A brand new Huawei P9 and P9 Plus has been launched in London overnight.
The new P9 has a 5.2inch HD screen, 3GB of ram, USB-C port, octa-core Kirin 955 processor, aluminum unibody build, and two 12-megapixel rear cameras with Leica certification.
In Australia the Chinese phone maker is applying pressure to several brands including HTC, Sony, as they fight to take a position on the winners podium that is currently dominated by Apple Samsung and arch rival Alcaltel which is owned by arch rival TCL another Chinese phone maker.
Though it is unclear what the Leica branding does, the dual-lens set-up will apparently drastically improve contrast and lighting in photos due to the second lens being a monochrome sensor.
There’s also a bigger “Plus” version with a 5.5inch AMOLED display, an extra GB of ram and a bigger battery.
The P9 has a strong build quality that’s very reminiscent of Huawei’s super well-received Nexus 6P, and is one of the first Android phones to have pressure-sensitive screen ala Apple’s 3D Touch.
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The P9 will retail in Australia for around $790.
According to those who were at the launch the P9 and P9 Plus look every bit high-end devices with similar build quality, solid feel, vibrant screens and fingerprint sensors common to top devices from Samsung and Apple.
They also have large batteries, microSD card slots, Huawei’s top-of-the-line custom processors and the new USB-C connectors for charging.
Huawei, however, is banking on camera prowess to set it apart in the crowded premium market. The P9 phones have dual cameras – one a 12-megapixel colour and one a 12-megapixel black and white – which the company claims captures 200% more light.
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Michael Sykes, senior European product manager for Huawei, said: “If you let in more light you have better low-light capability, but you also get higher contrast ratios in black and white photography, so you can have really sharp and crisp black and white photos, and you can add depth information.”
Huawei has added several features such as dynamic aperture adjustment, both at the time of taking the photo and after the fact, using both cameras and the ability to pull off tricks such as isolating an object in colour on a black and white background. The smartphone manufacturer developed the sensors and software used in the P9 phones in partnership with German camera manufacturer Leica, known for its high-end lenses and cameras.
