Chinese manufacture Huawei launches feature-packed P8 and 6.8in P8 Max flagship smartphones
Huawei’s P8 smartphone and its big brother, the Huawei P8 Max, have been launched at an event in London. The handsets are the Chinese firm’s follow-up devices to the nearly-man of the 2014 smartphone scene - the Huawei Ascend P7.
Last year, the P7’s ultra-slim profile and decent camera quality was undermined by sluggish performance and an over-fussy UI. This year, Huawei is aiming to improve on that.
Last on the list is an independent image processor, just like you get in a DSLR, aimed at improving automatic scene recognition, providing more natural colours and more balanced exposure in your photos. There's no sign of phase detect autofocuse, however.
There's also a number of nifty-looking software functions, including a light-painting mode, aimed at making it easy to capture taillight streaks, misty water and star trail photographs. The new Director Mode allows you to combine four videos captured on different phones into the same project for multi-angle videos.
Naturally, the camera retains the P7's quirky ability to capture "grouphies" - effectively panoramic selfies - and its macro mode can capture subjects from as close as 4cm.
Huawei P8 review: specifications and other features
Under the hood the P8 boasts a number of technologies under the banner of Signal+ aimed at improving the phone's ability to hold a strong signal. Using dual "tiny anntennae" and a "signal trend detection algorithm" Huawei aims to make dropped calls a thing of the past.
The phone's Roaming+ feature uses a database to connect to foreign networks more quickly, and in a further sop to business travellers, the micro SD slot can double as a second nano SIM slot. A simple idea, but one that could prove to be seriously useful to frequent travellers.
The processor is a Kirin 930/935 octa-core part comprising twin quad-core CPUs running at frequncies of 2GHz and 1.5GHz, there's 3GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage depending on the model you choose. It feels nippy, too, but we'll report fully on performance when we get our hands on it. Unfortunately, Huawei's cartoonish Emotion UI is still in place.
The battery is competitive with other flagship smarphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S6, with a capacity of 2,600mAh, but Huawei is making bullish claims about battery life, saying its "Power Consumption Firewall", which blocks "abnormal" power usage from background apps, is capable of delivering battery life that's superior to the S6.
Elsewhere, as with most Huawei flagships, the P8 is packed with extra features which may - or may not - prove useful. There's a crazy feature called Knuckle sense that allows you to capture a screenshot with a tap of your knuckle. There are improvements to call quality via wind-noise reduction and automatic microphone sensitivity and earpiece volume control. You can wake the phone up with a key phrase, then say "where are you" to help you find it if it's lost down the side of the sofa.
And there's a rather Heath Robinson E-Ink cover accessory available, which displays the schedule, weather and clock on 4.3in screen, so you can keep track of things without having to turn the phone on.
Huawei P8 Max: half-tablet, half-smartphone
Huawei's big surprise was the introduction of a ludicrously large companion to the P8: the 6.8in screened Huawei P8 Max. This boasts a huge, vivid screen, adds a multi-tasking view similar to that found on the Samsung Note Edge 4, and an absolutely huge 4,360mAh battery.
Unsurprisingly, Huawei claims this will last longer than the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4 under "normal use" - around 2.25 days. It has a higher screen to body ratio than these rivals at 83% compared to the Note 4's 80%, and it feels just as nicely put together as the standard P8 and surprisingly light in your hand.
No bones about it, though, this is a huge smartphone, no matter how narrow the bezel, and it makes for what will be for most people a completely impractical smartphone. Despite Huawei's protestations, we'd venture that there are very few pockets that this "pocketable" smartphone will fit into.
Huawei’s P8 smartphone and its big brother, the Huawei P8 Max, have been launched at an event in London. The handsets are the Chinese firm’s follow-up devices to the nearly-man of the 2014 smartphone scene - the Huawei Ascend P7.
Last year, the P7’s ultra-slim profile and decent camera quality was undermined by sluggish performance and an over-fussy UI. This year, Huawei is aiming to improve on that.
Huawei P8 review: design
We'll focus on the larger phone later, but the design of the standard P8 is as strong as ever - super slim (6.9mm) and attractive to behold, but slightly different in appearance to last the P7. The first thing we noticed about the new design was the loss of the curved edge along the bottom of the phone. It's now a much more square-looking phone than before, something that's echoed in the fetching square power button.
It isn't all angular, though, with a curvaceous metal frame that bears more than a passing resemblance to the frame surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The front and rear are dead flat, with a black strip at the top framing the camera lens and dual-LED flash, which are located in the top-left corner. That square power button is located on the right edge, just below the volume rocker and above twin drawers for the nano SIM card and microSD card slots.
The P8 sports an aluminium unibody design, and duly feels pretty solid in the hand, but there was no mention of Gorilla Glass at the launch, only that its 5.2in 1080p display is topped with "premium glass". The P8 will come in four colours: "Mystic Champagne", "Prestige Gold", "Titanium Grey", and" Carbon Black", which is the dullest of the lot, it sports a water- and dust-resistant nano coating to help prevent disaster.
We'll focus on the larger phone later, but the design of the standard P8 is as strong as ever - super slim (6.9mm) and attractive to behold, but slightly different in appearance to last the P7. The first thing we noticed about the new design was the loss of the curved edge along the bottom of the phone. It's now a much more square-looking phone than before, something that's echoed in the fetching square power button.
