back to article All the king's horses and all the king's men could probably put Huawei's P20 Pro together again

Armed with tools to send most smartphone manufacturers into a cold sweat, the team at iFixit have found the Huawei P20 Pro is going to be a tricky beast to repair. So best not drop it, OK? The Register found much to like about the £799 smartphone, but the camera left us wanting when compared to Android rivals such as the Pixel …

  1. x 7

    but who is going to spend £800 on a Huawei phone?

    In the mind of most buyers, Huawei = Chinese = cheap

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      but who is going to spend £800 on a Huawei phone?

      Well, not me for one. But if you look the £800 includes an expensive set of earphones. I suspect the "real" price will depend on sales.

      1. Mark 78

        Re: but who is going to spend £800 on a Huawei phone?

        I doubt anyone is actually spending £800 on the phone. Yesterday EE were offering it as a PAYG for £499 plus a £10 topup. Today O2 have it as a 2 year, £20/month contract with £99 up front (therefore a total of £580 over 2 years).

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: but who is going to spend £800 on a Huawei phone?

          And £500 is what a 64GB Galaxy S8 is at the moment.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Huawei must be getting somewhere

      There are plenty of Apple trolls and Samsung trolls, but now Huawei has their first troll. Welcome to the club, Huawei, give us your size and we'll have the club jacket ready for your next visit.

  2. x 7

    still to expensive for a chinese brand phone

  3. adam payne

    Overall, iFixit rated the Huawei four out of ten (less than the iPhone X's six and on a par with the Galaxy S9+) for repairability.

    Phone manufacturers have no reason to make them easily repairable, they want you to buy a new phone when it breaks/

  4. AMBxx Silver badge

    the fragile glass backplate is present only for aesthetic purposes.

    Nope, it's there for the sale of expensive insurance and replacement phones.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    But wait...

    Cheap phone = easy to dissemble and repair.

    Expensive phone = nearly impossible.

    Feature Phone Companies (Apple/Samsung etc) claim "we made it that way because it's expensive to do otherwise", yeah, I think they are [see icon].

    Cheap phone = lasts forever, nothing breaks.

    Expensive phone = drop it once, it's a million pieces.

    Feature Phone Companies (Apple/Samsung etc) claim "we made it that way because it's more reliable!", [see icon again].

    I think they may not be being entirely truthful.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: But wait...

      And irritatingly, it's nigh on impossible to find a case that protects the full length of a Galaxy S8/9's curved screen. The case I've got protects the rear of the phone with about 3mm of rubber and polycarbonate (so I must be careful to only drop the phone in its back!) but leaves the edges of the screen exposed. Luckily, I've got some good glue so I'll add some plastic strips.

      The curved screen doesn't do much for me - it makes the phone look lovely when it's not in its case, but it's never not in its case. Fortunately, the glass screen protector has stayed in place so far, and has already earnt its keep.

      1. Deltics
        Coat

        Re: But wait...

        Um, surely that depends on the case ?

        In the Samsung LED View cover the only "unprotected" parts of the phone are (when the cover is open) the screen (duh!), about 1" around the power, 2.5" around the volume and Bixby buttons and about the same at the bottom for the ports and speaker.

        "Unprotected" in scare quotes because I would have to drop the phone onto a particularly pointy thing to impact those specific areas in a way that wouldn't be protected by the rubber case either side of those areas.

        And the phone still looks pretty lovely, even in the case (and the LED View cover functionality is almost as lovely and a real conversation starter when people notice it).

        Sure, the LED View cover is not cheap, but actually not much more expensive than the official but basic Samsung flip covers. And I've never understood the logic that results in someone being happy to spend many HUNDREDS of dollars on a phone but baulk at spending more than 20 bucks on a case to protect it.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: But wait...

        The curved screen doesn't do much for me - it makes the phone look lovely when it's not in its case, but it's never not in its case.

        You may have a sound reason for owning it, but more generally I'm not sure why buyers generally keep pandering to phone makers:

        "Oooh look, the new Brandphone 10 Xtrawide is out! I know it is vastly expensive, elegant, thin, small battery capacity, and fragile. And I know that it has a binary future of being used for years with case scars and a cracked screen, or forever living in a rhino-hide case that hides the elegance, makes the package thicker, but I can't help myself. Please take my money!"

  6. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    "...4/10 for repairability."

    Luxury.

    1. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

      Re: "...4/10 for repairability."

      Surely "Loooxuury!!!"?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Comparative reviews

    There's lots of free advertising for individual phones on this site, but not so many comparative reviews, assuming your reviews are 100% independent? How about when the major manufacturers have released their annual handsets, doing a big roundup review across each sector of the market? Tables of specs, a summary of +ve and -ves, what niche(s) each phone is best for. Examples of the highest / lowest real-world prices, popular accessories, security updates released, cost of standard repairs, non-removable applications, real-world battery tests, water / scratch resistance ratings etc.

    With the recent emphasis on cameras, perhaps you need an objective way of measuring picture quality? Is there image analysis software that can do this?

    You could also compile some statistics about the manufacturers based on their previous phones - average devaluation at 1 / 2 years, a measure of past security update provision, hardware failure rate and common faults of previous models, data from phone insurers about how often they need repairing / replacing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Comparative reviews

      Speaking for myself, I don't want the Reg filled with hundreds of reviews of (mostly) dull, me-too handsets with forgettable names.

      How about you look to the reasonable number or web sites that do that as their main business? Or buy a subscription to a consumer review organisation?

      1. strum

        Re: Comparative reviews

        >Speaking for myself, I don't want the Reg filled with hundreds of reviews of (mostly) dull, me-too handsets with forgettable names.

        Neither do I, but the suggestion was for an annual, comparative roundup of all the contenders - which I would welcome.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Comparative reviews

      a measure of past security update provision

      What past security update? You mean those zeros from the statistic table?

      /joke

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