Definitely, wow: a review of the smartphone Huawei P Smart Z

This year, having noticeably lost ground in the global smartphone market of Chinese Huawei, Samsung has rethought

its line of smartphones Galaxy A. The line was really hit, especially the Galaxy A50 in the price range of 8000-10000 UAH. But the competitors did not linger. A couple of months ago, at the meeting with journalists, the new head of Huawei consumer electronics division in Ukraine, Alan Chan, promised a powerful response to a competitor in the same price segment. It was about the model P Smart Z - no cuts on the screen, almost without frames and with a retractable camera. Finally, the model entered the Ukrainian market and came to us for a review.

What is it?

The current mid-range smartphoneHuawei is a comfortable for most users performance (even with 4 GB of RAM), non-standard case colors, autonomy for a couple of days, almost no frames, and a decent camera.

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Nice? Convenient?

Huawei P Smart Z is presented in three colors -emerald green, sapphire blue and midnight black. I had green. In my opinion, the color is luxurious. In the photo, he looks a little bluer than in life.

The body is made of glossy plastic, approximatelyThe height of the на body on the back side is a strip that divides the body into two parts. With different lighting, then the top, then the bottom look darker. This is not striking, I noticed a couple of weeks, but in general makes the appearance of the model more interesting. The case for some reason is not as slippery as it may seem in appearance.

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The model weighs almost 200 grams, and its thicknessIt is almost 9 mm, the weight is distributed evenly and the frame is small. Due to this, it does not seem neither massive nor heavy. With a diagonal of 6.59 inches (oh gods, we survived to the time when the screens of smartphones caught up with the tablets and nothing terrible happened), it still fits in the palm and can be operated with one hand. I don’t know how it will be with the case, it will probably be more difficult to control with one hand. Plastic looks “dangerous”, but in fact it is resistant to the appearance of deep scratches, but there is a small detail, but it is almost imperceptible, only at a certain angle. But fingerprints - always and from any angle.

When the screen is on, the P Smart Z is impressive.thin frames and lack of cut. It would seem that we (to those who used smartphones of this and last year) are used to cuts. But as soon as this annoying misunderstanding disappears out of sight, it becomes much more convenient to use the device - take photos, videos, read, watch videos. As in a joke about a goat.

Going selfie camera is the main wow factor of thismodels. The surrounding show interest to the smartphone instantly. Huawei is the first smartphone with a similar design, although manufacturers have been playing sliders and moving cameras for about a year now.

Fingerprint Sensor LocationThe back side and the volume and lock screen keys on the right side for my medium-sized hand were successful. I also can’t complain about the position of the dual main camera, but the selfies occasionally turned out with my fingers, although it seemed that I was holding the smartphone quite neatly.

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How about performance?

According to the “hardware” P Smart Z - almost a complete copy of the P30Lite, the review of which is on the site, Mate 20 lite and some other models. Equipped with 4 GB of RAM and an eight-core Hisilicon Kirin 710F processor. In fact, this is the same 710th, as benchmarks define it. The processor has four high-performance ARM Cortex-A73 clocked at up to 2.2 GHz and four energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A53 clocked at up to 1.7 GHz. It was introduced about a year ago and is focused on mid-level devices. Supports GPU Turbo technology, which according to the manufacturer, gives a performance increase of 60% and a reduction in energy costs by 30%.

Such a set of characteristics on paper looks likenot the most productive even for everyday life. In synthetic tests, the smartphone also shows average results. In fact, the interface is smooth, there are no brakes either in the browser or in any other everyday tasks, as if the smartphone belongs to a higher segment. I usually have dozens of applications installed, for the Internet I use voracious Chrome. And with all this good and only 4 GB of RAM, the smartphone is comfortable.

How long does the battery hold?

Autonomy is one of the strengths of the smartphone. Despite the fact that the battery capacity with a display with a diagonal of 6.59 inches is 4000 mAh, and in terms of energy efficiency, the processor is good, but not the hero of our time, the day of intensive work with the screen often turned on, music to the full extent, cards and navigation is a feasible task for the model.

