Huawei partnered up with Leica to produce a smartphone with superior camera technology that, along with other advanced features, could rival the world's top brands.
The Huawei P9 aims to set a new standard in smartphone photography with its double camera rear. The two lenses work together to produce high-quality photos with "superior color, depth and detail."
Along with this new piece of technology, Huawei specifically designed its upcoming flagship phone to compete with those prominent brands and qualify for a spot in the premium market.
Today, we put these improvements to the test and pit the Huawei P9 against the Apple iPhone 6s and Samsung Galaxy S7.
Build
The Huawei P9's metallic build is 145 x 70.9 x 6.95 mm, about 5.71 x 2.79 x 0.27 inches, and weighs around 144 g, about 5.08 ounces, with dual SIM integration.
The Apple iPhone 6s's metallic build is 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm, about 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 inches, and weighs about 143 g, about 5.04 ounces, with one SIM slot.
While the Samsung Galaxy S7's metal and glass combination is 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm, 5.61 x 2.74 x 0.31 inches, and weighs around 152 g, 5.36 ounces, with dual SIM integration.
All three phones feature sleek and premium designs that the public looks for these days. The rounded edges and curved tips of each device, coupled with their seemingly flat surfaces wherein cameras have been flushed into the design, gives each of the phones an even and flowy feel.
The Huawei P9 is "ergonomic, light and hearty" with a keen attention to design that improves functionality. While the iPhone 6s heads premium phones in design, progress, and sophistication, and now uses a tougher material than its predecessor, making it the strongest of the three brands.
These two are lighter, thinner and fingerprint resistant compared to the Samsung Galaxy 5. Whereas the latter is lacking in the mentioned specs, Samsung Galaxy S7's curved thicker edge makes it easier to pick-up and hold. Its glass back that allows wireless charging and its proven water-resistant build beat the other two in this category.
Display
All three phones have a multitouch, capacitive touchscreen that displays 16 million colors. The P9 and S7 use a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 while the iPhone uses an ion-strengthened glass with oleophobic coating.
The difference comes with the Huawei P9's 5.2-inch IPS-NEO LCD screen that has a 1,80 x 1,920 resolution with around 423 ppi, the iPhone 6s' 4.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD screen that has 750 x 1,334 resolution with around 326 ppi, and the Galaxy S7's 5.1-inch Super AMOLED screen that has a 1,440 x 2,560 resolution with about 577 ppi.
Display features: for the Huawei P9 is its custom Emotion UI 4.1; for the iPhone 6s is its 3D Touch display and Display Zoom; and the Samsung S7 is its Always-On display and the TouchWiz UI.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 wins in this category as its AMOLED Always-On display offers more visual clarity, striking colors and convenience over the Huawei P9 and Apple iPhone 6s' LCD screens.
In fact, Huawei P9's display leaves much to be desired as its 5.2-inch display could've offered a bigger resolution for more visual interest. On the other hand, the iPhone 6s' 3D Touch may offer functionality at first, but over time, become more troublesome as users have to test out if the feature works for an app and if it does, remember how the feature works for that particular app.
Performance
Both the Huawei P9 and Samsung S7 carry Android's latest Marshmallow update while the Apple iPhone 6s carry its own iOS 9, upgradable to iOS 9.3.
The Huawei P9 sports its own Kirin 955 processor with four 2.5 GHz Cortex-A72 and four 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 cores.
The Apple iPhone 6s is built upon the Apple A9 processor with two 1.84 GHz Twister cores, while the Samsung Galaxy S7 is backed up by either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 or an Exynos 8890 Octa processor with either two 2.15 GHz Kryo and two 1.6 GHz Kryo cores or four 2.3 GHz Mongoose and four 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 cores, respectively.
The GPUs for each unit is a Mali-T880 MP4 for the Huawei P9, a PowerVR GT7600 for the Apple iPhone 6s, and an Adreno 530 and Mali-T880 MP12 for the Samsung Galaxy S7.
In the app subcategory, the iPhone 6s wins over the two because of its dedicated apps for different tasks and the use of a clean UI.
The other two devices will be distributed by carriers that usually load up the phone with apps. This causes duplicated apps on Android phones and while the iPhone 6s has an app tray, the Marshmallow Android update only uses folders for organizing on the home screens and displays a menu that lists all the apps and duplicates.
