Huawei P40 pricing is in step with previous P-series efforts – but flagship lacks the apps punters have come to expect There are few surprises around UK pricing and availability for Huawei's latest P40 handsets, which are more or less consistent with previous P-series models – but they are missing a few things punters may not be too, er, appy about. Huawei's entry-level P40 retails at £699 and sits in limbo between the mid-level and flagship …
pretty pathetic if a facebook owned app is "backbone" of business, lowest common denominator as always. Might as well just send your company secrets to Zuckerburg directly....
I don't do: twatbook, twatchat, twatstagram, twatter or any other "social" media
Has everyone forgotten the ability to send email or you know telephone conference calls?
apparently, my better half tells me, the current (and upcoming) generation does everything with their mobile "friends" and they have very little knowledge on how to use a computer in any way, other than how to open and edit a document (when no MS Word, panic alarm). To my dismay I just discovered my (early) teen daughter doesn't know and DOESN'T. WANT TO. KNOW. how to send a file from a computer to a usb stick stuck in a usb port in the computer. Moreover, refuses to consider a possibility of poking around the start button to discover there's this little louple logo and a little "search" window, and if you enter (ah, but to type a few characters, what a chore!) a magic word or two, suddenly you turn into a Master of Computing Who Knows. But - no. Won't do, walks off, etc. Likewise, despite over a year of (forced) learning of how to touch-type (which she actually learnt), she quickly reverted to a two-finger mastery. Jesus.
Well it might be pathetic, but it's how the world is. The penetration of WhatsApp must be somewhere around 95% of western mobile phone users - and the second most popular messaging app is probably Facebook Messenger. In other words, Facebook have this market pretty much completely sown up.
My thought exactly. I mean, is the human species really that lazy/ stupid/ demure/ (more characterisations not meant to be offending, but still head shake inducing)? The missus also doesn't have PlayStore, but does have WA. Went with phones browser to whatsapp.com, got the apk, and installed it. Not my cuppa (not interested in drunken pics, diet tips and defecation patterns of others), but if she (non-technical consumer) can do it, I fail to understand why others can't. Then again, I suspect that, as referenced in the piece, if Huawei dropped the prices massively, many consumers would overcome their lethargy immediately.
(BTW: in both referenced, previous ElReg pieces, Dell and Asus state that they don't see more returns, but that this message most likely is an MS driven/ fuelled marketing rumour. However, in this piece, 12 years later, ElReg now states that these 4 times higher return rates were a proven fact. Bit sloppy by the Vulture...)
In view of what fast charging is likely to do to battery longevity, its absence could be a plus. Sony, in fact, offer a battery-protecting overnight charging mode which is something I actually consider useful.
My main concern with these phones however is not Facebook, Instagram and so on missing, but banking apps and Google Pay. These are the reason I have a smartphone rather than a dumbphone and keep up with the latest Android version. If Huawei want to succeed in the UK perhaps they should be taking this on board.
But will the general public agree? Based on my efforts to inform my friends and family about what Facebook and its ilk do to their data, a lot of people are quite interested in maintaining their online profiles and would get annoyed if that were prevented.
Sadly, though I usually want my smartphones closer to Huawei's environment than Google's, Huawei has not given me what I need in a device. I don't want Google apps, so their absence is nice. But I also don't want Huawei apps. I don't want an undisableable Google framework running everything, nor do I want a Huawei-branded replacement. And sadly, Huawei has not reversed its decisions to keep me out of the bootloader, preventing me from installing a replacement OS.
For these reasons, I'm concerned that Huawei may fall in a gap between the two groups. They don't offer enough apps for the general public and don't offer enough access for those who like the freedom of custom Android distributions like Lineage OS. Only time will tell if they manage to sell their system to one or another of those groups or if there is a third one I haven't considered.
If "killing people" was a major influence in purchaser's decisions, they would have stopped buying American decades ago, due to perpetual US wars, and destablising democracies.
You might lot like it, but you are aware that Chinese manufacturers occupy 3 of the top 5 positions by volume?:
https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/vendor
Or that China's exports of phones is an order of magnitude greater than the US?:
http://www.worldstopexports.com/cellphone-exports-by-country
What can a banking app do that I can't do via the webpage on my pc or phone....not much
What can't the banking app do that I can do via the webpage....quite a bit
Do I have serious doubts about the security of banking apps? yes, why "lets activate quick balance so you don't have to login" ummm no, "lets activate quick transfer to move money between your accounts without logging in" ummm again no, suggesting a rather lax view of security, which makes me wonder where else corners have been cut, how low end was the coder (given they all seem to be reskinned versions of the same app) and how exposed it is to a man in the middle attack etc and given its all "security by obscurity" then that also sets the alarm bells ringing
Also given the banks are beholden to the FCA, which is beholden to the govt, do I REALLY trust them not to slip spyware into the app at the behest of the FCA (after any of the following make noises about "preventing terrorism" "people trafficking" "paedophilia" etc - MI5, GCHQ, Plod, Local Authorities, NHS, whoever else has been lumped into whatever "security"/"public health" bill )- Definetely NO
You really can't get a bank account without a smart phone?
