A couple of years ago, Huawei released the P6 smartphone, which boasted a very thin body and a stylish, strict appearance, thanks to which it gained considerable popularity, even despite not the most top-end features. Huawei continues the line and the most relevant at the moment is the flagship Huawei P8, which was introduced back in the spring and finally got to us.
What's this?
Huawei P8 is a thin, stylish smartphone with a rather compact (by today's standards) metal body, a "handy" 5.2-inch screen with FullHD resolution and one of the company's latest processors, 64-bit, eight-core HiSilicon Kirin 930.
Why is he interesting?
The predecessor P7 was very mediocre in terms of technical characteristics and was glass on both sides. In the current flagship, Huawei approached the issue differently: performance is very close to the flagship devices. The case has retained the same recognizable common features: a strict shape and small thickness, while using much more metal, it has become more pleasant and practical.
What is in the box?
The box looks interesting and unusual. It is small in size and under the outer cover there is a plastic plug. Under it, edge outward, like a book on a shelf, the smartphone itself is installed. All accessories are stuffed into small boxes:
Included: smartphone, power supply, USB cable, headset, paper clip to remove the trays and instructions.
The presence of a headset is rather unusual. Recently, manufacturers do not consider it necessary to supply it as a kit. The headset itself is quite unpretentious and does not have high sound quality, which is not surprising: decent headphones will significantly add to the total cost, while at the same time, the user is quite capable of acquiring good headphones on his own.
What's interesting about the look?
Only the front panel, a small area near the camera with antennas and a strip at the bottom of the case are completely glass in the smartphone. The smartphone has a strict rectangular shape with minimally rounded corners. In addition to the screen, the front camera, sensors, a speaker and an LED event indicator are located in front. There are no buttons under the screen, only on-screen ones:
The indicator is small, but noticeable, shifted to the right edge. Its operation can be configured:
The case is really very thin: only 6.4 mm, the ends are beveled and slightly rounded. On the right side there is a power button, a volume rocker and both trays for SIM cards and MicroSD:
The buttons are also made of metal, fit perfectly, do not wobble, are very comfortable and pleasant to use:
At the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack and microphone for noise cancellation:
There are no functional elements on the left side:
On the bottom side - MicroUSB and two symmetrical grilles. Under one of them is a conversational microphone, under the second - an external speaker. Despite the fact that he is the only one in the smartphone, the sound quality and volume were very pleasantly surprised:
The back cover is almost completely metal. There is a thin plastic strip on the bottom, a small insert with a camera module on top:
13-megapixel main camera with Sony module, optical image stabilization and dual LED flash:
Two separate nanoSIM trays, one of which can be used for a MicroSD card:
The smartphone is superbly assembled, there is simply nothing to complain about. All parts fit perfectly, nothing wobbles, a lot of metal. Good, beautiful and practical. At the presentation of Huawei mentioned that the body of the P8 is made from a single piece of aluminum, it takes 810 minutes to make. There are four color options, judging by the information on the official website, we will have two available: champagne and titanium gray. We reviewed the first option. I think that it would suit a girl more, gray is more masculine.
How good is the screen?
The smartphone uses a 5.2-inch IPS-display without an air gap with FullHD resolution, pixel density of 424 ppi and thin bezels. A screen size that is very convenient to use and a resolution at which it is impossible to see the pixels. The right decision: QHD with such dimensions does not make any sense, it only loads the system and drains the battery faster. Huawei has made good use of the smartphone's front panel, with a screen-to-total ratio of 78.3%, which is very good. A film is immediately glued onto the screen, the presence of which is practically not noticed. Viewing angles are maximum, oleophobic coating is also available, of good quality. As for the margin of brightness in the "field" conditions, it is difficult to say, the weather does not please with an abundance of sun, so in this matter we will trust the colorimeter.
Supports multi-touch up to 10 touches:
The colorimeter showed very good results in terms of brightness and contrast: 365.371 cd/m 2 , black field brightness 0.396 cd/m 2 , and contrast ratio 923:1. With color rendering, the situation is rather strange. "To the eye" the colors look bright and pleasant, the hardware measurement showed a rather strong roll towards blue:
If desired, you can adjust it with such a proprietary utility:
Comparison with competitors:
| Device name | Brightness of the white field, cd/m2 | Black field brightness cd/m2 | Contrast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huawei P8 | 365.371 | 0.396 | 923:1 |
| HTC One M9 | 368.177 | 1 | 733:1 |
| Lenovo Vibe Z2 | 425.699 | 0.574 | 742:1 |
| Xiaomi Mi4 | 423.5 | 0.64 | 662:1 |
| Sony Xperia Z3 | 359 | 0.59 | 608:1 |
How is performance?
The Huawei P8 uses an octa-core 64-bit proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 930 spill processor with two blocks of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2.0 GHz and 1.5 GHz, the amount of RAM is 3 GB. The built-in flash memory is 16 GB, a little more than 10 GB is available, you can add more using a microSD memory card, but then there will be only one SIM card. A common solution with a universal tray. A proprietary application with performance and power consumption control is provided:
There are no shell and application brakes, and there cannot be. Everything "flies", in the idle state, about 2 GB of RAM is free on average, which is very pleasing, it seems that Huawei approached the issue of shell optimization with all responsibility. All modern games also run without problems:
Heating - depending on the application / game. On Need For Speed No Limits, the smartphone remains cold, Mortal Kombat X loads the system very significantly and the smartphone heats up noticeably evenly over the entire area, although Snapdragon 810 temperatures are still far away. Everything is in order with the rest of the hardware: the GPS module quickly finds satellites, it takes about 20 seconds for a cold start. As we have already mentioned, the external speaker is good, both in terms of volume and quality, the vibrating alert is also quite powerful, you can feel it in your jeans pocket. As for the sound in the headphones, it is very solid and most users will be satisfied with it.
