The Huawei P10 and Huawei P10 Plus are official. But were they worth the wait?
Huawei came out guns blazing at MWC 2017 with its brand new flagship, the Huawei P10.
We knew the handset would be impressive, Huawei’s last run of devices during the past couple of years have been great, but what the company came to the table with at MWC 2017 was even better than expected.
Let’s dig down into what makes the handset tick.
Huawei P10 Design
Huawei did a great job with the Huawei P9, the handset was premium, looked great and performed excellently. The company, wisely, hasn’t messed around too much with its winning formula for the Huawei P10.
Like its predecessor, the Huawei P10 is sleek, well styled and effortlessly premium. It has an air of iPhone about it, but Huawei has always borrowed style elements from the best in the business, so I don’t think anyone will mind too much.
Like the Huawei P9, the P10 is available in two sizes: 5.1in display for the P10 and 5.5in for the P10 Plus.
The handsets feature what Huawei calls a “sand-blasted” finish and both are available in the following colours: Dazzling Blue, Rose Gold, Prestige Gold, Ceramic White, Mystic Silver, Dazzling Gold and Graphite Black.
Huawei P10 Specs & Hardware
- 5.1-inch 1080p display (P10) 5.5-inch 2K display (P10 Plus)
- Kirin 960 CPU
- 20MP monochrome sensor + 12MP RGB sensor
- F/2.2 lens (P10) / F/1.8 (P10 Plus)
- 8MP front camera
- 3,200mAh battery (P10) / 3,750mAh (P10 Plus)
- EMUI 5.1
- 4GB RAM
Huawei P10 Software: Android Nougat Out The Box
The P10 handsets come with Google’s Android Nougat out the box, though the software has been skinned heavily with Huawei’s custom Android Skin.
For me, personally, this is the only downside to the handsets. I love the way Huawei phones look and I like that they’re packed with great specs for performance. But I cannot stand Huawei’s invasive software – it’s just too much.
Mercifully, you can switch it out for Google’s Pixel launcher which is available to download from the Play Store. But you’re still lumbered with all of Huawei’s bloatware and the only way to remove that is to root that handset.
Huawei P10 Camera
Like its predecessor, the Huawei P10 runs a dual-lens camera on the rear. It’s a a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor paired with a 12-megapixel RGB sensor and the handset benefits from a Leica Summarit F/2.2 lenses (in the P10) and a F1/.8 lenses in the P10 Plus.
How good is the camera aboard the Huawei P10? Well – I haven’t tested the handset yet myself, so I cannot say, unfortunately. But the good folks over at DxOMark have and they’re calling it one of the best smartphone cameras they have ever tested.
“With an overall DxOMark Mobile Score of 87,” said the report, “the Huawei P10 is up there as one of the best smartphones ever tested by DxOMark for photography enthusiasts. For stills, its Photo sub-score of 88 is excellent, thanks to generally good exposures in all conditions, including extreme low light, and good color rendering with accurate white balance. Detail and texture preservation is also very good, producing some of the sharpest results we’ve seen, and the P10’s autofocus is fast, accurate, and repeatable in both trigger and auto mode.”
Not too shabby. Props to Huawei for this one. I cannot wait to test this bad boy out properly!
Huawei has also heavily updated the camera app as well and claims what you’ll find inside the P10 is akin to a portable mobile photography studio. You also have an 8MP camera on the front for selfies and video calling.
I’m really looking forward to testing out this handset’s imaging capabilities. The only concern I have at the moment is the disparity between to the lens setups inside the two models. Finger’s crossed the difference won’t be too jarring.
Huawei P10 Initial Impressions?
Everything has been tweaked, upgraded and refined. I loved the Huawei P9, so I am very excited by the prospect of this handset. Huawei has updated the processor with its new Kirin 930 CPU and that promises to be very potent.
Imaging looks decent. Ditto overall hardware and spec allocation. Could this be a contender for Android phone of the year? Perhaps. But we’ll only know for sure once we’ve spent some quality time with the handset.
We'll update this article as soon as we know more about pricing and release dates – though the handset should be available in the coming weeks.
Huawei's 2016 flagships - the Huawei P9 series - were a seriously impressive bits of kit, offering up some high peformance Android goodness, a premium exterior, and one of the best dual-sensor cameras to date, courtesy of the firm's collaboration with Leica. Now Huawei has confirmed its plans for a successor series in 2017, of course dubbed the Huawei P10, the firm also said there will be a Huawei P10 Plus model.
The confirmation comes via comments which were made by Huawei chairman and CEO of the company's consumer division, Yu Chengdong. There are some translation issues with the quote, but it appears there may be both flat screen and curved display variants, this may imply the Plus model will have a curved display. Yu Chengdong confirmed that Huawei will launch these devices in March or April, but a precise date has not been given, nor has any indication of pricing.
