Dubai
Huawei‘s P10 is definitely a proud successor to Huawei P9 and it has completely refined the exterior as well as the interior.
The materials used are superb and has made no compromises. Even the display has Gorilla Glass 5 protection and the back has scratch-resistance ‘Hyper Diamond-Cut’ finish [only for blue and gold colour]. The green and white colours have matt finish instead.
Two of the eight colours (green and blue) were designed in conjunction with colour specialists Pantone, and are by far the most striking of the range. The technology behind this is called ‘Hyper Diamond Cut’ means you won’t leave any fingerprints on the back of the phone, and it will also look beautiful from afar.
The 5.1-inch is powered by Hisilicon Kirin 960 Octa-core 2.4GHz processor and coupled with Mali-G71 MP8 graphics, same as in Mate 9. It houses 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM. The dual-SIM card slots can house two SIM cards or one SIM and one microSD card which can support up to 256GB.
The Huawei P10 has a resemblance to iPhone 6S and is smaller than Huawei P9’s 5.2 inch and Mate 9’s 5.9-inch, and can be called Mate 9 mini.
If you’re already running a recent phone from the company you may not be inspired to upgrade as it has a limited upgrade. The advancements on the Huawei P10 are already seen on the Mate 9.
Huawei has stuck to Full HD display rather than going for 2K display with its IPS-NEO LCD which produces 432 pixels per inch density. It weighs 145 grams.
The screen is not as colourful as some other premium smartphones in the market but the panel delivers impressively deep black levels.
The finger print sensor has again moved to the home button, which has the fastest and most accurate sensor I have encountered to date.
The P10 comes loaded with latest Android 7.0 Nougat overlaid with Huawei’s Emotion UI 5.1. Huawei has also done some interesting work to improve the OS under the hood, using Ultra Memory. Ultra Memory is a background feature designed to let the phone run more smoothly by recycling memory faster. The new user interface is much cleaner and less intrusive than previous Huawei skins, and all of Android Nougat’s software features are here with the exception of the Google Assistant.
Playing games like Riptide GP2, Star Cindy and Banner Saga 2, took the device a fraction of a second longer to load compared to other high-end handsets but it did run smoothly. The device becomes warmer after playing for hours on P10 but not to the point of worry.
Camera is where the phone excels. The rear has a 12MP colour and 20MP monochrome sensors as parts of the second-generation Leica dual-camera set-up with a dual-LED flash on top and a laser beam to assist the autofocus on bottom of the camera.
The camera has f/2.2 aperture lens, OIS, 2x zoom, phase detection, 4-in-1 hybrid autofocus (phase/laser/contrast/depth sensing).
The 2x hybrid zoom feature lets you seamlessly zoom between the two cameras. It is not available when you shoot in 20MP auto mode, but can be used if you opt to shoot in a smaller resolution.
The phone combines both the images taken on both cameras— the black and white sensor is claimed to improve detail in the image.
The dual lens produced very good snaps with decent lighting as well as in lowlight conditions when compared to single lens cameras. The images show accurate colours, high detail level and good dynamic range but the monochrome camera is the best.
There is also Pro mode for those who want to tweak things further. If you’re a photography fan you’ll likely find the Pro mode useful and enjoyable.
The camera has tons of features and the newly added is the ‘Portrait’ mode. It combines the fake bokeh effect – basically blurring the background of an image – and beauty mode effects we’ve seen in the past on other Huawei devices into a single effect. If you’re planning to take photos of people on either the front or back camera, tap the little portrait logo and you’ll enter the new mode.
I relay liked this mode as photographers can take professional photos and it is really worth in monochrome colour.
It comes with new facial tracking software, which uses more than 190 points on the human face to detect exactly where your facial features are and focus the camera properly to get the best shot.
It can record 4K at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps.
The P10 also focuses quite fast due to the laser autofocusing system, and that’s pretty important when shooting video.
The low aperture of f/2.2 takes hit when shooting in very lowlight conditions compared to Samsung Galaxy S7’s f/1.7 aperture, the iPhone 7’s f/1.8 and Google Pixel’s f/2.0.
The other notable software feature on the P10 is the Highlights app. This lives in a tab on the Gallery app and has been developed together with GoPro. The idea is that it groups various pictures by location or event, and then mashes them together to create a video which can then easily be shared. You can even add music from your own library.
The 8MP autofocus selfie camera, f/1.9, 26mm lens does everything you would expect but struggles a bit in very lowlight conditions. It can capture videos in Full HD.
Connectivity is also where the phone excels. Regarding connectivity, it has LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, Beidou, and USB Type-C port.
The 3,200mAh battery is bigger than P9 and gave around 13 hours on video playback, around 12 hours of web browsing and 19 hours of talk time, which is pretty excellent. For heavy users, it lasts close to one full day and close to three days for moderate users.
It does not have wireless charging but with 22.5W quick charging technology, just ten minutes of charging gives you 20 per cent, thirty minutes give you 55 per cent. Sixty minutes gets you around 90 per cent. Finally, flat to full in 90 minutes in total and the last 10 per cent takes a while to fill.
It also has battery saving features available from the Power manager.
It will be available soon in dazzling gold, mystic silver, rose gold, prestige gold, graphite black, green, blue and white ceramic version, which is still made of metal but comes with a ceramic-effect finish on top. It is priced at Dh1,899.
Pros
• Excellent battery life
• CPU offers faster performance
• Takes very good black and white photos
• Smarter and simpler interface
• One-button home control
Cons
• No dust or water resistance
• Only Full HD screen
• No stereo speakers
• Bit expensive
• Camera’s aperture is too low
