Huawei today launched the P9 and P9 Plus, two fourth-generation phones of the P series which has played a major part in turning the Chinese phone maker into one of the globe's largest in the last few years.
As far as features and specifications are concerned, the P9 and P9 Plus phones do not disappoint, bringing in competitive design and camera specs along with some advanced features which suggest that the P series is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Here are five reasons why Huawei P9 is a must-buy and how it'll help enhance your mobile computing experience in the future:
Cameras
Long before the P9 was launched, leaksters Evan Blass and OnLeaks had made it known to the world that the phone will feature a dual-camera setup on its rear, a fact that Huawei itself hinted on when it tagged the April 6 event with a quip that said "#OO Change The Way You See The World."
When P9 launched today, we found that not only did it feature two rear cameras, but also some of the best camera features in the world. As a first, Huawei partnered with German camera tech giant Leica to build the cameras from scratch, and boy did they succeed.
Each of the dual-cameras, namely the RGB and the monochrome ones, specialize in bright colour and black and white imaging respectively. When both cameras work together, the resulting images are a mixture of vivid colours and lovely shades, saving you the effort of searching for photo-editing apps to beautify your raw pictures.
When you start using the P9's cameras, you will get an option of choosing between Standard, Vivid Colors and Smooth Colors. You can also use the monochrome camera on a standalone basis if you love capturing certain landscapes in black and white. The camera focussing involves laser, depth calculation and contrast methods to bring out the best in every picture you click.
In LG's revolutionary V10, we saw how dual-cameras can work together to let you capture wide-angle images. However, Huawei hasn't stated if the P9 can capture wide-angled ones but does talk about a wide aperture and how it can be adjusted to create "bokeh and other depth-of-field effects, while keeping the main object in sharp focus."
World's first Virtual Triple Antenna setup
No matter how premium your phone is, you'll often encounter issues with mobile internet as your phone may not support 4G bands in certain regions, especially if you are a frequent traveller. With the P9 and P9 Plus, Huawei has solved this predicament once and for all.
The phones come with the world's first triple antenna setup, one at the top and two at the bottom, which can automatically switch based on available 4G bands to offer unrivalled connection quality.
Aside from the antennas, the phone's dual-SIM setup supports four 2G bands, nine 3G bands and eighteen 4G bands across 217 countries and 1334 carriers.
Design
Even though the silver variant of the P9 looks suspiciously similar to Google's Nexus 6P which was designed by Huawei itself, the phone doesn't disappoint in the least when it comes to design aesthetics and all-round protection at a time when smartphones are put through constant usage for months, if not years.
The P9's aluminium casing is the same which is used to manufacture aircrafts that tear through high velocity winds for years without suffering much damage. The casing, seamlessly blended with the 2.5D glass at the front, offers sufficient protection to the phone from abrupt falls and common wear and tear. However, we haven't been told yet on how P9 fares against water, dust and scratches.
Not only is the P9 strong, but sleek as well. Despite featuring two cameras at the back, the phone carries no camera bumps unlike the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s whose camera bumps measure 0.45mm and 0.6mm respectively. The phone is also slimmer than the two flagships with a width of just 6.95mm compared to 7.9mm and 7.1mm in Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s.
Battery life
Huawei P9 comes with a 3,000 mAh battery which works with a 16nm low power chip to offer a longer life cycle on a single charge compared to other phones.
In ideal conditions, the battery can support 12 hours of HD video viewing, 8 hours of 4G browsing, 20 hours of calling over 3G and an impressive 56 hours of continuous music playback.
Processor
Even though the Kirin 950 processor was launched recently with Huawei's Mate 8 phone, Huawei decided to use a more powerful processor, the 16nm Kirin 955, in the P9 and P9 Plus phones to deliver stronger performance while consuming lesser battery in the process.
According to GSM Arena, Kirin 955 is a modified version of the 950 and its "octa-core CPU is set at 2.5GHz for the quad-Cortex-A72 cluster and 1.8GHz for the quad-Cortex-A53." Simply put, the Kirin 950 processor, which is a big step up from the Kirin 935 in terms of speed and performance, brings in 100 per cent more CPU power, 125 per cent better GPU performance and 70 per cent greater power efficiency than its predecessor.
