When it comes to the mid-range category of smartphones, there are plenty of choices that consumers currently can’t go wrong for choosing. They’ll provide consumers with basic functionality and even stretch beyond to areas only associated with flagship offerings. Looking at the Huawei’s latest iteration on the Y series lineup, it improves immensely from its immediate predecessor – the Y5 2018 while importantly keeping the price tag within range. Literally putting the two siblings together showcases just how much the Huawei Y5 2019 has evolved a year later – it has almost everything you’d have expected on a flagship device a few years back.  

Physical Differences between Huawei Y5 2019 and the Huawei Y5 2018

If you’ve previously or currently own a Huawei Y5 2018 mid-ranger, comparing the two devices is like night and day. So much has changed to the point there’s so much similarities between the Huawei Y5 2019 and its senior siblings. Rather than implementing bezels at the top and bottom of the phone to house important sensors and the earpiece, the new Y5 opts for a dewdrop display instead covering almost the entire of front panel. It just has so much in common with slightly better ranked Huawei Y6 Prime than its predecessor.

What you need to Know about the Huawei Y5 2019 Before Buying

The Huawei Y5 2019 has its own well-established niche within which everything on the device stands a chance to please many. For a start, there’s so much to be loved if you’re moving from the 2018 model, but you’d be equally annoyed if you’re moving from a higher spec device or at least one that comes with technologies from the past underneath.

Huawei Y5 2019 5.71″ Dewdrop Display

Huawei refers to the new design as inspired by nature but we can all a test to be the current trend in the industry. Because there are no bezels, the device manages to fit a 5.71 inch display panel on a device that maintains a compact footprint. The panel takes a chunk of the front side with a wide 84.6% screen-to-body ratio achievement. The screen resolution is capped at 720 x 1520 pixels which makes sense for a device in its category and still manages to produce vibrant colors as well as sharp texts.

The Design and faux-leather finish

The faux-leather finish design is very ergonomic to hold and is said to be environmentally friendly for those who’d love to be part of world-saving enthusiasts. The material used is anti-fingerprint, wear-resistant and anti-dirty, so you can worry less and enjoy life.

Selfie and Rear Cameras

Huawei Y5 2019 comes with a modest 5MP selfie camera and a 13MP rear camera. Don’t expect snaps taken to blow your mind, but they’re just enough for day to day photos.

Performance and Storage

There are two versions of the Huawei Y5 2019; one with 16GB and another with 32GB internal storage but both with 2GB RAM. Its powered by a large 3020 mAh battery with intelligent power-saving technology. Expected Price in Kenya is around Kes 10,000.

In an event hosted at Nairobi’s Serena hotel dubbed “Empower the Infinity in You”, we finally got to see how the latest addition to infinix smartphone lineup will look like. And from what we’ve been able to gather so far, it’ll impress some and at the same time disappoint many. We have therefore taken a notch higher to highlight some of the good stuff and not so good stuff you need to consider before deciding to put the latest Infinix S4 in your pocket or purse for the foreseeable future. There are several factors consumers look for when buying a new smartphone depending on what exactly they intent to use it for and we expect the Infinix S4 not to be an exception.

There’s a lot of fuss we’ve already seen from the marketing materials about the latest addition to infinix lineup, some pretty convincing but not enough to sway our opinion at first sight. Notably, the Infinix S4’s 32megapixels selfie camera stands out amongst many technologies’ underneath, but we’ve seen other smartphones who’ve gone a notch higher in the same arena. It’s one area that’s likely to excite many selfie lovers, but it’s just as important to note, not everyone is in the business of taking selfies. Some of us look for a device with the most vivid display, longer lasting battery and great performance as opposed to best camera. In short, what I mean is, not everything is going for the Infinix S4, but it has other factors in it favor that some will be pleased to have such as an affordable price tag.

Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of the Infinix S4;

Infinix S4 Display Panel

We love the fact that not withstanding a manageable price tag, the company implemented a water-drop 6.2 inches HD+ display panel with very slim bezels making it appear compact regardless of a large screen profile. Water-drop, tear-drop, notch, punch-hole has definitely become a common norm amongst smartphone devices so it was definitely expected on the Infinix S4. The display panel is mostly usable for those who have a tight budget, but if you what things to pop-out or blow your mind, then it’s best if you looked somewhere else especially within the AMOLED family devices.

Infinix S4 Rear Cameras Setup and front facing Selfie shooter

A lot of the time, we mistake to judge how good a device can take photos by how many megapixels it has. While in reality, there’s lots of stuff happening in the background that ultimately make that photo to pop. Recently, we got a taste of Oppo F11 Pro’s incredible 48MP+5MP Dual Rear Camera Setup, it’s impressive no doubt about it, but the iPhone XS with it’s 12megapixels rear shooter still manages to take overall better photos as well as video clips. The rear panel houses a combination of 3 camera setup; 13MP+8MP+2MP, which works hand in hand to produce the final image. On the front, there’s a 32MP selfie camera that will take those selfie shots with more details. There are some nice touches within the OS utilizing artificial intelligence to allow users add touches on their photos.

Infinix S4 Performance, internal storage and Design

The Infinix S4 will be offered with two variants, one with 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage at a retail price of Sh14,999 while the 6GB and 64GB internal storage variant will cost Sh18,999. The S4 is available in a variety of colors including Milan Black, Blue and Purple.

