Huawei P9 on trial: Our HardwareZone members review and tell all!

[bosssaizo]

Aiming to reinvent smartphone photography, the Huawei P9 in collaboration with Leica to create a smartphone that truly sets a new standard for mobile photography with its remarkable dual lens camera.

10 HardwareZone members were tasked to trial and share their opinions on Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone. After a week with the smartphone, they are ready to give us a low-down of what they think of the Huawei P9.

Check out the reviews posted in this thread and join in on the discussion to tell us what you think about the Huawei P9. You also stand a chance to win a Huawei P9 smartphone worth $768 when you vote for your favourite review!

Vote for the review of your choice HERE

 

[caterham7]

Testimonial submission for Huawei P9 Try-Out Trial – Lee Sze Yong

OVERVIEW

Very lucky to be selected for the Huawei/HWZ P9 trial. Will be focusing mainly on photography, but will also review the phone generally.

By the way, Huawei’s support page for the P9 provides helpful tips on various topics.

http://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/mobile-phones/p9_en-sup.htm

COMMENTS ON KEY FEATURES

Tried out various features inside the P9 camera app.

Starting the camera
"No Waiting". No need to wait too long for camera startup, with the Ultra Snapshot feature. Simply double-press the volume-down button, when the Huawei P9 screen is off.

Night Shot mode
This mode requires the user to hold the camera still for a couple of seconds; I braced the P9 against the window grille for the photo below.

Street Photography
Mainly use my camera phone for candid street photography. The Huawei P9 excelled here, with the Pro mode allowing me to shoot in either shutter priority or ISO priority, to keep shutter speeds higher than normal, to freeze moving subjects. Autofocus speed is relatively fast, with minimal shutter lag.

The P9 coped with shooting conditions in both day and night. The photo below, of a newspaper vendor, was taken at 7pm, at the exit of Tanjong Pagar MRT. Shooting at 1/200s shutter priority in Pro mode, the P9 managed to focus on the vendor, and noise level was acceptable, for a photo with ISO1,000.

Panorama mode
The panorama mode was a breeze to use. I usually did a “dry run”, by first moving the camera from left to right [or bottom to top], to finalise my start and end points. This trial run allows me to see if important elements are captured in the panorama. Then, just need to press the shutter, and move the P9 camera in a gradual arc along the yellow line on the screen, then press the shutter again to stop. Stitching is completed almost instantaneously, then you can view it on screen.

The above photo was taken on a overhead bridge. Finding a good vantage point helps immensely when taking a panorama shot.

The panorama mode can also be used vertically. Used the Panorama mode below, to take a photo of a tall building. This made it possible for me to take a photo of the entire building, which would be impossible from my vantage point, if using the normal camera mode.

The resulting photo is slightly distorted, but does also provide an interesting “look”.

Food
Our camera often “eats”, before we eat nowadays; so it was with the P9. Took the photo during lunchtime at Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre.

The top-down look is popular with food bloggers and many others on Instagram/Facebook, so tried that viewpoint here. The key when shooting this way, is to try to avoid casting a shadow on the food.

“Splash” edit
Used the Splash tool in the default edit app. This feature removes all colour, except for the colour that the user chooses to be retained in the photo.

Chose green in the photo above, the app was smart enough to also keep the green bicycle and the camouflage-green trousers. You may recognize the classic Tiong Bahru flats in the background.

To Be Continued...

click link below to vote & stand to win a Huawei P9 also
http://campaign.hardwarezone.com.sg/HuaweiP9/testimonial.php?review_user=5

 

[caterham7]

Continued from post above...

Monochrome sensor
As a street photographer, I love to convert my photos to black & white. When colour is removed, the viewer tends to be less distracted, and sees more of a photo’s composition, and other aspects, e.g. facial expressions. Using the P9 monochrome sensor meant I could shoot natively in black & white.

Another photo taken using the monochrome sensor below. Good details retained, due to a relatively low sensitivity of ISO200.

Wide Aperture mode
The wide aperture mode is really fun. It provides a shallow depth of field “look” to the photo, which helps the viewer focus on the relevant “point of interest” in the photo. One can choose different focus points after taking the photo.

Created 2 photos from 1 shot, to show how you can create multiple interpretations of one photo. The photo on the left focused on the person in black t-shirt in the foreground, while the photo on the right focused on the couple in the background.

Used the ‘No Crop’ app [available in Play Store] to merge the 2 photos, plus keep the aspect ratio, while adhering to the Instagram square format.

Light Painting mode
This is one of my favourite modes. Used the “Tail Lights” setting within the Light Painting mode. The coolest part of this mode, is being able to see the light trails appearing live. This means you know when to continue shooting [when not enough light trails appear], and when to stop [when too many light trails fill the photo]. This removes the previous “trial and error” method of shooting light trails, when photographers had to experiment with different shutter speeds, to find the right balance.

More photos shot by the P9 are available on my Instagram page.

https://www.instagram.com/evozero/

Settings
Some of the settings I changed. As always, your mileage may vary.

1. Removed animation [enable developer mode first]
2. most bloatware can be uninstalled, very good
3. installed Nova launcher, go to Settings->Apps->Advanced->Default app settings->Launcher to set which is the default
4. you also get back the default android icons when you install Nova
5. Enabled Settings->Notification panel & status bar->Drag actions->Determine from drag position
6. Enabled Settings->Smart assistance->Navigation bar - choose how you want your home, back, multi-tasking buttons to appear; can even add a "Open notification panel" button, which is very useful, as you no longer need to stretch to the top of the phone to pull down the notification window shade
7. Press and hold in camera preview screen to separate focus & exposure

Battery
Didn’t really test the battery life extensively, but did try to use the phone once, without charging during the day. Started with the P9 at 100% at 8am, and reached home at 7.39pm at 2%. A commendable result.

