Huawei has come a long way in a seemingly short amount of time, a fact that was alluded to by CEO, Richard Yu at the launch of the all new P9 and P9 Plus in London.
Featuring dual rear-facing cameras and made in partnership with Leica, both the P9 and P9 Plus feature two rear facing cameras to create images of superior detail, depth and colour. “The RGB camera on the P9 specialises in capturing colour, while the monochrome camera is outstanding at acquiring picture detail” says Huawei.
“Huawei is excited to give P9 users the best smartphone photography experience by leveraging the unrivalled capabilities of Leica, the leader in the world of imaging for more than 100 years,” said Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group. “Consumers around the world use their smartphones to take billions of pictures each year, making photography critical to user experience. P9 users can now capture images with unmatched clarity, richness and authenticity, with a delightfully-designed and powerful smartphone that looks and feels incredible.”
Bold words from Huawei, and ones that we hoped they would be able to back up.
We took our P9 to the streets of London to find out just how good the dual cameras are.
The dual rear-facing camera set up on the P9 is one of the best we’ve ever seen on a smartphone and is the most outstanding smartphone camera in lowlight conditions that we’ve ever seen.
The design of the phone is slim, lightweight and has a definite premium feel thanks to the 2.5D glass display and the metal unibody design.
Huawei has also opted to include a USB-C port on the P9, one of the few handsets released this year to include the new standard. This also helps with improving charging time. According to Huawei, 10 minutes charging allows up to 5 hours talk time.
Overall, this is the best smartphone that Huawei has ever made, the only letdown is their EMUI (Emotion UI).
Despite being the newest iteration of their UI, it still feels somewhat childish and unfinished, especially when compared to the beautiful design of the hardware.
The P9 is aimed at the stylish, creative user looking to capture beautiful images no matter the conditions on a phone that will last them the entire day, if that is you, then the P9 is definitely a phone you should consider.
Expected to launch in South Africa in June 2016, Huawei has stated a tentative price of R11 999 for the P9.