The battery capacity is 2680 mAh, it is difficult to cram more into such a thin case. In fact, no miracles happened, autonomy is not one of the strengths of the smartphone. In everyday mode (20-30 minutes of calls, almost constant network connection, a few photos and about an hour of games), the smartphone survives until the end of the day, the video plays about 9 hours.
For those who want to know more
As we wrote above, Huawei P8 uses 64-bit HiSilicon Kirin 930 as a processor (4x ARM Cortex-A53 1.5 GHz and 4xGPU Mali-T624. It is produced at the facilities of TSMC on a 16-nm process technology, which is supplemented with 3 GB of RAM. In fact, the smartphone can compete with competitors based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and MediaTek MT6795, although it falls short of the Samsung flagships, which are ahead this year thanks to a very successful Exynos 7420. Benchmark results:
Is the interface user friendly?
The smartphone runs on Android 5.0.1 operating system with EMUI 3.1 shell, in the future they promise updates to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. As mentioned above, the shell is very well optimized and works very fast.
All applications are placed on desktops, there is no separate menu for them. Supported widgets, folders:
The curtain consists of two main tabs: toggle icons (can be edited) and notifications:
The on-screen button bar can be edited, there is a button to call the top curtain:
Regular application manager with the ability to close all or individual applications and display free RAM:
There is a "winter" mode with increased sensitivity for working with gloves. It is possible to display the control button by clicking on which the navigation buttons appear. Smart screenshot - the ability to take screenshots by double tapping on the screen:
Various themes:
The settings menu is organized quite familiarly:
A variety of display settings, notification panel, gestures, and so on:
Pretty simple full-time music player with a minimum of necessary settings:
And a set of all sorts of useful applications, starting with the weather, a voice recorder with various operating modes, a timer, an application manager, and ending with exotic things like a magnifying glass, a mirror and a director's mode, in which you can connect up to 3 devices via Wi-Fi and "mount" in real time video from what everyone shoots:
How is the camera?
The main camera has a resolution of 13 megapixels, uses a Sony module with a four-color RGBW-matrix, optical image stabilization, f / 2.0 aperture and a dedicated ISP processor. Front camera - 8 MP. The camera interface is quite intuitive, but there are also enough settings of all kinds, they are scattered across different menus. There are burst modes, HDR, panorama, choosing a good shot, photos with audio notes and post-focus (the camera takes several photos at once with different focal lengths). You can take a quick photo directly from a locked smartphone by pressing the volume down button twice. A picture is taken and the time it took to take it is displayed:
Photos are really good quality, even in poor lighting and in the evening:
Video in FullHD, specially filmed in the evening. The quality is very good:
In the dry matter
It seems that when creating the P8, Huawei was guided not by the pursuit of incredible resolutions or screen sizes and sky-high performance, but by the desire to make just an excellent and balanced smartphone, and they succeeded. Huawei P8 boasts a superbly assembled metal thin body, modern powerful (though not the most top-end) stuffing, a good display, a main camera and a comfortable, well-thought-out shell. Of the controversial points, only mediocre battery life and significant heating of the entire smartphone under high loads can be distinguished. The smartphone is about to appear on sale for 13,000 UAH.
5 reasons to buy Huawei P8:
- Excellent metal thin body;
- high performance;
- good main camera;
- high-quality screen;
- convenient and fast shell EMUI 3.1.
1 reason not to buy Huawei P8:
- mediocre battery life.
| Specifications Huawei P8 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Display | IPS, 5.2 inches, 1920x1080 , 424 ppi | |
| Frame | dimensions 144.9x72.1x6.4 mm, weight 144 g | |
| CPU | 64-bit HiSilicon Kirin 930 (4x ARM Cortex-A53 1.5GHz and 4xARM Cortex-A53 2.0 GHz) with graphics accelerator GPU Mali-T624 | |
| RAM | 3 GB | |
| Flash memory | 16 GB, microSD up to 128 GB | |
| Camera | 13 MP, autofocus, dual color flash, optical image stabilization, 8 MP front camera | |
| Wireless technologies | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/a, Bluetooth 4.1 LE | |
| GPS | GPS, Glonass, BeiDou | |
| Battery | 2500 mAh non-removable | |
| Operating system | Android 5.0.1 Lollipop + EMUI 3.1 | |
| SIM card | nanoSIMx2 | |
The powerful filling of the flagship Huawei P8 was packed in an ultra-thin metal case, where there was also a place for two SIM cards. One of the coolest "chips" of this device was a camera with an RGBW sensor and optical stabilization. Vesti.Hi-tech figured out all the nuances of an elegant novelty.
The Huawei P8 premium device was introduced in mid-April in London. According to IDC for the last quarter, this Chinese corporation is one of the top three global smartphone manufacturers, so the next European premiere of its flagship quite transparently hints where further expansion will be directed. Recall that the flagship line (P8) also includes a device with an increased screen size - P8max and a lightweight version of the top smartphone - . It is interesting that the presentation of the premium novelty was held in the modern center of fashion and art, thus emphasizing the desired combination of style and functionality. Since the entire P family of flagships is considered to be fashionable, the design is still more emphasized (after all, there are also technologically advanced Mate flagships).