On another day, I forgot to bring the usb-c cable back from my office. There was still 30% remaining the next day at 2.30pm.

DESIGN & AESTHETICS
Not having a camera bump is such a joy. A camera flushed with the rest of the phone, makes for a simple clean design.

The 2.5D glass on the front, helps create a seamless touch experience from edge to edge.

Buttons feel good, with tactile feedback, especially with the power button easily distinguishable from the volume button, with a different finishing.

The free clear crystal hard case in the P9 package, with nice cutouts for lenses & keys, is a good match for the phone, keeping the phone sleek, and all keys accessible.

Even the packaging is classy. Used the Wide Aperture mode again here, which allows for cool bokeh effects. Avoid the extreme f/0.95 setting which looks too fake. Used f/4.0 here, which hopefully made the shallow depth of field more natural.

CONCLUSION
Using the Huawei P9 has been an enjoyable experience. The various features and modes in the camera app and edit app really help create more photo opportunities. I was able to capture photos which would not be possible on other phones. Found myself posting more often on Instagram, which I suppose is a sign of the P9’s capability. #HuaweiP9 #HuaweiXLeica #OO

Postscript
Taken during the magic hour, just after sunset, a composite image, showing the RGB & monochrome sensors

click link below to vote & stand to win a Huawei P9 also
http://campaign.hardwarezone.com.sg/HuaweiP9/testimonial.php?review_user=5

 

[xtramadness]

The Huawei P9 is the Chinese company’s latest take on the high-end Android smartphone market and looks to compete against the likes of LG, Samsung, HTC and perhaps, even Xiaomi. LG and Samsung released their flagships (G5 and S7) earlier already sporting the new snapdragon 820 processor. On the other hand, HTC has yet to have the HTC 10 here in Singapore. That said, unlike the other’s sporting the more common Snapdragon processor, Huawei P9, however, has opted to use their own in house processor – Kirin 955, which is the successor to the Mate 8’s Kirin 950 and a much improvement over P8’s Kirin 935.

What I loved:
• Awesome screen - great color, great brightness especially in the sun screen’s 2.5D is delightful to look at and touch/hold as well
• Build - mimics that of the iPhone, but still nice to hold in hand
• Provided a simple and no-frills clear casing in box
• Multi-purpose fingerprint scanner
• EMUI 4.1 - it is personal, but I prefer having things arranged on one set of pages rather having an additional drawer
• Scroll screenshot
• Stays pretty cool mostly
• Nice matte aluminum back

What I disliked:
• Mid-range graphics performance (whilst this isn’t meant to be a gaming beast, I still can’t play some of my favourite games properly)
• No chance of fast or quick charging.
• Over-aggressive handling (suppressing) of notification(s) by default
• Cannot delete default application(s) without rooting
• Lack of 4K/2160p video (filming) support
• Battery is built in
• Only Cat 6 (300Mbps), not Cat 9 support (450mbps)
• No wireless charging

What to take note of:
• Those upgrading should take note that like many other devices, this phone too uses USB-C. There is only 1 cable included, so you might need to get adapters (to reuse old microUSB cables) or more new cables.
• Device comes with 2 year warranty, including a one-time replacement of screen damage (accidental inclusive) within the first year.

The Huawei P9 comes boxed in a slim box similar to that of the Microsoft Lumia 950, with, at first glance, containing the essentials: earphones, USB cable, and charger (and of course the phone). The P9 comes shipped with an EarPod-style earphones which maybe the irk or liking to some. Just as you think that is all, remember to open every compartment up! True enough, here’s another clear back case for the Huawei P9 hidden in the warranty and paperwork box situated below the phone holder.

The clear back may not be the best material or to your likely, but it sure does help new owners to give basic protection to the phone whilst you wait or hunt for the perfect case.

 

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Technical Stuff

The Huawei P9 has opted to use a lot of their own in-house chips, starting from the main processor, which is the heart of the whole phone. The processor is paired up with the Mali T880 (MP4) graphics chip, which will handle much of its graphical needs. On paper wise, the Mali T880, is the highest spec GPU from arm, and is used by others as well, including Samsung’s S7 Exynos 8890 processor. However, unlike Samsung’s top-tier specification, the version Kirin uses is just a meager 4 cores clocked at up to 900Mhz (16nm manufacturing technology), whereas Samsung is powered by a powerful 12-core design at up to 600Mhz (14nm manufacturing technology). A few reasons Huawei might be using the 4 core variant could be because it is more power efficient, and that because it is using the 16nm manufacturing process rather than the 14nm used by Samsung and Snapdragon, it is technically less power efficient than a comparative 16nm, hence, the presence of just 4 core combination.

