Huawei’s P20,
P20 Pro smartphones to go on sale in Singapore from
April
SINGAPORE: Those looking to get their hands on Huawei’s latest P
series smartphones will be able to from Apr 7 onwards, the Chinese
tech company said on Monday (Apr 2).
The smartphone maker unveiled its P20 and P20 Pro devices during a
glitzy launch event held in Paris, France, late last month when its
Consumer Business Group chief Richard Yu shared details about the
latest features including the triple-camera set-up for the higher
end model.
Mr Cheng Jiangfei, managing director of Huawei’s Consumer Business
group in Singapore, said in a media briefing the P20 will be
available in only one variant: 4GB RAM and 128GB memory.
It will have three colours - Black, Midnight Blue and Pink Gold -
and will retail for S$898, Mr Cheng said.
As for the higher-end P20 Pro model, it will come with 6GB of RAM,
128GB of memory space and three colours: Black, Midnight Blue and
Twilight. Twilight, with the touted gradient colour finish, will
only be available from May, the executive pointed out. The company
clarified on Monday that the model will be available from end
April.
The P20 Pro will retail for S$1,148, which is cheaper than other
flagship competitors currently in the market, including Samsung’s
recently launched Galaxy S9+, which costs S$1,348 (64GB) and
S$1,498 (256GB).
Apple’s iPhone X, which was unveiled last September, currently tops
the price chart, retailing from S$1,648 for the entry-level 64GB
model.
Huawei’s P20 and P20 Pro will be available for pre-order from 10am
on Apr 2, and this will run till Apr 4, Mr Cheng said.
This can be done via the three local telcos - Singtel, StarHub and
M1 - as well as its official online store and third-party
e-commerce sites like Lazada, he added.
Consumers will then be able to start getting the handsets from Apr
7, and they will be available on shelves at the same time.
Singapore is in the first wave of the company’s global launch
strategy, Mr Cheng said.
AI IN SMARTPHONES JUST THE BEGINNING
During the launch of the latest P series phones, Mr Yu also noted
how Huawei's artificial intelligence-enabled Kirin 970 chipset
works towards enhancing the photo-taking experience for
consumers.
Mr Eric Zhou, planning director for Huawei Technologies' Wireless
Terminal Chipset Platform, told Channel NewsAsia in an interview
after the Paris launch event that innovations like predictive focus
and improving picture quality is "just the beginning" when it comes
to how AI will be applied in the future.
For instance, the smartphones have the ability to identify 19
different scenarios and objects and apply the right technical
settings to take the best possible photos, the company touted. And
this has room to grow, the executive said.
"Right now, there are settings for Cat and Dog. In future, we could
train the machine learning models to include specific breeds of
dogs, like Chihuahua - and send these models to people's phones
through over-the-air updates," Mr Zhou explained.
He added that the Kirin chipset's AI smarts will not be confined to
smartphones either. It could be included in connected cars, smart
homes as well as retail, for example.
The company is also looking to expand its Hi AI - the name of its
software development kit (SDK) - developer base, which currently
numbers more than 200 internationally, Mr Zhou pointed out.
One example of this is its HiKey 970 AI development board, which
was introduced in Hong Kong in March. The single-board Linux
computer board is one that developers can use to write and test
applications, and Mr Zhou said this will be available from middle
of April at US$299.
Source: CNA/kk