In our experience, Expansys delivery dates have never been the most reliable indicators of when a device is actually going to turn up so we’re not surprised that the Huawei S7 [specs, info] is now available at the end of July. At least it gives us time to assess the device through the reviews that are starting to come in from around the world. We’re looking for showstoppers at this stage and apart from the disappointment that the S7 has a resistive touchscreen like the Archos 5, we haven’t found much to worry about just yet.
(Long) slide (on a resistive screen) to unlock!
We’ve got a Chinese review from Zol.com.cn and a Russian-language review out of Belarus from Onliner.by to go on and we’ve picked out the followig (my comments in blue.)
- Restive touchscreen not so pleasant. No surprise
- UI not optimised for 7 inch screen. (E.g. swipe to accept a call requires a full-screen swipe on the resistive screen)
- In general, voice quality good.
- Battery life in unused, connected state about 12 hours [onliner.by]
- Battery life in used state approx 1% per minute. [onliner.by] Sounds poor. Am expecting more
- Strong, good build quality
- Speakers good in landscape mode. Perfect podcatcher! Shame there’s no FM receiver.
- Stylus included. Confirms resistive screen.
- Video calling should be possible on final retail versions
- 720p playback possible. I suspect H.264 only.
The two review’s aren’t what we would call in-depth and are probably based on samples so it goes without saying that we’re going to have to wait for retail-package reviews before making a final assessment. We’re still looking forward to it but as time slips by, we’ve got one eye on Archos and their promised summer collection.
Outstanding questions –
- Docking station?
- Processor speed. (1 Ghz or 768Mhz?)
Got any more info/questions?
