MWC 2017: Huawei P10, P10 Plus, Watch 2 hands-on

Huawei P10 hands-on

The design is always responsible for the first impression of any product and the iPhone vibe is strong with the Huawei P10. The phone comes with a refreshed shape, and while it's a departure from the P9 duo, it somehow has landed in a very familiar zone.

The P10's front is entirely covered by a fancy 2.5D shaped Corning Gorilla Glass 5 piece, and it's gorgeous. The white-painted glass is fine, but the black one is striking, and that's a big plus for the Graphite Black paintjob.

Huawei chose rounded shape for the P10's frame, but it also improved the antenna bands. Now the top strip runs above the Leica camera setup, while the bottom one is following the frame and thus isn't interfering with the seamless design. While these two improvements made the phone look premium and even more beautiful, it also made the P10 look like an iPhone rip-off.

On a positive note, Huawei chose to keep the P9's big camera plate, which emphasizes the premium setup, and that's what makes the P10 stand out of the iPhones, vivos, and whatnots. It also makes the P10 instantly recognizable.

So, the Huawei P10 exterior is both trending and amazing, even though it looks somewhat familiar. But its build quality and finish is equally excellent. The dazzling flavors (Blue and Gold) have this hyper-diamond cut finish on the back, which mimics the surface of a record. The finish is really awesome, and it's the only one not to attract fingerprints and smudges. You could fall in love with the pleasant feeling on touch, as we already did.

Huawei P10 in Dazzling Blue

The sandblasted options look somewhat cheaper-made than the dazzling (diamond-cut) ones and you can expect a fingerprint galore.

Greenery P10 • Greenery P10 • Greenery P10

Ceramic White P10 • Ceramic White P10 • Ceramic White P10

Finally, no matter which color option you opt for, all camera glasses are with glossy finish and you should be keeping an eye on it for smudges.

The camera glass

The Huawei P10 is powered by the company's Kirin 960 chipset with 4 gigabytes of RAM. It has an octa-core processor (4x A73 at 2.4GHz + 4x A53 at 1.8GHz) and Mali-G71MP8 GPU.

The top of P10 • the left side • the right side • the bottom

The P10 comes with the same Leica Dual Camera 2.0 setup we saw on the Mate 9. It has a 12MP RGB sensor on the back with OIS, and a 20MP monochrome sensor. Phase-detection and laser-assistance are available for autofocus, there is a dual-tone LED flash, and support for 4K video recording. The setup also supports hybrid 2x zoom.

Huawei P10 in Mystic Silver • Mystic Silver • Mystic Silver

The Leica camera brings all iconic modes including native monochrome, variable aperture, professional, and the Leica exclusive film filters. Now there is also a Portrait Mode, which combines the Variable Aperture with Beautification and should offer stunning Portrait shots with bokeh effects. There is no live preview of those for the main camera...

...but there is live preview for the same mode, which now makes it to the front selfie camera. It has been upgraded with Leica f/1.9 lens, and while there isn't a second sensor, Huawei has found a way to use Portrait mode with live previews anyway.

Huawei P10 in Graphite Black

Other notable features of the Huawei P10 are its stereo speakers, hybrid dual-SIM slot, and 3,200 mAh battery with support for the new Super Charge tech.

Huawei P10 next to an iPhone 7

Huawei P10 is a superb upgrade over the P9 and has everything to make you happy - beautiful design, innovative camera, fast performance, great connectivity, and up-to-date software package. We would have preferred a bit different shape, but maybe that's just us.