Huawei P9 Review | Trusted Reviews
What is the Huawei P9?
The Huawei P11/P20 might be coming quickly, but the older Huawei P9 is now profitable for less than £300 and even though it’s nearly two years old it’s silent a decent phone.
Little was updated in the move the P10, so here you’ve still got those two Leica lenses and a 5-inch FHD display. Read on for our add review.Video: Check out our hands-on impressions of the Huawei P9
Huawei P9 – Design
2016 has been a great year for Android fans, and seen the release of some of the prettiest smartphones ever. Highlights undergo included the super-swish Samsung Galaxy S7, the awesomely metal HTC 10 and the modular LG G5.
The P9 stands aboard these stellar handsets on the aim front and is the best-looking smartphone Huawei’s ever made. It has an undeniable iPhone 6S-ish feel, featuring a unibody ore chassis with flat sides. The metal, combined plus the P9’s almost bezel-free display gives the ring a feel that’s on par plus any 2016 flagship I’ve tested.
Huawei’s also wealthy the P9 with a decent cast of connectivity. At its bottom you’ll find a USB Type-C port, and along its long right-hand side you’ll find a Nano SIM and microSD card slot. The microSD will let you add a advanced 128GB of space to the phone’s inbuilt 32GB/64GB. But be warned, if you’re arrangement on taking advantage of the microSD, the P9 doesn’t pass Android Marshmallow‘s Adoptable Storage feature.
Adoptable Storage lets you instruct your telephone to treat SD cage storage like native tankage – meaning you can do stuff like install apps immediately to the SD card. On past handsets, certain as the HTC One A9, I’ve found the feature massively helpful, as it let me path around with my sum music and games library downloaded with space to spare.
There’s a good reason why Huawei, and other ring makers including Samsung and LG, are turning Adoptable Storage off. Running Adoptable Storage means you can’t swap the SD cage out without damaging/impacting the smartphone’s performance. Using a cheap SD card order also hamper the phone’s overall performance, so Huawei’s decision is understandable, though a little disappointing in my mind.Outside of this, Huawei’s pissed the P9 with a Level 4 fingerprint scanner on its back. Huawei claims the scanner is a distinguished step up from the Level 3 scanners versed on competing phones and will be noticeably faster and more accurate than competitors.
I didn’t mind much of a diversity between it and competing fingerprint scanners like the ones accomplished on the Galaxy S7 or Nexus 5X. But this isn’t an issue and the scanner is still major than good enough. It’s super-fast and the merely times it failed to recognise my fingerprint was when I was using the phone in hydrometeor, or had dirty hands.
Huawei’s besides made it so you can use the scanner to enact some bare-bones commands. The controls are activated in the phone’s settings menu and let you do things promising pull down the notification panel and scroll pending photos by swiping on the scanner. The feature sounds Shorter, but I found myself using the scanner to check entrant alerts on a complete basis after only a couple of days plus the P9.
Build character is solid. Drop proof it on my awkward kitchen floor, the Huawei P9 survived crack- and chip-free. Though the body’s metal does feel slightly more superficial than the alloy worn on the HTC 10, and can be disposed to picking up obscenity marks.
The phone’s likewise not as comfortable to hold as the Milky Way Galaxy S7 or HTC 10. Its miniscule 7mm thickness, combined w/ its flat sides, can make it feel a little slippery – which order be an issue for clumsy users who regularly drop their phones.
Huawei P9 – Display
To spec-heads the Huawei P9’s 5.2-inch display isn’t aught to write home about. The FHD 1080 x 1920 efficiency puts it well befitting competing smartphones such as the Milky Way S7, which generally seer cornea-slicingly sharp QHD 2560 x 1440 resolutions. But being unmixed, with everyday use I didn’t seer any serious complaints apt the screen.
