Huawei has been a rising star of late in the Android world, with low-cost, but high quality handsets, tablets and wearables launching over the last 24 months. The manufacturer is set to have an even bigger future this year, with a number of upcoming launches of desirable devices coming soon.
The Huawei Daydream phone launch is basically Huawei backing up Google’s announcement of Daydream at Google I/O, where they announced that partners, including Huawei, would be launching Daydream certified phones and hardware this ‘Fall’. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, exuberant director and CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, Richard Yu confirmed that a Daydream handset would indeed be coming this fall. No other details were given on which phone it would be, but could it possibly be a Nexus?
Huawei’s involvement in the Nexus program got off to a big bang last year with the launch of the Premium Nexus 6P. With new Nexus hardware scheduled to arrive in ‘the fall’ if past years are a guide, it’s natural to assume that new Nexus phones with Android N running on them will be Daydream certified – and according to Charlene Munilall, general manager for Huawei’s Consumer Business Group in South Africa, Huawei is working on a new Nexus this year.
The interview was in support of the launch of the P9 and P9 Plus phones in South Africa, which Ms Munilall gave to Gearburn. There’s not much to the story about Huawei producing a new Nexus device this year, but in the interview, she said ‘We’re doing the Nexus again this year, by the way’ – sparking fuel to more Huawei Nexus device rumours.
HTC is currently the front runner in the rumour stakes to provide two new Nexus phones this year – codenamed Marlin And Sailfish – with the phones also rumoured to come in two screen sizes – 5″ and 5.5″ – when announced in the ‘Fall’. HTC has also been rumoured to be signed up to a three year deal to create Nexus devices for Google.
The obvious option with HTC rumoured to be taking care of the phone side of things is that Huawei could turn their efforts to tablets. Google’s Nexus 9 is now out of stock and HTC has stopped production, the Pixel C is quite a premium (read expensive) device, so with Google’s new focus in Android N on tablet features like multi-window support, a more budget tablet option is certainly in order.
Huawei’s MediaPad series have been quite the winner in terms of hardware, especially their 8″ models. The software on these devices isn’t our favourite by any stretch, but as a Nexus device, a Nexus 7 or 8 tablet could have real merit; especially with Huawei’s excellent manufacturing scale, as well as global distribution and retail contacts.
Huawei has recently launched the Mate 8 here in Australia and the P9 is expected to be launching soon, and initial hardware reports from both are good. With more devices – including a Nexus and a Daydream certified phone – on the horizon 2016 could be a great year for Huawei.
