"Huawei US Ban Harms Consumer With Slow Charging"
My take: It's been four years since the US started sanctioning Huawei, but the Chinese tech giant is still struggling to offer smartphones without Google services. The phones are impressive, but it's hard to recommend them to most people due to the lack of Google services. It's frustrating.
Huawei is in trouble due to accusations of shady practices with the Chinese government. Former President Trump put Huawei on the Entity List which stops them from working with any US business. If you haven't heard about this, you must have been phoneless and living under a rock.
Many phone makers like Qualcomm, Intel, and Google won't work with Huawei anymore. Starting in 2019, Huawei phones won't have Google services like Google Play. This means people can't use apps that need Google services.
Huawei changed its way of making smartphones. They now use EMUI/HarmonyOS operating system and AppGallery instead of Google Play. EMUI/HarmonyOS is based on the open-source version of Android.
After four years, Huawei's app store still does not have many popular Western apps that are important, which makes it hard to suggest it to anyone who isn't a big fan of Huawei. This is unfortunate because even with the ban, Huawei still creates great smartphone technology.
This week, I finally got to play with Huawei's newest foldable, the Mate X3. I've used many foldable phones before, but this one surprised me the most. I've seen almost all the Western market foldables.
The foldable book is better than the others. It's really thin and light, 5.3mm and 239g. The hinge is also really good. It's really nice.
Huawei's new hinge took many years of research and development. The hinge has improved from the first foldable, the Huawei Mate X. The new hinge is smooth and has the perfect level of resistance. It's easy to unfold with one hand, but it won't open by itself.
The hinge does a good job of hiding the crease. It's barely noticeable when the screen is open. This makes it one of the best foldable displays I've seen.
The phone feels good to hold. It has a satin-like finish. This makes the experience premium.
The best foldable hardware may have capable cameras such as a 50MP main, 13MP ultrawide, and 12MP periscope. It also has fast charging at 66W and a big battery size of 4800mAh.
The device doesn't have Google Play, 5G or latest Snapdragon due to Entity List. This makes it hard to recommend except for fans of tech who don't like Google. It costs £1,999.
The Huawei P60 Pro is impressive. The camera tech is next-level. The 48MP main camera has a variable aperture. It can shift between f/1.4 and f/4.0. There's also a 48MP telephoto with 90mm zoom. And a 13MP ultrawide. The images it takes are like those on a sunset safari.
People want phones with Google Play and apps they use daily. It's sad other tech is ignored.
The consumer is the one who loses. This is upsetting. We should be angry about it.
