We had the chance to unbox one of the newest smartphones from Huawei called the P10. Still has two cameras and co-engineered with Leica. Read more here.
Who would have thought that it has already been a year since Huawei shook the camera smartphone market here and abroad when they released the P9 and P9 Plus devices. The Chinese electronics giant, I think for the very first time, partnered with Leica to create the two rear camera lenses for those smartphones of 2016. The result? It was incredible and it was a success that nobody really realized until the phones hit the market and started making some noise and generating sales everywhere. It was so successful that it opened a new market segment for dual-camera lovers globally, so successful that even other big guys in the smartphone industry created their own dual-camera offerings with various implementations.
This year, Huawei and Leica team up is returning to the smartphone scene again with the launch of their newest products - P10 and P10 Plus. These new dual-rear camera equipped devices as expected are back with much more upgraded features and brand new functionalities to up our memory documentation at least a notch. In case you have missed it, Huawei Philippines has formally launched the P10 and P10 Plus in the Philippines since a couple of days ago.
Today I share with you my unboxing and hands on review of the Huawei P10, the smaller variant of the series, and see what we can get out of the box. This unit was provided to us by TekPone, one of the longest running electronics gadget stores here in Davao City and also an authorized retailer for Huawei devices such as these P10 and P10 Plus.
Box and Packaging
Huawei still packed the P10 smartphone in a plain yet premium looking white box with no image of the device to be found anywhere. The only things you can see on the outside box are the Huawei P10 name at the top right and the Leica and Huawei logos at the bottom. Then there is a thin line running across the middle of the box's front face, in a very short while we'll know why it has that. Apart from those, there is nothing more. As you can see in the image above, that's exactly what you get when you make the purchase of the phone. Unless you pre-order one, you will also get additional Huawei P10 Travel Kit worth Php5,000.
What's in the Box
I got to say, Huawei really did a good job in creating this container for their P10. It's a kind of design I have never seen before personally. Although users will most likely to do it once, the unboxing experience was really good. It's like you already make a connection with this device the moment you push those outside jackets sideways, or that's just me. hehehe. Anyway, I just like it.
As shown in the simple GIF I created above, you can see that the moment you open the box, it's the P10 unit itself that will immediately greet you. Which is something nice you know, you get to see the device you bought right away and upfront. Then the remaining items of the package are all securely stored underneath the phone's cradle.
Huawei P10
Now let's talk about the main guy of the party - the Huawei P10. This one right here sports a quite small front panel for today's smartphone standards. It has a 5.1-inch screen bearing a Full HD (1080p) display resolution. I have been using smartphones with at least 5.5-inch screen size for a long time now and very recently I just tried OPPO F3 Plus which has a gigantic 6-inch display to be called a smartphone. So holding the P10 for the very firs time, is now a bit too small to my liking. But if you have smaller hands and a lot of skinny jeans, I think this will be perfect for you however you want to hold this. And then of course, there is a bigger variant, P10 Plus with 5.5", if you would like bigger and better (in terms of display resolution, 2540x1440). The overall feel of the device's build is pretty solid too.
Fingerprint Scanner
One of the big changes that Huawei has done with the P10 series is the relocation of the Fingerprint Scanner which a lot of P9 users have found to be more convenient to have when situated at the back panel, right below the camera. I don't know why there is a change in location, but perhaps it has to do with adding more functions to it than just reading fingerprints. That pill-shaped home button below the display, by the way takes a good amount of space making the whole chin of the phone a lot thicker, now also works as sort of a touchpad. It does not click though, but a simple or short tap will bring you to the previous screen you were on, a long tap if you would like to go all the way back to the home screen, or swipe left or right to switch previously viewed apps. For these additional functions, I like it. But apart from that, I think it would be more nice to see it on the back panel again. So what about those on-screen buttons? Yes they also work like they should, but I read somewhere they can be disabled in case you want to use the physical button's full potential. I only had this phone for a day, and for that I did not have much time to explore it.
Leica Dual Camera 2.0
On the back is where we can find the main highlight of this phone, the Huawei P10 now carries a Leica Dual Camera 2.0 where the cameras have two SUMMARIT-H lenses with an f/2.2 aperture sensor. With these powerful 20MP+12MP shooters, combined with optical image stabilization and superior low-light photography capabilities, Huawei promises users to achieve stunning and outstanding photos like never before in a smartphone camera photography scene. I loved the cameras on the P9 when I was able to play with it during Huawei PH's first ever photography workshop here in Davao City last year, so I am pretty sure I will also love them on the P10.
The two cameras at the back, in addition to being Leica-certified, are both equipped with f/2.2 aperture, PDAF, Optical Image Stabilization and 2x Hybrid Zoom and Dual-Tone LED flash. Unlike other dual camera smartphones on the market, Huawei and Leica's implementation here is quite different. The 20MP monochrome and 12MP RGB shooters work together to achieve those photography-worthy shots, they capture more details of the scene than any other, and they produce very well crafted images with bokeh (blurry background) effects than any other smartphones in the wild now. And oh, the front 8MP camera is also now a Leica-certified as well like its rear counterparts. But this one has a much larger f/1.9 aperture which is now able to capture two times more light that on P9.
On the left side of the P10 is where we can find the Dual-SIM card tray. Like many other smartphones today, this one is a hybrid type too. Meaning you can either have two SIM cards running at the same time or a microSD card on the SIM 2 slot. It can supports memory card up to 256GB though. P10 has 64GB storage while the bigger brother has 128GB right off the bat.
On the right edge are the Volume Rocker and a textured Lock/Power key.
Down below are a pretty busy part of the Huawei P10. There is the still-present 3.5mm jackport, the new USB Type-C port and a six-hole speaker grill, plus a microphone too.
Final Thoughts
Overall it is another great smartphone created by Huawei and Leica. It is one of those smartphones that camera enthusiast people will definitely love to have as their smartphone and on-the-go camera. They will be, for sure, happy to know that it has a ton of camera features and settings that are present to tend to their needs. But for first time and average users, I guess it will take them a little more time to understand those settings and functions as well as to get familiar with them. And when they do, the way they capture and preserve moments will never be the same again.
Huawei P10 specs:
- 5.1-inch Full HD display
- 1920 x 1080 resolution, 432ppi
- 2.5D Curved Glass
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5
- 2.4GHz Octa-core Huawei Kirin 960 processor
- Mali G7MP8 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB internal storage
- Supports microSD card up to 256GB
- 20MP (monochrome) + 12MP (RGB) rear cameras with f/2.2 sensor, PDAF, 2x Hybrid Zoom, OIS, and Dual-Tone LED Flash
- 8MP front camera with f/1.9 sensor, Autofocus, and Screen Flash
- Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, GLONASS> NFC
- 4G LTE
- Dual-SIM (hybrid)
- Fingerprint Scanner
- USB Type C
- 6.98mm thick
- 145g
- Fast Charge
- 3200mAh battery
- Php28,990
Availability and Pricing
As of writing, the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus already launched in the Philippines but won't be released until April 21, 2017. However, you can now pre-order it with a minimum and non-refundable deposit of just Php3,000. Plus you will also get travel kit worth Php5000 when you do.
The Huawei P10 has a price tag of Php28,990.
If you are from Davao City, you can get your P10 or P10 Plus from Tek Pone stores or from the Huawei Shops at 3F SM Lanang Premier and 3F Gaisano Mall of Davao.
Check out my Huawei P10 Plus unboxing and hands-on review here.
