Were you expecting something else? Huawei announced the P9 and P9 Plus at an event in London on Wednesday.
True to the leaks, the P9 line offers a dual-camera setup with Leica lenses (two 12-megapixel sensors with F2.2 aperture), a front-facing 8MP/F2.4 shooter and a rear-mounted “3D” fingerprint scanner.
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A big focus (hah!) on the cameras
Huawei is claiming a world first for the dual-cameras, as one camera features an RGB sensor and the other features a “monochrome sensor”.
The company says that this will go a long way to improving low-light performance and producing richer colours.
Huawei also touted the P9’s autofocus technology, revealing that the phone uses a combination of traditional contrast focus, laser focus and depth focus.
The dual-camera technology also delivers what appears to be a simulated wide aperture feature, so photography enthusiasts might want to play with this.
Other camera features include the returning professional mode (allowing you to tweak ISO, shutter speed and focus), RAW support and a refocus option so you can change focus after taking a snap.
What about other specs?
What’s the point of an excellent camera experience if the phone dies quickly? Well, the P9 packs a 3000mAh battery, making for a 400mAh jump compared to the P8 and putting it in line with the LG G4.
Huawei has claimed 12 hours of HD video playback, eight hours of 4G mobile browsing, 20 hours of 3G calling or 56 hours of audio playback on a single charge.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 6s is rated for 11 hours of HD video playback, ten hours of 4G mobile browsing, 14 hours of 3G calling or 50 hours of audio playback on a single charge.
Otherwise, you’re looking at a phone with a beefy HiSilicon Kirin 955 chip featuring four heavy-lifting A72 cores and four energy-efficient A53 cores.
Last year’s phone was quite a looker and Huawei seems to have continued this tradition here, refining the P8’s metal design instead of tossing it out of the window.
As for the P9 Plus, it packs a 5.5-inch full HD display with Force Touch, 4GBs of RAM and a larger 3400mAh battery.
The P9 will be available for 599 euros (3GBs RAM and 32GBs of storage) and 649 euros (4GBs RAM and 64GBs of storage). The P9 Plus is only available in a 64GB flavour for now and will cost 749 euros.
We’ve contacted Huawei South Africa for local details and will update the article accordingly.
However, it’s worth noting that South Africa isn’t listed as part of the first-wave countries getting the device on April 16.
Update #1: added international pricing.
Update #2: added more technical details, global launch window and P9 Plus price.
