Huawei P9 Launch Date and Specifications
The smartphone market is already abuzz with the reports of the upcoming Huawei flagship Huawei P9. Until now, the rumours were suggesting that the device will be released on April 6th. Well, this has been officially confirmed now as just hours ago, the Chinese manufacturer announced that it will have a launch event on April 6th.
Though the company hasn’t mentioned Huawei P9 anywhere in the teaser, but it is almost certain that this launch event which is to be held in London will be for the unveiling of the much awaited Huawei flagship, Huawei P9.We can say this with almost certainty that the device to be launched is indeed the Huawei P9 because of the tagline used by the company in the teaser. The tagline reads, “change the way you see the world” and is followed by the hashtag #OO. Considering the fact that the device is rumoured to sport a dual-camera, we can easily put the dots together.
Latest reports claim that the Huawei P9 will feature a dual 12-megapixel camera at the rear with Leica-made lenses. While we don’t know about the exact camera features yet but we can expect picture refocusing, adding together different high-res snaps, different angled lenses, etc. among others. The P9 is expected to be powered by Huawei’s own octa-core Kirin 950 processor along with Mali-T880 graphics and 3 GB of RAM. It will sport a 1080p 5.2-inch display and will offer 32 GB of internal memory and 3,900mAh battery.
Specification At Glance :
Huawei P9 design
Huawei has been making waves for delivering quality design at a price that's much more affordable than some rivals like HTC or Samsung. We saw that in the Mate S, and the Mate 8 followed with this all-metal construction, as did the Nexus 6P and the MateBook tablet.
A tweet from @stagueve in October 2015 suggested the design might put a dual lens camera on that rear. That idea was supported by several leaks including a couple from China's Weibo, one of which was confirmed as accurate by VentureBeat. VentureBeat has since published its own images though, again supporting the dual-lens concept and rear fingerprint sensor.
The recent invite also shows two circles that likely refer to the cameras. It also says: "Change the way you see the world".
There are also rumours of a triplicate of handsets, the P9, the P9 Lite and the P9 Max. Evan Blass, writing for VentureBeat, said a fourth, feature-enhanced P9 will offer slightly larger screen, additional RAM and storage, improved camera, with dual lens, dual 12-megapixel cameras. It seems this fourth device could be called the P9 premium.
Huawei P9 display
Huawei's recent launches have been notable for one reason: the Mate S and the Mate 8 have a Full HD display, sporting a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. The former, the Mate S, has a special edition that's pressure sensitive and that could well be a feature of the P9 too.
Some rumours have suggested the Huawei P9 will have a Quad HD display, 2560 x 1440 pixels with a 5.2-inch AMOLED panel however. The P9 Lite is said to be 5-inches, the P9 Max 6.8 inches. Huawei is no a stranger to Quad HD displays, as the Nexus 6P shows, so again, for a new flagship this is entirely plausible.
That said, Evan Blass, writing for VentureBeat, said none of the P9 variants will have Quad HD resolution. Apparently Huawei feels that the slight improvement in image quality is not worth the trade-off in power drain, meaning that the Nexus 6P will likely remain the only Huawei-built phone to offer a 1440 x 2560-pixel screen for some time.
It is thought at the moment the P9 will therefore arrive with a 5.2-inch display offering a Full HD resolution.
Huawei P9 specs and hardware
As for the internal hardware, Huawei likes to keep things in house. A number of rumours have pointed to a Kirin 950 chipset. That's the same as the Mate 8 features, offering octo-core 64-bit power. It's entirely likely that it will appear in the P9 too.
Leaked benchmarks have suggested as much, although some rumours have also suggested the Kirin 955 chip will be present. Initially reported as having 4GB of RAM, recent reports have suggested it might have as much as 6GB.
One thing you can be sure of though is a fingerprint sensor on the rear, as shown in the latest VentureBeat images. The last few devices have given a great fingerprint scanner experience, with additional features, something we'd expect to see here. The VentureBeat images also show USB Type-C so if legitimate, you can also expect faster charging and data charging on the P9.
Huawei P9 cameras
Huawei has made a lot of noise about the cameras on its devices, cramming in a lot of features and functions, both on the front and rear. We've seen some great results too.
The invite for the 6 April event features two circles that look like cameras and it reads: "Change the way you see the world".
As we've seen, there's a rumour that the P9 is going to feature the dual lens approach. We've seen this on the Honor, as well as from HTC and we're not hugely excited about that proposition, unless it can really bring something exciting to the feature set.
Rumours say that will be two 13-megapixel rear cameras, while others say two 12-megapixel dual-cameras on both the P9 and P9 Premium. Perhaps that's justification for the 6GB of RAM.
However, Evan Blass claims that the dual-lens version will be the fourth enhanced model, this time with second-gen dual lenses, improving over the Honor 6 Plus.
The company has also announced a strategic partnership with iconic camera maker Leica, with a plan to "reinvent" smartphone photography. This joining of forces could suggest the P9 might feature Leica lenses and imaging technology but neither company would confirm or deny this so we will have to wait and see for now.
Huawei P9 software
Huawei like its own EMUI skin that sits over Android and we'd expect that to be fully lodged in place on the P9, but sitting over the top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
We're not expecting huge changes to the software in the P9. Huawei changes just about every aspect of Android to put its own twist on things. There are some great additions for power saving, but some of the app additions and changes to icons undo the good work of stock Android.
The specs look very good on the sheet but we seriously hope that apart from these amazing hardware configurations, Huawei will come up with some very cool new features to sweep us off our feet. So don’t forget to check out the launch of the device on April 6th. Till then, stay tuned and do leave your comments below.