Huawei's official MWC 2017 press conference - at which it is expected to launch the Huawei P10 series - will be taking place on Sunday 26 February, but ahead of the launch the handset's official press/product renders have leaked online showing exactly what we can expect. Leaked by none other than Evan Blass, aka @evleaks on Twitter, we can consider the images 100% legit considering the source, and they certainly look the real deal anyway.
Of course this is just the standard black version, from every angle on a rotation, however, @evleaks has previously shown details of various colour options, including green, blue, and gold.
A leak via a Dutch tech website reveals the different variants of Huawei P10 which will be available and how they will be priced. The details and prices are for the Chinese market and although this can give us some idea of what to expect internationally, bear in mind that not every variant may be available in every region. The Huawei P10 will come in three variants with either a version with 4GB of RAM and options for 32GB or 64GB of storage, or a version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage; prices are $508, $595, and $683 respectively. All these models will run on the Kirin 960 processor and feature a dual-sensor Leica camera.
The Huawei P10 Plus will be available either with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage at $726, or with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage at $828. At present we know the P10 Plus will have a bigger display and battery, but it's not confirmed if it will have a faster CPU.
A plethora of leaks has emerged to reveal many new details and features of the Huawei P10 range ahead of its launch. First up, a few key specs have been confirmed. The handset has shown up in a Geekbench benchmark with 4GB of RAM, which we know would be a version with either 32GB or 64GB of storage as per the above pricing leaks. The phone has also been spotted receiving its FCC certification as the VTR-L29, where it has support for 15 communications bands and confirmation of a 3,100mAh battery cell.
There are also multiple image leaks. A set of official product renders of the larger Huawei P10 Plus have hit the web via Chinese source MyDrivers, showing the design from a few different angles and giving us a view of the curved edge display.
Lastly, serial tipster Evan Blass, aka @evleaks, posted on Twitter showing the Huawei P10 in blue, green, and gold colour variants.
As of January 23, a set of renders of the P10 has leaked online, apparently showing some of its design and features. The images, which have a sort of official certification document mugshot look to them, show a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, curved display edges, and a duo of camera sensors on the rear. The right-hand model appears to be the larger Huawei P10 Plus with a dual-curved-edge display similar to Samsung's designs.
Another set of leaks has popped up from sources in China with yet another render of the Huawei P10 Plus. While the above earlier render only shows the front of the P10 model with a black finish, this latest image shows the same phone in a lighter metallic hue.
On the front panel, the lighter finish allows us to see an additional sensor which could be an iris scanner. Interestingly, as we also see the back panel this time, we can see that there is a fingerprint scanner on the back, meaning the front-mounted Home key may simply be a Home key and not a dual-purpose input with a scanner built-in. We can also see that on the laser autofocus sensor there is a ring-flash module.
The same source also leaked an image of the Huawei P10 (below) and detailed some specs.
It claims the regular Huawei P10 will carry a HiSilicon Kirin 960 while the Huawei P10 Plus will use a HiSilicon Kirin 965. The Plus model will be optionally 6GB or 8GB of RAM relating to either 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage respectively. Similarly, the regular Huawei P10 will have a 4GB or 6GB RAM option to go with 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. All models will pack Android Nougat with the EMUI on top and will allow microSD card memory expansion. The Huawei P10 is said to have a 3,100mAh battery and the Huawei P10 Plus a 3,650mAh cell. Allegedly they're getting prices revealed at MWC 2017 and the Huawei P10 starting tag will be $699.
Huawei may also have a P10 Lite model in the works; the handset was spotted by tech journo Roland Quandt in the Geekbench benchmarking database, listed as the Huawei WAS-LX1A sporting a Kirin 655 1.7GHz octa-core processor with 4GB RAM. It also carries Android Nougat. Quandt Tweeted about the listing speculating that it may be the Huawei P10 Lite; Huawei has released several "Lite" models of its major flagship brands in the last few years.
The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus will go head-to-head with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and LG’s G6, as well as new releases from Nokia and HTC. Big specs, impressive hardware and eye-catching design will be the order of the day, as Huawei attempts to close the gap on Samsung in 2017.
During the past two years, Huawei has made HUGE steps forwards in the US and UK. Its phones have consistently improved, adding in new, innovative specs and this, over time, has translated into increased sales and increased market share.
2017, indeed, could be the year Huawei becomes on of the most visible brands in the UK and US phone space, next to Samsung. The company has the resource, passion and drive to grow even more which is why it’s belief that it will one day become bigger than Samsung is something we should all start paying more attention to.
Other leaked specs for the phones include a HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor, 6GB RAM, 256GB storage and 5.5in QHD display panels.
0 comments:
Post a Comment