Huawei P9 review: Ascension

15 April, 2016
Huawei pulled the wraps on its next flagship in London in early April. But do you know what's better than London? Shooting London with the Huawei P9. The city looks magical throughout the P9's Leica lens and the phone feel fabulous throughout your eyes. Yes, the Huawei P9 has a lot going on and all of it seems promising.

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  • D
  • AnonD-521771
  • IVB
  • 17 Apr 2016

AnonD-213493, 17 Apr 2016Lol huwaei please stick to the mid range and lower end prod... moreHuawei actually doesnt depend solely on China market,it has high market share in europe especially the big 5 . So you are wrong about them! And Huawei is capable to make high quality mobile phones like 6p, mate8 etc.

    • H
    • Hshhsj
    • Mfx
    • 17 Apr 2016

    For people who know the previous p series phones, the 3000mAh battery on P9 is big improvement and should be a mentioned as a pro point.

    Why p9 over s7 ? The elegant beauty of P9. While p9 plus has additionally force touch (only android with force touch ?) and stereo speakers over the S7 edge.

      • A
      • Abdulrazaq
      • PAm
      • 17 Apr 2016

      Can I use DualSim and SD Card at the same time..??? Plzzz any tell me

        • D
        • AnonD-396766
        • 6uD
        • 17 Apr 2016

        AnonD-488454, 17 Apr 2016Recent tests have shown the P9 to perform significantly bet... morethanks a million ... "real life performance (sustained overall performance)" this is exactly what i failed to say earlier in the "P9 benchmark blog Post" because of my still weak english language & you sir said it better.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • tSv
          • 17 Apr 2016

          AnonD-468210, 16 Apr 2016B&W camera shots are really very compelling Leica del... moreGPU is not for recording video. It's for displaying video.

            • D
            • AnonD-434597
            • tDD
            • 17 Apr 2016

            I love this phone. For me if i buy a phone, the first thing to consider is design, and then the camera.

            GsmA said its like a piece of jewelry. The camera is great and leica brand make it better. And i trust huawei quality. Its better than lg and sony.

            I rarely play simple light games. So, i dont need powerful SoC. But yes, with the high price why not expect all the bells and wisthles?

            So if i have to choose between P9 and Mi5. I'll go for mi5.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • uVB
              • 17 Apr 2016

              AnonD-213493, 17 Apr 2016Lol huwaei please stick to the mid range and lower end prod... moreAre you kidding, if said Huawei was behind a little bit of Apple and Samsung, I agreed.but Sony mobile biz is going to die, LG is already disappeared in the top selling list. You just could not face the reality

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                • AnonD-468210
                • U$0
                • 17 Apr 2016

                AnonD-100398, 17 Apr 2016It does not matter how hard you fanboys try to convience pe... moreHey kid read properly what I have written in my comment I have tried to be unbiased as possible

                I was wrong on the GPU core count and bashing all the time for weaker gpu
                But Huawei has a different philosophy
                They want to give user sustained performance instead of thermal throttling


                Be it a bit weaker in the GPU dept
                It can handle tasks for long way without even throttling

                Checks Anandtech, Tom's hardware for this reference
                And don't be stupid idiot just bashing looking at the numbers like I used too

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                  • AnonD-100398
                  • g33
                  • 17 Apr 2016

                  AnonD-468210, 17 Apr 2016Well said bro... I actually didn't knew much about this ... moreIt does not matter how hard you fanboys try to convience people here by making stories.check it out its not even close http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_p9-review-1428p5.php
                  Performance tests reveals that p9 is a slow smartphone & sud be considered as a midrange smartphone in terms of chipset

                    • D
                    • AnonD-213493
                    • 6Px
                    • 17 Apr 2016

                    Lol huwaei please stick to the mid range and lower end products.. You can never compete Apple, Sony, Samsung, Lg and not even your direct threat xiaomi new phone Mi5 in high end segments ..
                    Xiaomi mi5 is much better choice than this p9
                    And Relying only in China market for shares is not enough ;)

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                      • AnonD-468210
                      • HsJ
                      • 17 Apr 2016

                      AnonD-488454, 17 Apr 2016Recent tests have shown the P9 to perform significantly bet... moreWell said bro...
                      I actually didn't knew much about this
                      And did quite research for the same and its actually true

                      Kirin's philosophy is a good they went for lower gpu cores clocked at higher speeds than the usual one
                      This offer sustained performance over long time on T-Rex (a demanding benchmark). It offered 94% performance upto 30 minutes and dropped to mere 85% after that
                      That's near peak performance for long time
                      Great Huawei hats off