If suddenly you don’t have time at all, then here is a short text about the main strengths and weaknesses of Huawei P8, without technical details:
Specifications
- Model: GRA_UL00
- OS: Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with EUI 3.1 shell
- Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 930 8-core 64-bit processor, ARM big.LITTLE GTS architecture (4 ARM Cortex-A53e cores, 2.0GHz + 4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.5GHz), Smart i3 co-processor for work with sensors
- Graphics subsystem: ARM Mali-T628 MP4
- RAM: 3 GB (LPDDR3, 1600 MHz)
- Storage Memory: 16 GB (approx. 10.4 GB available), microSDXC card slot (up to 128 GB)
- Interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n (2.4 GHz), Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, microUSB for charge / synchronization, 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB-OTG
- Screen: capacitive, IPS, diagonal 5.2 inches, resolution 1920x1080 pixels, pixel density per inch 424 ppi, operation with gloves
- Cameras: main - 13 MP RGBW sensor (Sony IMX278), f/2.0 aperture, 29 mm EGF, autofocus, optical stabilization, dual flash, video recording [email protected] fps, frontal - 8 MP (Sony IMX179 Exmor), aperture f/2.4, EGF 26 mm, video [email protected] fps
- Network: 2G, 3G (HSPA+, up to 42 Mbps), LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps)
- SIM cards: nanoSIM (4FF format) + nanoSIM (4FF format)/microSD slots, Dual SIM Dual Active (DSDA)
- Navigation: GPS/GLONASS/BDS, A-GPS
- Radio: FM tuner
- Sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light and proximity sensors
- Battery: non-removable, lithium polymer, 2680 mAh (10.19 Wh; 3.8 V)
- Colors: silver, gold
- Dimensions: 144.9x72.1x6.4 mm
- Weight: 144 grams
Design, ergonomics
Huawei does not hide the fact that when creating a new flagship, drawing inspiration from traditional values, they did without avant-garde solutions. So, according to the creators, P8 design elements should evoke memories of the pages, spines and bindings of books.
An overture to this approach is the original plastic box with a translucent lid, and the process of unpacking the device in a sense resembles removing a book from a bookshelf.
The fact is that the smartphone, as well as its documentation and accessories (USB-microUSB cable, power adapter and headset), which are distributed in separate boxes, are inserted into the main package vertically, not horizontally, as usual. In general, everything looks very stylish.
According to the developers, the body of the new flagship is made of a single piece of aluminum, while the thin back cover is made of steel, which further increases the rigidity of the frame.
The developers made the P8 not only one of the thinnest (only 6.4 mm), but also one of the lightest (weight - 144 g, which is about the same as the tiny iPhone 4 by today's standards) modern flagships. Indeed, for comparison: - 6.9 mm, 129 g; - 9.6 mm, 157 g; - 9.8 mm, 155 g; - 6.8 mm, 138 g. Note, by the way, that the thickness of the previous flagship is 6.5 mm. The model of the new smartphone GRA_UL00 is presented in two colors: silver (Titanium Grey) and golden (Mystic Champagne). At the same time, the surface treatment does not hide the structure of the metal, and the steel back panel pleasantly cools the hand.
In the upper part of the front panel, covered with protective glass, there was a cutout for a "talking" microphone, to the left of which there are proximity and light sensors, and to the right - the front camera lens and the charging / event indicator.
The on-screen control buttons "Back", "Home" and "Recent Applications" are indicated by the icons "triangle", "circle" and "square". Their order is easy to change in the settings by adding an icon to them to call the notification panel. The Huawei logo, by which the light version of the smartphone is easy to distinguish from the flagship, is missing here under the screen. Generally speaking, the full face of the novelty turned out to be rather faceless, which, given Huawei's reverent attitude to design, is rather strange.
The left side of the case is empty,
and on the right they assembled a volume rocker, a power / lock button, as well as two closed slots with trays, the lower of which accepts only nanoSIM cards, and the upper one, combined, is designed for alternative installation of either a nanoSIM format subscriber identification module or a microSD memory card. In this sense, it is more "omnivorous", since it accepts nanoSIM and microSIM cards in different slots. Both locks on the covers are opened with a special paper clip, which is included in the kit.
By the way, in profile, the P8 flagship can be distinguished from its clothed version only by plastic jumpers (elements in the design of the antennas).
The top end is occupied by a 3.5 mm audio headset jack and a hole for the second microphone (noise reduction), which is closer to the left edge of the flagship.
At the bottom, between two groups of holes (six in each), a microUSB connector was placed, which is framed by the heads of two mounting screws.
Under the left group of holes, as before, the grille of the "multimedia" speaker is hidden, and under the right - the "conversational" microphone.
The holes for the main camera and the dual flash were taken out to the upper left side of the back cover and covered with a dark glass plate, which is neatly copied in. Only closer to the edge there is a flash (in the light version, the opposite is true).
From the inscription (in very small print) at the bottom of the steel panel, decorated with the Huawei logo, you can find out the model number, company name and country of manufacture.
Fixing the smartphone in the palm of your hand is accompanied by a pleasant coolness of the metal, without any "sharp" sensations. True, the dimensions of the case, due mainly to the screen diagonal (5.2 inches), do not allow us to talk about comfortable control of the device with one hand. For this reason, the settings provide a number of tools to partially compensate for this shortcoming.
