[Honor 8 Pro  Guides, News, & Discussion] venugopalu007:
Thank you abhishek for making such good post

DISCUSSION POINTS FROM CHENNAI MEET UP

Bold font refers to Honor official’s reply.

1.	Charging times – Would be resolved on case by case basis if issues persists.

2.	Selfie – Not satisfied with the quality. Compared to the previous generations of Honor smartphones, 8 pro front camera doesn’t impress. Beauty effects seem to bring in more of artificial tones to the face. Can it be tweaked by software?

It is just the matter of device driver tweaking. We can rework on that. Although the sensor generation might vary. We use either Isocell or Sony IMX sensors. Performance might vary. We are already firing bullets to the core team to unify and stabilize the selfie cam experience across all devices. We totally buy this point and it will improve soon.

3.	EIS at 60fps / 4k – Can we expect an upgrade? Yes.

4.	Heating issues – See point 18

5.	Fingerprint recognition integration with pattern – FP goes well only with Pin or alphanumeric

character. Pattern lock can’t be coupled with FP. Especially in bright light conditions or whilst walking, when a memorized pattern is easier to enter than searching for specific areas of screen to enter the pin isn’t convenient.

Honor wasn’t aware of this. They will look into the possibility of pattern integration.

One user pointed out that we have option to “Increase readability in sunlight” under Developer

option as a solution for increasing legibility in bright outdoor conditions.

6.	Knuckle gestures - Innovative thing but to an outsider it feels like someone beating and abusing their own device. Why not bring in shake gestures using motion sensors?

We will work on it for future devices.

7.	Fingerprint sensor - Can’t gestures be included via the Fingerprint sensor like the Honor 8 had?

Swipe to pull down notification bar and browse photos works great. Would be good if more

options like double tap for screenshot or other shortcuts can be included via the fingerprint sensor. Honor 8 has a clickable sensor and lot of actions associated with it.

Would be taken across to the core team.

8.	Double tap to wake up - With the fingerprint sensor located at the rear side of the device, it would be good to have the option of Double Tap to wake up the screen and to lock the screen as well. Most often than not, we receive notifications which do not need immediate attention. In that case, we can just Double tap, see the heads up and decide whether to take it or not.

Honor agreed to our suggestions and would implement it in future updates.

9.	Difference between Huawei and Honor- Is there any superiority / inferiority?

It’s the same. Target group varies. Certain things are tested on Honor and certain things on Huawei. Huawei is having a premium position in global segment. Honor is purely a E brand with a E Commerce platform. The portfolio is different. Manufacturing and technical aspects are all shared.

10.	Why Huawei P9 was priced so high when launched in India?

It is to keep in line with the Global pricing. 8 Pro and 6x are devices targeted at Indian market to establish a name to move forward. We constantly conduct surveys(and suggesting to HQ) to if it is spec sheet or value for money in a market that counts.

Another challenge is that in countries like Srilanka, Nepal, Middle East, Huawei brand is quite famous. So they illegally import devices. So it is necessary to maintain a balance.

Another key factor – We do not have different portfolio for different nations like other OEMs. We pick and choose what device can be moved into the Indian segment. We are educating the HQ that value for money matters more and in a heavy flow market like India, it won’t be possible to survive if we adopt some “spec sheet specific” sales strategy. Proposition is in the making.

In Indian market, Huawei isn’t being accepted as a consumer brand, even though most routers, switches and modems are manufactured by Huawei. So, we have decided that Honor would be the branding in which we will sell products operated by a E Commerce platform. We do however operate by this byline “Honor-powered by Huawei”.

11.	Why in a market like India where data consumption in on the rise did Honor 8 get released with Single SIM and other global variants had dual SIM?

When we make a dual SIM mobile, on certain occasions we could not meet the SAR (specific absorption rate) criteria for Indian market. We need to do some RF adjustments, redesigning of PCB.

12.	OIS capability –topic was around the ecosystem of EMUI vs other brands.

We have a closed Ecosystem and a tight integration (through Chipset – E Commerce – EMUI). Rest all OEMs are different because Qualcomm provides chipset to them and they build on it. So its easy for them to realize it. But for Huawei, it’s all in house.

13.	When will we move to 7.1.2?

When a OS is ported, Qualcomm gives the base software integration (build) for other mobile manufacturers. So, they just add their own skin on top and fire the version to the user.

With Kirin being an in-house chipset, a lot of re-optimization needs to be done. Even Samsung’s Exynos variant takes some time due to the integration of base software module. So, we try to build an optimal layer where everything that a user needs is in working shape. The update would be released but takes time compared to other manufacturers due to this reason. Android O is expected for this device by end of this year.

14.	Mi phones and Mi pads have a huge generation gap but still an old Mi pad runs on a latest MIUI version. So please do keep your EMUI updated across all devices. We find that MIUI is far better in terms of user allowable customizations.

We totally agree that we are lacking on that part and will improve on it.

15.	In box accessories - To promote VR, you have given a VR headset within the box but if that could have been ignored and some other accessory like a USB Type C to micro USB or a

earphone had been included, it would be more value for money. Anyway, we can’t use the headset without a securing wrap around the head and is of no added value. Users couldn’t get a TG and Cover for long due to quantum of sales.