                      However there's a catch
                      Huawei's philosophy to keep sustained performance for long time gives it lower battery endurance on high performance gaming
                      Running GFxbench 3.0 lasted it about 3 hours 40 minutes

                      Many other phones are there which have edged Huawei in this aspect coz they tend to throttle and lower down performance over time offering better battery life

                      The lowered performance after some time on SD 820 and Exynos 8890 (37% and 25% respectively drop after some time) are similar to sustained performance of Kirin SoC


                      Huawei did hit ball out of the park this time.
                      So all in all different companies have different theories about their SoC and all meet up at the same spot

                        • D
                        • AnonD-507785
                        • nF{
                        • 17 Apr 2016

                        AnonD-488454, 17 Apr 2016Recent tests have shown the P9 to perform significantly bet... moreThere you go. Thank you for proving my point further. If only fanbois could keep their minds open. Ehhh...

                          Tell me the name of a single phone that is flawless? There are none. Each phone has a flaw of some or the other kind. Just deal with it.

                          In case of the P9 though, I won't call them flaws since they are by design and purely intentional.

                            AnonD-468210, 16 Apr 2016This sounds much like Apple way Don't settle for just good... moreYou should consider the Nexus 6P then if you are really after a 2k screen. It has got a great camera (both front/back), descent battery life and a descent processor/GPU.

                            Should be not too pricey by now as well!

                              • Z
                              • Z
                              • vtx
                              • 17 Apr 2016

                              [deleted post]Well said.....

                                AnonD-488454, 17 Apr 2016Recent tests have shown the P9 to perform significantly bet... moreThis!

                                  • D
                                  • AnonD-396766
                                  • 6uD
                                  • 17 Apr 2016

                                  AnonD-468210, 16 Apr 2016B&W camera shots are really very compelling Leica del... moreif you really wanna to raise a complaint then do it properly by contacting huawei.

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-488454
                                    • u}v
                                    • 17 Apr 2016

                                    DonAlduck, 17 Apr 2016I'm pretty impressed I have to say. I would not have expect... moreRecent tests have shown the P9 to perform significantly better then the US/China version Galaxy S7 Edge (with Snapdragon 820) in graphically demanding games such as NBA 2K16, due to the S7E showing overly-aggressive CPU/GPU thermal throttling which caused the game to stutter at times. The Exynos 8890 also appears to have less stable frame-rates than the Kirin 950 in certain games due to its throttling policy. It is becoming more and more clear nowadays that having higher spec and benchmark numbers don't always translate to having superior real-life performance.

                                    Too bad most reviewers still rely solely on 3D benchmarking scores to gauge gaming performance, because that's easier to do. This in turn drives chip and phone manufacturers to prioritize on benchmarks (peak performance) rather than real life performance (sustained overall performance). This is not a good situation for users.

                                    Because of this I applaud the Kirin 950/955's design philosophy that it achieved excellent sustained performance (see anandtech's report) while giving up peak performance numbers.

                                    The sub-par video performance is a real downside for the P9, though. That video performance is fine for a mid-range phone, but not that fitting at flagship level.

                                    I guess given the price, quality and feature set of this phone some corners have to be cut to make it profitable. Huawei choose to cut the corners it deemed to have the least impact for most users (e.g. 2k screen and 4k video and overpowered GPU for VR)

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-396766
                                      • 6uD
                                      • 17 Apr 2016

                                      AnonD-507785, 16 Apr 2016Why? Why they have to up their game to match Snapdragon and... more(i totally agree with you & you raise a very good point regarding the price tag & you are totally right)

                                      Personally Speaking i just wanna a normal smartphone that i can enjoy & fully benefit from it P9 offers that & P9 plus offers more (beautiful design, good screen, good sound quality, excellent CPU/GPU, good battery life, strong signal strength "huawei devices is the best when it comes to signal strength", simple UI with no or little lag) that's all.

                                        I'm pretty impressed I have to say. I would not have expect such good (camera) features, and overall a pretty nice quality from Huawei. I'm disappointed about one thing though... the GPU. I do not get how such a big company can't improve and build a good GPU that would keep up with the competition, if not the same or above levels, but at least to be below them on a nice rank. Can't really complain if it keeps up with current games and apps that require GPU, but it can't make descent 1080p and 4K video? That's a disappointment. Overall...Pretty good.

                                        Good Review GSMA as always :)