The phone itself comes with a LCD Screen. Wait, did I say LCD? Yes, unlike many of the devices using AMOLED screen for that color contrast, Huawei again has differentiated itself with the use of LCD. But low and behold – the LCD is not the normal LCD screen! This is actually an IPS-NEO screen.
• In AMOLED, individual pixels are lit separately on top of a thin film transistor (TFT) and passes current through organic compounds. The brightness depends on the amount of current going through and because it is individually lighted, this means it is typically having a better color and contrast/lighting. The catch is that the pixel/quality degrades over time resulting in what you know as burn in.
• In the popular IPS (In-Plane Switching) LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen, it makes use of polarized light that goes through a color filter. Horizontal and vertical filters on either side of the liquid crystals control the brightness and whether or not each pixel is on or off. However, color and contrast loses out here and usually does quite well in bright light.
• IPS-NEO LCD is evolved from IPS, focuses on true-black appearance (contrast). To achieve that, at manufacturing, they ensure that the liquid crystals are made as uniform as possible (unlike IPS or normal LCD), to suppress light leak. This meant that the contrast problem is solved, whilst keeping all the benefits of the IPS LCD panel. In fact, because of this alignment technology, image color is also improved because light transitivity was improved and also less power is now required as a result.

In short: Huawei opted to use their own custom designed and manufactured processor that works just fine. But the technology used is just a little lower by a notch (16nm vs 14nm of competitors [lower the better]). Graphics performance is additionally lower than others, to be described later. What I really loved, however, is the use of the latest LCD technology - LCD IPS-NEO. I will describe more on this later as well.

Day to Day Use
On a daily use wise, the Huawei P9 comes with Android OS 6.0 (Marshmallow) with EMUI 4.1 launcher/theme enabled out of the box, and the phone itself is very smooth, in opening applications, swiping through menus, surfing the net, streaming videos to and fro etc. However, when it comes to games, the Huawei P9 seemed to struggle. Whilst this does not come as a surprise, what was frustrating for myself was that gaming on this device, with games such as Need for Speed No limits or Asphalt 8, the phone stuttered with horrible frame-rates and a 1 minute game-play (denoted by the timer of the race) turned into 3 minutes. This is worse than that of devices running Snapdragon 810/Adreno 418 such as BlackBerry Priv and LG G4. On the other hand, playing the less intensive games such as candy crush is of course, not an issue.

In short: The P9 works very well for a normal day-day use - but not for intensive gaming.


The EMUI 4.1 Theme
The theme/launcher that comes with the Huawei P9 is the EMUI 4.1 and out of the box it comes with its own (Huawei) Gallery, Themes, Music app, Videos app, Calendar, clock, File Manager, Health, Email, Weather, Calculator, Notepad, Recorder, a Mirror app (A fancy effect camera app), HiCare, compass, WPS Office as well as phone manager (System optimizer app).

The EMUI has modified some of the UI designs from vanilla android as well, such as swiping down on the screen brings up universal search (a top-down swipe still accesses notifications), whilst keeping some such as the ‘shortcuts’ which is just some of the system’s settings like WiFi, Bluetooth etc). Whilst there's no app tray/drawer this means that all your apps are in just one neat screen (like Apple iOS or BlackBerry 10). However, this also means that we and create folders on the homepage screen to arrange our applications, so, depending on where (which platform) you are jumping from, this could be a win or meh for you.

In addition, you have a hidden application screen (where you can hide applications that you don't want others to have access to) that is accessible by pinching outward. Pinching inward though, opens up the widgets panel.

In tandem with the fingerprint scanner, it also allows you to do gesture control - you can swipe between information (it's switched off by default, however); and notifications for power-heavy apps are toned down by default (However, this meant that some of your ‘essential’ applications such as Whatsapp maybe have suppressed notifications too).

In short: The improved Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 is actually very useful - giving users most of what is needed to start using the phone, compared to a vanilla android. However, as default applications, such as music, video players cannot be deleted even if I preferred to use alternatives. I personally preferred the use of the single application page as opposed to having the app drawer, though Huawei could have took it up one notch by offering the option for an app drawer or not. Small, but nifty features such as the hidden application screen and giving the fingerprint scanner additional features is also an ingenious one.

Screen
The first thing we see on the phone, is of course the screen. Armed with a 5.2” HD (1080) screen that is a LCD screen, the color and details on the screen were stunning. Being an LCD screen, it is quite hard to believe it is one. That said, day to day use, especially under the hot bright sun, the screen really does stand up to its name as an LCD screen. And furthermore, it being an LCD screen also means it is less prone or rather not affected by AMOLED burn-in that one might face after sometime. One thing about screens was polarization when wearing sunglasses, but hey, to my surprise, there was no such issue on this screen! Cool! This is one of a capable screen! The screen, being 2.5D, however, meant that getting a full screen-screen protector was going to be hard – though not impossible. But being 2.5D meant that the edges was nice to hold and touch as opposed to a sharp corner one.

In short: Screen is nothing short of AMAZING and good. It may not be as sharp as the 2K and 4K screen others have close up but, practically, it works more than good. In my opinion, being able to use a phone under the sun daily (for example walking from point to point) is more important than having a sharp screen that can mainly be discriminated at close range.


Design
The phone is nicely built with aluminum and corning glass and fingerprint button at the back – pretty much the standard for android phones these days. With the lock/power and volume control buttons at the right side, USB-C and music (3.5mm/speaker) at the bottom, sim/microSD slot at the left side, the design whilst basic, the design works. Besides, the phone exhibits a premium feel on both look and on touch with its good build, this phone could last.