Screen, camera, sound
For the 5.2-inch display of the flagship smartphone, we chose Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels), which, for obvious reasons, does not claim to be a technological record. Of course, Quad HD would have sounded cooler, it's another matter whether the game is worth the candle in this case. Indeed, with the existing diagonal and screen resolution, the density of dots per inch is 424 dpi. In addition, the P8 uses an advanced matrix without an air gap between the screen layers produced by JDI - IPS-Neo with improved contrast (1500:1). At the same time, the ratio of the display area to the area of the entire front panel is 71.6%. The screen with rather thin side frames is distinguished not only by good contrast, but also by color reproduction close to natural, large viewing angles and a solid margin of brightness.
The backlight level is adjusted either manually, or it uses automatic adjustment by light sensor. At the same time, the latter works quite adequately. The touch capacitive screen recognizes up to ten simultaneous clicks. The results of the AnTuTu Tester and Multi-Touch Test programs fully confirm such multi-touch. In the settings it is possible to change the color temperature of the screen - to make the colors warmer or vice versa, colder. There is also an option to increase the sensitivity of the sensor for working with gloves. Good anti-reflective properties of the screen allow you to use your smartphone outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. Note that an oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating is applied on top of the protective glass.
The key features of the main camera based on the Sony IMX278 photo module are optical image stabilization, a 4-color RGBW sensor with a resolution of 13 megapixels, and a separate (not from the chipset) image processor from Altek. It is also worth adding a lens with an effective focal length (EFF) of 29 mm and aperture of f / 2.0, as well as autofocus and dual LED flash. All this is aimed at creating conditions for obtaining a high-quality contrast image in low light conditions. The maximum image resolution is 4160x3120 pixels (13 MP) with a classic aspect ratio (4:3) and 4160x2336 pixels (10 MP) for a widescreen frame (16:9). You can see photo examples.
In turn, the front camera, based on the 8-megapixel Sony IMX179 Exmor photo module, received a wide-angle lens with 26 mm EGF and f / 2.4 aperture. The maximum resolution of "selfies" here is 3264x2448 pixels (8 MP, 4:3) and 3264x1840 pixels (3.8 MP, 16:9), respectively. Both cameras can shoot in Full HD-resolution (1920x1080 pixels, 16:9) at a frame rate of 30 fps. All content is stored in MP4 container files (AVC - video, AAC - sound). Shooting with a resolution of 4K, as well as with an increased frame rate (for example, 60 fps), is not provided here.
In the Camera app, in addition to Photo, Video, and Beautify modes (for enhancing portraits), Time Lapse (for taking time-lapses) and Light (for shooting with a tripod in low light) are also available . In the latter, in particular, the presets "Light of lanterns", "Light graffiti", "Water" and "Stars" are collected. It is clear that for such filming you need not only a certain place, but also a decent margin of time.
Along with image resolution and video quality, parameters such as saturation, contrast and brightness are adjusted in the camera settings. White balance and ISO settings are also available. Before and after shooting, it is easy to use a set of filters such as "Vintage", "Monochrome", etc. In the settings of the front camera, in particular, the "Perfect Selfie" mode is offered, where, along with the usual beautification effect, you can adjust additional parameters ("Smoothing", "Whitening", "Big eyes", "Bright eyes", "Narrow face" ).
Using the "Mirror" application, available from the front camera menu, it is easy not only to look at yourself, your loved one, but also to play a little trick by drawing a funny face on the "fogged" screen or even "break" the smartphone's protective glass.
But the program "Director" allows you to feel like a professional, so that together with your friends (by connecting a maximum of three more smartphones) you can shoot your video simultaneously from four points, and then mount it into one clip.
The "multimedia" speaker of the smartphone sounds pretty good, although its volume is not very high. Recall that the basic Kirin 930 platform (Hi3630 chipset) uses the Tensilica HiFi 3 signal processor, licensed from Cadence Design Systems. So for standard tools, playback of FLAC files created by lossless audio data compression codecs is available. But DTS (Digital Theater System) sound enhancement technology can only be used with headphones. In this sense, the headset included in the package is useful not only as a shortwave antenna for the built-in FM tuner, which can only be listened to through headphones. Noise-cancelling stereo recordings for Voice Recorder are provided using two microphones in Meeting, Interview, and Concert modes. By the way, the manufacturer claims that, for example, in strong winds, the smartphone is able to filter out up to 90% of the noise generated by the air flow.
Filling, performance
The HiSilicon Kirin 930 chip, made in compliance with 28 nm design standards, acts as the base platform for the flagship smartphone P8. The 8-core processor used in it is composed of two clusters of 64-bit Cortex-A53 (1.5 GHz) and Cortex-A53e (2.0 GHz) cores according to the ARM big.LITTLE GTS architecture.
More powerful Cortex-A57 did not suit their high power consumption, which leads to increased heating of the mobile device. It is believed that the new quartet of Cortex-A53e is only slightly inferior to Cortex-A57 in terms of performance, but consumes battery power more economically. Graphics processing functions are taken over by the built-in ARM Mali-T628 MP4 accelerator with four execution units. In addition to the memory controller (LPDDR3, 1600 MHz), the Kirin 930 chip implements a "sensor hub" - a Smart i3 coprocessor, a Tensilica HiFi 3 audio processor, an LTE modem, etc. The basic configuration of the smartphone is supplemented with 3 GB of RAM.
On synthetic tests AnTuTu Benchmark, the flagship measured 46,389 "virtual parrots". Approximately the same number of "feathers" are estimated, for example, a 5.5-inch smartphone and an "intermediate" flagship.
