Huawei P9 Plus
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Display & Build
PROS
- Bright display
- Decent camera
- Lots of photo modes
- Impressive battery
CONS
- Ugly software
- Camera takes work
- Expensive compared to competition
KEY FEATURES
- 5.5-inch 1080p screen
- 2 x 12MP Leica engineered cameras
- USB-C
- Kirin 955 CPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB storage
- microSD
- EMUI
- Available: May
- Manufacturer: Huawei
- Review Price: £500.00
WHAT IS THE HUAWEI P9 PLUS?
After the success of the Nexus 6P, Huawei continued its impressive run with the P9. While its Leica branding was more of a gimmick, the P9 was a great phone capable of rivalling the HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5.
I never felt the phone needed to be bigger, but clearly someone in Huawei’s product development team did. So here we have the Huawei P9 Plus. It mimics the smaller model in just about every area, but ups the screen size and improves a few of the components.
HUAWEI P9 PLUS – DESIGN
I'm a big fan of Huawei’s industrial design. It’s never been wholly original, but the continued use of metal and glass on even budget phones shows it really cares. The P9 was peak Huawei design, and that also goes for the P9 Plus: it looks identical.
Obviously it’s much bigger, thanks to the boosted 5.5-inch display, but it’s still mightily thin.When I first got my hands on the P9 Plus at the phone's launch it felt too thin, but the dimensions grew on me during the reviewing process. For a 5.5-inch phone, the Plus is surprisingly comfortable to hold in one hand.
HUAWEI P9 PLUS – DISPLAY
It might not be quad-HD, or mobile HDR-enabled like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, but the 5.5-inch AMOLED display on the Huawei P9 is one of its biggest strengths.
It’s one of the best cases for saying that phones with quad-HD, 2,560 x 1,440-pixel displays really aren't worth it. I can’t discern individual pixels on the 1080p panel on the P9 Plus, and the use of an AMOLED screen ensures blacks are inky and colours have a good amount of pop, without looking oversaturated.
You can also alter the colour temperature, making it warmer or colder depending on your personal preference. I like to keep it at the default, but it’s nice to see the option there for people who like to tinker.
When our Reviews editor, Alastair Stevenson, reviewed the P9 he felt the displays only downside was its slightly muddy whites. This remains true on the Plus, but it’s far from a real issue. Whites aren’t as clear as an LCD panel on an iPhone 6S Plus, but they're among the better ones I have seen on AMOLED. Viewing angles are suitably wide, and visibility in direct sunlight is ace thanks to screen’s impressive brightness. It won’t jack up the brightness to ridiculous levels in sunny conditions like the Galaxy S7, but it’s still very good.
HUAWEI P9 PLUS – PERFORMANCE
Huawei’s in-house made Kirin chips have come on leaps and bounds in recent years, and the version used in the P9 series is one of the fastest, reliable and efficient yet.
The Kirin 955 CPU is backed up by 4GB RAM (that’s a gig more than the smaller P9) and it’s a potent combination. During my time with the phone, it hasn’t been challenged by anything. 3D games run without a hitch or frame drop, and loading times are on par with the Exynos 8890-rocking Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and Snapdragon 820-equipped HTC 10.
Huawei has done a great job at finally optimising its software (if not actually designing it properly, see below). The constant crashes and app issues that plagued the company's pre-2016 devices have been culled.
HUAWEI P9 PLUS – SOFTWARE
Huawei has a track record creating great phones with awful software. The software's improved recently but the EMUI skin used on the Plus is still one of the worst user interfaces I’ve seen.
EMUI is now on its fourth version and is based upon Android Marshmallow. To give Huawei some credit, at least all of Google’s functionality works better now. Notifications are no longer broken, Android Wear watches stay connected reliably, and it has finally removed the ugly border that used to surround each and every icon.
But, it’s still an unneeded overhaul to what was already a well-designed operating system. The culling of the app drawer is a decision that irks almost everyone I ask, with apps now splayed out across homescreen in no particular order.
HUAWEI P9 PLUS – CAMERA
Leica is a big name in the world of photography, so slapping the highly respected brand’s logo on your phone implies it’s going to have some seriously strong camera prowess.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out the way first; while there is Leica branding on the back, this isn't a Leica-made camera. The only thing Leica did was give Huawei its blessing to use the branding.
Daylight shots are good, with plenty of detail
The P9 sensors have 1.25μm (micrometer) pixels and the lenses have a rather disappointing f/2.2 aperture. A wider aperture (lower f-number) means the camera sensor will be able to capture more light and perform better in darker situations. The Galaxy Note 7 has an f/1.7 aperture and captures 1.4µm pixels while the HTC 10 has an f/1.8 aperture and captures gigantic 1.55µm-sized “UltraPixels”.
The extra monochrome sensor appears to offsets this slightly narrow aperture, as low-light results are still pretty good however. Details aren’t full of noise and the software manages to add some brightness in that doesn’t look wildly inaccurate.
The Huawei P9 Plus also has lots of camera modes. There are 14 in total, ranging from the awful Beauty mode to the pretty but time-consuming Light Painting. Monochrome is my favourite, as the results look exceptional.
A lot was made of the ‘bokeh’ effects you can achieve with the Leica branded camera. But, it doesn't live up to the hype. Instead of achieving a bokeh (this is where the foreground stays in sharp focus, while the background blurs out) through the camera tech, the Huawei P9 Plus does it through software. This leaves some odd blurring around details and a general unnatural tone.
Video recording is limited to 1080p, but it looks great and the 8-megapixel selfie camera is also good. Just steer clear of the beauty mode, as it makes you everything but beautiful.
HUAWEI P9 PLUS – BATTERY
The Plus has a much longer battery life than the original P9. In fact, it’s the one of the longest-lasting phones I've reviewed this year.
The 3,400mAh cell isn’t that big compared to the competition. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has a 3,600 mAh battery by comparison. But the Plus still manages to go a day and a half without hitting the red.
Streaming an hour of HD Netflix over Wi-Fi, with the brightness set to 60%, drained 8% of battery. 30 minutes of 3D gaming ate through 12%, while a more basic game (Two Dots, in this case) took it down 7%. Those are all impressive, better than the average, results.
