At a launch event in London today, Huawei has unveiled its latest flagship smartphones – the Huawei P9 and the P9 Plus. The ambitious Chinese manufacturer has its sights firmly set on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5 these days, and there’s quite a lot to be excited about with the P9 range.
Based on its looks alone, the Huawei P9 is clearly targeted at the upper end of the market. The design isn’t a massive departure from last year’s P8, but there’s also quite a nice resemblance to the excellent Nexus 6P as well. The phone comes in at just 6.95mm thick and has a bezel that measures just 1.7mm. Huawei says that the phone is constructed with a full metal unibody and features curved edges for a comfortable hold, and it’s hard to deny that it’s quite a good looking handset.
When it comes to the display, Huawei has remained committed to its opinion that going above and beyond a 1080p resolution just isn’t worth the additional hit to battery life. The Huawei P9 features a 5.2-inch display with a 1920×1080 resolution, resulting in a very decent 423 pixels per inch. As such, the handset is pretty much the same size as last year’s P8.
The P9 Plus bumps this up to 5.5-inches, for those who want a slightly larger handset, and swaps out the LCD panel for an AMOLED alternative. Huawei boasts that its new display is capable of 500 nits peak brightness and 96% color saturation.
As for performance, the Huawai P9 features an in-house Kirin 955 SoC, a slightly beefed up version of the 950 that featured in the Mate 8. The chip boasts a octa-core CPU configuration built from four Cortex-A72 and four Cortex-A53 cores for a balance of power and energy efficiency. The chip also features a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU, which is certainly the most powerful graphics chip in a Huawei phone to date, but won’t quite rival the Mali-T880 MP12 configuration packed into the Samsung Galaxy S7.
Huawei has paired this chip up with a few memory options. There’s 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage in one variant or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage in the other. The Huawei P9 Plus comes with the same 4GB/64GB configuration. The handsets also features a microSD card slot if you require additional space.
There has been a fair amount of hype surrounding the Huawei P9’s dual rear camera configuration. It featured in plenty of leaks and the company announced that it has been working with German camera specialist Leica to co-engineer the camera inside P9. The company boasts that it is “changing smartphone photography forever” with the P9, which is a mighty bold claim.
The Huawei P9 boasts a dual 12 megapixel rear camera setup with Leica lenses and a 1.76-micron pixel size for better low light performance. There is also laser focusing module on the back, optical image stabilization for smooth video capture, and a dual-tone LED flash. The phone comes with a 8 megapixel camera on the front just like before, which is sure to keep selfie enthusiasts happy as well.
We’ll definitely be keen to see how the Huawei P9’s camera performs in the real world.
| Huawei P9 | Huawei P9 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.2-inch LCD panel 1920×1080 resolution |
5.5-inch AMOLED panel 1920×1080 resolution |
| SoC | HiSilicon Kirin 955 | HiSilicon Kirin 955 |
| CPU | 4x 2.5GHz Cortex-A72 4x 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 |
4x 2.5GHz Cortex-A72 4x 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 |
| GPU | Mali-T880 MP4 | Mali-T880 MP4 |
| RAM | 3GB/4GB | 4GB |
| Storage | 32/64GB + microSD | 64GB + microSD |
| Cameras | Dual 12 megapixel rear with OIS and laser focus, 8 megapixel front |
Dual 12 megapixel rear with OIS and laser focus, 8 megapixel front |
| Battery | 3,000mAh | 3,400mAh |
| Features | Fingerprint scanner, USB Type C, infrared, stereo speakers | Fingerprint scanner, USB Type C, infrared, stereo speakers |
| OS | Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EMUI 4.1 | Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EMUI 4.1 |
| Dimensions | 145 x 70.9 x 6.95mm | 152.3 x 75.3 x 6.98 mm |
| Weight | 144g | 162g |
| Price | €599 / €649 | €749 |
Huawei has bundled in a few other nice extras with the P9 too. The phone features a fingerprint scanner positioned, in typical Huawei fashion, on the back of the smartphone for easy reach and screen unlocking.
The Huawei P9 comes with 3,000mAh battery, while the P9 Plus has a lsightly larger 3,400mAh cell. Dual-SIM users are catered in Asia for while still allowing full use of the separate microSD card slot. As an added bonus, of sorts, the handset also comes with a reservable USB Type-C connection on the bottom, so you won’t have to fumble around with cables anymore. The smartphone also includes the usual assortment of Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and NFC connectivity options.
One of Huawei’s major selling points in previous years has been the price of its high-end models. The Huawei P9 is no different in this regard, targeting a €599 price point that undercuts the likes of the Galaxy S7 by a decent enough margin to make it a very attractive purchase. The 32GB Huawei P9 will retail for €599, the 64GB option is priced at €649, while the P9 Plus model will come with a more expensive €749 tag.
The Huawei P9 and P9 Plus come in a choice of six different colors. There’s Ceramic White, Titanium Grey, Mystic Silver, Haze Gold, Prestige Gold, and Rose Gold options available, although these might vary based on the region of sale.
Just before the launch event Huawei also reveled that it will be launching its flagship phone in the US later this year, which is a major step forward for the company. Consumers around the world are sure to have some tough choices to make about their next smartphone.
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Source: ANDRIOD AUTHORITY