Vellamo benchmarks, including multi-core (Multicore) and processor (Metal) tests, confirmed the flagship efforts of the P8.
On Epic Citadel's visual test, with various settings of High Performance, High Quality, and Ultra High Quality, the average frame rate varied as follows - 58.1 fps, 54.8 fps, and 31.0 fps.
On the 3DMark universal gaming benchmark, where the smartphone was tested on Sling Shot and Ice Storm Unlimited sets, results of 184 and 7,725 were recorded, respectively. Of course, there are no problems with games, including "heavy" ones, on the P8.
The total number of points earned by the flagship on the Base Mark OS II cross-platform benchmark was 1,146 and almost doubled the result for the .
Model GRA_UL00 equipped with 16 GB of internal memory, of which approximately 10.4 GB is available. To expand the available storage, there is a slot designed for microSD / HC / XC memory cards with a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB. Recall that the slot where the memory card is inserted is universal, and, having occupied it, you will have to sacrifice the installation of a second SIM card (nanoSIM format). Support for USB-OTG technology allows you to connect, for example, USB drives.
In the SIM card settings, it is proposed to decide which of the subscriber identification modules will work with 4G / 3G networks, which one will be used for data transfer, and which one for voice calls and messages. Thanks to two separate radio modules, Dual SIM Dual Active mode is supported, when both SIM cards function simultaneously. Here's what it specifically says about 4G support: LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps) FDD: Band 1, 3, 4, 7; TDD: Band 38, 39, 40, 41. Recall that the 7th frequency band (2600 MHz) is especially relevant for Russia.
Wi-Fi+ settings should enable smart switching between Wi-Fi networks and mobile data networks to improve performance. But Signal + technology allows the smartphone to choose the most optimal communication mode. This was made possible thanks to the quick switching from one part of the dual antenna to another. In addition, according to the developers, in this case, the quality of the connection improves while driving at high speeds (up to 300 km/h).
As for other communication capabilities of the flagship, Bluetooth 4.1 is available, but only one frequency band is supported for Wi-Fi 802.11n (2.4 GHz). And there is no NFC interface in this model. Well, the implementation of Wi-Fi Direct allows the smartphone to communicate with another device without routers and hot spots.
GPS, GLONASS and BDS satellite systems are used for positioning and navigation. At the same time, according to the testimony of the AndroiTS GPS Test test program, signals from GPS satellites are most readily searched for. A-GPS mode is also available.
The capacity of the flagship's non-removable lithium polymer battery is 2,680 mAh (10.19 Wh; 3.8 V). Recall that the simplified version is content with a battery of only 2,200 mAh. But even this difference makes itself felt.
So, on tests of the AnTuTu Tester battery, the flagship earned 7,874 points (against 4,517). But the test set of videos in MP4 format and Full HD-quality at full brightness spun continuously for about 7 hours.
In the "Energy Saving" settings, which also provides for optimization and monitoring of energy consumption, four modes are already offered - "Energy Saving", "Smart", "Performance" and "Moderate". The latter mode is recommended for prolonged use of the device, but "Energy Saving" turns the smartphone into a regular "dialer" (only calls and messages). In turn, "Smart" is good for a balanced daily work, and "Performance" is required for games and online videos.
Software
The flagship runs on the Android 5.0 operating system, the interface of which is replaced by the proprietary EMUI 3.1 shell with support for over-the-air OTA (Over-The-Air) updates.
The same version of the launcher is also installed on a simplified version of the flagship. Recall that the shell does not have a separate application menu, and shortcuts to all programs are simply collected on desktops.
Speech recognition is useful for finding a new smartphone if one is nearby, or for making a call when your hands are full. First, in the "Speech recognition" section, you should select the activation words (recommended - Okay emy) and practice their pronunciation three times, as well as decide on the type of ringing signal and language (so far, alas, only English). For example, when searching for a phone, after the words to activate it, you need to say: "Where are you?". In response, you will hear from the smartphone - "I am here", while the device will flash with a flash and the screen, displaying colored balls on it.
Taking a screenshot on the P8 is easy by tapping your knuckle twice on the screen. To do this, in the "Smart screenshot" section, activate the corresponding option. In addition, if you draw, again with your knuckle, a closed path (counterclockwise), you get a snapshot of a limited area of the screen. It is proposed to leave this area of arbitrary shape (as is), or to make a square or elliptical shape. In addition to everything, right on the smartphone, the resulting image can be edited.
Purchase, conclusions
In general, the new flagship from Huawei has successfully fit into the fashion family of R smartphones. In its ultra-thin all-metal case with a high-quality screen, a rather powerful stuffing is hidden. At the same time, for each of the two SIM-cards there was a place for a separate radio module. Of course, the advanced main camera deserves special attention in this smartphone. Unfortunately, you have to pay for expanding the built-in memory with a second SIM card.
I was somewhat surprised by the absence of an NFC interface in the flagship device and support for the 5 GHz band for WiFi 802.11n. In addition, I would like to see the possibility for fast charging. As already noted, it can hardly be considered an advantage to install a second nanoSIM card as an alternative to expanding the built-in memory .
The Huawei P8 smartphone is offered at a recommended price of 29,990 rubles, so it looks more advantageous compared to 2-SIM flagships, for example, Samsung Galaxy S6 Duos or (Duos), for which, according to Yandex.Market, on average they ask for 39,990 rubles and 42,320 rubles, respectively. However, taking into account all the possibilities of these elegant devices, they are worth that kind of money (taking into account the ruble exchange rate, of course). In short, choosing a worthy opponent for the P8 is not so easy. A more real competitor may, for example, be "thin and iron", which also belongs to the fashion line. Of course, his filling is simpler, but the average price is lower - 24,879 rubles.
