Huawei P8 review: Light in motion

Light in motion

GSMArena team, 12 June 2015.

Benchmarks

The Huawei P8 is powered by a home-brewed HiSilicon Kirin 930 chipset. It is equipped with a total of eight Coretex-A53 processors, four clocked at 2.0 GHz and another four at 1.5 GHz. On paper, this looks like quite an adequate setup by current standards and we can only expect the chip to perform up to par with current high-end offers by the likes of Mediatek and Qualcomm.

But, the real problem with the custom Kirin 930 is that it features a far-less powerful GPU than those by the competitors. The Mali-T628 MP4 is hardly a powerhouse and can potentially hurt the graphics performance of the phone significantly.

It is also interesting to note that there is a version of the phone with a Kirin 935 SoC. The difference between the two, however, seems to be limited to a higher maximum clock for four of the cores - 2.2 GHz. The Mali-T628 MP4 is still on board.

Huawei P8

We've had at least a few Huawei devices come through the office and yet, there are no other entries in our database for either the Kirin 930 or the Kirin 935. The closest we have managed to come is the Huawei Ascend Mate 7, with a Kirin 925, the Huawei Honor 6, with a Kirin 920 and the P8's predecessor - the Ascend P7, which runs on a Kirin 910T. We have included them in our comparison as reference points for how the P8 compares to the rest of Huawei's lineup.

As far as the other chosen competitors, the Huawei P8 happens to sit in a pretty premium cost range. With an asking price of €450-€550, the phone is not quite up to par with the current generation of flagship devices, but definitely brusher elbows with last year's top-of-the-line offers. And don't get us wrong. We can definitely justify the price, as the Huawei P8 is a textbook example of a premium device through and through. Still, performance-wise, the P8 enters into a tough crowd, but, we'll let the benchmarks do the talking.

Just a small note, the new EMUI 3.1 is based on Android 5.0, so, we would expect that the P8 has all the benefits that the new code brings about at its disposal. So, to be fair, we have included, where possible, Lollipop benchmark scores for any other device on the list that has already received an update.

First up, we have the raw CPU performance test with GeekBench 3, which should be straight-forward enough. The eight-core Cortex-A53 setup of the P8 really does leave its competitors in the dust. Bear in mind, that most other models on the list are now close to a year old and while still quite capable, they don't have the benefit of recent ARM advancements and technologies.

Naturally, the LG G Flex 2 outshines the competition with its beastly Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810, but not by a whole lot. The Meizu MX4 Pro does also show admirable scores in this department, thanks to its Exynos 5 Octa 5430 SoC, despite being based on older Cortex-A15 and A7 chips. Going down the list below the P8, we see that most scores are not that far apart. There is, however, a quite observable line of improvement in the Kirin SoC generations. The Ascend P7 with its Kirin 910T is at the very bottom with almost half the score of the P8. It is followed by the Honor 6 and then the Ascend Mate 7, in the expected order. The difference between the scores of the latter is not as significant, but, it proves, without a doubt that Huawei has done a nice job designing its own chipset.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

  • LG G Flex2
    3604
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    3386
  • Huawei P8
    3380
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    3285
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    3214
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    3165
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    3120
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    3094
  • Huawei Honor 6
    3081
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    2970
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    2937
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    2923
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    2880
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    2860
  • Apple iPhone 5s
    2561
  • LG G3
    2370
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    1895

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which also takes into account RAM and GPU performance. Here we see pretty much the same arrangement. Here, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha takes the cake.

Like the Meizu MX4 Pro it uses an Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset and just like the P8, it has a slightly underwhelming Mali-T628 MP6, albeit slight better. But GPU doesn't really seem to be the defining factor in the race, seeing how the Ascend Mate 7 uses the exact same Mali-T628 MP6 model and is almost at the bottom of the chart. Optimization seems to be key and the Galaxy Alpha has proved a prime example of software done right in quite a few of our tests.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    51905
  • Huawei P8
    50876
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    49803
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    48489
  • LG G Flex2
    47680
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    45660
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    45632
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    45530
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    45348
  • Huawei Honor 6
    42688
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    42211
  • LG G3
    42038
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    41510
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    40393
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    31436
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    28758

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • LG G Flex2
    49
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    38.9
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    31.3
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    28
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    28
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    27.7
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    27
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    27
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    26.3
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    26
  • LG G3
    26
  • Apple iPhone 5s
    23
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    16.4
  • Huawei Honor 6
    16
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    15
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    12.3
  • Huawei P8
    10

Moving on to Basemark OS II, which is a truly all-round benchmark. Here, we get a first glimpse of the P8 falling short in overall scores. The result is most-likely due to the already mentioned poor GPU, which drags down the otherwise excellent number-crunching power of the eight core processor setup.

