The Huawei Honor U8860 Smartphone landed in our offices a few weeks back. For those who are wondering what a Huawei is and how do you pronounce it, I can try and answer the first one as the debate on the pronunciation is still on in our office. Although not very well known in the Middle East consumer space, Huawei is a huge company with offices in more than 140 countries and deals mostly on the Government/Corporate side providing high-end information and communications technology (ICT) solutions. Recently, they decided to enter the consumer space and that they made some notice at the MWC show in Barcelona last month by showcasing the fastest quad core smartphone based on their own chip. Sadly, that is not what we have with us today for reviewing but fear not as the U8860 does have a few tricks up its sleeve.

Packaging and Design

Packaged in a grey box that is slightly bigger than your standard Smartphone packages from HTC and Apple, the U8860 comes with the usual suspects- a USB cable, a plug and a headset. A quick start guide is also included to get the novice user up and running.

The Huawei Honor U8860 gets no points in the design department and let me show you why before we talk about it.

As you can see, the design of the unit is heavily inspired by a small unknown device from a not-so-well-known company based in Cupertino. It is so much alike that my aunt who already owns a white iPhone got confused when she saw it sitting on a table a few feet from her. So although Huawei will not win any awards for design, at least the construction quality of the U8860 is fairly decent. Although there is a bit of a creak on the back cover- common amongst devices with removable back covers, overall the device feels pretty solid in your hand and should be able to survive a small fall or two.

Specs and Performance

The Huawei Honor U8860 has specs that can be found on a mid to high-end Android based Smartphone of today. Based on a single core Qualcomm 1.4GHz SnapDragon CPU and Adreno 205 GPU, the U8860 should be able to handle everyday tasks without much issues. The following table compares the U8860 to some of the recent Android devices we have reviewed along with how well it did on the SunSpider benchmark (remember, lower scores are better as this is a time based benchmark)

UI and Apps

Like Samsung and HTC, Huawei has also chosen to implement a custom UI on their Android based U8860 and it’s pretty good actually. If you have ever used a custom ROM based on MiUi on your Android device, then the U8860 will be somewhat familiar to you. You can define four icons on your dock and also create folders and place widgets on your screens. Huawei adds colorful icons and adds a custom keyboard that supports Arabic- something that is not a part of stock Android pre 4.0. The following video shows you the user interface for the device.

As you can see from the video, the device is fairly quick at launching and moving between applications and home screens. I found the keyboard to be not as good as the stock one found on the latest version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich) but nevertheless, it supports Arabic.

Camera

The Huawei Honor U8860 features two cameras like most modern Smartphones. The front one is a 2MP shooter while the back one is 8MP with autofocus and an LED flash. Sadly video recording is restricted to 720p @ 30fps. The following shot is a sample taken from the back camera of the U8860. The image has been resized but quality is kept at 100%

As you can see, the shots are decent in quality. The camera captures a good amount of detail but the colors appear a bit dull. You can go to digital zoom upto 4x but the quality of pictures degrades quite a bit.

Overall Usage & Conclusion

For everyday usage the Huawei U8860 works well. The call quality is just fine and so are the volume levels. I didn’t have anyone complaining on the other side of the line and I could hear everyone as clear as any other phone. The unit operates at a fairly cool temperature most of the times as well- although I did notice it getting a bit on the hotter side while charging and using- but that is true for many phones.

One of the best things about the U8860 is the battery life. With a massive 1930mAh battery, expect the U8860 to provide you with the best battery life on an Android device. It certainly proved to be one of the longest lasting Android device that I have tested on late by giving me almost two full days with my usual usage of having push email enabled, listening to some music, taking a few pictures.

Oveall, the U8860 is a pretty decent Smartphone. It is well constructed, has a nice display, performs quite well and lasts you quite a long time between charges. Its priced at AED 1,500 making it extremely well worth for what you’re getting and thus earns our recommended product award.

Times sure have changed. Last year around this time when the iPad 2 was released, retailers were having a blast selling the tablet for about twice as much as it costs in the US. And I’m not just talking about those small booths at shopping malls that like to rip tourists off- some of the bigger power retailers were also as shameless about making a quick buck as these small time stores. This morning, I got an email from souq.com that is selling the base 16GB unit for AED 2,049 while the unit I purchased from US- 32GB with 4G is selling for AED 2,949. My credit card statement shows that I paid AED 3,032 for that same unit in the US.