With an average load, the device worked for mea couple of days. This is without power saving mode and saving on screen brightness. Judging by how slowly the charge in the standby mode is melting, three days are possible if you use little, but such a scenario is not for me. One feels that Huawei is working on optimizing software. For me, once again, one of the drawbacks of this optimization is that the smartphone constantly offers to unload too voracious messengers from memory. However, this can be turned off in the settings and the smartphone at least consults with the user.

Is the screen normal?

The model is equipped with a 6.59-inch IPS-display withFull HD resolution +, i.e. 1080 x 2340 pixels and 391 ppi. In general, a good screen, typical of its price range. Pixel density is sufficient for comfortable work and not too large to load the “iron” once again. Those who are accustomed to OLED-displays, the screen is likely to seem not colorful enough.

In the settings screen there are two color modes -normal and bright, and bright, you can make it warm or cold or adjust the color gamut manually. There is also an eye protection mode. Usually on all smartphones, I immediately turn it on, so as not to strain my eyes. The color rendition with care in a warm gamut on the screen of this model I used to seem most pleasant to the eye.

Brightness is adjusted automatically, but its alsoYou can make it more intense and less to your taste. My slider was about in the middle, and on the street there were enough screen capabilities, I did not have to take off my sunglasses.

In power saving mode, you can reduce the screen resolution.

What about biometrics?

There was no space on the front of the device.face recognition system that has become a familiar thing even in the Android world. If you have had time to get used to it, then the first time will be uncomfortable (if not, of course, you will not even notice).

On the back of the model, in a convenientlocation, located fingerprint scanner. It is designed not only to unlock the smartphone and protect the data in the device (using a fingerprint, you can protect applications and personal data), but also to manage some applications. For example, scrolling the gallery, opening the notification curtain, answering a call, etc. It works quickly and accurately. As for gestures, there are no complaints about accuracy either, convenience is a matter of habit.

And how is the camera?

The camera at Huawei P Smart Z is double, consists of16 megapixel module (f / 1.8) and an additional two megapixel module (f / 2.4) for the depth effect. She writes video in FullHD with a frequency of 30 frames per second. The interface is similar to the top solutions of Huawei, there is a separate mode for night shooting and shooting with aperture priority, there is a portrait mode with “enhancers” and effects of different types of flashes.

The quality of the camera, of course, inferiortop Huawei solutions. If in the flagship models, sometimes at night shooting, it was possible to do without a special mode, then there really is - each mode is needed for different effects. I used it not only directly at night, but sometimes, when in the old days the camera of smartphones required to use HDR mode. For example, in a deciduous forest in the afternoon, when bright light breaks through dense crowns. Yes, the camera also has an AI, when shooting with this option, the resolution of images is reduced, but the detailing is increased. Without AI, the pictures are soapy. Here so.

An example of a photo in normal conditions.

An example of a photo in poor lighting.

An example of panoramic shooting. It’s better not even try to get close, but panoramas in large spaces work well.

An example of shooting with different effects.

Below are a couple of examples of videos. For myself, shot more. The video from the festival is noticeable that the sound is not written very. But in reality, under normal conditions, there is no problem with sound, even music can be recorded normally, but for some reason it turns out bad in concert conditions.

Selfie camera comfortable?

Retractable selfie camera has a resolution of 16 MP. Huawei realized long ago that this shooting mode was popular and made a candy out of it. In the afternoon, at night, in other obscure shooting modes, self portraits are great. You can with blurring the background, you can without, you can with different flash effects or light filters - everything will be fine. It will be bad if you want to take a selfie with someone in the horizontal orientation of the camera - the faces will be distorted.

For some reason, when taking a horizontal shot on a selfie-camera, the smartphone automatically reduces the brightness of the screen. So much so that in sunglasses you have to poke your finger at the display at random.

