Update: Huawei has confirmed the P10 will launch at Mobile World Congress 2017 on February 26.
Huawei is the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but you’d hardly know it in the west.
That could all be about to change though, as the company is slowly but surely stepping out of the shadow of its rivals with impressive phones like the Huawei P9 , which combined high-end specs with an innovative camera and a pleasantly low price.
This year the company will announce the Huawei P10 , and based on current rumors this could be a no-compromise handset with truly top-tier specs.
We’re collecting everything you need to know about the phone below, including the likely price and release date, to give you the clearest possible idea of what to expect from Huawei’s next flagship.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Huawei's upcoming flagship phone
- When is it out? Will be announced at MWC 2017, alongside Huawei Watch 2
- What will it cost? It's going to be expensive, but may undercut rivals
Huawei P10 release date
The Huawei P10 release date is earlier than we initially expected - it will be revealed at Huawei's MWC 2017 press conference on February 26 2017.
A teaser from the company confirmed Huawei would be announcing the phone in Barcelona, while CEO Richard Yu also confirmed the company will be launching theHuawei Watch 2 at the event too.
Although MWC is now confirmed, you may have to wait to buy the phone. The P9 was initially announced in April 2016, and the phone hit stores in mid-April. By that logic, we'd expect the Huawei P10 to be ready to buy in March 2017.
TechRadar's take: Mobile World Congress is nailed on, while we expect the phone to be out in shops by mid-March.
Huawei P10 price
Our best guess for the Huawei P10’s price is to look at the launch price of the P9, which started at $530/£449/AU$799 SIM-free. Not cheap then, but less than flagships from the likes of Samsung, HTC and Apple.
But if anything the P10 is likely to cost more than the P9, given the boost in specs and the unexpectedly high price of the Huawei Mate 9 .
The usually reliable Ricciolo also tweeted saying the price of the Huawei P10 would be particularly high. He said it would be "the most expensive P device ever" so we can expect those prices to rise above the Huawei P9 level.
GadgetDetected also found a screenshot of the prices for the Huawei P10 suggesting it would cost about $500 (£400, AU$650) for the cheapest version and $680 (£545, AU$885) for the most expensive storage size.
TechRadar’s take: The P10 will likely be pricier than the P9, but we’d be surprised if it topped $650/£550/AU$900 – a price which would likely put it in line with rivals.
Huawei P10 screen
Hottest leaks:
- A 5.5-inch screen
- A QHD resolution
- A curved screen
The screen is one of the few ways in which the Huawei P9 doesn’t quite feel like a flagship, as it has a 1080 x 1920 display, where many high-end phones now have QHD ones.
But it looks like the Huawei P10 could be falling in line with rivals, as a leaked benchmark points to a 1440 x 2560 screen. It could also be set to grow, from 5.2 inches on the P9 to 5.5 inches, if the benchmark is accurate.
One leaker also reckons the Huawei P10 will have a curved screen, much like theSamsung Galaxy S7 Edge , or the company's own Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design .
It's also possible that the Huawei P10 will launch in both flat and curved varieties, if the leaked image above, spotted on Weibo , is accurate. This shows the curved version, but a flat model was shared by the same source, suggesting we could see both.
TechRadar’s take: A jump to QHD would make sense to help the P10 stand out from its predecessors and stand up to rivals, while 5.5-inch displays have become the new normal, so a jump in size is also likely, and Huawei has already launched a curved phone, so there's every chance it will add curves to its flagship.
Huawei P10 design
Hottest leaks:
- An all metal body
- A fingerprint scanner on the front
- A redesigned antenna band
We can do more than talk about the Huawei P10’s design, we can even show you pictures, albeit leaked ones of an alleged prototype, which may or may not reflect the final design of the phone.
Still, assuming they are accurate the Huawei P10 is set to look a lot like the P9, with a slim metal shell, shown here in pink (or rose gold as it will probably be called).
But there are a couple of key differences, the biggest being the placement of the fingerprint scanner, which has moved from the back of the phone and now looks to be embedded below the screen.
There’s a fair chance that’s accurate, as front-facing scanners are more common than rear ones and arguably more convenient, since you can still use them when the phone is placed on a surface.
Huawei also put a fingerprint scanner on the front of the recent Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design. It’s also a rumor that first appeared back in June, as reported byMobilissimo , quoting a Weibo (a social networking site in China) tipster, and has been echoed again more recently.
On the other hand, a leaked render (shown above in the screen section), shows a home button on the front but a fingerprint scanner on the back, so don't count on the scanner moving - though having a home button and not building the scanner into it seems an odd choice, so we're more inclined to believe these leaked real world shots.