Taking the example of the base 16GB unit I mentioned above for AED 2,049, that same 16GB iPad 2 was selling for as high as AED 5,300 last year. I can only imagine the rage that Steve Jobs would have exhibited when he would have found that out these resellers were making a bigger profit than Apple on each iPad that was sold. Apple needed to fix this problem as I’m sure many official distributors in regions such as ours must have raised their concerns and frustration. I remember iStyle had announced last year that it  will not be providing service to grey-imported units of the iPad 2.

So what was causing the iPad 2 to fetch such a premium over it’s base price? Yes, it is a wonderful device but that was not the reason for it. It’s all about economics- supply and demand. While Apple must have estimated demand for the iPad for every official market that it was released into, it probably did not take into consideration the demand that would be created due to grey imports. The iPad is, after all, a very sought after item and in many parts of the world, people don’t want to wait to get one.

So Apple made sure it produced enough units of the new iPad to not only cater to all the official markets the new iPad was released into, but also enough so that the grey-importers don’t make a killing on it. As per Apple, they sold three million units of the new iPad in the first three days and while Apple didn’t release the sales figures for the iPad 2′s first few days of sales, it is estimated that it took Apple three weeks to reach that figure.

Thus, it’s no surprise that the new iPad is not fetching the premiums it’s predecessor commanded because Apple has nipped the problem that created the scenario for such premiums. Great news for consumers but not so much for retailers that forecast the hike of their profits around the launch of Apple products.

The new iPad has landed in the UAE for potential buyers and surprisingly, the deals are much better for the end consumer compared to iPad 2.

You can pick one up from online sites like souq.com or jadopado.com where the units start from AED 2200 onwards. I personally picked my unit up from Jadopado.com and it was delivered on the same day I ordered. The following are the prices from their website:

16GB- Wifi- AED 2349, Wi-Fi + 3G: AED 3,199
32GB- Wifi- AED 2749, Wi-Fi + 3G: AED 3,649
64GB- Wifi- AED 3149, Wi-Fi + 3G: AED 3,999

If you compare these prices to the prices in the US, you are paying a premium between AED 400 to AED 600 which is pretty decent considering that you were paying more than AED 1000 premium for iPad 2 when that was launched a year back. Comparing the prices to UK, we actually find a couple of models cheaper in the UAE.

All version are available in Black and White colors. The 4G version of the new iPad works under 3G/HSPA in the UAE. I personally tested my Etisalat micro-SIM card and it works without any issues- expect our full review soon.

1) Keynote by industry leaders from Nokia, Qualcomm and RIM

The Tbreak Developer’s Conference kicks off with a keynote from Industry leaders such as Mike Al-Mefleh, Director of Product Management – Middle East at Research In Motion and Praveen Prabhakaran, Head of EDX – Middle-East at Nokia who will discuss the opportunities that exist in the Smartphone world for upcoming developers.

2) Discussion Panel

Following the keynote, you will get a chance to listen in on a discussion about the industry with some hard hitting questions about what is being done by platform providers to grow the developer’s community in the region as well as the effeccts of piracy and whether casual gaming is becoming the future of gaming

3) Free Classes from Nokia, RIM and Qualcomm

If you are interested in learning about developing apps and games for Smartphones, then you have a great oppportunity to listen in on free sessions from the likes of RIM, Nokia, Qualcomm and Microsoft. Think of it as a 101 class on development straight from the platform providers.

4) Opportunity to show off your app if you are an upcoming developer

If you’re a developer who is just starting out and have an app that you think could make it big, then TDC is the event to showcase your app to a panel of judges and walk away with prizes such as the latest Smartphones from Nokia and RIM.

5) Honoring the best

Part of TDC is recognizing the best from the indusrty within the Middle East. The nominations for best apps, websites and games were publicly voted upon on TDC’s website and the panel of judges has decided upon the winners. Come and find out who won from categories like best App, best website and best social media personality

The Abu Dhabi Ministry of Interior has recently launched a new website on the police traffic portal for the general consumers. The website helps people track down the history of any car registered in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, i.e one with an Abu Dhabi number plate.

Since number plates can be changed around, the website actually tracks the car’s history based on the chassis number. A senior Abu Dhabi police official told Gulf News, ”We noticed that may people sell and buy cars without providing correct information about the vehicles, especially the history of accidents.”

“The website is connected to a database in the Ministry of Interior and the Traffic of Abu Dhabi Police which provides all information about a vehicle as soon as you enter its chassis number,” he said.

While Abu Dhabi is the first state to adopt this transparent sharing of data for the benefit of consumers, we hope that soon the rest of the emirates, especially Dubai and Sharjah will share their internal vehicle records database as well. You can check out the Abu Dhabi Police Traffic e-Services portal to start seeing the accident history of any car right now.