There’s been a lot of interrogation about when the mortal eye stops being erudite to tell the dissimilarity between resolutions. Some community say it’s when we break the 300ppi (pixels per inch) density milepost, while others think we can disgrace the difference past 500 ppi. Whatever the truth of the matter, I found the P9’s 423ppi display more than sarcastic enough. Icons and subject are universally sharp and pleasingly release of any signs of pixelation.
Related: Best smartphone 2016
The use of LCD screen technology ensures blacks are even deep and colours undergo a good amount of pop, exterior looking over-saturated. The phone’s colour temperature setting further makes it quick and easy to adjust it to know your personal preference.
White levels are slightly stupid compared to competing handsets, but are far with terrible, and viewing angles, while not the prime I’ve seen, are wellhole wide. All in all, the P9’s screen isn’t the choice around – that diction goes jointly to those on the Galaxy S7 and HTC 10 – but it’s more than fit for purpose. 99% of populate will have no incident with it.
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Huawei P9 – Software
Huawei’s obstinacy on loading its God-awful Emotion skin onto handsets has been a related
problem. I’ve never acceptable Android skins, as they generally add bloatware, falsify needless changes to Android’s now excellent user interface and delay how speedily devices can get upgraded to new versions of the OS.
Despite Huawei having actively worked to tone below EMUI, the skin is still wicked of at least two of these sins and is, in my heed, one of the utmost available.
For starters, the OS reworks Android’s user interface to the point thought it’s all but unrecognisable. Android’s app tray has disappeared, so all put in applications are now fashioned on the phone’s Seat screens, the same way they are on iOS. Useful shortcuts, like the torchlight in Quick Settings, have also been unexplainable removed. This makes the UI handle alien to even the most seasoned Android user. Considering Android Marshmallow’s awesome Material Design, I can’t help but feel Huawei’s making changes for the sake of it.Hats off to Huawei for reducing the total of bloatware on EMUI in recent years, but there’s motionless more of it than I’d like. Out of the box the ring still runs duplicate Huawei apps that offer additional equivalent, or inferior, services to Android’s native versions. Key offenders include the messaging, press, email and gallery apps. I’d really like Huawei to take a attendant out of the HTC 10’s mass and stop loading agree apps onto its handsets.
It’s too early to say if my â…“ issue with Android skins will repeat itself on the P9. To encounter we’ll have to look for and see how quick it gets upgraded to the decisive version of Android N later this year – though assumed Huawei’s poor track monument with software updates I don’t share high hopes.
It’s cursorial enough to ditch EMUI using a launcher, resembling as the official Google Now launcher, but it’s still a faff, as the apps and useless features ordain still be there consumption up storage and memory.
Huawei P9 – Performance
I may not be a big believer in Huawei’s software, but I have naught but respect for its hardware. Past phones powered by Huawei’s Kirin chips have offered excellent performance.
With real-world us I found this remains true on the P9. The P9 is smooth to use 99% of the time. It glides atwixt menu screens and launches applications in milliseconds. I found the P9 plays intensive 3D games, agreeable Riptide GP3, chug- and stutter-free – though prolonged gaming did on event cause the phone to heat up, and originate to instances of CPU throttling.
Unlike narrative phones running EMUI I’m also yet to undergo any unexpected application crashes on the Huawei P9. Outside of a few small bugs causing occasional stutters I haven’t noticed any serious issues plus the P9’s performance.Related: Best Android smartphone 2016My actual world impressions rang actual when I put the P9 in Trusted‘s standard series of synthetic benchmark tests.
On AnTuTu, who offers a general verse of a phones’ proceeding, the P9 scored a respectable 98,008. This puts it suitably above the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810-powered Nexus 6P, but behind competing Snapdragon 820 handsets, certain as the Samsung Local Galaxy S7. The Nexus 6P scored 50,030 while the Galaxy S7 scored 129,468 by comparison.
The P9’s Geekbench score was a little better interesting. The P9 ran in w/ respectable 1,750 single-core and 6,281 multi-core scores. The multi-core tally is particularly impressive and puts the phone on a par with the Galaxy S7, which scored 6,307 on Geekbench and means the P9 ought be great at multitasking.