We agree. By august end we are relaunching our E Commerce platform and we plan to get all accessories.

16.	UFS vs EMMC – Read write speeds using OTG are too low. App launches and system level read

/write speeds are not having big difference.

Real difficulty we face is that UFS availability. We announced with UFS and supply was short so we went into EMMC.

17.	Why a single OTA update takes around 742Mb?

Although the visible user level interaction changes are only 3-4, there are loads of kernel tweaks, performance upgrades, optimization, security patches. The changelog / release notes runs up to 8 pages. Can’t be shared as it is confidential (but the stack was shown to us).

18.	Does the 8 pages of changelog cover heating issues?

No, it doesn’t but we have received enough feedback and it will definitely be addressed in the

next patch.

19.	Difference between Li-Ion and Li-Po

Li-Ion doesn’t offer stretch ability of the cell. Watt hour per liter is adjustable in Polymer battery. Manufacturing costs are high.

20.	Private space drains a lot of battery

21.	The themes factory is a very good addition to someone who loves customization. There are various options to choose from but upon applying some themes, we do not get notifications on the lock screen.

22.	If we try to open a app by pressing the corresponding name underneath the icon, it doesn’t work. Apps can only be opened by pressing the icon itself. This is like a restricted freedom. Please incorporate a feature to open apps by pressing the name as well.

23.	Allowance for more apps to be cloned like in MIUI

24.	Although there is an option to lower screen resolution to save power, we do not get to know how it works, when it gets effective and to what extent. Can there be more granular control on choosing a specific resolution as per user needs?

25.	Apart from bright light conditions and when a strong artificial light source being present, the auto brightness struggles in low / dim lit conditions. There is a lot of stutter and sometimes one has to strain to read under low light. The dynamic range scaling of the auto brightness function can be improved.

Will be looked into.

26.	Call recording - why isn’t it integrated into the system?

It’s not legal to have it in the ROM. That’s what we know of.

27.	OTA updates roll out

We do planning at a global level. Certain things will be replicated in the global software database, which is our baseline. We tend to see if the global scenario and priority of Indian users are in line and work on specific issues which need to be addressed.

OTA cycle is either a critical patch or a 1 / 3 months cycle. We will only decrease the cycle, never increase it as we plan to keep ROMs bug free. Security patches will come often.

The process of a OTA roll out takes around 1-2 weeks, depending on issues being addressed. We send it to 1-2% of the users and then collect data, bug reports, various logs. We then work on it (if need be) and then release it further to others in batches.

28.	We have read online that Honor plans to abandon the lower end segment of mobile phones and plans to go head on with the likes of Apple. What can be expected ahead? Price segment being targeted?

Statement of President of Huawei is that we will start focusing on high end devices. He feels the profitability and value we can give is more on the high-end segment. It’s only the ultra-low end devices that might be ignored and not recent launches.

29.	Next region for meet up? Depends on the interest group and quantity of response through the Google form. Most probably Bangalore.

30.	Inconsistencies in Camera options /modes

•	Some devices lack the option of SLOW MOTION capture. Most devices have it but some don't. A factory reset brings it back but for some it has taken away the option.

•	The option of "Always On" flash is read as "Steady On" on some devices.

•	When wide aperture mode is used with 2 or more people (separated by a short

distance) in focus, the separation background doesn’t get blurred off.

We will work on this and revert back soon.

31.	Will display change from LCD to AMOLED

Will feature in future devices

32.	Day Dream feature - Software based and if planned, it would be rolled out

33.	Calculator app auto rotates - Point Taken

34.	What will the future devices hold - There are 4 surprises awaiting. We are working on pressure sensor based video, knuckle and other innovations.

35.	What will the next Mate device have that the CEO says it will be more powerful than the next Apple device – Infinity display (I said we know that, asked for some other insights but they refused to share).

36.	Will it be available in Indian market? We will bring it in. If not the exact same product, a similar product for Indian market would be made available.

37.	Exchange offer for existing 8 pro users when next mobile releases - It is in the plan. Will be incorporated in our E Commerce platform

38.	Smart Unlock with Google doesn’t work – Mainly because in China, they have their own market and do not support Google apps. We will however, take this as a point for implementation.

Honor 6x users were satisfactory overall since it has matured over a period of 6 months. Most 8 pro users had one thing to say in common that they went 8 pro.

We also requested that the next Honor flagship should have a better aperture than 8 pro. With f/2.2 if this device can produce stunning quality images, if aperture is lowered in par with other phones (1.7 is there on most flagships). Only a nod received saying “it will follow”. We will only have to wait and see.

Survey and Marketing - Honor hosts a closed room meeting to analyze and discuss what are the most important aspects of a device that user would want. They have a survey months prior launch, gather insights, understand user’s perception and work on that to come to a conclusion. Top 3 things from that goes into the marketing focus.

Honor India had requested Amazon to give free prime membership for users who purchase 8 Pro but Amazon had turned it down.

A lot of surprises awaits the community before this Diwali.

They asked us to share snaps clicked through the device. We suggested to implement a HASH TAG kind of system that One Plus does to be posted on Instagram and with the quality of this camera the reach would be certain. Would be an incentive driven program.

The UI is not so user friendly as of now and will be reworked by the end of this year.:fingers-crossed: