Home » Huawei P9 Hands-on, First Impressions

Huawei P9 Hands-on, First Impressions

Written By Kevin Bruce Francisco
Published • April 7th, 2016
Hands-onMobile
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Huawei hosted a grand event here in London where the company unveiled its new P9 smartphone. Let’s take a quick look in this hands-on.

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Carrying over the P8’s all-metal build, the new P9 still gives a high-end feel with a solid block of aluminum as its chassis. Its display spans 5.2 inches across and has really thin strips for its bezels. The Gorilla Glass display also curves outward to meet the chassis which is becoming the standard nowadays for the latest phones aiming for a premium look.

From this angle, we also see its 8-megapixel front-facing camera together with the sensors.

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The P9 also has the familiar curved edges that help gently plant the device in the center of the palm when you use it. The sides are outlined with chrome trimmings that sandwich the non-glossy area of its frame.

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If the previous model had the volume rocker and power button lined up along with the SIM trays, the P9 removed the SIM slots from the right side and left this side solely for the only physical buttons present.

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The tray for the SIM cards is now moved to the left side and pushed to the upper area. We also see in the above photo the thinness of the device at just 6.95mm which is slimmer than both the iPhone 6S and Galaxy S7.

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At the bottom, we see the connectivity ports comprising of the 3.5mm audio jack and the new USB Type-C. The speaker grille is also situated here, visually balancing the things going on for this side.

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The rear is where it gets interesting since the P9 carries dual rear cameras made by photography brand Leica. Each camera has a 12-megapixel sensor and is made using 6-piece optics all working towards making the device produce life-like photos. The dual shooters are accompanied by two LED flashes and sensors that should help achieve better focus.

Other than the camera, the fingerprint sensor is what’s prominent here and the company says it has more layers of security for its users. We’ll reserve our thoughts on that for the full review. What’s interesting to note with the rear cameras is that they are made to be flat and not protruding. Unlike other flagships that have cameras bumping out of its back panel, the P9 could lay flat on its back when placed on a surface.

Huawei P9 specifications:
5.2-inch Full HD IPS display (1920 x 1080 pixels), 423ppi
2.5GHz Kirin 955 octa-core processor
Mali-T880 MP4 GPU
3GB / 4GB RAM
32GB / 64GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD, up to 128GB (uses SIM 2)
Dual 12-megapixel hybrid autofocus rear camera w/ dual-tone LED flash, Leica optics
8-megapixel front-facing camera
Dual SIM
LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, dual-band
Bluetooth 4.1
GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC
USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner
3000mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 6.0 Marshmallow w/ Emotion UI 4.1
145 x 70.9 x 6.95 mm
144 g

Overall, holding the P9 on the hand is light and could easily be grasped and operated using only one hand. We will be testing the device so stay tuned for the upcoming review.

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Kevin Bruce Francisco

Kevin Bruce Francisco is the Senior Editor and Video Producer for YugaTech. He's a Digital Filmmaking graduate who's always either daydreaming of traveling or actually going places on his bike. Follow him on Twitter for more tech updates @kevincofrancis.