GEAR

Huawei P9 to come with dual 12MP Leica cameras

6 Apr 2016

Huawei P9 launch

Prior to the launch of the Huawei P9. Image via Huawei/Facebook

After building up a considerable amount of hype, Huawei has revealed its latest flagship phone, the Huawei P9, with its USP being its dual 12MP cameras, but no sign of a bigger P9 Max.

The Huawei P9 was given a glitzy worldwide launch, with the marketing emphasis teasing the hashtag #oo, which we now know to indicate the dual cameras, which have been able to benefit from the brand’s attachment to the German camera manufacturer Leica, which co-developed them.

With Huawei saying that the camera will effectively eliminate any blurring in an image, GSM Arena has revealed that the dual camera system works so that one of the cameras captures colour, while the other only captures black and white.

Eliminates blurring

This, apparently, creates much clearer images when in good lighting, but also reduces much of the blurring and noise seen under low-light conditions.

When it’s totally in the dark, the phone can activate its dual LED flash, however, it doesn’t include any optical image stabilisation (OIS) seen in your typical smartphone camera, likely due to the complexity of trying to stabilise two camera images at the same time.

As for the front-facing ‘selfie’ camera, Huawei said the P9 it will come with an 8MP resolution wide aperture suited to low-light conditions.

As for what encompasses the rest of the phone, Huawei has revealed that it will be powered by a modified version of the Kirin 955 processor with octo-core CPU (four 2.5GHz and four 1.8GHz) that comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

There will also be another more expensive version of the Huawei P9 that includes an extra GB of RAM, in addition to a 64GB storage capacity, but both include a microSD slot to expand that.

Fast-charging via USB-C

Visually, the phone will be similar in size to one of its biggest competitors, the iPhone 6s, with a 5.2in screen with a resolution of 1080p.

Having made the move to produce Google’s Nexus 6P device – reviewed by Siliconrepublic.com – with a fingerprint sensor on the back, the company has followed suit with the P9.

Similarly following the 6P in terms of charging and battery, the P9 is charged via a USB-C port, however, the P9 has a smaller 3,000mAh battery.

Charging time appears to be quite fast, with Huawei claiming, using its charger, that you can get five hours of battery life from a 10-minute charge.

Huawei P9 Plus and TalkBand B3

While there might not have been any announcement on a significantly larger P9 Max, the Huawei P9 Plus, which bumps up the screen size from 5.2in to 5.5in, without any increase in resolution, was revealed.

It comes with what it is called ‘Press Touch’ technology that can manipulate apps better than the standard P9, much in the same way Apple introduced 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s.

While the hardware will remain largely the same internally, the P9 Plus is only available with the larger 4GB of RAM and 64GB hard drive found in the more expensive P9 model, but also comes with a battery comparable with the Nexus 6P at 3,400mAh.

Also announced at the Huawei launch was its latest wearable, the TalkBand B3, which follows a similar set of models to the Apple Watch, and is available in classic, elite and active models, which probably don’t require an explanation.

While we’re still waiting for a response on what the Irish price will be, the UK pricing for the P9 is £449, or £539 for the P9 Plus, with Europe and the Middle East able to get their hands on the phone from 16 April.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com