In short: It does not have the glossy back nor fancy curved edges but it fits and feels just right in the hand. That said, exterior, it borrow quite a bit of elements from apple’s iPhone. Its sandblasted aluminum back, though while matte, too doesn’t attract much fingerprints, but is definitely nice and good to hold in the hands.

https://cldup.com/i_TzPwTr-**.jpg

 

[xtramadness]

Connectivity/ports/Audio
The P9 uses the new USB-C port. Whilst this is probably the next generation standard, most android users might need to take note that this is not using microUSB and you will need either and adapter or extra cables to work with the device. Whilst using USB-C, the Huawei P9, however, does not support Quick Charge (after all this is a Snapdragon thing) nor Fast Charge (Samsung) nor Super VOOC Flash Charge (Oppo). Confusingly, it comes with a highly capable battery/power management chipset - Texas Instruments BQ25892 - which actually allows handling of 5V/9V/12V and up to 5A on 5V, the set support is just limited to a charging of 5V/2A, so that is the maximum speed that we might be getting unfortunately. This, however, is what Huawei had called Rapid Charging, and you would get about 40% of battery in an hour of charging.
The P9’s SIM card tray doubles as the microSD card slot, which is useful for increasing the 32GB of internal storage. With 2 SIM slots, you have got to choose – 2 SIM cards or 1 SIM + 1 MicroSD. The second slot that is capable for microSD also only allows 2G connection only, which of course means it would be obsolete (useless) here in Singapore in 2017. The SIM card tray is also well built onto the phone, too, so it is a real smooth finish.
In addition, the Huawei P9 has a standard 3.5mm earphone out port. The Huawei P9 retains the same audio chipset as its former P8 - HiSilicon Hi6402. This again, is another in-house chipset which is capable of 24bit/192khz processing. Testing this paired with the given earpods and Sennheiser IE80, the P9 tended to be on a warmer side of audio compared to my BlackBerry Priv, Note 5 and G4. (Test tracks includes: Tiesto Red Lights, Taylor Swift Shake it Off (Flac - 44.1kHz/24bit)). Whilst it is not the best or meant to replace a dedicated audio player such as the AK-JR, the output for the Huawei P9 is still relatively okay, so for most users this would not be much of an issue.
One thing though - The Huawei P9 comes with the NFC chipset in the motherboard - BUT it does not support NFC for the 2 models sold here in Singapore, without the NFC antenna on the phone. Whilst this may put some off since you can’t use android pay or the Ez-Link feature, this is not a major factor for the rest of us.

In Short: The Huawei P9 packs in some new technologies but taking a step back for some as well. It comes with the new, latest, USB-C port for data syncing and charging, but obscuring (blocking) its full potential without allowing it to actually use fast/rapid/quick charging. Whilst it may be attributed to the chipset (non-snapdragon/exynos), the other hardware’s shows it could actually support it. Having dual-sim is useful for many users, especially those using 2 phones or travel often, but again, following market trend, Huawei opted to mix the second slot as a microSD slot (rather than giving it a dedicated slot) and attribute the second to 2G only, makes it useless for use here in Singapore in less than a year’s time. The audio chipset, whilst untouched from the P8, is still a capable one, and with music being really subjective, this should not be an issue for most of us. Last but not least, the models sold here in Singapore also excludes NFC support - used for Android beam (file transfer), tap pairing (NFC supported accessories), Android Pay. Again, not an issue for most of us, but with android pay gaining traction recently, it would have been nice to have it.

Camera Summary
Now, onto the most interesting part of the phone - Camera. As you all might have known Huawei has paired up with Leica to bring to us the new DUAL-CAMERA arrangement, with Leica certifying and providing inputs into the software. Leica has a very stringent requirement for their camera line up (1 in 10 lens rejected by Leica), so this is an interesting pair up to see. With two 12-megapixel camera that is equipped with 27mm equivalent f/2.2 lens (Sony IMX 286), we have one full-colour sensor and one monochrome sensor (The monochrome sensor purportedly takes in 300x more light). This, is unlike G5’s implementation of the dual camera where it was used to solely make wide angles (different focal lengths), but this time, it was to rather increase the quality of the photos.

In addition, Huawei has also included Laser focusing to help with darker/close range focusing and a dedicated Image Signal Processor (ISP) to process the data and help perform the depth of field calculations with, according to Huawei, is 200% faster than relying on software.

Camera Technicalities
Some of us who shoot photos would just put a filter, and sometimes a mono photo filter over the filter, so why not just do so? The reason is simple as with a (extra/additional) dedicated monochrome sensor there's going to be more potential for images to have better quality as image noise is reduced since the colour filter array fighting over a pixel is no longer present.

Hence, it is not just about B&W VS colour photos since both lens and sensors can are used together. Whilst the focal length of the lens can’t be changed at this level of compact camera (lens) technology just yet, depth data can be derived/calculated and used for isolating areas and create simulated wide/small apertures for enhanced depth-of-field control. Hence, to increase the potential of the camera hardware, Huawei has worked hard behind the scenes (with Leica) to produce the amazing software to give you amazing control over your images to form the maximum "f/0.95"/minimum “f/16” aperture option’s botches lines, bokeh and sharp/soft patches in our images.

Camera Software
For a software that is built to do so much, the built-in camera app is relatively easy and surprisingly straightforward to use. To access the advanced camera controls or “PRO mode” it is just a simple swiping up from the edge of the viewfinder preview screen. This “PRO mode” panel allows you to control the metering mode, ISO, shutter speed, exposure, white balance, as well as the ability to switch between autofocus and manual focus. To access the different modes and even advanced filters, a simple swipe from the left to right from the edge of the viewfinder preview screen brings up this panel. In this panel, we find the modes/filters such as normal photo, monochrome, beauty, video, HDR, beauty video, panorama, night shot, light painting, time lapse, slow-mo and watermark. To access the settings such as resolution, GPS tagging etc, it would be to swipe to opposite way which is left to right.

