In a world filled with photo-centric individuals, point and shoot camera is just a thing of the past. A mobile company dares to defy the smartphone photography game that’s why Huawei teamed up with a world-renowned German camera maker Leica.

I’ve been eyeing Huawei P9 when it debuted a few months ago because of its ergonomic design and superb camera feature. Now that I got to hold the unit, all I can say, it’s a beast of its own. Been using the unit for quite some time now and here’s my personal review as a user.

What’s inside the box

I must say, I got lucky when I bought the unit and got the Limited Exclusive Box, which includes the Huawei P9 bundled with a Huawei Power Bank 13000 mAh with 2 years warranty. What an excellent offer.

Inside the box is the Huawei P9 greeted you with a bling. Under the hood contains three different boxes. One host the fast charging power adapter, a USB-C adapter for your old micro-sub cable, 2nd is the USB-C cable and headset, which looks like an Apple ear pods and lastly the box for the manual and a free clear case and screen protector.

Huawei really put’s effort in packaging the unit; I love how compact everything was put together inside the box. The freebies (power bank and housing) are added bonus and a good starter kit for someone who is excited to use the unit as long as I open it. Indeed very generous? Let’s be honest, in this region where iPhone and Samsung dominate the market, it’s really difficult to find one. Thank you, Huawei.

Specifications

Processor: HiSillicon Kirin Processor 955 Octa-core (4×2.5 GHz Cortex-A72 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53)
GPU: Mali-T880 MP4
RAM: 3GB
OS:  Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)
Screen: 5.2″ IPS-NEO LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Camera: Dual 12 MP, f/2.2, 27 mm, Leica optics, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
Storage: 32 GB + Expandable memory slot up to 256GB
Battery: 3000 mAh

Design

image credit: http://www.venturebeat.com

Everyone knows that I’m a sucker for symmetry. I’m a big fan of the sleek, minimalist and edgy design, this is what I love about Huawei P9. When your fist holds the unit, you will easily feel how smooth the transition of the corning glass panel to the uni-body. Light weight and fits perfectly in my grip. Did I mention how compact the unit is that you can navigate its features even with one hand only.

Front of the unit is the 5.2″ IPS-NEO LCD screen which gives vivid colors to the pictures and videos. On the top of the screen hosted the 8MP camera, sensor, and earpiece. The LED notification indicator is located inside the headpiece and the Huawei Logo at the bottom. On the right-hand side, you will see the volume rocker and the textured power button, while at the bottom of the unit is quite busy because it follows the design language of the iPhone which has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a mic, a USB-C for charging and a speaker. Lastly, the upper back part of the unit is the Dual 12MP with a Leica Branding coupled with laser pointing technology for focus and Dual tone flash and underneath host the fingerprint reader.

Overall you’ll get that luxurious and elegant feel of holding the unit without breaking your bank. The unit really has that high built quality. The Same quality that you will get with the other premium unit.

Ready Set – Snap

Leica, the name itself already give you idea that the phone camera is not a push over. The phone boost a 12MP f/2.2 snapper co-engineered with Leica – a company known for its high-quality cameras and optics. One camera takes colored pictures while the other shoots monochrome. The software merged the two photos giving you that high contrast and vivid picture. Assisted with the laser point focusing technology, the P9 doesn’t have any issues on changing its focus points.

One trick and I must say very important to me and that I really enjoyed using it, is the depth of field effect. Everyone wanted to have that portrait shot with a blurred background giving you that DSLR feel, well it’s here, or some sort. Actually, to be honest, the P9 blur effect is better than the new portrait shot of iPhone 7. At some point, if you tweak the blur effect, the picture might end-up look forced so be careful on this.

As far as the image quality goes, P9 will not disappoint you. Really good, in fact, color representation, accurate white balance, details and strong sharpness. Additional value added camera feature is that you can shoot RAW photos with it.

Front facing camera takes great selfies with its 8MP camera. There is an option here for beautification that smoothens up your aura. But you know me, I like my selfies to be untouched.

1080P preset for video recording. Unfortunately no 4K video recording for the unit, I hope they would consider adding this feature to their next unit.

Sample Pictures

Sample Blurred effect

Night Mode

Selfie Sample

Performance

 The unit that I currently use has 3GB memory and 32GB built storage capacity that can be expanded up to 256GB via memory slot. My unit runs pretty smooth juggling from one app to another, lag and slowdown are nearly non-existent. EMUI 4.1 is the custom user interface of P9 running the Android Marshmallow. The EMUI 4.1 emulates the Apple IOS by ditching the app drawer and the icons are bold and colorful. Customization is present in the unit by applying different themes, there’s a Theme app wherein you are requested to register with your Huawei ID and this gives you access to different themes for free. I love the photo gallery on how it curates my entire photo. Decent audio quality is produced from the bottom speaker grill. Battery lasted for more than 11 hrs with a single charge thanks to its 3000 mAh capacity. But varies from usage, whether you’re browsing your social media, watching videos or playing games. Voice calls are crystal clear and fast wifi connectivity. The back fingerprint reader works really fast and bested my iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 7. With the vivid screen, there is no issue of working with it with a bright sunlight outdoor. The unit is very responsive and opening an app is a breeze.

Overall

The overall experience is fantastic and exceeded my expectations. Working with the unit for a couple of days allow me to see all the great features the Huawei P9 has to offer. My only concern here is that when you start the camera app it takes a little millisecond to open up, maybe because of the great features it has to offers, but not a deal breaker for me. To make things short, the Huawei P9 is a beast in its own. I highly recommend this unit to guys out there both for work hard and play hard. Who would think that this hidden gem exists in a sea of Apple and Samsung?  I can say that this unit is a good value for money with great features. So grab one now.