I finally had a chance to check on one of Huawei's current high-end phones so here is my Huawei P9 review.
The familiar EMUI that I saw on the P9 Lite continues on the regular P9. As expected, no app drawer to enable this custom skin. The only way to organize your apps is thru the folders.
On the connectivity side, it was the exact opposite that I previously experienced on the P9 Lite. Throw in the calls, texts, mobile data, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and I got no problems whatsoever. There were times that I got some LTE+ signal.
Here are the benchmarks that I got from the said phone:
Surprisingly on the gaming department, it was a mixed bag for me. Titles like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 were a-ok to me but a bit simpler game like Pokemon Go, it struggled after you will have a number of "catch a Pokemon" scenarios and mostly, the phone will hang up. By the way during the review, I played 2 versions of the game and 2 separate updates of the handset for a total of 1.6 GB
On audio, I am quite not impressed on the output on the 3.5 mm. audio jack. The DTS is already enabled on this one but I am not satisfied on what I heard on the number of 3rd party earphones that I used and different music genres that I played. Of course, this is not bad as some smartphones on the 2 or 3k budget
My video battery rundown test on the P9 is 12 hours and 20 minutes. On real life usage, I can use it for a normal working day. There is only a little add-up in the number of hours when I tried the "lower the display resolution" option in the settings menu.
If there is one major strength of the P9, the camera itself. You already saw the UI of it on my previous first impressions article. I really enjoyed the output of it either on auto or that extensive manual. Contrary to some international tech sites,shooting on Full HD video is not bad esp. that I shot a video of band gig. There is a bit of imbalance in terms of the sound
Huawei P9 Rear Camera Samples:
Auto Mode
Normal, Vivid and Smooth Colors Comparison
Manual mode using the aperture control
Monochrome
Against the light photos
Selfie photo
Extras: The charging took me over 2 hours. The file manager is not that friendly for my liking so installing ES File Explorer is a very good option.
It may have some flaws compared to other high-end competitors but up to this date, the Php 23,990 price tag of P9 is still value for money if you are looking for a more than enough kind of a smartphone and really gives importance to camera. I will gonna give it a 4.25 out of 5.