As for the form factor, then everything is not sodefinitely. On the one hand, the camera quickly leaves (but you still have to wait a little more for it to start than with the usual software switching between modules) and stops by itself if you lock the screen. The probability of damaging the camera in your pocket or bag is minimal - it really manages to hide faster than it turns out somewhere to remove the phone. On the other hand, mechanics are mechanics. Too vivid are the memories of almost 10-year-old slider phones, where something broke all the time, was frayed. About 10 years ago, an article on typical mobile phone breakdowns appeared on Mobile Review, and there was such a schedule. As the shells were simplified, the amount of mechanical damage decreased. As the OS became more complex, the number of software problems increased.

I really liked this model for the price, autonomy, design and speed of work, but for me it is the pop-camera - one of the reasons to look at other models.

What is interesting interface?

The smartphone runs on Android 9.0 Pie, on top of which the EMUI 9 branded shell is installed. In general, in reviews of the latest Huawei and Honor models, we dwelt on it in detail (for example, here and here).

For me it was the first experience of interacting withsmartphone gestures (if you consider this model to buy, for you, most likely, will be too), and it is interesting. At first, I wanted to turn it all off right away, it was annoying that the smartphone was quitting applications when I didn't need it and everything was rather unusual. Gestures have become familiar to the second or third day, and now, returning to my old device, I understand that these save a lot of time, and this is indeed a step forward in navigation. In addition, with such a large screen, it is difficult to imagine any other control - you will have to shift the smartphone in the palm of your hand, and this increases the risk that sooner or later it will fly to the floor.

By the way, in the settings you can turn them off and return to the good old buttons. Or to the navigation bar.

This firmware version already has access toAppGallery (Huawei’s app store, which was talked about in connection with Trump’s sanctions), you’ll need to have a Huawei account (or log in using Google and Facebook) to familiarize yourself with it. For Ukraine, it already has, for example, Oll.tv, Citrus app, Kasta, etc., as well as a bunch of games and utilities. In general, it seems that someone is actively preparing the rear.

You can also link your bank card and pay with Huawei Pay, which is not yet relevant for Ukraine, but is already relevant for Russian users.

What else?

The internal memory of Huawei P Smart Z is 64 GB, there is support for microUSB up to 1 TB. There is a headphone jack and an NFC module.

I really liked the dynamics of the device - theyloud, the sound is quite clear and surround. Headphone volume is small, but it can be pulled out with the help of Huawei Histen proprietary software. I also liked that in the settings of the Music application you can limit the folders where the smartphone will look for new songs, and their duration. I often use a smartphone voice recorder and I don’t like it when the player pulls audio recordings. This can be avoided.

What are the alternatives?

Huawei calls this model a competitorSamsung Galaxy A50. The Galaxy A50 is a strong competitor to Samsung, with an OLED display, great cameras, a strong brand, and a balanced price. It is somewhat more expensive than the competitor, but at the same time it does not have such a risky zest as an upstart camera. Apparently, the competitor iron is more powerful and, perhaps, a little better autonomy due to a more energy-efficient processor Exynos 9610 (manufactured according to the 10-nm process technology). At the same time, Huawei looks more interesting, it seems that they have a slightly different target audience, P Smart Z is definitely a wow thing.

If you start from the current price, then the model is more likely to compete with the Galaxy A30 and A40, a simpler Samsung smartphone with a nearly identical filling but a weaker processor.

In the manufacturer’s own line, you can alsopay attention to the compact Honor 10 (5.8-inch display, but a more powerful processor Kirin 970), Honor 8X (costs less, but it has a smaller battery, as well as a regular selfie camera and face recognition system), Huawei P30 lite with a cool 48 megapixel camera, but a slightly more compact screen.

In the dry residue

I find it difficult to give a clear assessment of Huawei P SmartZ. I really liked the smartphone. Beautiful, fast for everyday tasks, it works for a long time, there are no complaints at all, a cool screen without a cut. But, perhaps, I would prefer all the same, only in a simple classical design and with face recognition. For example, Huawei P30 lite. Although on the other hand, this concept also has a right to exist if the cutout on the display is already sitting in the liver.

5 reasons to buy Huawei P Smart Z: