Huawei unveils budget smartphone for millennials

Customers in the UAE will be able to place pre-sale orders from October 22

With 16cm display, Huawei's Nova 5T is priced at Dh1,599 in the UAE. Courtesy Huawei

China's Huawei rolled out nova 5T, its latest economically priced smartphone, in Dubai on Tuesday, targeting price-conscious millennials as it looks to boost its market share in the Middle East.

The new phone is priced Dh1,599 in the UAE - significantly lower than the high-end variants the company and its competitors sell in the market. At this price, the new handset is expected to compete with Samsung’s A series phones and to other Chinese manufacturers such as Oppo and Xiaomi, known for their cheaper phones.

“It [nova 5T] is very economically priced and comes with best features... we are expecting good sales,” said David Wang, UAE country manager for Huawei consumer business Group.

Before the Middle East, nova 5T was launched in Malaysia in the last week of August. It will be launched in Europe on Thursday.

Smartphone industry is going through a tough phase. Global smartphone shipments fell by almost 2.3 per cent to reach 333.2 million units in the second quarter of 2019, according to data compiled by Massachusetts-based International Data Corporation. Manufacturers are now trying to build cheaper, more advanced phones to make up for the lost ground and woo new customers.

The US trade ban on Huawei is also restricting its global growth. Company founder Ren Zhengfei slashed revenue expectations for the year in June, saying it could drop by as much as $30 billion (Dh110bn).

The company is now hoping its new smartphone will help it recuperate some of the lost revenues.

Industry analysts say the low price could help the company to attract new buyers.

With a display of 16-centimetres, Huawei nova 5T comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage for large amounts of photos and videos. It has five artificial intelligence-enabled cameras.

UAE consumers can place pre-sale orders from October 22 and purchase the device across Huawei stores and local retailers from October 31, the company said.