The results of the review of the smartphone Huawei P8
Pros:
- Ultra-slim all-metal body
- Quality screen
- Powerful stuffing
- Advanced camera with optical stabilization
- Expandable memory
- Two radio modules for SIM cards
Minuses:
- No NFC interface
- No 5GHz band support for Wi-Fi 802.11n
- No fast charging
- Alternative installation of either a second nanoSIM or microSD card
We have said this before, we are ready to repeat it again: smartphones from Chinese companies are no longer lagging behind. In particular, this applies to "older" devices - Chinese flagships are not inferior to their Japanese, Korean and American counterparts, neither in terms of performance, nor in design, nor, unfortunately, in price. However, from time to time the Chinese receive offers that are interesting in terms of the ratio of cost and quality. Here, for example, Huawei P8: at the start of sales, they ask for quite acceptable, by the standards of the new course, thirty thousand rubles. The flagships of many other first-rate manufacturers cost more at launch - 40-50 thousand rubles.
According to the specifications table, Huawei's new flagship has a lot to offer discerning users. There is a decent technical stuffing, and a moderately large high-resolution screen, and rich communication capabilities, and the current version of the Android operating system, and a thin body - in other words, all the mandatory attributes of the older model are in place. In theory, all this is very good and great; it remains to figure out how the smartphone shows itself in business.
⇡ Specifications
| Huawei Ascend P6 | Huawei Ascend P7 | Huawei P8 Lite | Huawei P8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Touch screen | 4.7 inches, 720 × 1280 pixels, IPS; Capacitive, up to 10 simultaneous touches | 5 inches, 1080 × 1920 pixels, IPS; Capacitive, up to 10 simultaneous touches | 5 inches, 720 × 1280 pixels, IPS; Capacitive, up to 10 simultaneous touches | 5.2 inches, 1080 × 1920 pixels, IPS; capacitive, up to 10 simultaneous touches |
| Air gap | Not | Not | Not | Not |
| Oleophobic coating | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Polarizing filter | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| CPU | Huawei HiSilicon K3V2E: Four cores ARM Cortex-A9 (ARMv7) frequency 1.5 GHz; Process technology 40 nm; 32-bit computing |
Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 910T: Four cores ARM Cortex-A9 (ARMv7) frequency 1.8 GHz; Process technology 28 nm; 32-bit computing |
Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 620: eight cores ARM Cortex-A53 (ARMv8) Frequency 1.2 GHz; Process technology 28 nm; 32 and 64 bit computing |
Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 930: Four cores ARM Cortex-A53 (ARMv8), 1.5 GHz; Four cores ARM Cortex-A53e (ARMv8), 2 GHz; ARM big.LITTLE technology; Process technology 28 nm; 32 and 64 bit computing |
| Graphics controller | Vivante GC4000 | ARM Mali-450 MP4, 533 MHz | ARM Mali-450 MP4, 533 MHz | ARM Mali-T628 MP4, 600 MHz |
| RAM | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 3 GB |
| Flash memory | 8 GB + microSD | 16 GB + microSD | 16 GB + microSD | 16 GB + microSD |
| Connectors | 1 × micro USB 2.0 1 x microSD 1 x micro-SIM |
1 x micro-USB 2.0 1 × 3.5mm headset jack 1 × microSD / micro-SIM 1 x micro-SIM |
1 x micro-USB 2.0 1 × 3.5mm headset jack 1 × microSD/nano-SIM 1 x micro-SIM |
1 x micro-USB 2.0 1 × 3.5mm headset jack 1 × microSD/nano-SIM 1 x nano-SIM |
| cellular | 2G/3G One micro-SIM card |
2G/3G/4G Two SIM cards in micro-SIM format (the second cannot be installed when using a memory card) |
2G/3G/4G Two SIM cards (the second one cannot be installed when using a memory card) |
2G/3G/4G Two SIM cards (the second one cannot be installed when using a memory card) |
| Cellular 2G | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
|
| Cellular 3G | HSPA+ (21 Mbps) WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz |
DC-HSPA+ (42 Mbps) WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
DC-HSPA+ (42 Mbps) WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
DC-HSPA+ (42 Mbps) WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz |
| Cellular 4G | Not | LTE Cat. 4 (150 Mbps) |
LTE Cat. 4 (150 Mbps) LTE band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 (2100/1800/2600/900/800 MHz) |
LTE Cat. 6 (300 Mbps) LTE band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 40 (2100/1900/1800/1700/850/ 2600/900/700/800/2300 MHz) |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g/n + WiFi Direct | 802.11b/g/n + WiFi Direct | 802.11b/g/n + WiFi Direct | 802.11a/b/g/n + WiFi Direct |
| Bluetooth | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.1 |
| NFC | Not | There is | Not | Not |
| IR port | Not | Not | Not | Not |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS |
| Sensors | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | |
| Main camera | 8 MP (3264×2448), back-illuminated sensor, autofocus, LED flash | 13 MP (4160×3120), back-illuminated sensor, autofocus, LED flash | 13 MP (4160×3120), back-illuminated sensor, autofocus, dual LED flash | |
| Front-camera | 5 MP (2592×1952), without autofocus |
8 MP (3264×2448), without autofocus |
5 MP (2592×1952), without autofocus |
8 MP (3264×2448), no autofocus |
| Nutrition | Non-removable battery: 7.6 Wh (2000mAh, 3.8V) |
Non-removable battery: 9.35 Wh (2460mAh, 3.8V) |
Non-removable battery: 8.36 Wh (2200mAh, 3.8V) |
Non-removable battery: 10.18 Wh (2680mAh, 3.8V) |
| The size | 133×65.5mm Case Thickness 6.2mm |
140×69 mm Case thickness 6.5 mm |
143×71 mm Case Thickness 7.7mm |
145×72 mm Case Thickness 6.4mm |
| Weight | 120 g | 124 g | 131 g | 144 g |
| Water and dust protection | Missing | Missing | Missing | Missing |
| Operating system | Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Shell Emotion UI 1.6 |
Android 4.4.2 KitKat Shell Emotion UI 2.3 |
Android 5.0 Lollipop Shell Emotion UI 3.1 |
Android 5.0 Lollipop Shell Emotion UI 3.1 |
| recommended price | 15 990 rubles | 16 990 rubles | 17 990 rubles | 29 990 rubles |
⇡ Appearance and ergonomics
Strict, stately, fine - that's the first thing that comes to mind when you pick up Huawei P8. Corners with minimal rounding and sharp side edges with polished unpainted metal - brutal, but beautiful. It turns out that the new P8 is a smartphone with a masculine character. The body is even, straight, without any bends and bulges. When you hold a smartphone in your hands, it seems that in front of you is a solid metal ingot, well, or a bar, if you like.
