Huawei’s Latest Y-Series Flagship Might be the end to Production of Entry-Level Smartphones
Yesterday, Shenzhen-based smartphone markers, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, beat Cupertino-based tech firm, Apple Inc. in the new Counterpoint rankings as they took on the second positions as the biggest smartphone company worldwide in terms of sales volume. With firm planning on launching its next flagship which is said to be iPhone 8 on September 12th, 2017, we might see a change in the rankings.
As we wait for Apple’s launch, Huawei in June launched three (3) new entry level devices in its Y-series category; Huawei Y7 Prime, Huawei Y5, and Huawei Y3 which unfortunately might be the company’s last effort towards low end devices. This was confirmed by Richard Yu; Chief of Huawei’s consumer division.
In an interview that was quoted by Bloomberg, Yu said that;
“We are giving up the very low-end devices because the margin in this is extremely low, and it’s not making enough profit for us.”
However, to some this might not be news, as the firm reported earlier on this year that it was planning on bringing an end to its entry level smartphones and focus on mid-range and high-range smartphones. Therefore the will be (NOT limited) focus on the GR series, the P series and the Mate series. The latter is poised to release its new entrant, the Mate 10, on October this year.
Last year, the company launched the Huawei Y5 II, and the Huawei Y3 II – the features don’t differ a lot from the current flagships.
| Huawei Y7 Prime | Huawei Y5 | Huawei Y3 |
| 5 inch HD | 5 inch HD | 5 inch 480p |
| 12MP main camera | 8MP main camera | 8MP main camera |
| 8MP Selfie shooter | 5MP Selfie shooter | 2MP Selfie shooter |
| Snapdrgaon 435 | Mediatek 6737T | Mediatek 6737 or 6580 |
| 3GB RAM | 2GB RAM | 1GB RAM |
| 32GB Internal | 16GB Internal | 8GB Internal |
| 4000mAh | 3000mAh | 2200mAh |
The Huawei Y7 Prime, Huawei Y5, and Huawei Y3 were launched in Kenya yesterday, and will soon be launched in Uganda.
Notably, after launching their V9 Play smartphone, Huawei Terminal brand Honor has also launched its affordable segment Honor 6 Play smartphone with 4G VoLTE support and a 3020mAh battery in China and has been priced at CNY 599 (roughly UGX) and set for purchase today in the country.
The dual-SIM Honor 6 Play runs EMUI 4.1 on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, sports a 5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) display powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6737T SoC clocked at 1.4GHz coupled with 2GB of RAM with a 16GB ROM which is expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). In addition, an 8MP rear and 5MP front cameras, 4G LTE connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, GPS, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n options, to mention a few.