The iPhone 6s's smaller resolution allows its hardware to perform at the same level as the two other units. However, the two bigger resolution-screened phones require more juice than what the 6s can offer, which puts the iPhone 6s at the bottom.
Between the Huawei P9 and the Samsung Galaxy S7, the latter wins this category as its biggest resolution of the three, coupled with its optimal hardware specs, give it powerful capabilities to handle hardcore graphic-heavy games that most reviews use as benchmarks to test out smartphone performance.
Storage
The Huawei P9 and Galaxy S7 has memory expansions through microSDs up to 128 GB and 200 GB, respectively. The Galaxy S7 has two variants that can either accept only a single SIM with a dedicated slot for microSD or two SIMs wherein the second SIM slot acts as a microSD slot as well. The Apple iPhone 6s in contrast, does not allow memory expansions.
Built-in memory for the Huawei P9 is at 32 GB with 3 GB RAM and 64 GB with 4 GB RAM; 16, 64, and 128 GB for the Apple iPhone 6s with 2 GB RAM; and 32 and 64 GB for the Galaxy S7, both with 4 GB RAM.
The Huawei P9 offers users two options to choose from, wherein one is cheaper than the other while the Apple iPhone 6s' memory can only be bought as is. In this category, the 4 GB RAM and 200 GB expansion from Samsung Galaxy S7 beat the other two as it allows more multitasking features without experiencing any difference in smoothness as well as offering maximum space.
Battery
The three phones all have non-removable batteries wherein both the Huawei P9 and Galaxy S7 sport the same 3,000 mAh battery while the Apple iPhone 6s sports a 1,715 mAh battery. Both the Android phones support quick charging and use the new Doze app, which saves battery life. Only the S7 supports wireless charging.
Early reviews for the Huawei P9 battery life so far conclude that its battery can last a full day of usage without running out as developers had earlier guaranteed that the phone can last for 1.5 days.
In a test, the Galaxy S7 proved to be greater in battery life compared to the iPhone 6s, the former had lasted for 9 hours during video playback and the latter had lasted 4.5 hours.
On average, the Samsung Galaxy S7 can endure 3G voice calls for about 22 hours and music play for about 62 hours while the Apple iPhone 6s can endure 3G voice calls for about 14 hours and music play for about 50 hours.
As tests have yet to detail usage specifics for the P9 and prove Huawei's claims, the Samsung Galaxy S7 wins in this category.
Camera
The Huawei P9 has two 12-megapixel, 27 mm rear lenses with f/2.2 aperture and an 8-megapixel front camera. The Apple iPhone 6s has a 12-megapixel, 29 mm rear lens with f/2.2 aperture and a 5-megapixel front camera. Samsung Galaxy S7 has a 12-megapixel 26 mm rear lens with f/1.7 aperture and a 5-megapixel front camera.
All the phones have Phase Detection Autofocus, both the P9 and 6s have a dual-LED flash with dual tone while the S7 has an OIS feature and an LED flash.
Picture-wise, the Huawei P9 stands out with its two rear cameras that work together to produce crisp, vivid and adjustable photos. Its camera was designed by Leica which features Leica-approved settings and a comprehensive manual mode.
The Huawei P9 works surprisingly well in bright and low-light conditions as one of the rear cameras uses a monochrome sensor, which greatly enhances the detail and contrast of captured images. The other two, on the other hand, offer impressive photography, but tail behind the Huawei P9 in terms of quality and functionality.
Pricing
On its U.S. release, the Huawei P9 will be allegedly priced at around $650, available in Haze Gold, Prestige Gold, Titanium Gray, and Mystic Silver finish. Currently the Apple iPhone 6s prices range from $649, $749 and $849 for the 16 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB variants, respectively, available in Silver, Gold, Space Gray and Rose Gold finish. Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy S7 starts at about $694 available in Silver Titanium. Black Onyx and Gold Platinum finish.
In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy S7 seemingly wins in this competition, but in the real world, it all comes down to application and usage. The best phone will depend if the user is looking for optimal photography features, an efficient and clean GUI, or a robust and well-built smartphone.