Now that Apple has announced the press event for iPad 3 scheduled for 7th of March, lets put whatever peices of puzzle are available on the upcoming tablet to predict what it will be like. Lets start with the design by looking at the leaked back cover for the new iPad. This is what it looks like compared to the current iPad 2

You can see from the picture above that the iPad 3 is a tad bit thicker than the iPad 2 and has a more curvy design around the edges. I would guess that the length and width of the new iPad will probably be identical to the current one but exactly how much thicker is the new iPad? The picture below answers that question for us

Using a digital caliper, the above photo shows the iPad 2 at 8.69mm and the iPad 3 at 9.5mm. According to official specs by Apple, the original iPad is measured at 8.8mm so the new iPad should be less than 1mm thicker. To put things in perspective, your average credit card is about 1mm.

Now lets move on to the specifications. The biggest addition to the new iPad is what Apple calls Retina display or an ultra high resolution screen currently found on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. If you have used these Smartphones from Apple, you know how good the display is. The iPad 3 is supposed to introduce that to the tablet space with a resolution of 2048×1536 which is exactly double of the current iPad. The invite picture sent by Apple pretty much confirms the Retina display with the clarity of the screen in the picture below.

There will obviously also be a CPU/GPU upgrade on the iPad 3 as it would be pretty hard for the current A5 CPU to run things at a smooth frame rate on that high resolution display. Until a few weeks back, we assumed that the new iPad will be powered by the A6 but then the following picture leaked:

We don’t really know much about the specs of the A5X pictured above- but then again, we don’t really know much about the A6 either. I would assume that the A5X is a faster version of the current SoC but still dual core and the A6 is a quad core. Maybe Apple will introduce more than one model of the iPad or maybe Apple TV will be upgraded to A5X and the iPad to A6. We’ll only know which way Apple goes with this next Wednesday.

Apple is also expected to update the radio on the new iPad moving to LTE instead of the current 3G/HSDPA. LTE is also known as 4G and offers much faster data speeds. Rumors suggest that the new iPad will fall back to 3G/HSDPA when LTE is not available giving it both speed and compatibility with the network.

Other than the above mentioned changes, Apple might introduce us to iOS 5.1 on the day of launch along with some new apps to showcase the power of iPad 3. As far as the price is concerned, one leak suggested that prices for the new iPad will be slightly higher, starting at US$579 instead of $499 which translates to AED 2125.  Here is a screenshot of that but again, we can’t say how valid this is.

All will be revealed next Wednesday when Tim Cook takes the stage and introduces us to the new iPad but it’s always fun to play the guessing game. Do share your thoughts with us in the comments section below over what you expect in the next iPad and if you are planning on getting one. But be careful- like the previous verions, expect to pay a super-premium price on the iPad 3 in the UAE during the first couple of weeks.

I would honestly advise on waiting for the official version if you can. Hopefully we will find out when the launch date for the iPad 3 in the UAE is next week.

I remember when Apple announced the iPhone 4S some time back and how “disappointed” many of the users on my Twitter timeline were. I kept insisting that it was actually a pretty decent upgrade and even though it looks identical to the iPhone 4- the new internals justified the new iPhone. Thus, I was amongst the first people in line to pick up the new iPhone 4S when it was officially announced for the UAE market. It’s been two weeks since then and I figured that was enough time to write about the device.

Lets start with the pricing and plans for the iPhone 4S- the iPhone 4S is available in capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB in black and white. You can purchase the device from either Etisalat, du or directly from Apple.  The following table lists the price of the buying the device outright from the carriers or Apple.

If you don’t want to commit to any data packages, the Apple Store deal is the cheapest, however, du gives you 1GB of free data per month for a year (as long as you spend over 100 Dirhams per month with them) while Etisalat gives you 500MB of data for the first three months with no strings attached. Other than purchasing the unit outright, Etisalat also offers a discount if you sign up for an annual commitment on a post-paid line. While du also offers something similar, it is only for business users and not the consumer so I’m not going to go into that, however you can click here and find more on that if you’re interested. The following table lists plans by Etisalat.

