Huawei are one of the main players in the low to mid range smartphone market (not to mention their high-end phones), and they’re looking to continue that with the release of the GR5 2017. Following on from the successful GR5 the 2017 version looks to improve on an already decent phone.

The GR5 2017 is a phone aimed at people while on a tight budget but still want a phone with a decent camera. Available on Vodafone for RRP $399 from April 12 the phone comes with dual rear facing cameras. The 12MP and 2MP cameras allow the user to gain depth of field in their pictures and to achieve a faster focus. The front facing camera is no slouch either at 8MP.

The specs for the Huawei GR5 2017 are more than what you would expect for a low end phone. The 1080P display is 5.5in in size and is powered by a Kirin 655 octacore processor. Supported by 3GB and a battery that is 3340mAh in size the phone has some decent grunt behind it. There is 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded with a microSD card of up to 128GB.

Unfortunately while the hardware is looking pretty good, the software has some drawbacks with the GR5 2017 coming with an older version of EMUI (4.1) which is based on Marshmallow. With Nougat running on their Mate 9 and P10 already it is disappointing that the phone is being released with software that is now 18 months old.

The phone itself is not massive coming in at 150.9mm (L) x 76.2mm (W) x 8.2mm (T). The phone will be available in grey, gold and silver colours and carries the constant Huawei stylings that we have all grown to love.

Keep an eye out at Vodafone stores for this arriving in a couple of weeks if you are interested. There is no information on whether it will be available on a plan but at $399 outright it is not an expensive phone.