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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2018
There is really a lot to like about this phone but a few issues might be a deal breaker for me. I always use high end phones and was currently using the Pixel 2 XL before this phone. From an aesthetics standpoint, this phone blows the Pixel away but my problem is EMUI.
Here are the things I love;
1) In my opinion, this is the nicest looking phone on the market and it feels great in the hand. A major plus for this.
2) Call quality is excellent. I think it gets better reception and sound great on both ends.
3) Battery & Fast charging. I won't dive too deep into this but this phone is a beast on battery life. I typically have at least 40% remaining by the time I go to bed where in the past, I would have had to put a phone on the charger. Kudos for this.
4) The speakers sound really good. Not quite as loud as the Pixel, but that is because the lower speaker is on the bottom. Still, it sounds really good.
5) Pretty easy setup with the Huawei smart switch but Android is petty easy anyway. Still, took about a half hour to transfer everything.
6) Fingerprint scanner is the fastest and most accurate I have ever seen. This is important to me since EMUI does not support Smart Lock. More on that in the negatives.
Now the negatives;
1) I'm not a huge fan of EMUI. It is a lot better than it used to be, but I feel like I need a manual to figure it all out. Tons of hidden menus / sub menus
2) Scrolling video works poorly. I am not referring to watching a video or live stream, I am referring to events. I use Nest cameras and could normally scroll through events. On this phone, it just turns black and blurry. I've tried this on two different phones and they are exactly the same. On the Pixel 2, as well as my wife's Iphone, it scrolls perfectly. It has nothing to do with the wifi or signal either as both are great. Just keep this in mind if you are using a Nest camera system.
3) My call blocker is useless with EMUI. I have tried every setting suggested by TrueCaller, and nothing works. All calls come right through. This could be a deal breaker for me as I am overwhelmed with solicitations and spam calls. There is an internal blocker but I need specific types of calls blocked.
4) Alerts are hit or miss. Sometime you get them, and sometimes you don't as evidenced by my Ring Pro doorbell. This is both in the office, and home. I have done a hard reset, cleared the cache, and also tried reinstalling the app. This is not a deal breaker but I don't understand why it does not work all of the time.
5) EMUI does not use the android smart lock feature. In my opinion, this is one of the best features of android. Basically the system is programmed to know and trust you so it will not lock in the designated areas.
This feature does not exist in EMUI except a bluetooth function that sort of does a similar function, but only works half of the time. If you are like me, and constantly picking up your phone, and putting it down, it is an extra step to have to always unlock it. I have no idea why Huawei would not use the android smart lock function.
Ok, so I am not saying this is not a great phone. It is but it lacks the specific functions I use and need on a daily basis. I am trying to love it, and still not sure if I will keep it or not but if I am unable to get a bit more consistency from it, I think it's going back. I will give it a couple of weeks to see if the AI chip learns or changes anything. Just my opinion for what it's worth.
Edit 3/4/18
I really tried to like this phone, and unfortunately, I really do like it. However, after several attempts with Huawei to get the blockers working, and the issues with my notifications, the phone is going back. I tried everything from factory resets, to any and all possibilities. More than I have ever done to try to get this phone to work as needed.
I could honestly say that this could be my favorite phone I have ever used but the lack of necessary features just kill it for me. Back it goes.
Here are the things I love;
1) In my opinion, this is the nicest looking phone on the market and it feels great in the hand. A major plus for this.
2) Call quality is excellent. I think it gets better reception and sound great on both ends.
3) Battery & Fast charging. I won't dive too deep into this but this phone is a beast on battery life. I typically have at least 40% remaining by the time I go to bed where in the past, I would have had to put a phone on the charger. Kudos for this.
4) The speakers sound really good. Not quite as loud as the Pixel, but that is because the lower speaker is on the bottom. Still, it sounds really good.
5) Pretty easy setup with the Huawei smart switch but Android is petty easy anyway. Still, took about a half hour to transfer everything.
6) Fingerprint scanner is the fastest and most accurate I have ever seen. This is important to me since EMUI does not support Smart Lock. More on that in the negatives.
Now the negatives;
1) I'm not a huge fan of EMUI. It is a lot better than it used to be, but I feel like I need a manual to figure it all out. Tons of hidden menus / sub menus
2) Scrolling video works poorly. I am not referring to watching a video or live stream, I am referring to events. I use Nest cameras and could normally scroll through events. On this phone, it just turns black and blurry. I've tried this on two different phones and they are exactly the same. On the Pixel 2, as well as my wife's Iphone, it scrolls perfectly. It has nothing to do with the wifi or signal either as both are great. Just keep this in mind if you are using a Nest camera system.
3) My call blocker is useless with EMUI. I have tried every setting suggested by TrueCaller, and nothing works. All calls come right through. This could be a deal breaker for me as I am overwhelmed with solicitations and spam calls. There is an internal blocker but I need specific types of calls blocked.
4) Alerts are hit or miss. Sometime you get them, and sometimes you don't as evidenced by my Ring Pro doorbell. This is both in the office, and home. I have done a hard reset, cleared the cache, and also tried reinstalling the app. This is not a deal breaker but I don't understand why it does not work all of the time.
5) EMUI does not use the android smart lock feature. In my opinion, this is one of the best features of android. Basically the system is programmed to know and trust you so it will not lock in the designated areas.
This feature does not exist in EMUI except a bluetooth function that sort of does a similar function, but only works half of the time. If you are like me, and constantly picking up your phone, and putting it down, it is an extra step to have to always unlock it. I have no idea why Huawei would not use the android smart lock function.
Ok, so I am not saying this is not a great phone. It is but it lacks the specific functions I use and need on a daily basis. I am trying to love it, and still not sure if I will keep it or not but if I am unable to get a bit more consistency from it, I think it's going back. I will give it a couple of weeks to see if the AI chip learns or changes anything. Just my opinion for what it's worth.
Edit 3/4/18
I really tried to like this phone, and unfortunately, I really do like it. However, after several attempts with Huawei to get the blockers working, and the issues with my notifications, the phone is going back. I tried everything from factory resets, to any and all possibilities. More than I have ever done to try to get this phone to work as needed.
I could honestly say that this could be my favorite phone I have ever used but the lack of necessary features just kill it for me. Back it goes.