On the top left corner, there is an aperture shaped-icon (available only in normal mode) to activate the aperture which essentially is the depth of field program and you can change the f-stop manually from F 0.95 to F16 right here. Interestingly, you can also change the amount of blur after taking the photo by clicking the lens icon and adjusting the slider. In most instance, the software already uses both the camera’s input to create that picture-perfect depth-of-field filled effect already.

 

[xtramadness]

In the Light Painting mode, Huawei offers four additional sub-modes - tail light trails, light graffiti, silky water, star track. In this mode, the Huawei P9 will first take a picture with the proper exposure settings and then it will capture the light trails of either cars, stars, water or other moving objects. Once that is done, the effects (such as light trails etc) will be automatically added to your picture. This actually works pretty well and produces pretty nice results with a caveat - you must keep the camera perfectly still while shooting - or it will be ruined.

After taking the photo, Huawei also included a photo editor which you can do light and exposure adjustments (so you can bring out the shadows or the highlights), filters and beauty enhancements. You can also adjust levels and add individual watermarks for time, location, weather, food and mood.

Despite all of its pros in the photos, can the camera live up in the video segment? Well, the P9 can only take and record up to 1080P 60fps (that is Full HD, fps means frames per second) whereas pretty much everyone else is able to record 4K already. The 1080p@60fps videos come out with a bit-rate of 34Mbps while the 30fps ones are exactly half that. In either case, audio is recorded in stereo at 192kbps. Also worth noting is that whilst the stock android photos app can edit the video, Huawei has not provided any extra video editing app for video editing.

In addition, in slow motion mode, you do get 720p at 120fps.
In the video side of the camera, there is really nothing much to rave about however, unlike the photos and I do wish Huawei had put a little more effort into this segment.


Front Camera
The Huawei P9 comes with a 8 MP, f/2.4 aperture camera, with no OIS or focus. Shots are decent - though not the best available for smartphones.

Battery Life
The Huawei P9 comes with a (typical) 3,000 mAh (11.46Wh) battery (rated minimum is 2,900mAh, 11.08Wh) Li-ion Polymer battery. Based on an identical set of apps and daily (gaming) usage pattern, the P9 is down to critical of 7% by 7.30pm (unplugged at 7.30am) whereas my BlackBerry Priv would only run to that level at about 8.40pm on an identical usage. That said, on a normal usage, however, the P9 should be able to last through the day with ease.

 

[xtramadness]

Color Splash effects
Original

After

Front Camera (mid lightning - indoor)

Rear Camera (mid lightning - indoor)

Automode

Silky Water Mode

Monochrome

Tail Lights Mode

 

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In Pure Darkness

Monochrome

In Very Low light (Hood Bar)

Photo of food in a restaurant with dark lightning (Truffle Pizza)

Full Zoom in (In camera App)

Zoomed out view

 

[xtramadness]

Direct at the Sun during Sunset

Selective painting mode

Night event (ISO 640) - Selective Aperture

In the cinema before trailers or Movie begins
Color

Monochrome

Automode at night of LED performer

With Light painting

 

[xtramadness]

Conclusion

All in all, the P9 isn’t an all-rounder, but for the key features Huawei have picked, they sure did a pretty good job. Focusing so much on the camera is a pretty risky and bold move considering that LG, Samsung, HTC10 is taking aim at this field after Lumia first opened the doors to this. Together with Leica, the addition of a monochrome sensor, will delight fans of monochrome photos and the low-lighting performance is pretty decent. The additional effects provided by Huawei for the camera, works pretty well too, and with that, your photos are bound to impress.

The EMUI is pretty decent which is easy to use and not too messy and with the available tweaks and customization available, most of us would be pleased.

Furthermore, Huawei has made the full use of the available hardware such as that of the fingerprint scanner, allowing it to double up as a convenient gesture mechanism, is awesome. Despite the fact that I did not use the biometrics (fingerprint scanner for ‘security’), the demo and testing by the other users on-site showed that it was pretty accurate and efficient (fast) (vs others such as Note 5).

The only gripes one might have is that (if you have invested into audio gear) the audio quality is not bad, though not the best available. But if you have had invested as such, you would probably have a portable DAC to hook up with the P9, so not much of an issue anyway. But, videos wise, there’s really nothing much to talk about here, with average HD video quality and lack of 4K support.

However, that said, the 2.5D screen is amazingly nice, a good refresher from all that AMOLED we have been receiving from others these days. The phone hardly heats up too, if ever, and the matte back of the sandblasted aluminum is another highlight of the design that makes the phone that pretty.

This would have been a solid contender IF they worked a little more on the high-res audio, video for the phone, in addition to Cat9 support and having quick charging in the phone, since the battery is built in.

 

[charmainelove]

Introduction

Huawei’s P series entrant into the premium segment began back in those days where there were only a few beautifully engineered phones around. The P6 debut gave the market a phone that is sleek, uses metal frame and beautiful panels. Later, the P7 came to push the envelope in product design and hardware capabilities further. Then, the P8 was developed as the company wants to take a serious note in mobile photography. Now the P9 came to take the company’s photography effort even further, in a bolder and ambitious way. It team-ups with Leica, throws in the company’s latest flagship processor and sells the product with a 2 year warranty coverage to provide for the serious crowd, offering a new mobile photography experience, faster hardware and even more premium design.

