U Mobile has become the first local telco to open pre-orders for the new Huawei Ascend P7. Oddly enough, there are no pricing details yet available on the site, and there isn’t much information beyond the fact that there is an early bird promotion that offers a Huawei Ultra Thin Power Bank for the first 100 hundred pre-orders – though that information appears to be wrong.
[Update @ June 27, 12:45pm] U Mobile has announced that the Ascend P7 will be available with no upfront payment, with a subsidized device price from as low as RM188. More below.
U Mobile is offering the Huawei Ascend P7 with three postpaid plans: the U58, U88 and the U Plus plans. The subsidized device prices are applicable only for 24-month contracts, and there will be no upfront charges for the U88 and U Plus plans; there is an upfront payment charge of RM538 for the U58 plan. The full breakdown of device price, upfront charges and postpaid plan details are as below:
The original article continues below.
From what we can see so far from both U Mobile and Huawei, those who wish to get the power bank for free will be given quite a runaround: pay nothing up front to pre-book the Ascend P7, receive a code to purchase the device, be the first 50/100 people to redeem the device using the code at four designated U Mobile Stores around the country and then sign up for a 24-month U Plus postpaid plan (that goes for RM138 per month and offers 5GB of data and 350mins free calls). Only then will they will receive a Huawei Ultra Thin Power Bank worth RM199.
Pre-order customers also pay the full retail price of RM1499 for the Ascend P7. At least, that’s what one can infer looking at U Mobile and Huawei’s websites. There’s no mention of any subsidized price for the Ascend P7 on U Mobile’s website, nor is there any reference to the total amount that must be paid at Vmall’s T&C page. But, we’ve been told that U Mobile will be offering a “very, very special” price for the Ascend P7 bundle, but will only be revealing it later on.
On the other hand, Huawei is claiming that it is offering the Ascend P7 and the power bank for free with the contract, both on Vmall and its Facebook page. [Update @ June 25, 10:52am] Huawei has removed all references to the promotion, both in Vmall and its Facebook page without nary an explanation. U Mobile’s site, on the other hand, still shows its pre-order promotion, but the pre-order link goes to a “page under construction” notice on Vmall.
It may well be that Huawei’s offer of a “free” Ascend P7 was a mistake on its part. Regardless, you can take a look at the banner and Facebook image that was on display for almost half a day yesterday:
[Update 2 @ June 25, 8:10pm] Yup, that offer was definitely too good to be true. The original banner, which was removed, has now been replaced with a similar-looking one below. Note that the free gift has now changed from an Ascend P7 and power bank to a mobile WiFi router and a power bank. The pre-order page on Vmall has also gone live.
It must be said here that it is rather odd that the pre-order link at U Mobile’s product page goes to Huawei’s online store, Vmall. It appears that Huawei is pretty heavily involved in this promotion, as those who wish to pre-order the Ascend P7 with U Mobile are required to register an account at Vmall before proceeding to place an order for the Ascend P7. Even the T&C for the free power bank promotion can be found here.
Customers who successfully pre-order the Ascend P7 will be required to select one of four U Mobile Stores to collect their devices from: Berjaya Times Square (KL), Queensbay Mall (Penang), Taman Molek (Johor Bahru) and Jalan Merdeka (Melaka). The redemption period starts from 11am to 3pm on the 28th of June for the KL outlet, where the first 100 customers will receive the free power bank, while the redemption period for the other three outlets will only begin on July 5 – where only the first 50 customers at each outlet will get the power bank for free.
Naturally, customers will have to be early, as the power banks will only be given out on a first come, first served basis. For more about the Huawei Ascend P7, check out our hands on post from the Malaysian launch event.
(Source: U Mobile)
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