Huawei’s P10 wants to elevate the selfie

Huawei today announced its latest flagship smartphone, the P10, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, during the company’s keynote presentation.

Building on the well-received P9, the P10 doesn’t change the formula too much, instead building upon what made the P9 appealing to consumers across the world.

The newest P-series iteration includes the company’s latest flagship system-on-a-chip, the 2.4GHz octa-core Kirin 960 processor. GPU performance on the new chipset is significantly improved from past Kirin designs, according to Huawei. Specifically, the company says the Kirin 960 delivers an 180 percent increase in GPU performance while consuming 40 percent less power.

The main attraction, however, is the phone’s camera package. Like the 2016 P9, the P10 includes a dual-lens camera setup co-designed by legendary German lens maker Leica. In this case, there’s one 20 megapixel black and white sensor and one 12-megapixel colour sensor. In addition, the P10 features a front-facing camera co-designed by Leica, a first for both companies. Huawei says the camera features better dynamic range and brightness than the P9’s front-facing camera. Borrowing a page from the iPhone, the P10 includes a portrait mode that works almost exactly like its iOS

In addition, the P10 features an 8-megapixel front-facing camera co-designed by Leica, a first for both companies. Huawei says the camera features better dynamic range and brightness than the P9’s front-facing camera. Borrowing a page from the iPhone, the P10 includes a portrait mode that works almost exactly like its iOS analogue.

On the software front, the phone will ship with Android 7.0 and the latest version of the company’s EMUI skin, 5.1. Huawei has also baked in a “behaviour-based compression mechanism” that the company says will compress apps users don’t open very often, saving space in the process.

Battery life is set to be another selling point, with the P10 and P10 Plus featuring 3,200mAh and 3,750mAh batteries, respectively. Moreover, according to Huawei, the latest version of its SuperCharge fast charging technology is able to give the P10’s battery enough power to play a 90 minute HD movie after just five minutes of recharging. Borrowing a feature from the Mate 9, the P10’s battery also includes the company’s new ‘Super Safe 5-gate protection.’ This feature provides real-time temperature, voltage and current monitoring while the battery is recharging, allowing to ensure their battery is safely charging.

As in past years, the P10 will come in two sizes. The standard version comes in at 5.1-inches and features a 1920 x 1080 display. Meanwhile, the P10 Plus is a bit bigger at 5.5-inches. It also features a 2560 x 1440 display instead of a Full HD one. The larger model also features 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, as opposed to 4GB of RAM and 64GB found in its smaller sibling. Both phones also feature a microSD slot for up 256GB of additional storage. Neither phone is Daydream compatible.

One notable change from the P9 is the fingerprint sensor, which Huawei has moved to the front of the phone with the P10. It doubles as the device’s home button, and allows users to use gestures to complete a variety of actions.

The phone will come in several colours, including old Huawei standbys like Graphite Black, Dazzling Gold and Ceramic White, as well as two new colours designed by the Pantone Colour Institute, Greenery and Dazzling Blue.

The phone includes a new “hyper diamond cut” finish that Huawei says is immune to fingerprints and scratches. This finish is only available on the Pantone Colour Institute-designed colours.

We’ve reached out to Huawei to find if the company plans to bring the P10 to Canada. We’ll update this article when we hear back from the company.

In the meantime, find a full list of the P10 and P10 PLus’ technical specifications below: