The pricing
will come as a shock to those who feel compelled to stick to the more dominant
brands. It is likely to retail at around R12,500, half the price of the
top-of-the-range iPhones that have substantially less advanced functionality.
The V30+ retailed at around R14,500. The new phone is expected to cost around
R599 on contract, compared to R679 for the V30+. Vodacom will be bundling it
with a second handset, the LG K9, valued at R2700, on its Flexi 60 package.
In short,
it’s a ridiculously good phone for its price. In this sense, it is reminiscent
of the Huawei Ascend P6, the 2013 handset that broke Huawei into the high-end
market with a device that cost half that of equivalent flagships from big
brands.
The big
question is how this phone differs from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and P20 Pro,
both of which introduced triple rear cameras at competitive price points last
year.
The fundamental
difference, it turns out, is not in the hardware, but in the software that
manages the lenses. Triple view and triple shot, which takes the three pictures
at the same time, are the obvious stand-out. But then there is the Penta shot, which
stands for five shots. It applies all three rear lenses, and simultaneously captures
the user or group in front of the handset, through the two selfie cameras. It
then stitches together the five images and creates a GIF file.
The ability
to combine front and rear images was first introduced by Nokia barely two years
ago, yet that seems a generation ago in smartphone years. Expect the Penta
effect to spread to other brands, and possibly become a new Instagram trend in
the coming years.
Artificial
intelligence (AI) comes into its own on this device at a level that has not
been experienced on smartphones before. An AI Shutter automatically selects the
best shutter speed to capture pictures at optimal quality, while an Auto AI Balance
captures the temperature of colours and automatically adjusts settings to have clear
photos without over- or under-exposure.
Read on to find out about new camera modes on the V40.
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