Note: This is not a full review.
I was rather excited when I got my new Huawei P40 Lite. However, this excitement was short lived.
What was the issue?
I was not able to independently activate the screen reader feature on the device without sighted help.
Minus 10 points right away.
What then?
Once activated though, I was rather impressed with the response time and general feedback of the screen reader.
However, the Huawei native apps themselves were not accessible and just dialing a simple 10 digit phone number within the phone app, for example, took me a good five minutes.
I then tried to setup my Huawei account, but, alas, I was not able to enter my date of birth. Guess why? You’ve guessed it. Because I’m a little slow and stupid.
No, even though I felt stupid, I realised that this was not exactly my fault and that I do not need to put up with this. Since this is not a review unit but, something I actually paid for, I can assure you, as sure as I am typing this out that I am going to return the unit to the seller today still.
Final thoughts?
For a blind person, I would not consider this phone at all.
If you are partially sighted, it works just beautifully and you would have little to no trouble with the phone.
Have you approached Huawei in the past?
I did approach Huawei about reviewing units as earlier as 2018 and since I am working for the South African National Council for the Blind, this might have benefitted them, you know, having access to a sample of actual blind and partially sighted persons, as opposed to just retro-fitting accessibility onto an otherwise excellent peace of hardware.
You have lost a customer and loyal fan. Better luck, next time, Huawei.
To learn more about the accessibility features on Huawei products in South Africa, please see the Huawei accessibility page.