It isn't all angular, though, with a curvaceous metal frame that bears more than a passing resemblance to the frame surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The front and rear are dead flat, with a black strip at the top framing the camera lens and dual-LED flash, which are located in the top-left corner. That square power button is located on the right edge, just below the volume rocker and above twin drawers for the nano SIM card and microSD card slots.
The P8 sports an aluminium unibody design, and duly feels pretty solid in the hand, but there was no mention of Gorilla Glass at the launch, only that its 5.2in 1080p display is topped with "premium glass". The P8 will come in four colours: "Mystic Champagne", "Prestige Gold", "Titanium Grey", and" Carbon Black", which is the dullest of the lot, it sports a water- and dust-resistant nano coating to help prevent disaster.
Huawei P8 review: camera
Stating that it's "not all about megapixels" Huawei is also equipping the P8 with a number of innovative camera technologies. First on the list is "best in class" optical image stabilisation that is able to correct camera shake of 1.2 degrees; Huawei is claiming this is better than the 0.6 degree correction provided by the Apple iPhone 6 Plus.
Second is the "world's first" four-colour RGBW (red, blue, green and white) imaging sensor, with the claim that the camera will be able to more accurately capture a wider range of colours than traditional RGB sensors. Huawei says the extra white pixel also helps keep noise down in low light shots - we'll reserve judgement on this until we can test it properly, but it sounds plausible enough.
Stating that it's "not all about megapixels" Huawei is also equipping the P8 with a number of innovative camera technologies. First on the list is "best in class" optical image stabilisation that is able to correct camera shake of 1.2 degrees; Huawei is claiming this is better than the 0.6 degree correction provided by the Apple iPhone 6 Plus.
Second is the "world's first" four-colour RGBW (red, blue, green and white) imaging sensor, with the claim that the camera will be able to more accurately capture a wider range of colours than traditional RGB sensors. Huawei says the extra white pixel also helps keep noise down in low light shots - we'll reserve judgement on this until we can test it properly, but it sounds plausible enough.
Last on the list is an independent image processor, just like you get in a DSLR, aimed at improving automatic scene recognition, providing more natural colours and more balanced exposure in your photos. There's no sign of phase detect autofocuse, however.
There's also a number of nifty-looking software functions, including a light-painting mode, aimed at making it easy to capture taillight streaks, misty water and star trail photographs. The new Director Mode allows you to combine four videos captured on different phones into the same project for multi-angle videos.
Naturally, the camera retains the P7's quirky ability to capture "grouphies" - effectively panoramic selfies - and its macro mode can capture subjects from as close as 4cm.
Huawei P8 review: specifications and other features
Under the hood the P8 boasts a number of technologies under the banner of Signal+ aimed at improving the phone's ability to hold a strong signal. Using dual "tiny anntennae" and a "signal trend detection algorithm" Huawei aims to make dropped calls a thing of the past.
The phone's Roaming+ feature uses a database to connect to foreign networks more quickly, and in a further sop to business travellers, the micro SD slot can double as a second nano SIM slot. A simple idea, but one that could prove to be seriously useful to frequent travellers.
The processor is a Kirin 930/935 octa-core part comprising twin quad-core CPUs running at frequncies of 2GHz and 1.5GHz, there's 3GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage depending on the model you choose. It feels nippy, too, but we'll report fully on performance when we get our hands on it. Unfortunately, Huawei's cartoonish Emotion UI is still in place.
The battery is competitive with other flagship smarphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S6, with a capacity of 2,600mAh, but Huawei is making bullish claims about battery life, saying its "Power Consumption Firewall", which blocks "abnormal" power usage from background apps, is capable of delivering battery life that's superior to the S6.
Elsewhere, as with most Huawei flagships, the P8 is packed with extra features which may - or may not - prove useful. There's a crazy feature called Knuckle sense that allows you to capture a screenshot with a tap of your knuckle. There are improvements to call quality via wind-noise reduction and automatic microphone sensitivity and earpiece volume control. You can wake the phone up with a key phrase, then say "where are you" to help you find it if it's lost down the side of the sofa.
And there's a rather Heath Robinson E-Ink cover accessory available, which displays the schedule, weather and clock on 4.3in screen, so you can keep track of things without having to turn the phone on.
Huawei P8 Max: half-tablet, half-smartphone
Huawei's big surprise was the introduction of a ludicrously large companion to the P8: the 6.8in screened Huawei P8 Max. This boasts a huge, vivid screen, adds a multi-tasking view similar to that found on the Samsung Note Edge 4, and an absolutely huge 4,360mAh battery.
Unsurprisingly, Huawei claims this will last longer than the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4 under "normal use" - around 2.25 days. It has a higher screen to body ratio than these rivals at 83% compared to the Note 4's 80%, and it feels just as nicely put together as the standard P8 and surprisingly light in your hand.
No bones about it, though, this is a huge smartphone, no matter how narrow the bezel, and it makes for what will be for most people a completely impractical smartphone. Despite Huawei's protestations, we'd venture that there are very few pockets that this "pocketable" smartphone will fit into.
Huawei P8 review: initial verdict
The Huawei P8 will be available one month after launch, in May, while the P8 Max will appear a month after that, and prices start at a reasonable 499 Euros (around £360) for the P8 and 549 Euros (around £395) for the Max.
The Huawei P8 will be available one month after launch, in May, while the P8 Max will appear a month after that, and prices start at a reasonable 499 Euros (around £360) for the P8 and 549 Euros (around £395) for the Max.
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