OPPO vs Huawei: Two Chinese brands fighting it out in Africa

Two Chinese smartphone makers are trying to outdo each other across the continents, particularly in Africa. One of them, Huawei, is an established player in the global smartphone market, where as the other one, OPPO, is a rather new player that entered African market in March 2015 but is already proving to be a formidable rival. To get an insight into how the two Chinese companies are differentiating their products from each other, we picked up Huawei Ascend Y530 for a spec to spec comparison with OPPO Joy R1001. Given our African focus currently, we have taken prices from the Kenyan market to arrive at some indicative cost comparison.

DESIGN: We start with the overall shape and size of the two devices. OPPO Joy is 124x63x9.9mm and weighs 125g where as Huawei Ascend Y530 comes in size 132X67X9.3mm and weighs 145g, about 20gm heavier than OPPO Joy. Both, Oppo Joy R1001 and Huawei Ascend Y530 are similar looking, bar shaped devices, curved at all four ends, but with larger length and width and lesser thickness, Huawei gives a relatively sleeker look. Both the models come in black and white colour variants, however, Huawei Ascend Y530 brings in an added colour statement as its black variant comes with a tint of red at the base and the top and the white variant with a silver tint at the base and the top. Design and colour are a matter of personal preference.

DISPLAY SCREEN: OPPO Joy has 4.0” IPS TFT screen that comes with a resolution of 800X480 pixels. The multi-touch, capacitive touch screen is highly sensitive with the glove mode feature that enables access to the screen and operate the phone using gloves. It also comes with added smart function of Gesture Panel that allows users to go to a desired App by drawing a simple picture on the gesture panel. On the other hand, Huawei Ascend Y530 has a larger 4.5” screen with comparable 854x480 pixels but without any added smart features.

OPERATING SYSTEM (OS): Both the devices run on Android Jelly bean, though Huawei Ascend Y530 features Android 4.3 where as OPPO Joy lags behind with Android 4.2 version. Although Ascend has a leg up, both OS are a bit oldish considering that more latest Android versions are now available and being used by various smartphone makers.

PROCESSOR: OPPO Joy R1001 has a MediaTek MT6572 1.3 GHz Dual-Core processor with 512MB of RAM where as Huawei Ascend Y530 carries a MSM8210 1.2 GHz Dual-Core processor with 512MB of RAM, which gives OPPO Joy a slight edge in terms of clock speed. Both the devices have an internal storage of 4GB, expandable up to 32GB via a micro-SD card. On the whole, both the devices are more or less comparable on these accounts.

CAMERA & BATTERY:  Both the devices have comparable 3MP primary  cameras with soft light flash support and 0.3MP secondary cameras. Also, the battery capacity in both the devices is about the same: OPPO Joy comes with a removable 1700mAH Li-Ion battery where as Huawei Ascend has a slightly better 1750mAH Li-Ion battery but without the option of replacing the same with a higher power battery.

CONNECTIVITY & OTHER FEATURES:  On the connectivity front, Huawei Ascend Y530 has a WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, Bluetooth 4.0 and high speed USB support. OPPO JOY too has the same WiFi but it comes with Bluetooth 2.1EDR support. Furthermore, OPPO Joy R1001 supports additional features like Distance Sensor, Light Sensor and G-Sensor where as Huawei Ascend Y530 comes with Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor and Ambient Light Sensor.

CONCLUDING REMARK: We note that Huawei Ascend Y530 has the design advantage of being sleeker with a colour statement, larger display screen, relatively more advanced OS and slightly higher battery capacity, where as OPPO Joy comes with a slightly advanced version of the processor and offers new features such as the glove mode feature and the gesture panel. Finally, we also noted the price at the Kenyan e-commerce portal, Jumia. Both the devices are priced about the same; Huawei Ascend Y530 is marked at KSh10,500 where as OPPO Joy R1001 costs around KSh11,000. On the whole, the two devices are more or less comparable, with Huawei acquiring slight edge on more fronts than OPPO.

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Obi’s black Wolverine can sure beat Huawei’s colourful Ascend

In our endeavour to provide smartphone users in Kenya with insights about various smartphone brands and models, we have this time picked up devices from two players, including an established player, Huawei, and a rather new entrant in the African smartphone market, Obi Mobiles. While the Chinese company Huawei has already carved out a name for itself in Africa, Obi Mobiles is trying to capture the attention of African smartphone users with its recently introduced smartphone range named after wild animals, the animal series. The models that we have picked for the comparative review are  Huawei’s Ascend Y530 and Obi’s Wolverine S501 for reasons that would become obvious the review progresses. 

In general, Huawei's Ascend Y530 stands out as a smaller and lighter device than Obi's Wolverine S501. While Wolverine is 144x73x9.6mm and weighs 167gm, Ascend is significantly shorter (132.5x67x9.3mm) and also weighs lighter (145gm). Also, Huawei’s device comes with 4.5 inch LCD auto-rotate (G-sensor) display where as Obi’s device has a 5 inch TFT IPS Screen with capacitive touch. Both the smartphones have a screen resolution of 480X854 pixels. The Ascend has its volume keys on the left side of the phone while as in Wolverine you have the feasibility of controlling volume through keys that are rightly placed on the back side of the phone, just below the camera. Furthermore, Huawei’s Ascend Y530 comes in red, yellow, black and white (plastic back) variants where as Obi’s Wolverine comes in impressive black, leather-like cover that protects the device from cracks and scratches. At this stage, the key distinguishing features include the display screen size, the location of the volume keys and the colour options.

When it comes to operating system (OS), Obi’s Wolverine S501, in sync with technology, runs on Google Android KitKat (4.4) that gives the smartphone an accelerated touch screen and superior performance while as Huawei’s Ascend Y530 lags behind as it runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean that is fading as the preferred choice of smartphone users. However, Ascend is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon^TM Dual-Core 1.2GHz processor where as Wolverine by 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor by MTK, which may give Ascend the advantage of popular perception. Furthermore, Ascend is equipped with 512MB RAM and an internal storage space of 4GB that can be expanded up to 32GB via MicroSD card. On the other hand, Wolverine comes with 1GB RAM and external memory support up to 32GB via a MicroSD card. At this stage, the key distinguishing features are a more advanced operating system and larger RAM.

To cater to users’ photography needs, Obi’s Wolverine sports a 5MP primary camera placed in the middle of the device and comes with a LED flash. It also has a 0.3MP secondary camera. Similarly, Huawei’s Ascend also comes with 5MP of primary camera in the back with a flash and 0.3MP of secondary camera. Furthermore, Obi’s Wolverine is equipped with a 3.7Li-on removable battery with 1500mAh capacity, where as Huawei’s Ascend carries a Li-on battery capacity of 1750mAh, which is advantage Ascend. However, Wolverine comes with two SIM slots, both 3G enabled, where as Ascend offers space for only one, mini SIM card. Both the phones serve the purpose by offering Bluetooth 4.0 version, WiFi and 2.0 USB slots. At this front, the distinguishing features are the battery capacity and SIM slots; if Huawei has a slight edge in battery capacity, Wolverine takes lead in terms of SIM slots.

In the spec-to-spec match Obi’s Wolverine does take lead on many important counts such as display screen size, operating system and RAM, double SIM option while slightly lagging in battery capacity. However, the biggest distinguishing point between Huawei’s Ascend Y530 and Obi’s Wolverine S501 is the the price tag that the two devices carry in Kenyan market. While Huawei’s Ascend is priced around KSh14,000, Obi’s Wolverine is a steal at little over KSh 9000, if one is ready to go with impressive black.

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