Huawei P8 deal

[Guest Maringer]

For those in the UK, CPW are running a ridiculously good-value deal for the P8:

 

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/phones/huawei-p8

 

£21.50 per month for just 12 months gets you the phone plus a reasonable contract with the iD network (running on Three). Much cheaper than buying the phone sim-free even with the contract. I've also got cashback of £26.25 tracking via TCB which could take the total cost down to just £231.75! Pretty much half price!

 

I've got mine ordered but there are one or two caveats. Unfortunately, it would seem that the P8 spec for the UK doesn't have dual-sim support (although the CPW web site originally listed it as such!) and is just the 16GB version. These facts reportedly confirmed by the Huawei twitter account.

 

All the reviews seemed to indicate that the black and white P8s were to be produced as 64GB devices so I can only assume that the UK-spec devices have been downgraded. I can't understand why they would remove dual-sim support, however. Hmmm. Wonder if it could be reinstated with a hack? :)

 

Assuming the deal does through and is valid, I'll post my views on the phone when I receive it in the next week or so. I've seen conflicting reports that it will be delivered on either 11th or 19th June - if it does arrive this week I'll not be able to post until next week as I'm away for the weekend.

 

My one concern is that CPW may have screwed up the listing and have somehow confused it with the P8lite. If this is the case, it will go straight back. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so hopefully it will prove to be as ridiculously good a deal as it first appears!

[Guest Ballswinger]

Hi DieHard,

 

It seems they've changed/removed that deal now, there is still a £21.50 tariff but it's 24 months not 12.

 

They've also just launched Huawei P8 contracts on Vodafone, O2 and EE 4G and have included a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 as a free gift with selected plans.

 

Hoping they honour the deal you have pre-ordered!

[Guest Maringer]

The phone is currently in transit to my local CPW branch. I'm sure I got in there quick enough to make sure it was the 12 month deal (ordered last weekend, though it wasn't fully confirmed until earlier this week) and I've got the receipt to prove it!

 

I'd expect it will be available for collection tomorrow which is a pity as I'm heading off first thing in the morning for a weekend away with friends so I'll have to wait until next week to pick it up!

 

Can't say I'm overly excited about using the iD network (runs on 3's network, I understand), but it looks as though coverage around where I live is fine and I don't travel too much so it shouldn't be an issue.

 

As I'm currently using a giffgaff £10.00 goodybag, I'll effectively be picking up the phone for around £110 total cost over the year, which isn't half bad!

 

Comments on the device to follow some time next week.

[Guest Maringer]

Well, I found the time to collect the phone today.

Very slick packaging, excellent build quality and a lot thinner than my Coolpad F1. Other dimensions are very similar. I don't think it will be too unwieldy for me to handle but I will definitely need a case to improve the grip.

Initial impressions are that the default brightness settings of the screen are a little dim so I've had to crank brightness up a bit but it looks sharp and viewing angles are decent. The default theme is just horrible (why would they choose such a dull design?) but there seems to be plenty of other themes to choose from.

In general usage, the phone seems to have good performance - no lags I've noticed thus far though I haven't really tested it much as yet.

A couple of quick snaps on the camera returns very good quality which is good because this was one of the most important things I was looking for.

Unfortunately, the iD network signal (running on three) doesn't appear to be as strong around my home and work as giffgaff but it should be fine around here. Hopefully, there won't be too much of a problem when I'm away from home!

One problem is that I need to keep using my Coolpad and giffgaff this week so I won't be able to port my number across to iD and start using the phone regularly until next week.

Very pleasing initial impressions of the phone. Hopefully these will hold up when I start using it as my daily phone.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Maringer

[Guest Maringer]

Well, after finally getting my number ported earlier this week, I've been using the phone for a few days now.

I've been busy at work so only very light usage so far and battery life holds up well when you're only using the phone for a few short calls, texts and checking e-mail. Battery was only down to 75% (25% usage) over the past 24 hours, for example, though I've not been away from wifi connections during this period.

The phone feels exceedingly well-built, the touchscreen is accurate and my only real complaint so far is with the EMUI software. For some inexplicable reason, the notification centre doesn't allow you to enable any Google apps to show notifications on the lockscreen. As somebody who uses Gmail quite a lot, this is maddening as I need to slide down the notification shade to access them (and it also screws up the display of the messages there as well).

So far, hardware good, software odd. I've really not had chance to get out and about to try out the camera as yet which is a bit daft as the camera was one of the reasons I went for the phone in the first place!

Is the notification issue a 'feature' of EMUI? I wonder if there is any way to 'hack' things so you can add Google apps into the notification centre? If not, I certainly hope that Huawei release a software update soon to fix this issue.