The other big change to the design shown in these images (also leaked on Weibo ) is the placement of the lower antenna band, which on the P9 runs straight along the back of the phone, but here curves along the bottom edge, making it slightly less visible and a lot more like the iPhone 7 .
Another source has also claimed the Huawei P10 colors will be quite bright compared to the Huawei P9. Weibo account @ichangezone has said the Huawei P10 will come in gold, pink, black, green and purple.
If true it will be interesting to see how well these bold color choices sell. A teaser from Huawei suggested the phone would also launch in blue, green and gold. Take a look at the tweet below.
TechRadar’s take: These leaked P10 images look believable – but as they’re seemingly prototypes they could be subject to change. Regardless, we’d expect a similar design to the P9, with just a few changes and refinements.
Huawei P10 camera and battery
Hottest leaks:
- A dual-lens snapper, upgrades to the front camera too
- 12MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing one
- Fast and wireless charging
The dual-camera was one of the Huawei P9’s standout features, so we’d expect a similar snapper to arrive on the P10 and rumors suggest that’s exactly what we’ll get.
First there’s a leaked benchmark , pointing to a 12MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing one – there’s no mention of dual-lenses, but those megapixel counts are the same as the P9.
Then, there’s the leaked shots, which you’ll see above in the design section, clearly showing a dual-lens camera on the back, with an altogether similar design to the P9, including what looks to be a dual-LED flash.
We’d be surprised if the camera doesn’t get an upgrade of some kind though, so despite what the benchmark says it’s possible that it will fall in line with the Huawei Mate 9, which has a 20MP and 12MP camera pair on the back.
A teaser for the Huawei P10 has also suggested the phone will have a focus on the selfie shooter. What the upgrade will be is currently unclear, but it may be a dual-lens sensor on the front too.
Whatever the megapixel count, it’s likely that the camera will work much the same here as on the Huawei P9, with one lens taking monochrome shots and the other used for RGB (color).
Most of the time you’ll be combining the two sensors, to capture more detail in images, but you can also choose to just use the monochrome sensor for black and white shots.
There’s no news on how big the battery will be, but the P9 has a 3000mAh one while the massive Mate 9 has a 4000mAh one, so perhaps Huawei will split the difference and give us a 3500mAh juice pack?
It’s likely to plug in via USB Type-C, given that the P9 does, and according to a Weibo source it will support fast charging, while another source claims the P10 will support wireless charging.
TechRadar’s take: We’d be very surprised if the Huawei P10 doesn’t have a dual-lens camera, but some improvements are likely, whether they take the form of more megapixels, optical image stabilization or something else entirely.
Huawei P10 OS and power
Hottest leaks:
- 6GB of RAM
- A powerful Kirin 960 chipset
- Up to 256GB of storage
According to both a leaked benchmark and a Weibo post , the Huawei P10 will have a Kirin 960 chipset. That’s an octa-core chip, and it has already been used in the Huawei Mate 9, a phone which we found to offer slick performance, but not quite match the Exynos-powered Samsung Galaxy S7 in benchmarks.
It looks like the Huawei P10 could come in two variants though, one with 6GB of RAM (highlighted by both current specs leaks) and one with 4GB of RAM (mentioned just by the Weibo post).
Where the two leaks don’t line up at all is in storage capacities though, with the benchmark suggesting a massive 256GB built in, while the Weibo leak points to either 64GB paired with 4GB of RAM or 128GB coupled with 6GB of RAM.
As for the OS, that’s likely to be Android Nougat , assuming the P10 gets an early 2017 launch, and indeed that’s what the benchmark lists. Of course, you’ll also get Huawei’s Emotion UI over the top.
TechRadar’s take: The Kirin 960 is likely and a jump to 6GB of RAM is believable, though Huawei’s flagships often don’t quite match rivals, so there may also be a 4GB version.
Huawei P10 other features
The main features of the Huawei P10 are likely to include a dual-lens camera and a fingerprint scanner. We wouldn't expect anything over the top, as the company is likely to try and keep costs down.
Huawei P10 Plus and Huawei P10 Lite
Much like Huawei did with the P9 Plus and P9 Lite, we expect the company to launch two other versions of the P10. When each will be announced is unclear, but the company may reveal them alongside the Huawei P10.
The Chinese regulatory authority TENAA has revealed a new Huawei phone under the codename WAS-AL00, which has a spec list similar to what we'd expect on the Huawei P10 Lite.
It packs a 2.1GHz Kirin system-on-a-chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a single 12MP sensor on the rear. There's also a Full HD 5.2-inch display and a 2,900mAh battery.
This may turn out to be a different Huawei device, but at the moment it looks like it could be the Huawei P10 Lite.
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