The P8 still surpasses its Huawei siblings, as well as the aforementioned Meizu and Galaxy Alpha, which is still an admirable achievement. This observation is further backed up by looking at the single and multi-core performance breakdowns. Little complaints can be made about CPU performance.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

  • LG G Flex2
    1601
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    1509
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    1370
  • LG G3
    1327
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    1202
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    1173
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    1147
  • Nokia Lumia 1520
    1116
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    1109
  • Apple iPhone 5s
    1089
  • Nokia Lumia 930
    1067
  • Huawei P8
    1056
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    1003
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    922
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    915
  • Huawei Honor 6
    863
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    830
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    786

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    2579
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    2559
  • LG G Flex2
    2528
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    2510
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    2499
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    2426
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    2334
  • Huawei Honor 6
    2279
  • LG G3
    2267
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    2236
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    2114
  • Huawei P8
    2111
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    1967
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    1891
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    1572

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    15096
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    15012
  • Huawei P8
    14046
  • Huawei Honor 6
    13916
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    10320
  • LG G3
    9975
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    9915
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    9827
  • LG G Flex2
    9758
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    9646
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    9590
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    9364
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    9284
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    8792
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    7399

The same, however, definitely can't be said about graphics performance. Things really look bad in this department, almost catastrophic. The P8 barely churns out enough frames to be on the chart. Frankly, we expected poor GPU performance, but, there seems to be something more going on here, besides the underwhelming GPU itself. Even the Ascend P7 (1080p screen) with its Mali-450 MP4 does better than the P8 and so does the Honor 6 (1080p screen) with a Mali-T624 MP4.

But perhaps, most surprising of all is that the Ascend Mate 7 (1080p screen), which uses the very same Mali-T628 MP4 still manages to outperform the P8 in terms of graphics. This leads us to believe that there might be some severe optimization issues, most-probably related to the new EMUI 3.1 and the adoption of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Hopefully, these issues will be ironed out in the future, as the poor performance is really unexpected, even for the Mali in question.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • LG G Flex2
    49
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    38.9
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    31.3
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    28
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    28
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    27.7
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    27
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    27
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    26.3
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    26
  • LG G3
    26
  • Apple iPhone 5s
    23
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    16.4
  • Huawei Honor 6
    16
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    15
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    12.3
  • Huawei P8
    10

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    48.4
  • LG G Flex2
    48
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    30
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    29.3
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    29
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    28
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    28
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    27.4
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    26.7
  • LG G3
    20
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    17.4
  • Huawei Honor 6
    17
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    17
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    15
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    12.4
  • Huawei P8
    10.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • LG G Flex2
    22
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    18.6
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    13.4
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    13
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    12
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    12
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    12
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    12
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    11
  • LG G3
    11
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    9.9
  • Huawei Honor 6
    8.1
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    8
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    5.8
  • Huawei P8
    5.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    25.3
  • LG G Flex2
    22
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    13
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    13
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    12.7
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    12
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    11.9
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    11
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    10
  • Huawei Honor 6
    8.7
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    8.5
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    7.8
  • LG G3
    7.7
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    5.8
  • Huawei P8
    5.7

Speaking of poor OS optimization, there seems to be a lot more of it in terms of browser performance. Bear in mind, however, that the below scores are from the bundled default browser. Chrome, which is also included out-of-the-box does a significantly better job.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

  • LG G Flex2
    4621
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    4911
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    5567
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    5968
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    6088
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    6260
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    6355
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    6382
  • Huawei Honor 6
    6937
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    7023
  • LG G3
    7632
  • Meizu MX4 Pro
    10193
  • Huawei P8
    11867
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    12266

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

  • LG G Flex2
    2086
  • Samsung Galaxy S5
    2066
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
    1655
  • Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
    1562
  • Sony Xperia Z3
    1533
  • HTC One (M8) Lollipop
    1460
  • LG G3
    1453
  • Motorola Nexus 6
    1447
  • Samsung Galaxy Alpha
    1364
  • Huawei Ascend Mate7
    795
  • Huawei P8
    764
  • Xiaomi Mi Note
    748
  • Huawei Honor 6
    745

The Huawei P8 benchmark performance is a mixed bag and not surprisingly, suffering from the choice of custom hardware. This, however, is only part of the story. Kirin chipsets have historically been bundled with rather meager GPU's and this one makes no exception.

CPU performance however is spectacular and everyday tasks are a breeze with no noticeable delay or stuttering in the UI. The 3GB of RAM without a doubt helps in this respect too.

Adapting EMUI for the Android Lollipop has taken its toll on GPU performance, which will hopefully be fixed come future updates. Still, if you are keen on doing a lot of graphics-intensive 3D gaming, the Huawei P8 shouldn't be your first choice. For most everything else, however, the device is fluid, responsive and a pleasure to use.

Reader comments

  • Popcorn
  • 29 Nov 2020
  • Nue

I'm also using the p8, having issues with the 4g network. The 4g is exclusively meant for China Telecom sim cards. Guess you'll have to unlock it to make use of the 4g feature. Great phone and excellent stuff BTW.

  • Khan
  • 15 Oct 2020
  • 35t

My phone is Huawei P8 (B140) (3GB & 16GB) but it doesn't support 4G while in the setting in this phone LTE option is present but its support and shows only 2G... So sir! Please help me out..

  • Anonimous
  • 23 May 2020
  • LxQ

open adjustments, add google account and search messenger at play store