Light Start – Huawei Nova, Withings Steel HR, NX carts, and Ara is definitely dead
Brett Venter
Huawei lights up their mid-range with the Nova, Nova Plus
Huawei went all-in with its P9 handset, with the dual camera being the major selling point for the smartphone. Which is all well and good but how about something for the folks who can’t afford a thirteen grand handset? Actually… the company has unveiled the Nova and the Nova Plus, two new additions to their mid-range lineup that… should impress the pants off you. The Nova is a 5-inch (HD) handset with an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There’s a 12MP/8MP camera combo and a 3,020mAh battery running things. The Nova Plus is kinda the same. There’s a larger screen (5.5-inch), rear camera (16MP) and battery (3,340mAh) but otherwise it shares the Nova’s specs. International launch dates? From October this year, but we’ve yet to find out when SA is joining the party or what it’ll cost us to play.
This thing is a fitness tracker, right? The Withings Steel HR does just what it says on the tin — it’s made from metal and it incorporates a heart-rate monitor in a wristwatch that lasts up to 25 days on a charge. It does the same things as previous Withings wearables, by showing your progress using a little hand on the watch face but there’s also a little digital screen included, for phone notifications. The best part about it, though? It looks just like a regular old wristwatch. A stylish example of one, to boot. The Withings Steel HR is set to launch in October this year. We should be seeing it here in SA close to launch, too. We can’t wait.
Nintendo’s NX is looking more and more like it’ll be bringing back the cart(ridge)
Nintendo’s NX console, which has yet to be revealed (or even properly leaked), is widely thought to be switching from optical media to cartridges when it finally drops. That train of thought has picked up steam thanks to a new report from the Wall Street Journal that claims that, based on advances in the way that flash memory is produced, Nintendo is highly likely to ditch discs in favour of the sort of thing you plug into a 3DS. Nintendo has been keeping its mouth tightly shut about the console, an unusual move considering that it’s slated for launch in March 2017. There’s not a whole lot of time to build up hype around the console but at this point we’d settle for seeing what it looks like (and seeing it turn on.)
Google confirms that Project Ara is on indefinite hold
If you were after a modular smartphone and were holding out hope that Google’s Project Ara still had some life left in it, we’ve got some bad news for you. Google has confirmed (to VentureBeat) that Ara is on indefinite hold for the present. The company has no plans to bring Project Ara to market but there’s still a chance that Google will license the tech to other interested companies. We’re not sure, exactly, because Google isn’t saying much more than that Ara is suspended. Officially, this time.