So right. In addition, legislation does indeed require new standards that show that you have physical possession of something (e.g. chip pass) that confirms your identity. However, it also stipulates that banks have to offer multiple solutions.So yes, they are obligated to offer alternatives to the banking app. Fact however is that they don't like to, some making it even more unattractive by charging for it, because they love to know more about the person/ phone their app is being used on. And from a colleague of mine I know that some banking apps have no problem peddling "anonymised" data. Yumm.
But hey, it's convenient. And if I see people around me have absolute no second thought connecting to public open wifi, and open/ use their banking app, I really start doubting humanity. Asking myself how many know that banking rules/ legislation changed which now stipulates that any banking mishap happening, as default starting position, lies with the consumer (e.g. condition of software, device). But hey, can I have a large latte please while I check my balance with my handy app?
Unfortunately some neobanks lack websites - app only.
One could choose to ignore such banks, but for me e.g. starling offering euro denominated bank account with associated debit card isn't available from any of the non app-only banks I've come across.
I can never understand why people do banking by phone - once the phone is is compromised by malware, either from an app or link on a web page, it's game over.
They can't secure their PCs after being familiar with how to do for the best part of 20 years - what hope is there for them securing their phones?
It was the lack of apps more than anything else that killed Windows Phone in my view. I finally gave it up when MS wouldn't even bring the Office apps up to the same level as the iOS and Android versions.
Whatever we IT professionals may think the general public wants the convenience of apps. Yes, most things can run on websites (but note the comment above, a lot of 2FA is app based now) but a few screen presses are a lot quicker and easier for the digital generation. Given a choice of Brand X with a full app store and Huawei with a restricted one, and phones that are comparable in performance and price, they'll go for Brand X.
Yes. I may not trust Google's software, and because I don't I don't have it on my phone. But if someone came to me asking me to put those things on their phone, I'd be very careful to make sure that the only malware they ended up with at the end would be Google's. I am certain that there are many malware-laden versions out there today for Huawei owners, and it's important that anyone who wants to sideload those services don't find themselves installing those. Especially if those phones ever see any of your data, like your correspondence with the user. It's a perfectly reasonable question to ask.
*errm*?!? Your SmartPhone can be taken over via the driver BLOBs. There are also many other ways to take it over, as Android is a security nightmare with the media-framework being constantly vulnerable to remote attacks.
If you think that running the latest Android and only downloading approved apps from the PlayStore gives you security, you are very naive.
It allows phones to be designed without physical connections, which in turn allows them to be made waterproof, and therefore more reliable.
Also, it can prevent data theft or malware being installed surreptitiously.
But hey, carry on believing that it's another solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist.
The choice is yours.
As for "horrible and inefficient", it will improve with time, it's a relatively new technology and not a deal breaker - 2G phones used to work for 7+ days, now no one cares.
"It allows phones to be designed without physical connections, which in turn allows them to be made waterproof, and therefore more reliable."
Nope. There aren't any commonly-available port-free phones out there, and there are plenty of waterproof ones. Waterproof is not incompatible with ports.
"Also, it can prevent data theft or malware being installed"
Nope again. Unless the phone is so completely locked down that it can never be contacted, there is a mechanism for the manufacturer or repair staff to get to it somehow. Having no cable increases the likelihood that it is some magnetic data connector or purely wireless, which actually makes it easier to gain a connection without making it obvious. Whether it is easy enough to make that difference worthwhile depends on how that channel is set up.
All physical connections break eventually. You won't discover it until your "waterproof" phone stops working because the port has allowed water ingress.
Not sure if you read the link about not using Airport USB charging stations, but that is a valid attack vector.
Your rebuttal is therefore rejected.
£899 for a phone???????
OK - that sounded peevish, I'll try again.
£899 for a mini mobile computing device / camera /phone?????
Yeah, I'd probably pay more for a decent camera and more again for decent laptop. But dare I say...
£899 for an unrepairiable easily damaged computing device with screen so small I have to change specs twice before I can read the text (which will be obscured by ads, pop-ups, and those annoying cookie permisions checkbox lists) ??????
And the one, yes the only use for a smartphone - posting instant selfies at various random locations, or pictures of my restaurant meal (which I can't have right now anyway) straight to social networks - missing.
And did I mention that hardly anyone at the moment is in need of a mobile phone......
Mines the one with a nokia 8110 (original) in the pocket. (Not that I'm going anywhere)
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