Beautiful screen, powerful processor, fine build quality, good camera, fingerprint sensor, 4G, decent battery life
Camera autofocus could be a little quicker
Huawei is getting serious with the P8, delivering some high-end specifications at a mid-range price.
Screen & chassis
Breaking away from its Ascend series, Huawei has gone for a plainer moniker with the P8 but the design is anything but. The aluminium casing feels like premium quality with its slanted edges and distinctive angles -- all-in-all it looks like a considerably more expensive phone.
The 5.2-inch screen offers a full HD resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels (424ppi) and while it may not have the quad HD kudos of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6, you’d be hard pressed to notice a significant drop in quality. It looks beautifully sharp, with vibrant but not over saturated colours and it’s quick to respond to touches too.
Software & processor
The Huawei P8 is running the latest version of Huawei’s Emotion UI, 3.1, which is clean and unfussy (and perhaps more than a little iPhone-like). The icons are neat and uncluttered, plus you get the pull-down search function familiar from iOS, and there are a few extra features, like using your voice to wake the phone with a prerecorded word or phrase. This seemed to be a bit temperamental, but the double knock to take a screen shot seemed more reliable. We’re still not keen on the removal of the apps section though, requiring you to keep everything on the various home screens.
The octa-core processor is clocked at 2GHz and 1.5GHz (four cores each) and backed by 3GB RAM. In operation it’s fast and generally fuss-free with no obvious lag when opening apps and capable of delivering HD games without stuttering.
Photography
The 13-megapixel camera is quick to open (even quicker if you double tap the bottom volume key to open it from the lock screen). It includes an RGBW sensor developed by Sony with a dedicated image processor and f/2 lens, which should in theory deliver better pictures in low light. It also has a dual LED flash for help in low light conditions, though it can appear a little harsh on occasion. Picture quality overall is very good, though the autofocus feature can occasionally take its time.
There are also a few extra camera modes including Light Painting, which works a bit like a slow exposure, allowing you to create light trails from car tail lights for example. It’s a nice addition, but you’ll probably need a tripod to get anything decent looking out of it.
The 8-megapixel camera on the front makes quality selfies a reality, with or without the various ‘beauty enhancements’ which allow you to tweak your teeth and skin tones, slim your face and touch up eye bags.
To save your pics there’s 16GB of memory on board but you can boost it by a further 128GB with a microSD card.
The decent-sized 2,680mAh battery did a fine job and comfortably kept the P8 going for around a day and a half of fairly heavy use. You can also stretch this further with the power-saving options, which include smart suggestions on which apps and settings to adjust.
Conclusion
The Huawei P8 is a solidly built smartphone with specifications that belies its mid-range price. It more than holds its own against pricey rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S6, iPhone 6 and HTC One M9, though it still gets some stiff competition from that other hero beater, the OnePlus One.
Software: Google Android 5.0 Lollipop
Processor: 8 core 64-bit HiSilicon Kirin 930, 4x2GHz, 4x1.5GHz
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 5.2in FHD, 1920x1080 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 13 megapixel, LED flash, autofocus, 8 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: MPEG-4, H.264, H.263, VP8, RV7-10, Xvid, WMV9
Audio playback: MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, PCM, WMA
Radio: Yes
Battery: 2680mAh
Size: 145x72x6.4mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