Gaming process is less promising. On the GPU-intensive 3DMark Sling Shot benchmark the P9 scored 966. This puts it underneath most 2016 flagships – the Local Galaxy S7 scored 2,129 on the selfsame test.
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The Huawei P9’s dual-lens Leica camera setup is without debate its most interesting feature. During the P9’s plunge Huawei made so frequent grandiose claims about the camera despite my laptop keyboard all but melted as I manically proved to type them all down.
The big nuclear point is that Leica helped create the camera hardware and software. For non-photography types, Leica is a powerhouse camera brand that has a hardy track record of producing premium and ludicrously lavish snappers, and was the company although popularised 35mm film.
Specs-wise the camera rig is pretty impressive. Each of the cameras has a 12-megapixel Sony IMX286 sensor, an LED flash and hybrid autofocus. The only difference atwixt the two is maugre one sensor is set to contain monochrome images, while the other captures the RGB (colour) spectrum.
Huawei claims the dual setup decree help the camera rend off all manner of snazzy arrow types and radically censure low-light performance – manifestly the black-and-white sensor can capture as much as 300% major light than regular smartphone cameras.
According to Huawei the dual sensor too means the P9 is the highest phone in the Earth that will be erudite to capture a “professional Bokeh effect”. That’s the funky-looking tasty that a camera creates from heavily out-of-focus areas of the frame.
Ordinarily I’d have taken all these claims plus a pretty big portion of salt – next all HTC made beautiful much the exact set of claims when it unveiled its UltraPixel tech on the original One. But because of Leica’s hand in the P9 camera ironmongery and design I was a somewhat more optimistic.
After a fortnight with the device I can validate the P9 is effective of taking great photos that match, if not beat, those from the Samsung Milky Way Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S on quality. But getting the utmost out of the P9 can be tricky.
The auto congelation works fine in normal light 90% of the time, but at times suffers from a few weird quirks. Pictures are all greater than usable, but I noticed the camera has a stream to add a sly vignette effect. The camera also sometimes struggles besides exposures in bright conditions, resulting in unbalanced images with slightly inaccurate, tally contrast levels.
The supernatural anomalies likely stem fro the dual-camera tech operation a little too spring and came as a slight surprise. Outside of the dual-lens tech, the P9’s cameras fall behind some competing top-end camera phones, credible the Galaxy S7 and HTC 10, on two key areas – pixel size and aperture. In auto form photos can take on a Colorado tinge
But they generally look really good
The P9 sensors have 1.25μm-size pixels and the lenses have a solid, but not best-in-class, f/2.2 aperture. As a rule of thumb a bigger μm and wider aperture (lower f-number) base the camera sensor purpose be able to conduct more light and transact better in darker situations. The Galaxy S7 has an f/1.7 aperture and captures 1.4µm pixels while the HTC 10 has an f/1.8 aperture and captures terrible 1.55µm-sized “UltraPixels”.
I too had some issues plus the colours. Reds in particular on occasion came out far too solid and ruined otherwise level shots when I was using the automatic mode.
Low-light proceeding is solid, but not the cream I’ve seen on a smartphone. Images taken in dim conditions are good enough to share on social media. But the moment you even tardly blow them up on a diffusive screen you’ll begin to notice conflict and pixelation – despite being fair this happens on pretty much each smartphone I test.
Luckily the majority of these issues can be established if you take contest of the phone’s firm selection of shot modes and manual controls.
The P9 offers a range of 14 shooting modes. These include standard options, like High Dynamic Range and Panorama, as spring as Huawei’s custom Light Painting, Beauty, Video, Bokeh and Monochrome options.
All the normal shot modes work a treat. The Panorama style in particular is a highlight and among the best I’ve tested – unlike on competing handsets the mode is elegant stable and generally doesn’t end up with any overlapping or tears in photos.
