Huawei P10 review

Huawei has been making persistently nice telephones for a variety of years now, but has struggled to determine itself as a family title in western markets – and its newest flagship, the Huawei P10, presents a glimpse as to why that’s the case.

The Huawei P10 is a fruits of every part the corporate has been doing proper, with just a few minor tweaks from the P9 to verify it retains up with the massive weapons equivalent to Apple and Samsung. 

However they’re minor tweaks, and the P10 is a restricted improve – and when you’re already operating a current telephone from the corporate you is probably not impressed to improve, though you may wish to take a look at the marginally bigger and better-specced Huawei P10 Plus as a substitute.

Huawei P10 value and launch date

• Launched within the UK and Australia in March 2017 for £569.99/AU$899
• Huawei has no plans to launch the P10 within the US
• Costlier than the Huawei P9 was at launch

The Huawei P10 is now out within the UK and Australia, and it wasn’t an inexpensive gadget at launch. It initially value £569.99/AU$899, however we have now seen the gadget drop down so much.

Within the UK we have seen it as little as £350 with month-to-month offers beginning off at lower than £30 a month for 1GB offers. Huawei can be promoting the P10 in Australia too, but it surely nonetheless prices round AU$899 from Optus, Vodafone and Virgin Cellular.

We are able to anticipate to see the worth drop even additional now the comply with up Huawei P20 is closely rumored and will even launch at MWC 2018.

Video our video of the Huawei P10 hands-on under.

You will not be capable of purchase this telephone within the US, nevertheless, and it isn’t presently clear why the corporate is not launching the P10 there. If you happen to’re within the US you could wish to search out an imported mannequin, as we anticipate it to work with AT&T and T-Cellular, but it surely most likely will not work with Verizon and Dash.

Key options

• New fingerprint scanner presents a brand new solution to navigate your telephone
• Improved digital camera system features a portrait mode

The fingerprint scanner on the Huawei P10 is a giant spotlight of this telephone. That is the primary time Huawei has put its safety scanner on the entrance of the telephone for just a few iterations. It sits just under the display screen, though regardless of it trying like the house key on a Samsung gadget you possibly can’t press this down, because it’s not a button. There aren’t any capacitive keys on the entrance of the telephone both; as a substitute navigation between screens and apps is all managed by means of the fingerprint sensor.

Huawei says that is to try to create a extra streamlined design – one thing it calls ‘natural minimalism’.

To maneuver across the interface you’ll have to push down on the fingerprint sensor for round a second, however to return one step you’ll simply faucet it shortly. You may as well swipe to the appropriate to open the earlier apps display screen.

Whenever you first choose up the P10 and attempt to use this, it feels convoluted. After per week of use, we discovered it turned a lot simpler to grasp, and truly somewhat quicker than shifting between three completely different keys on the backside of your telephone, as on different units.

Simply be warned, you’ll possible spend your first few days getting annoyed, as you’ve tapped the button to go to your private home display screen however as a substitute end up returning to an internet web page.

As with its different telephones Huawei is placing a giant give attention to the digital camera for the P10. There’s a twin digital camera setup on the rear of the P10 – that’s a 20MP monochrome sensor working in tandem with a 12MP coloration shooter.

Pictures are taken on each cameras and the telephone combines each – the black and white sensor is claimed to enhance element within the picture, whereas the 12MP sensor captures the colour. We’ve discovered that in good lighting the P10’s digital camera is best than the P9’s, but it surely’s not doing something remarkably completely different.

There’s additionally a brand new Leica-branded Portrait mode, which improves facial monitoring and features a beautification mode – we’ll inform you extra about this within the upcoming digital camera part.

Design

• Extra rounded design makes the Huawei P10 appear like an iPhone 6S
• Simpler to deal with than another Huawei units
• Fingerprint scanner on the entrance modifications the way in which you maintain the telephone

The Huawei P10 seems like an iPhone 6S – there’s no escaping that. It’s hanging how related the design of the P10 is to the iPhone 6S, sufficient in order that we’ve had many individuals mistake the gadget for an iPhone.

If you happen to’re a fan of the iPhone design however not Apple’s iOS, the Huawei P10 may effectively be an awesome purchase for you.

Regardless of trying like Apple’s gadget, a lot of the design language on the P10 can be just like the Huawei P9. It’s a barely extra snug telephone to make use of than that telephone, because of rounded corners that make it a contact extra snug within the hand.

The facility button is barely indented, on the right-hand facet of the telephone, and feels completely different sufficient to the amount rocker that you simply received’t confuse the 2 when the telephone’s in your pocket.

Alongside the underside fringe of the telephone sit the one speaker driver, the USB-C port and the three.5mm headphone jack. Huawei is protecting the handbook headphone jack for now, not like a few of the competitors, so that you’ll be capable of proceed utilizing wired headphones with this telephone.

The again of the telephone is a full-metal unibody as soon as once more, however this time there are just a few completely different results to select from.

Huawei has added two ‘dazzling’ coloration choices to the vary for the Huawei P10, which give a reflective metallic impact and look nice.

The know-how behind that is referred to as ‘Hyper Diamond Reduce’; it means you received’t depart any fingerprints on the again of the telephone, and it’ll additionally look stunning from afar.

The telephone pictured all through this evaluation would not sport the ‘Hyper Diamond Reduce’ end, sadly. The common metallic Huawei P10 seems somewhat boring in comparison with the brand new dazzling model, but it surely does are available 5 coloration choices.

These are black, inexperienced, silver, gold and rose gold. Huawei can be included a White Ceramic model, which continues to be fabricated from metallic however comes with a ceramic-effect end on high.

If you happen to’re upgrading to the Huawei P10 we actually assume you’ll be taken with both the Dazzling Blue or Dazzling Gold choices, as every seems fairly completely different to anything you should buy proper now.

Whereas we’re not reviewing both of the ‘Dazzling’ choices, however we now have had the possibility to carry them they usually feel and look very good certainly.

The design of the Huawei P10 does really feel somewhat slicker than earlier Huawei telephones, and a greater total bundle. It’s straightforward to carry this gadget – the Huawei Mate 9 could be unwieldy for some.

However we’ll say it once more… it’s actually arduous to shake the impression that this telephone seems very like an iPhone.

Show

• Full HD 5.1-inch show that is vivid and colourful
• Searching for a better decision? Go for the P10 Plus

Huawei has opted for a Full HD show on the P10, not like competitors from LG and Samsung which have QHD panels. And only a day after the P10 was introduced, Sony confirmed off its model new 4K panel telephone, which presents a much better decision than the P10.

Why Huawei has determined to not replace the panel isn’t completely clear – we don’t assume it’s a very dangerous factor, however when you do need a greater decision you’ll wish to purchase the Huawei P10 Plus, which incorporates a QHD decision panel.

The display screen is way the identical as we noticed on the Huawei P9, which we had been principally fairly pleased with. It’s a contact smaller at 5.1 inches – the Huawei P9 was 5.2 inches.

You’ll be capable of attain all corners of the show with out stretching out your fingers. It’s possible you’ll generally have to make use of each arms to make use of a specific function, but it surely’s a snug expertise.

The panel itself presents 432 pixels per inch, which suggests every part you watch on right here seems sharp, regardless of it not being a QHD panel. We additionally discovered the show to be super-bright, which is nice when you’re usually utilizing your telephone in sturdy daylight.