Huawei P10 unveiled at MWC 2017, in SA next month

We’ve seen the LG G6 take to the stage today, but now it’s time for the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus to do the same. So what has the Chinese company brought to the table?

Well, the first thing you’ll notice is that Huawei has shifted the fingerprint scanner from the rear of the phone to the front, much like Samsung and the Xiaomi Mi 5.

The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus seem like solid evolutions compared to last year’s models

Yes, the fingerprint scanner is a button now and, in a move that sees them blatantly steal a feature from Meizu, all UI navigation is done via the button. Want to go back? Then tap the button. Need to go home? Then hold it down. Multitasking? Swipe laterally across it.

Huawei’s Richard Yu also sought to play up the phone’s “hyper diamond cut finishing”, saying that it has a shiny design without attracting fingerprints. Speaking of design, Huawei has teamed up with Pantone to bring the phone in blue and green shades as well. In fact, the Chinese brand devoted a ton of time to have a Pantone representative simply talk about colours in general.

But easily one of the most notable hardware changes was that the phones are now water-resistant, joining the likes of Samsung and LG. Otherwise, the Plus model ups the ante with a 2560×1440 display and a larger battery.

What about the camera tech?

Huawei has built on the Mate 9’s dual camera technology, delivering twin 20MP cameras a similar 20MP monochrome/12MP camera setup as the Mate 9.

The new cameras offer the 2x hybrid zoom seen on the Mate 9 as well as a specific Portrait Mode, expanding on the firm’s simulated aperture adjustment tech. The company claims that this feature is better than Apple’s own portrait mode seen on the iPhone 7 Plus.

Interestingly enough, Huawei now lets you shoot Portrait Mode/aperture adjustment shots with the monochrome camera as well.

Huawei has also sought to upgrade the selfie camera with a Leica-branded f/1.9 8MP front-facing shooter. The front-facing camera also features a portrait mode of sorts, as well as “adaptive selfie” tech that switches to wide-angle shots when it detects more people are in the viewfinder.

Horsepower and endurance

In the speed department, Huawei is claiming the P10 to be the world’s first 4.5G handset, while also using the Mate 9’s machine learning tech to keep the phone brisk over time.

As for horsepower and battery stats? The P10 is powered by a Kirin 960 chipset and 4GB or 6GB of RAM, while the regular model gets a 3200mAh battery and the larger model gets a 3750mAh pack.

Huawei is claiming 1.8 days of normal usage for the P10 and over two days of usage for the Plus model. But it’s also claiming one day of usage from 30 minutes of charging.

Huawei has also confirmed that the new phones will be launching globally next month, with South Africa listed as a first-wave nation.

More details to follow…