Design
While the P in its name stands for Photography, it also signifies Premium. The P9 uses both 2.5D glass and sandblasted aluminum in a clever way to exude the premium feel of a true flagship. The cold aluminum back of the P9 made me felt like I was holding onto the iphone but definitely sleeker and way lighter than that. In fact when I used the 144g P9 to watch a 50minutes clip on youtube, my hands no longer ache as oppose to using the iphone. Weight matters here, especially for movie and drama fans that enjoy using mobile devices to watch their shows while commuting.

While it houses a dual camera setup, it is an engineering feat when the back of the P9 is cleanly flushed, without any extra protrusion.

 

[charmainelove]

Packaging
The P9 packaging fashion reminds me of the Sony Xperia Z(s). Here you will find multiple small boxes packed neatly inside the single main box. Huawei supply every P9 with the USB Type-C charging cable, the 2A charging adaptor , eject pin, earphones with remote and manuals. I appreciate the nice packaging – it felt truly flagship worthy.

Display
The P9 utilizes IPS-NEO LCD from JDI which delivers deep black. While images look crisp and screen color rendition is an improvement over regular IPS screen, it could have been made even better if it was given the Super Amoled treatment instead.

Sunlight legibility is great for the P9. I have zero problems reading text and browsing e-books clearly under the sun, without the need to toggle screen adjustment.

 

[charmainelove]

Connectivity
On top of the usual wifi opton, there is Wifi+ in the network setting which helps to ensure you are always connected to the strongest connection as the network manager onboard the phone ranks the signal strength.

The P9 has a hybrid secondary Nano SIM / microSD slot which provides flexibility for you. For frequent travellers, the secondary sim card slot would be useful for your overseas networking needs. For others, it comes as a blessing for memory expansion.

The P9 comes with satellite GPS, Beidou and GLONASS, so you should not worry too much about the device being unable to detect your location.

Power
The P9 is power-driven by Huawei’s home-brew Kirin 955 octa-core chipset, with four cores clocked at 2.5Ghz and the other four at 1.8Ghz, coupled with 3GB of RAM. GPU employ here is a quad core Mali –T880 MP4. Despite not breathing a snapdragon as most android phones would be, the octa-cores processor in the 955 is very capable in keeping things running. It never lags, and multi-tasking is a breeze. I was running 8 apps at a time and the phone handles it, in a silky smooth fashion. CPU is top-notch, and GPU is reasonably strong running 1080p display without any issues. There is also a ROG power-saving mode that lowers screen resolution to 720p, in order to provide for higher frame rates, when needed.

While the energy durability of the P9 was not comparable to Huawei’s very own Mate 8, I never had to rush for a charging outlet like I used to be when using the iphone 6. Having a slimmer profile than the Mate 8, and efficient processing speed like the iphone, the P9 balance of size and power is perfect. For the record, the P9 utilizes a beefy 3,000 mah battery, which could last me for more than a day without worrying about running flat.

 

[charmainelove]

Photography
Like myself, when it comes to mobile photography, I am sure your first instinct tells you that you would not go wrong with the iphone 6s plus camera, or the fast lens equipped Samsung S7 edge. What about for those of you who have been following Huawei’s P series and were onboard with the P8? Is the P9 really an improvement? Now, give yourself iphone a rest and start immersing the way the P9 is.

Well the answer is certainly Yes that the P9 is no doubt a true contender in the competitive mobile photography arena. The P9 has vastly improved in its imaging department through the use of a clever dual-camera setup. Not only does this shows the company’s interest in future mobile photography (dual-camera is the upcoming trend), it also employs the best. In this case, we are talking about Leica. Both companies came together to put up a high-performing mobile camera that really keeps the town talking. The dual-lens system on the P9 works in tandem, firing at the same time whenever you take a picture. One snaps the usual colour image and the other snaps in black-and-white shot. The black-and-white sensor aka monochrome sensor lacks colour filter, therefore it captures thrice the amount of light with useful information that is later integrated into a composite 12 megapixel image. This results in a noise-free and crisp picture. The P9 uses laser-focus, which by far works better than my other phones which uses Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) under low-light settings. Photos tend to look sharp and clear with the P9.

The P9 camera is friendly to use as it has many modes for you to choose from. Simply pick the settings accordingly, and let the camera do the work for you. For those who appreciates manual control, simply just swipe up and you will have a DSLR-like manual controls for you to fiddle with. Here, I control the shutter speed of the camera to get the water-droplets effect under this waterfall-curtain.

I am sure most of you often heard the term “Bokeh” effect. This means focusing an object that you want to present and blurring the surroundings to make it stand out. In the past, only cameras with aperture control are able to achieve this. Now, the P9 brings the effect to you at the convenience of a single touch of a button. Here you can see how I “Bokeh” my pair of worn Nike Air Max. Great details under the sole, where you can still clearly see some stones stuck on it. The AIR wordings on the outsole are also clearly visible. Same goes for the pasta. The fun does not end just yet. If you are unhappy with your “Bokeh” photo, you can edit to refocus or blur by sliding a slider under the gallery.

 

[charmainelove]

The P9 does not have the Optical Image stabilizer as it traded off for its slim profile. Despite that, images often remained clear and crisp. P9’s post-processing might be a tad strong for some of you; for instance, strawberries appears redder, Sky appears more blue than it is. While the saturation causes images to deviates from a faithful reproduction of reality, I actually prefer my pictures colors to be rich in this way.

