/2/4/5, LTE L2/4/5/12/17, and LTE CAT4 so you’ll be able to use it with many different network operators. Of course it has WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS as well. The dimensions are 5.62 x 2.77 x 0.30 inches and it weighs 4.62 oz.
It has a 13 megapixel camera with an LED flash on the back along with a 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera on the front. It has a few special software features including an “all focus” mode which allows you to change the focus point of saved images after the fact, and the “Ultra Snapshot” mode which lets you launch straight into the camera by double pressing the volume down key.
Huawei is now also partnering with Jawbone UP who’s software is included on the P8 Lite. The Jawbone UP software connects to Huawei’s new TalkBand B2 and syncs data between the devices as well as with other apps like Strava and RunKeeper. The Nest Thermostat integration is interesting in that the TalkBand B2 can communicate trouble sleeping to the UP software which can then adjust the room’s temperature via Nest for a better sleeping experience.
Huawei TalkBand B2
The TalkBand B2 is more of a fitness tracker with a few very special features as opposed to an average smartwatch.
As a fitness tracker it works like other Jawbone UP devices. It keeps track of your walking, running, cycling and hill climbing. It calculates calories burned. It tracks your sleep patterns, and you can even use “Find My Phone” or activate your phone’s camera shutter with it.
When a phone call comes in, you’ll see the caller ID on the screen. Then you can press the two buttons on the side of the band to release the TalkBand’s face which reveals that it’s also a Bluetooth headset. This action of removing it from your wrist will answer the incoming phone call while you place it into your ear.
The TalkBand B2 is still missing a lot of the features found on other high-end fitness trackers; there’s no heart rate monitor, GPS tracking, ultraviolet radiation sensor, etc. And it’s also missing some basic smart watch style features like displaying notifications or even text messages. However, the cool thing is that you’ve got easy access to a Bluetooth headset for hands-free phone calls and access to your phone’s speech interface.
Be sure to check out GetHuawei.com for pricing and availability.
Originally published on Pocketnow on June 3, 2015. More from the Pocketnow archive.