Huawei‘s latest pride and joy, the P9 is officially launched for the South Pacific region which includes Malaysia. This replaces the Huawei P8 and it retains the same compact 5.2″ display as before.
Huawei P9
The design of the P9 is more refined with rounded corners and the use of 2.5D glass for the front as well as its rear camera visor. Underneath its unibody metal design is an Octa-Core Kirin 955 processor that’s mated to either 3GB or 4GB RAM along with a choice of either 32GB or 64GB of onboard storage. The display is a 5.2″ IPS unit that pushes full HD 1080p resolution.
Photography is the main focus for the Huawei P9 which carries a twin 12MP f/2.2 camera set up that’s co-engineered with Leica. It is further assisted with dual tone LED flash and a hybrid AF system with laser auto focus. Unlike other dual camera smartphones we’ve seen before, one sensor shoots in colour while the other in monochrome to capture more details, contrast and light information.
Photos are enhanced further with Leica’s Picture Quality Algorithm. For selfies, the P9 shoots 8MP pics from the front that’s enhanced with a host of beautification features. As you would expect from a flagship smartphone, the P9 gets a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner at the back which unlocks in a single tap.
Powering the P9 is a 3,000mAh battery that charges up with USB Type-C. The headphone jack, this time, is also repositioned to the bottom. Out of the box, it runs on Android Marshmallow with Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 on top.
P9 Plus
For those who prefer a larger screen experience, Huawei has also announced the P9 Plus with a larger 5.5″ Full HD AMOLED display. The specs are similar with a Kirin 955 processor and it comes in a 4GB RAM and 64GB storage option. The same Leica co-engineered cameras are retained and since it is a larger device, it packs a higher 3,400mAh battery.
The P9 Plus also has another trick up its sleeve with Hi Fidelity audio playback from its speakers. It operates a lot like the new HTC 10 where the audio is separated into two portions — the treble from the top earpiece and bass from the bottom-firing speaker.
Left: P9, Right: P9 Plus
P9 Lite
Also announced is the P9 Lite which aims to bring a premium smartphone experience at a lower price point.
It also carries a 5.2″ Full HD display similar to the P9 but under the hood, it gets a lower Kirin 650 processor mated with 2GB or 3GB RAM along with 16GB of storage. For imaging, it packs a 13MP f/2.0 main camera along with a 8MP f/2.0 front shooter. Despite being a Lite model, it also gets a 3,000mAh battery that charges via micro USB.
Left: P9, Right: P9 Lite
For now, there is no pricing information on any of these devices yet, but those details will be revealed at our local Malaysian launch which should be happening soon as these devices are set to roll out in our region starting the end of May.
