Huawei P9: First impressions, benchmarking results and camera samples

After the launch of the Huawei P9 today, I came away with a review unit to put to the test. I’ll be doing exactly that in the coming days, but couldn’t really wait to get something up here for you to read.

The Kirin 955 powered smartphone sold in the UK on all networks (a first for Huawei) comes with 32GB of storage, 3GB of RAM, dual SIM, Cat 6 4G support, and dual-band Wi-Fi. It also supports fast charging, has a USB-C port, and 3,000mAh battery.

Huawei also has a 64GB version, with 4GB of RAM, although it’s not clear if this will be sold in the UK. And on top of that is the Huawei P9 Plus, with a 5.5-inch full HD display, stereo speakers, force/pressure touch and a bigger battery. Again, no word on whether this will come to the UK.

The 5.2-inch display has 1080×1920 pixels, and on the back is the unique (if you forget Huawei made the Honor 6 Plus with two cameras last year) dual Leica branded cameras, with image sensors made by Sony.

Check below for the benchmark video, and beyond that some photos I’ve taken so far. I’ll have more in the coming days.

Huawei P9 vs Huawei P8

AnTuTu Benchmark video

I couldn’t wait to get home, so did a benchmark test on the lap in my car. It’s a bit shaky, but hey, at least you get to see the score quicker – right?

Camera Samples

The camera on the Huawei P9 (and P9 Plus) is produced in conjunction with Leica, using two Sony IMX 286 sensors – one RGB and one black and white, enabling it to capture more light – and also produce true black and white images.

For normal photos, the camera will combine the data from each sensor to produce a photo that should have more detail, and also work considerably better in low light.

I couldn’t wait to take some photos on the journey home with the phone, and will post more photos later (including low-light ones when it gets dark). But I knew you wouldn’t want to wait.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, as well as asking any questions that I can either answer here or include in my review later.

Update 1: I just did a speed test and the antenna in the P9 must be pretty good, as I got almost twice the speed of another Cat 6 enabled phone (each on EE) indoors, where I usually get nearer 25Mbps. That’s going to be another thing that will be fun to test..

Edit 2: There’s an interesting feature in the power management settings menu, labelled ‘Enable ROG power saving’ and allowing you to scale down the screen resolution to just 720×1280 and save power. You can see the difference, but only just.

And to think many phones come with QHD displays today, and one even has a 4K display. Here’s a phone that lets you reduce the resolution!

Spot the difference

(It’s 1080×1920 left, 720×1280 right.. or is it?!)