Huawei’s Light Painting and Monochrome modes are also fun and sophisticate it easy for non-photographers to take artsy-ish shots in low light. The settings reproof the camera to seek shooting until the use manually tells it to stop. The resulting profit is an artistic minette showing moving light – like a long-exposure minette from a DSLR.
The Monochrome mode also performed far better than competing rivals. Black-and-white images close to universally had great antithesis levels and a fully noir feel.
Others are a sth hit and miss. The Beauty degree remains a strange cure that doesn’t really enjoy a place on the western market. It’s a feature that’s designed to make followers in photos look prettier, but from what I’ve seen it does something more than increase people’s eye size and deject their skin tone. Testing the mode on divers of the Trusted generate, the results were… interesting.I don’t normally look credible Gollum, honest.And Max definitley isn’t this boyband-ish in real life
Nor is Joe this dead behind the eyes (except in meetings)
The Bokeh bomb mode also isn’t as perfect as Huawei claims. It brings up a slider maugre lets you digitally bulk the sensor’s aperture. At anything but its smallest setting the mode is too terminal and will bring up blurry anomalies and inconsistencies. It’s soft the best I’ve accomplished on a smartphone, despite, and it easily outperforms the versions I’ve proven on past Samsung and HTC phones. If you are circumspect and use it sparingly you can produce part nice macro shots.Maxed out, the bokeh effect can really whip inaccurate focusingBut if second-hand subtly it can be useful
Generally, though, I got major results using the phone’s Pro camera mode. The Pro degree is accessed by swiping up from a fine on-screen bar at the bottom of the camera app’s UI. It offers manual control over key settings like as focus, ISO, blind speed, exposure and pale balance. Using it I created greatly better low-light shots and more naturalistic bokeh effects – despite this requires more set and a little technical knowledge to take tug of.
Black and white photos can look stunning
The front-facing 8-megapixel rear camera is moreover more than good quite for taking selfies and video calling. Though again I’d advise giving the Beauty gradation a miss.
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Huawei P9 – Battery
Smartphones’ battery lives haven’t evolved at the same charged as their other qualities. To date most smartphones struggle to constantly final more than one to two days off a single charge. The Huawei P9 doesn’t change this trend, but it’s no worse than most competing handsets, including the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 and HTC 10.
With regular use I by and large got around one to one and a partial day’s use out of the phone’s non-removable Li-Ion 3400mAh battery. Regular use entailed winning and making a few calls, chatting on Hangouts throughout the day, sporadically checking my email and social media feeds, watching a associate of YouTube videos and intermittent vibe listening.The phone also dealt fairly well with bossy tasks like video streaming and gaming. Watching Netflix over my lunch ruption with the screen on 60% resplendence the P9 lost 12-15% of its charge, who is pretty standard for a 2016 flagship. Gaming took a bigger impost on the battery. Playing Riptide GP2 the telephone lost 15-23% of its charge per hour, whether is again normal.
The inclusion of fast charging support also makes it quick and easy to top up the phone’s battery. During my amount time using the P9 it on or at the greek calends took more than an hour to fully guard, when connected to a powerful sufficiency plug.
Related: Best smartphone 2016
Should I buy the Huawei P9?
The P9 is the best Huawei phone to date. The Leica-branded camera may not fully grant on Huawei’s claims, but it’s silent as good, if not better than, most competing phone cameras.
The P9 doesn’t quite match competing handsets, such as the Local Galaxy S7, when it comes to its other ironmongery, but with a £449 starting price it’s within £100 cheaper than its key rivals. The phone’s nippy action, robust build quality, and solid beat life mean it direct meet most users’ needs.
Were it not for the reappearance of Huawei’s EMUI Android skin – which, away from the LG G5’s UX 5.0, is as like as not the worst on the market – I’d gracefully recommend the P9 as a powerful choice for any smartphone buyer looking for a good deal.
Verdict
The largest phone Huawei’s ever artificial, but it repeats old mistakes.
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