Last night, Huawei Mobile Philippines started another round of media launch for the new Huawei GR5 2017 and Huawei Mate 9. As you saw the arrival of these two new dual-cam phones in this blog as early as January 9, it made two weeks for me to wait and finally I had their latest midrange offering
Front: 5.5 inch LTPS Full HD LCD display, 8 MP front camera, earpiece, Huawei logo
Back: Dual 12 MP + 2 MP PDAF main cameras with LED flash, fingerprint reader, Huawei logo, non-removable back cover
Internals: 2.1 GHz Kirin 655 octa-core processor, EMUI 4.1 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, 3,340 mAh built-in battery
I just found out more from the launch that the Kirin 655 was made from a 16 nm FinFET process so international tech are raving on it's great battery (in the US, it was there as Honor 6x). This is one of my most fave 5.5 inch phones that I had in terms of one hand navigation mainly coz of the back curvings which it feels like a 5.2 inch phone
Hybrid dual nano SIM tray at the left, volume rocker and power/unlock button at the right.
Noise cancelling mic and 3.5 mm. audio jack at the top. Single speaker and pin hole microphone at the bottom.
From my previous two Huawei reviews for the P9 and P9 Lite, the familiar pulldown menu is still present on the GR5 2017 including my fave options on customizing it, screen recording and the 4G toggle button.
The phone and messaging apps of Huawei GR5 2017
The available sensors of Huawei GR5 2017 including magnetic, orientation, light, proximity, gyro, gravity and acceleration. I wonder that they did not include performance mode on this phablet but you can stretch the battery life with those two available options.
Huawei GR5 2017 scored at almost 56,000 on Antutu and it has 10 point multi touch
The camera features are also full packed for a midrange device. Still, you can save your photos and videos on micro SD. In pro mode, all of the available settings are there including the shutter speeds from 1/4000 to 8 seconds. Of course, the 2 MP secondary main camera was there to create those bokeh effects.
and the camera samples. The main shooter is fast in terms of image processing speed but not that much on selfies all in normal, beauty and HDR mode. Good thing that it has f/2.0 aperture as I still had a good low light selfie inside the venue.
Huawei GR5 2017 rear camera sample
Huawei GR5 2017 rear camera sample with bokeh effect set to f/0.95
Huawei GR5 2017 8 MP front camera sample
At the first month of the year, Huawei GR5 2017 might be a solid midranger for me and definitely an upgrade to the buzzworthy phones of last year, Huawei GR5 2016 coz of the more powerful and power efficient processor, more premium and compact feel and OTG support. If there's one downside for me for now on this phablet is the lack of FM Radio. Huawei GR5 2017 is officially available right now fo Php 13,990 and it comes with a selfie pod which also acts as a tripod either you buy it on Huawei Mobile stores or their authorized dealers.
You can now check my Huawei GR5 2017 review here!
You can now check my Huawei GR5 2017 review here!
