Huawei Kenya has introduced into the Kenyan market a series of budget smartphones that it believes will be a hit with the country’s youth, the most active consumer segment. Huawei is advancing the 4 devices’ camera features hoping they will be a big draw with young people.
According to Huawei Kenya sales director Dharmaraj Diwakar, Huawei believes that all segments of the market have been properly covered by the company’s offerings and it is about time it offered the youth something they can afford with the features they want.
Huawei has recorded over 250,000 smartphone sales in Kenya between January and June this year
The four devices include three from the Y series, the Y3II, Y5II and Y6II and one from the G series, the GR5 mini.
The Y3II, Y5II and Y6II were launched globally by Huawei back in April. The Y3II has been selling in Kenya for a while now while the latter two are just entering the market. The Y3II’s unique feature is what Huawei calls the Rainbow Light i.e. a circular light ring around the back camera that lights up in multiple colours for instance when one is playing music. Both the Y3II and the Y5II have an “Easy key”, a key that resembles the Boom key on the Alcatel Idol 4/4S and BlackBerry DTEK50. Like the Idol 4’s Boom key, the Easy key can be customized to launch specific apps.
The Y6II is the more premium of the 3 Y-series devices now available in Kenya. It has the biggest display of all devices launched today and Huawei is playing up the device’s 13-megapixel camera.
The GR5 mini, which has only been in the global market for a little over a month, is a smaller version of the fantastic GR5 we looked at back in May. Like its larger sibling, it packs an always-on fingerprint sensor at the back of the device, an all-metal body and a beefy battery. The display has been reduced to just 5.2 inches while retaining its full HD resolution while Huawei has replaced Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 616 with its own Kirin 650. Unlike the GR5, though, the GR5 mini’s camera lacks optical image stabilization.
Further details of the three devices are as below:
| Huawei Y3II | Huawei Y5II | Huawei Y6II | Huawei GR5 mini | |
| Size and weight | 134.2 x 66.7 x 9.9 mm, 150g (LTE version)/147.5g (3G version) | 143.8 x 72 x 8.9 mm, 135g | 154.3 x 77 x 8.45 mm, 168g | 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3 mm, 156g |
| Display | 4.5-inch FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels, 218ppi) | 5.0-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels, 294ppi) IPS LCD | 5.5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS LCD | 5.2-inch Full HD (1980 x 1080 pixels, 424ppi) IPS |
| Processor | MediaTek MT6735M clocked at 1.0GHz (for the LTE variant) and MT6582M clocked at 1.3GHz | MediaTek MT6582 clocked at 1.3GHz (for the LTE variant) and MT6735P clocked at 1.3GHz | HiSilicon Kirin 620 | HiSilicon Kirin 650 clocked at 2.0GHz with a Mali T830 GPU |
| Camera | Rear : 5M, Front : 2MP | Rear : 8M, Front : 2MP | Rear : 13M, Front : 8MP | Rear : 13M, Front : 8MP |
| Memory | 1GB RAM; 8GB internal storage (expandable via microSD) | 1GB RAM; 8GB internal storage (expandable via microSD) | 2GB RAM; 16GB internal storage (expandable via microSD up to 128GB) | Same as Y6II |
| Operating System | Android 5.1 Lollipop with EMUI 3.1 Lite | Android 5.1 Lollipop with EMUI 3.1 | Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EMUI 3.1 | Same as Y6II |
| Battery | 2,100mAh (removable) | 2,200mAh (removable) | 3,000mAh | Same as Y6II |
| Network | 3G, 4G LTE | Same | Same | Same |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0 LE | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0 LE | Bluetooth 4.1 LE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, microUSB 2.0 | Same as Y6II |
| Colour | Obsidian Black, Arctic White, Sand Gold, Rose Pink and Sky Blue | Same as Y3II | Black, White, Gold, Pink, Blue, Yellow | Gold |
| Other | Rainbow light | Fingerprint scanner | ||
| Price | Kshs 8,000 | Kshs 12,000 | Kshs 20,000 | Kshs 25,000 |
The devices are already on sale in the open market at the above prices. Buyers of either Y-series device (Y3II, Y5II and Y6II) get a free replacement back cover.