What is really cool is that the gadget turned out to be very compact. The thickness of the case is very small - 6.4 millimeters. It is important that it is "honest" here, that is, uniform throughout the body - the camera does not protrude from the rear panel, the body does not narrow towards the ends, as is sometimes the case. The device weighs a little - 144 grams, hands from the gadget do not get tired even with prolonged communication with it.
For those who are used to smartphones with a display diagonal of more than five inches, using the Huawei P8 with one hand will be easy. Those who “change” to this smartphone from a more compact gadget will have to get used to it for several hours. Nevertheless, the P8 does not turn out to be big - it has quite standard dimensions for a smartphone that was born in 2015.
However, the device has a special mode that allows you to reduce the size of the window, so that the gadget is easier to operate with one hand. Using it is very simple: just swipe right or left, depending on where you want to move the window, along the bottom navigation bar - then the desktop will automatically become smaller. A similar option is provided for virtual on-screen keyboards.
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Huawei P8 - dialing screen and SMS |
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To be honest, the need for such settings is rather doubtful: at least we see the reduced keyboard as much less comfortable than the full-sized one. Perhaps someone will see it differently. In any case, more - no less, it's good that the manufacturer provides the user with a choice and the opportunity to customize the smartphone for themselves. You can activate the one-handed control mode in a special section in the settings menu.
There are no hardware keys on the front panel of the smartphone - all buttons, as is usually the case, are on-screen. It is noteworthy that the user can independently choose the order of the virtual keys "Back", "Home" and "Open Applications Menu". This setting will be useful for those who will change to P8 from Android smartphones from other manufacturers.
In the upper part of the front panel there is an 8-megapixel front camera lens, a speaker slot and an optocoupler of proximity sensors. The space under the screen is empty. The thickness of the side frames around the display is minimal - just over two millimeters on each side; Due to this, the smartphone seems elongated and slender. The author of this article, for example, when he saw him for the first time, decided that he had a display of exactly five inches, but in fact - all 5.2!
The principle of operation of this film, however, is extremely clear: by applying a special protective film to the display, the user must activate the corresponding item in the settings menu, after which the virtual navigation keys will disappear from the display, and its usable space will increase (pay attention to the difference between the screenshots above). Of course, the solution is very interesting and unusual - we have not seen this yet. One thing is not clear: why was it necessary to fence the garden, why it was impossible to put the navigation keys under the screen right away, from the factory? Note that the "smart film" allows you to assign certain actions, such as activating a photo / video recording or creating a screenshot, to the upper corners of the front panel.
The key for turning on and blocking the device is placed on the right side. It is embossed, rectangular, with a distinct and short stroke. Next to it are the volume control buttons. The keys are located well - you quickly get used to using them, as they say, blindly. Next to the block of buttons is a connector for one Nano-SIM and a combo slot for a Nano-SIM or microSD card - at the user's choice.
In terms of ergonomics, the device turned out to be quite standard. The layout of controls and interfaces is the same as most other Android smartphones. The audio output for connecting a wired headset is placed on the top end, the micro-USB 2.0 interface is on the bottom. Next to the latter are slots for an external speaker. Its location is very good - the speaker does not overlap, neither when the smartphone is on the table, nor when you hold it in your hands.
The back panel of the device is rough, thanks to which the smartphone does not strive to slip out of hands at every opportunity, even from wet ones. In addition, it is pleasant to the touch. The engineers got rid of the glass inserts on the back and on the side ends that the Ascend P7 had (they were abolished along with the word Ascend in the title). Because of this, the smartphone looks a little simpler than its predecessor, but the P8 case turned out to be more practical - the glass quickly got dirty and cracked when dropped. At the top of the rear panel is the lens of the main, 13-megapixel camera and dual LED flash. We have no comments on the assembly of the device - obviously, there are enough stiffening ribs in the design. The gadget does not creak when squeezing the sides, no characteristic color streaks appear on the display - the matrix is properly protected. The body of the Huawei P8 is monolithic, but it does not have protection against dust and water.
