Video: Huawei Y8s overview – what Nokia did better or can do better?

So I reviewed the Nokia 5.3 a couple of weeks ago and came out with the conclusion that it is an excellent budget-friendly device with very minor issues here and there that might prevent people from picking it up. For today, I got my hands on the Huawei Y8s, a device that competes directly with the Nokia 5.3 in terms of price as they both cost around $150 as of the time of recording this video here in Dubai. So what can Nokia learn from this device? Here is the video:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jESPDrDe4QE&w=560&h=315]

For a start, Huawei decided to go with fewer cameras on the back in favor of a better quality 48-megapixel main shooter. There is no ultra wide-angle camera or a macro lens. Both of these cameras don’t perform particularly well on the 5.3, but it good daylight, it’s a nice addition to have. Huawei’s approach might be better for some people, though. The other interesting choice is going with a Full HD display, but without the inclusion of USB type C for charging, or NFC, both of which are present on the Nokia 5.3. Is this the right choice here? It certainly looks better on paper when taking a quick glance at the spec sheet, but longterm buying a phone without USB Type C or NFC might be an issue, considering the convenience of USB Type C and mobile payments.

The Huawei Y8s also comes with Huawei’s in-house Kirin 710 chipset, which according to my benchmark tests performs almost identically to the SD 665 found inside the 5.3. I have yet to test gaming, but on paper the Adreno 610 should be more capable than its Mali equivalent inside the Huawei. In a way, Huawei cleverly manages to avoid being compared directly to most of its rivals in terms of CPU because of their in house CPU which a lot of the time hides some of their weaknesses. The biggest example of this is on their high-end devices which on paper and in benchmarks perform a lot worse than their Snapdragon equipped competitors, yet most tech reviewers and consumers don’t give this much thought because of the different CPU.

Anyways, you can expect a full comparison between the Huawei Y8s and Nokia 5.3 pretty soon, so stay tuned. If there is anything you want me to focus on, let me know in the comments. For now, what do you think about the different approaches for a budget device between the 5.3 and Y8s? Which approach do you prefer?