Finally, as the night gets darker. I manage to whip out the P9 for scenery shot before rushing off for a friend’s party. Here, this shot was taken without a tripod.

 

[charmainelove]

Here is a picture for your eyes only. A regular color and a monochrome shot that showcase the power of the dual camera setup.

The gallery app provided by Huawei is able to give you the Timeline view, which sorts images according to the date you took them. Then there is the classic old Album view, which sorts images into different albums. Each time you open to view an image; you are given plenty of options; from editing to sharing.

The editing tool here is sophisticated. You get to adjust exposure, add filters and beauty enhancements. Not just that. You may also add watermark, location, weather and more.

Slots
While many manufacturers like Apple and Samsung have move towards a permanent fixed onboard storage solution, Huawei maintains the good old classic way of flexibility. It spots microSD card slot sitting on top of the nano-sim tray. This allows user to expand memory space anyway they like (up to 256 GB), in a wallet-friendly style.

EMUI
EMUI is Huawei’s interpretation of android. While many makers have tried their hands on customizing andriod, Huawei did it in a very clean and efficient way. There are lots of customization and tweaks available onboard and the way the software is implemented, it felt very much like iOS You get plenty of shortcuts when you swipe up from the bottom of screen. While it felt different without an app drawer, there are 18 panes (more than enough) to house your apps. The task switchers also efficiently help you kill apps by a swipe on the screen. The P9 also comes with a cleanup utility that alerts me on the app that is draining my battery. Pretty nifty for usage information and saving juices. Under Wifi+ option, the phone manager cleverly switches between Wifi to mobile data when I leave my apartment, and reconnects back when I am home. It ranks wifi signal strength accordingly, and switches between them seamlessly. In fact one of the fastest phone I ever used that could do it so quickly.

There are also power-saving management options onboard which can help you to save battery. The P9 recognizes knuckle interaction. I was able to fire up the camera by drawing a C and weather app by drawing a W using my knuckle. This surely could be a fun experience for the kids. You can set the phone’s behavior through flip gestures, tilting and picking up motion controls.

The P9 has one of the best fingerprint implementation I have ever seen. It is lightning quick and accurate. It unlocks the phone the moment I place my finger, launching straight to home page. Coming from the iphone, this is definitely a game-changer. I often had to place my finger multiple times on the ibutton before it recognizes my prints. With the P9, it takes just one shot. The P9 utilizes Class-4 3D fingerprint technology which reads the thickness of your finger on top of mere fingerprint patterns.

Aftersales

The Huawei P9 comes with 2-year warranty coverage from the day you purchase. Within this period, if you happen to break your screen for the first time, Huawei will replace it free-of-charge for you. You will also get a one to one replacement should you encounter a repeated problem for the third time.

Key Findings

• Design is worthy of a Premium flagship
• Performance is of high caliber. Snappy experience
• Leica Dual-Camera image quality is not just a hype but a true performer
• Great flexibility with Dual Sim / microSD hybrid card slot
• Good endurance on battery life
• GPU performance could be improved
• IPS-Neo instead of Super Amoled display

Conclusion

The Huawei P9 is an accomplish premium flagship with stunning camera setup and capable chipset that runs the device buttery smooth. Instead of becoming another device on the bandwagon chase, the P9 is focus-specific on its own to excel in a few key areas.

First - the material design of this product. With the aerospace-class aluminum as chassis and its sleek profile, the phone felt like a jewel on the hand.

Second – the Leica twin-camera setup. The AF is fast, dynamic range is high, images captured are of high quality, extremely sharp and detailed. It is definitely a win under low-light photography, and the extra features such as convenient “Bokeh” and Light-paintings modes can easily upset its competitions.

Third – powerful processors and user experience. Kirin 955 offers high CPU performance speed as observed in playing class-leading games without heating up and lagging. Best in class fingerprint sensor that is the fastest and most accurate in the market.

Finally – very good battery life. The beefy 3000mah has great endurance that keeps the powerhouse running without having to charge within a day.
While we are sure that there are other offerings from other makers, the P9 would definitely appeal to Photographers to Professionals and to stylists. While it may not have the most powerful chipset or graphics power, it is certainly a beauty to look at. The expansion storage capability would also give the P9 an edge over the others.

I am pleased with the ample battery life that keeps my social media feeds, heavy camera usage and texting activities ongoing till the end of the day, without breaking a sweat.

 

[mlim011]

Overview
I have always been using iPhones because it looks good, easy to handle (I'm using a iPhone 6 because it is easy to carry and type), and I love the iOS system because of its icon based interface. The Huawei P9 is running on the Android system, but it takes some of the good points of the iOS system by integrating android customisable home screen with the icon based interface, which is good for iOS users like me who are thinking of migrating to an Android-based phone

The Huawei P9 is one of the sleekest and beautiful phones I have used. I have always avoided using large screen phones because the main priority for me in a phone is that I can hold it in one hand easily. However, even though the Huawei P9 has a large screen, it is easy to carry because it is thin (measuring just 6.95mm in thickness!) and the screen takes up a huge ratio of the phone body which is great because you get a large screen. In terms of ergonomics, the Huawei P9 is definitely scoring high. The sandblast gold finish with no buttons on the front also allows the phone to give off a stylish and modern feel.


