Huawei P9 Plus review: Size up

Performance

The Huawei P9 Plus is powered by the latest in-house developed Kirin 955 chipset, the same one behind the Huawei P9.

The Kirin 955 employs an octa-core processor with four Cortex-A72 cores clocked at up to 2.5GHz and four A53 cores ticking at up to 1.8GHz. The GPU is again a quad-core Mali-T880 MP4.

The P9 Plus model comes with 4GB of RAM by default, unlike the Huawei P9 where you had to pay extra for more storage and RAM.

We already know what to expect from the Kirin 955, but we are always in for surprise, if they are good ones. So, shall we start?

We kick off our benchmark routine with the GeekBench CPU test. The performance of a single A72 core is rather uninspiring compared to the Snapdragon 820's Kryo within the OnePlus 3 and the LG G5, nor does it come close to the Apple's Twister CPU.

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  2527
• OnePlus 3
  2383
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  2322
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  2151
• Meizu Pro 6
  1905
• Huawei P9 Plus
  1892
• Huawei P9
  1819
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1466
• Huawei P9 Lite
  899
• Oppo F1 Plus
  857

But don't forget we have four of those A72 cores, and another quartet of lesser A53, but they are the ones to eventually make the difference. And they did - the Huawei P9 Plus outed the best score so far in the multi-core chart. The P9 Plus CPU is about as capable as the Galaxy S7 edge' Exynos.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei P9 Plus
  6660
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  6600
• Huawei P9
  6558
• Meizu Pro 6
  6427
• OnePlus 3
  5520
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  5437
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  4759
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  4413
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3799
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3242

The compound AnTuTu 6 test ended up with a rather mediocre score despite of the fat processor and 4 gigs of RAM. That's probably due to the lower-grade GPU, but we'll talk about that in a minute.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  141764
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  140871
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  137420
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  129229
• Meizu Pro 6
  99195
• Huawei P9
  98069
• Huawei P9 Plus
  97392
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  64591
• Huawei P9 Lite
  52768
• Oppo F1 Plus
  51299
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  50109

The BaseMark OS 2.0 test paints a slightly different picture, because in addition to CPU, GPU, RAM, and UX, it also gauges web and storage performance, plus overall OS behavior. Here the Huawei P9 Plus scored an excellent mark and is on par with the Galaxy S7 edge and very close to the iPhone 6s Plus.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  2365
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  2261
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  2175
• Huawei P9 Plus
  2099
• Huawei P9
  2068
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  2050
• Meizu Pro 6
  1919
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1529
• Huawei P9 Lite
  1242
• Oppo F1 Plus
  1092
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  987

It's the graphics department where Kirins are often not quite up to par, and seeing that nothing's changed over the Mate 8 and P9 in this respect, benchmark results are very much the same. While the Kirin 955, same as Helio X25 (Meizu Pro 6), uses Mali-T880 MP4 (4-core) graphics, the flagship Galaxy S7's Exynos utilizes Mali-T880 MP12 (12-core graphics), hence the big difference.

Qualcomm's Adreno 530 within the OnePlus 3 and Vivo Xplay5 Elite are the best, though.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  31
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  29
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  27.9
• Meizu Pro 6
  11
• Huawei P9 Plus
  10
• Huawei P9
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.3
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  4.7
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.6
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.3

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  18
• OnePlus 3
  18
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  15
• Huawei P9
  6.5
• Meizu Pro 6
  6.4
• Huawei P9 Plus
  6.2
• Huawei P9 Lite
  2.8
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  2.5

Huawei P9 Plus runs on 1080p resolution, which gives it an edge over the Quad HD Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, which cuts the gap short and makes more sense for Huawei not to opt for the best GPU on the market. The Adreno 530, Quad HD (Vivo) or not (OnePlus 3), is still on top.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  30
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  27.9
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  15
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  15
• Huawei P9
  11
• Huawei P9 Plus
  11
• Meizu Pro 6
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.1
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  5.1
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.9
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.3

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  9.8
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  7.8
• Huawei P9
  7.1
• Huawei P9 Plus
  6.8
• Meizu Pro 6
  6.4
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  2.7

BaseMark X GPU test clearly shows the superiority of Galaxy S7 edge and OnePlus 3.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  32715
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  32362
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  28480
• Huawei P9
  16942
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  15290
• Meizu Pro 6
  15209
• Huawei P9 Plus
  15058
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7681
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  6754
• Oppo F1 Plus
  6204

The newest Kirin SoC won't be catching up with Qualcomm and Samsung anytime soon, as this is not its purpose. Huawei has always pursued consistent performance over chart-topping benchmark results, and there is nothing bad with that.

But the facts can't be ignored - the Huawei P9 Plus, just like the P9, begins to experience tiny, but noticeable lag once you fill its homescreens with apps. App switching isn't smooth either, especially if you are swapping heavy apps. There are also some unexplained stutters which occur in both light and heavy-duty games. It might be the GPU, or may be poor handling of resources.

Anyway, as a flagship-priced smartphone the Huawei P9 Plus has to be judged as such. And its performance is not a flagship one. Yes, it's smooth most of the time and handles things properly, but some lag here and there, and mysterious stutter in apps, even though rare, will ruin the flagship feeling quite fast. The P9 Plus definitely deserved better.