Oppo has been and remains to be one of those innovation minded companies that have put their best foot forward to topple some of the established brands in the sector. We’ve come to expect gradual progress amongst top brands in the smartphone sector who exploits every opportunity to maximize on their profits. But when you start considering upcoming brands such as Oppo and in this case the Oppo F11 Pro, that’s when you’ll really begin to appreciate small details we often overlook when shopping for that technology filled device. For instance, while we’ve seen large camera sensors on devices like the Huawei Honor View 20 which boasts of a 48megapixels sensor and now Oppo F11 Pro with a similar sized sensor, it’s almost not realistic to imagine the likes of Apple and Samsung could make such a move.

Make no mistake, it’s not like I don’t like the so-called established brands such as Apple and Samsung; in fact, I’ve been a loyal customer ever since I can remember. But at the same time, I have to acknowledge, sometimes loneliness gets the best of me. While it’s normal to expect brands like the Oppo F11 Pro to feature dual SIM capability, the same is not obvious on the other side of the aisle, you’d be expected to churn out lots of cash for such an ordinary feature. Having both of my Safaricom line and Telkom SIM in a single feature-rich device would be something to die for and we expect this from the F11 Pro. I mean what else would someone expect from a device that innovatively implements a motorized pop-up selfie camera instead of embracing the now so common notch and at the same time giving you an option for external storage and a bezel-less 6.53 inches display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels?

Let’s dive into the features and highlight both the pros and cons.

We take a look at the Oppo F11 Pro’s 6.53 inches display panel

If you were expecting us to start evaluating this device from the screen to the rest of good or not so good stuff, you guessed it right. Before I consider getting a new gadget, I always look at the display panel first and for a good reason. It’s basically the feature you’ll interact with most, but of course other specs are worth considering let’s you end up with the galaxies. Samsung’s devices are the most coveted for their super AMOLED panels, but often very expensive in comparison. On the other hand, here we have a comparatively affordable Oppo F11 Pro featuring a bezel-less 6.53 IPS panel that manages to achieve 84.4% of screen-to-body ratio thanks to a motorized pop-up selfie camera. The screen is equipped with enough pixels at 1080×2340 making text look sharp and images look vibrant and stunning. To the human eye, this is more than enough you’ll ever need except for the bragging rights.

Oppo F11 Pro Camera setup

One of the Oppo F11 Pro’s highlight feature is the rear camera setup that includes a 48megapixels sensor and a 5megapixels depth sensor. We understand there’s lots of work that goes into software optimization to make everything pop, but at the same time a 48megapixels sensor is poised to capture detailed snaps that most of you will love. Instead of going for a notch to house the selfie sensor, Oppo went for a Motorized pop-up 16 MP selfie sensor instead. We are a bit skeptical on the overall durability of this mechanism but it’ll wok at least for now. It comes with a Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh battery that supports fast battery charging at 20W (VOOC 3.0).

Oppo F11 Pro internal storage and performance

There are two options; a 64GB option with 4GB RAM or a 128 GB with 6 GB RAM, both are great options depending on what your needs are. You can beef it up further with a microSD of up to 256 GB. Underneath, this device is powered by Octa-core (4×2.1 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53) processor.

Design

Oppo F11 Pro has a glass front but the rest of the body is plastic. It’s available in Thunder Black and Aurora Green. At the back you’ll find the 48MP+5MP Camera setup an LED flash at the top and a fingerprint sensor in the middle. Oppo F11 Pro is expected to cost around Kenyan shillings 32,000 here in Kenya.

First of all, what is Android Go? Well, it is a special version of the Android operating system designed to run on smartphones with limited hardware capabilities (and much cheaper). The first edition of this lightweight mobile OS was released last summer – it was called Android Oreo (8.1) Go Edition – and today, it also has an Android 9 variant. It is a fully fledged Android OS that gives its users the same possibilities as the “full” version, like browsing the web, downloading apps, playing Betway casino games, and making payments on the go, but its overall footprint is smaller (it occupies half the space occupied by Android Nougat) and it comes with apps and services built especially for it (like Google Assistant, Gboard, and Google Play, among others).

This operating system will run well and offer superior usability on phones having limited hardware – “weaker” processors, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage, for example. And there are quite a few great phones out there, built by established manufacturers, embracing this new paradigm – like the ones below.

Nokia 2.1 (HMD Global)

Nokia 2.1 comes with Android Go out of the box – and this makes it one of the best entry-level smartphones sporting this lightweight OS on the market today. It has pretty decent hardware for its price: it comes with a quad-core Snapdragon 425 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, an 8MP camera, a massive battery (4000 mAh), and a decent 5.5″ HD screen. It also comes with goodies like LTE connectivity, NFC, and Bluetooth. And yes, it has an audio jack. All this with a price of up to Ksh. 12,000.

Asus ZenFone Live L1

Asus offers a smartphone with great specs for a price tag similar to the one above. It has the same Snapdragon 425 CPU and 1GB of RAM but it comes with twice the internal storage (16GB instead of 8GB) and a better camera – a 13MP sensor with HDR, capable of recording 1080p video at 30fps. It is, in turn, somewhat limited when it comes to software – as of now, it only has a variant with Android Go 8.0 with no word on updates to 9.0 and it has only a 3000mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Core

The Samsung Galaxy J4 Core, released last November, has a higher price tag than the two phones above – approximately Ksh. 17,000 – but it also comes with better features than the two above. The same CPU and RAM as above is paired with 16GB of internal storage, a 3300mAh battery, OTG support (it allows connecting external USB devices, like keyboards, mice, thumb drives, and such) and a massive 6″ IPS LCD screen. Also, let’s not forget that it is a “Galaxy” phone.