Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone, the P20, is not yet available in Kenya but its smaller sibling, the Huawei P20 Lite will be coming to this part of the world next week. The phone will be available on the e-commerce platform, Jumia, for Ksh 32,000. It is still not clear if the phone will be available exclusively through the platform and for how long. Last year, the two companies did a similar thing with the launch of the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro but I am meant to understand the sales were not that good.
With the Huawei P20 Lite, the company wants to steal the spotlight from OPPO. OPPO already has the F5 and will be launching the F7 next week too but this new one will be slightly more expensive than the P20 Lite and Huawei hopes this will help it in some way.
The Huawei P20 Lite is no slouch as it comes with some impressive specifications for its price. This is the device the company hopes will keep its name relevant in the segment that OPPO has been dominating. If accompanied with good and aggressive marketing, I do not see why the P20 Lite will not be the most sort after device under Ksh 35,000.
Launching the P20 Lite at the same time the OPPO F7 is launching might be a coincidence but I think it is strategic for the company. It wants the potential buyers to see both devices and hopefully go for the P20 Lite. This will especially be the case for those who want to save the Ksh 4,000 and still get a decent smartphone.
Just recently, Huawei partnered with Kilimall to launch the Y7 Prime 2018 smartphone that is currently available for Ksh 17,000. This is not in the same category as the P20 Lite but is part of the company’s strategy to sell more phones in different price points as it used to do a couple of years back.
I will be keeping an eye on what Huawei does this year and see how it reacts to competition.
Below are some of the key specifications of the Huawei P20 Lite.
Display Size: 5.84 inches with a resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels
Processor: Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659 Processor
RAM: 4 GB
Storage Space: 32/64 GB, can be expanded using a microSD card
GPU: Mali-T830 MP2
Android Version: Android 8.0 Oreo
Camera: Dual 16MP + 2 MP at the back, 16MP for selfies
Battery: 3000 mAh removable battery
Also Read: The OPPO F7 Kenyan Launch Is Set For May 2nd