At its global launch event, Huawei has officially unveiled the much-leaked and much-rumoured P9 flagship smartphone. This is the first smartphone that’s been released since the Chinese giant’s partnership with Leica, and if that’s not enough, the P9 sports two rear cameras working in tandem.
Those who have been following the rumours will not be surprised about the P9’s internal hardware. It is powered by Huawei’s latest Kirin 955 16nm chipset with 3 or 4GB of RAM, and features a 5.2-inch Full HD IPS display with 2.5D curved glass, 8MP f/1.9 front camera, a rear fingerprint sensor, USB Type C connector, a 3,000mAh battery, stereo speakers, and 32 or 64GB of internal storage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BvX_GA3D6U
This all-metal smartphone weighs just 144g, and is 6.95mm thin. On the software front, it ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Huawei’s new EMUI 4.1. The biggest visible change that can be observed here is in the camera app, which loses the iOS-like UI in favour of something more practical. As can be seen from the image below (via The Verge), the Leica typeface is also used in the camera app.
The biggest feature of the P9 is, of course, the dual-camera setup. It is “co-engineered” with Leica, and is made up of a standard 12MP camera sensor paired with a black-and-white 12MP sensor; it uses a laser-assisted autofocus system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4TXO49n0P8
That said, the P9 promises to be the best smartphone camera Huawei has ever created. The new P9 camera is said to be 200% more sensitive than the company’s previous smartphones, and has 300% more detail, according to Huawei.
Just like previous dual-camera setups before, the P9 will let you create photos with deliciously shallow depth of field, and do so after the image has been shot. There’s also a special “Monochrome” shooting mode that is said to offer significantly better black-and-white performance from software filters, because of the lack of an RGB filter in the camera sensor, making it more sensitive to light.
The Huawei P9 will be available in three variants: the standard P9 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, a “P9 Deluxe” with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and a special “P9 Plus” edition. It features a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED (instead of IPS) Full HD display, a larger 3,400mAh battery, and specially for the Chinese market, there’ll be a P9 Plus with 128GB of internal storage.
The P9 is available in four colours: Rose Gold, Prestige Gold, Titanium Grey and Mystic Silver, while the P9 Deluxe version will be available in Haze Gold and Ceramic White. The P9 Plus, with a 5.5-inch display, is available in Haze Gold, Quartz Grey and Ceramic White.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CJS0ZNYk00
Currently there are only European prices for the Huawei P9. The regular P9 will retail for €599 (about RM2,675) for the 3GB/32GB version, €649 (about RM2,900) for the 4GB/64GB variant, and €749 (about RM3,345) for the P9 Plus.
As for availability, the Huawei P9 will be available from 16 April in 29 countries in Europe, China and the Middle East, with other markets to follow. The P9 Plus will begin its rollout in May 2016.
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