The first thing I noticed about the Huawei P9 was: where is the home button? That was until I spotted this shaded square at the back of the phone which nicely fits your index finger when you hold the phone. This sensor square is actually where you could unlock your phone and you can actually customize other functions you want it to do, like taking photos. I always want to take selfies with others but I am afraid of shaky photos because I have to press my thumb on the home button awkwardly using my iPhone 6. However, for the Huawei P9 I can just simply place my index finger on the fingerprint sensor to take the photo, which makes photo taking a seamless process. My friends were all amazed at how effortless photo taking can be just by simply placing the fingerprint sensor smartly at the back of the phone.

Comments on Key Features

One of the most important feature of a Huawei Leica is the DSLR mode which is a really huge plus point for me, as one thing that really deters me from bringing my DSLR around is the weight and the bulkiness. Allowing me to change into Pro mode just with a swipe up in the camera app makes it easier to take higher-quality photos using a smartphone. It is easy to control ISO, shutter speed, white balance, although it may be slightly difficult at first to fiddle around on a small touch screen but it is still manageable. For an amateur photographer like me, it is definitely great to use because you can practise adjusting all these functions on the phone using your smartphone, instead of bringing out a bulky DSLR. And for those who are still considering to get a DSLR, you can get a feel on the different types of photos you can get from adjusting the different settings just by tapping on the desired property and swiping it. Or, if you are overwhelmed by all these settings, you could simply just use the auto mode and your photos instantly look more professional than the photos taken on normal mode.
Just like other phone cameras, there are many filters and photo modes to choose from which is impressive for a smartphone. Even without the filters, the Huawei P9 photos are very vibrant, and colours are very saturated. This can be good for photos with many colours in it as it accentuates each colour.

Here is one of the filter used on a photo. The original photo is on the bottom.

Nonetheless, that is not to say the DSLR mode on the Huawei P9 can replace your actual DSLR. For example, the Huawei P9's zoom function was not as powerful.

In this photo, when I tried to zoom in, the photo became blurry (I tried to zoom in the children playing soccer but was unable to), and the quality of photos is also inconsistent in different light environments.

 

[mlim011]

The Huawei P9 also has dual camera lens which helps to take better monochrome and colour photos because it has a dedicated sensor for monochrome photos. To put the phone to the test, I tried taking photos using the monochrome setting and also in the colour setting then editing it to the monochrome setting, but the photos taken in the monochrome setting was better in terms of contrast.

The below photos are taken using the monochrome setting and the colour setting for comparison.

Here is a comparison of a photo taken using the monochrome lens (top) vs a photo using the monochrome filter (bottom).

The photo taken using the monochrome lens on the left is clearer and sharper than the one on the right which is edited using the monochrome filter. The difference is stark and I am impressed on how much difference a dedicated sensor for monochrome photos can make.

 

[mlim011]

Beauty face selfie, I was thinking what's new. Isn't this function on every phone camera? That was until I found out that I am able to actually customise how the camera will edit my face every time in a selfie mode, which works even when taking pictures with friends or alone. A really cool feature, and you do not have to look like a bad friend when you just edit yourself in a group photo, because the camera actually does it for you already. All it takes for me was 3 simple steps, to take a selfie of myself looking straight, down and side profile. Afterwards, I can customise how I want myself to look like in photos. I can also use the beauty mode just like on other phones, if I want the quick way out. But the added choice to customise the amount of editing you want on your face is always great.

This photo is taken using the front camera which performs surprisingly well, and the ability to customise how much edit I want saves the trouble from opening another photo editing app. The problem with beauty mode is that sometimes it over edits, and thus this function of setting how much I want to edit my face each time is a great function.

The Huawei P9 also has the aperture mode which allows you to take photos with the bokeh effect. It is very easy to use, just simply tap on the object you wish to focus on and adjust the aperture which results in varying levels of “blurness” in the background. Here are some photos to show the effect of the varying depths of field it can achieve.

This remote control photo shows how clear the photos of the P9 can be and also the vibrancy of the different colours of the buttons, and also the subtle graduation from the subject into the background. It was so easy taking a bokeh effect on this P9.

I also tried taking photos in the normal mode, then editing it to make the surroundings blurry to compare the photos. From the photo below, you can see that using the aperture mode makes the bokeh effect more nature instead of having a “circle” of focus on the subject.

Improvement and enhancements

The battery life of the Huawei P9 is slightly better than an iPhone when on wifi, but when running on LTE, it tends to run out quite fast. Also, one gripe I have about it is that it tends to heat up after using it for an extended period of time. Although the P9 is sleek and I really love the whole angular design, but it does not really stand out from other brands of smartphones. It is a design that grows on me but it is not one that stands out from first glance. Also, I personally prefer a slightly smaller phone that will fit more snugly in my hands so that I will not have the constant worry about dropping the phone.

Summary of experience

The Huawei P9 is definitely a great phone for budding photography enthusiasts or even professional photographers who are looking for something easy to carry along when it is inconvenient to carry their DSLR. However, the inconsistency in quality of photos in low light situations, and the lack of zoom-in quality is something that one should take note. The dedicated sensor for monochrome photos definitely improves the quality of monochrome photos, as the contrast is sharper and looks more natural than one that is edited with a black and white filter. Overall, the Huawei P9 is still a worthwhile phone especially for people who are amateur photographers because it has a sleek exterior, takes great photos easily (auto on pro mode), and is easy to fiddle with its settings. But if you are looking for a phone that can take DSLR quality photos, then it is probably still far from it because after all, there are still limitations that a smartphone cannot overcome.