I chose to go with Etisalat’s plan 2 which I think offers a pretty good mix of data and voice at a decent price. Having owned the iPhone 4 in black, I chose white for iPhone 4S simply to have something a little different and while I like the white iPhone 4S, I think black still looks better- but that is just my personal opinion or maybe I need time for it to grow on me

Looks-wise, the iPhone 4S is almost identical to the iPhone 4 and you would need a really sharp eye to spot someone carrying one from the other. It has identical dimensions and is just 3 grams heavier which is something you won’t notice even if you’re holding both phones together. Apple has slightly lowered the position of the volume buttons and the mute key on the iPhone 4S while the surrounding antenna has more partitions and in different places- probably to fix the antenna-gate issue that popped up in the iPhone 4 for some. Some of my colleagues carrying the iPhone 4 are happy that Apple hasn’t change the design on the 4S as it doesn’t make their device look like last year’s model, which I think is fair to the consumer and so much better than a companies that replaces their top-of-the-line device every quarter.

Even the packaging on the iPhone 4S is identical to the previous model- with the exception of 4S written on the box instead of 4. You get the USB plug, the iPod cable and that pin to remove the micro-SIM tray from the iPhone along with the usual warranty and quickstart guides.

Google’s annual Zeitgeist report shows the search trends of the millions of users who use Google everyday. Today Google released the search results for UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

While social networking sites are still up there, local interests are still some of the most obvious queries. Of course, there are a few odd one’s in there, like Saudi children being fascinated by Sponge Bob, or Egyptians looking for Forbidden Love Stories, or UAE’s subcontinental population wanting to catch up on the Cricket World Cup.

To see the worldwide results, please visit Zeitgeist 2011 after December 15th 12:00 GMT (1600 UAE time).

Etisalat has finally come out with data plan prices and handset prices for the eagerly anticipated iPhone 4S.

The basic gist is that any iPhone 4S purchased from Etisalat will get free 500MB data for the first three months, after which the data plan can be had for AED 50 per month. The iPhone 4S will sell for AED 2,749 for 16GB, AED 3,149 for 32GB and AED 3,549 for 64 GB devices. No word yet on whether both black and white will be sold at launch, but given the launch of both models in other countries we believe that the white iPhone 4S will also be available in UAE.

Full Press Release

The new iPhone 4S available for pre-order in the UAE

10 December, Abu Dhabi, UAE – Etisalat today announced that the highly-anticipated iPhone 4S is now available for pre-order from Etisalat’s ‘MORE’ rewards website www.etisalat.ae/more. Etisalat offers prepaid-package options on all three new iPhone 4S devices – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. In addition, customers will receive free 500MB data per month for the first three months. From the fourth month onward, the data will be available for as low as AED50.

iPhone 4S supports twice the download speed with HSDPA of up to 14.4 Mbps. Etisalat’s iPhone 4S customers will enjoy the Etisalat HSPA+ network and the widest 3G network covering over 99% of the country’s populated area. It will enhance their experience while using the applications on iPhone 4S device anywhere in the country.

iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, is packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri(TM), an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. With the launch of iPhone 4S also comes the launch of iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features; and iCloud(R), a breakthrough set of free cloud services that work with your iPhone, iPad(R), iPod touch(R), Mac(R) or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

iPhone 4S has the same beautifully thin glass and stainless steel design and is first phone to intelligently switch between two antennas to send and receive. Apple’s dual-core A5 chip delivers up to twice the processing power and up to seven times faster graphics than iPhone 4, all while maintaining incredible battery life–now up to 8 hours of 3G talk time.

From today, customers can pre-book the iPhone 4S using their credit card by logging on to Etisalat’s ‘MORE’ rewards website ‘www.etisalat.ae/more’. The new iPhone 4S is priced at AED 2,749 for 16GB, AED 3,149 for 32GB and AED 3,549 for 64 GB devices. In addition to the free 500MB data offer for first three months, customers purchasing the device at an extra charge of AED150 will also receive 10,000 ‘MORE’ reward points, equivalent to AED 100 talk time, a car charger and phone case. Customers will enjoy free shipping & delivery to their own location at their own convenience. The iPhone 4S postpaid packages will be available at the official commercial launch during December 2011.

Press Release:

Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the launch of the new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone in a new Pure White color in the UAE.

The stunning new BlackBerry Bold 9900 in Pure White is only 10.5mm, the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet, and offers the perfect union of a high performance keyboard and touch display integrated within the iconic BlackBerry Bold design. The new Pure White BlackBerry Bold 9900 also includes built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that is enabling many new and exciting capabilities, including the ability to make mobile payments, pair with NFC-enabled accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

BlackBerry 7, the operating system for the new BlackBerry Bold 9900, introduces a next generation BlackBerry browser with a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. Combining the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine together with the powerful hardware enhancements of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 delivers browsing results that are up to 40% faster than BlackBerry® 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry® 5 based smartphones*. Additional enhancements to this next generation BlackBerry browser have also optimized zooming and panning for smoother web navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.