Specifications
- Body materials: metal, plastic, glass
- Operating system: Android 5.0, Huawei EMUI 3.1
- Network: GSM / EDGE, WCDMA, LTE (two SIM slots and a combined microSD slot)
- Platform: HiSilicon Kirin 930/935
- Processor: Quad-core 2GHz (Cortex-A53) and Quad-core 1.5GHz (Cortex-A53)
- Graphics: Mali-T628 MP4
- RAM: 3 GB
- Storage: 16/64 GB, microSD card slot (supports 128 GB cards)
- Interfaces: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP, LE), microUSB connector (USB 2.0, USB-Host) for charge/sync, 3.5 mm headset, DLNA, NFC, infrared port
- Screen: IPS LCD, 5.2”, 1920x1080 pixels (FullHD), automatic backlight level adjustment, Gorilla Glass 3
- Main camera: 13 MP, dual LED flash (works like a flashlight), optical image stabilization (OIS)
- Front camera: 8 MP fixed focal length
- Navigation: GPS/Glonass (A-GPS support)
- Sensors: accelerometer, position sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, barometer
- Battery: non-removable, Li-Pol, 2680 mAh
- Dimensions: 144.9 x 72.1 x 6.4mm
- Weight: 144 grams
Positioning
Huawei's P-series smartphone line has been developing since 2012, and even then, at the start, P1 was a successful and interesting smartphone, whose features and ideas formed the basis for the development of this series. Huawei Ascend P1 could not be called an unconditional flagship at the time of release, but this device looked balanced and moderate in everything - in characteristics, in ease of use, and finally, in price. Three years later and several models in this line, Huawei introduced the P8 - another smartphone from the category of balanced devices: not too big, but not small, moderately productive and with the necessary set of features, as well as characteristics close to flagships. In this review, I will try to tell you about all the features of the new device from Huawei - P8.
Design, body materials
In terms of design, I can't call the P8 anything interesting or flashy, it's just a typical thin piece of metal without any distinctive features. At the same time, the smartphone looks high quality and dignified, and it is impossible to say that it is ugly. It turned out to be moderately simple, albeit without recognizable details, but a universal device.
The main feature of the case in Huawei Ascend P7 was the combination of a metal frame and glass panels on the front and back sides. Yes, this is spectacular, but from a practical point of view, such a solution has problems. First, the glass gets dirty, and it's noticeable. The second is that when a smartphone falls on any hard surface (asphalt, tile, etc.), there is a big chance to get a body cracked in front or behind, that is, glass. In Huawei P8, the company has changed the materials used, here we see an all-aluminum body, with the exception of the panel in the upper area near the camera, where the antennas are placed, as well as the screen. The P8 may not look as impressive on a shelf in a store or in your hand, but otherwise the solution with a metal body is better. The device still looks spectacular, while it has become more practical than the previous model: traces and prints on the metal “back” are almost invisible, and there is less chance of damaging the smartphone when dropped. In my opinion, in terms of the materials used, the new P8 is a step forward.
Only the front panel can be called a brand, and even then with a stretch. Traces and prints on it remain barely noticeable and can be easily removed.
In Russia, the smartphone will go on sale in three colors: silver, gold and black.
Assembly
The build quality is excellent, and I draw this conclusion not from one sample, but from several devices: I looked at the first P8 at the company's office, then studied it again at the presentation, and finally, to prepare the review, I used the P8 as my main phone for more than two weeks.
Trays for SIM-cards fit as closely as possible to the plane of the rib, swipe your finger and you feel a flat surface, the buttons “sit” securely in their places, nothing backlashes or dangles. During the use of the smartphone, I several times fell to the floor (at home) from a height of about one and a half meters, no damage appeared on the body of the device.
Dimensions
Small bezels to the left and right of the screen, the minimum thickness of the body and reasonable indents at the top and bottom with a screen diagonal of 5.2 "" make Huawei P8 quite a compact smartphone even in the category of five-inch models, not to mention devices with a diagonal of 5.2". It is also important that the P8 is not just compact, but also ergonomic - due to the small bevels of the case at the transition points of the planes, the smartphone does not crash into the palm, but fits comfortably into it. Holding the device and using it is a pleasure. After models with screens of 5.5"" or more, the device from Huawei seems incredibly convenient, and against the background of many phones with a 5"" display, the P8 turns out to be more compact.
In terms of usability, Huawei P8 can even be compared with Xiaomi Mi4, and this is one of the most balanced five-inch devices on a par with P7. It's not just that I pay such close attention to the dimensions of the device at first glance. It seems to me that balanced dimensions in 2015-2016 will be one of the most important advantages of smartphones. With 3-4 GB of RAM in every second device, a high-quality FullHD screen has become the norm, and chipset manufacturers compete in the frequency of eight-core processors, the overall usability of a smartphone comes to the fore. And in this regard, the new P8 looks very advantageous.
I will give a comparison of the dimensions of Huawei P8 with some popular models:
- Apple iPhone 6(4.7”) - 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm, 129 grams
- HTC One M9(5”) - 144.6 x 69.7 x 9.6 mm, 157 grams
- (5.2”) - 144.9 x 72.1 x 6.4 mm, 144 grams
- Samsung Galaxy S6(5.1”) - 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm, 138 grams
- Xiaomi Mi4(5”) - 139.2 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm, 149 grams
Compared to HTC One M8
Compared with Meizu MX4 Pro
Compared to Nokia 3310
Compared to YotaPhone 2
Despite the quite compact dimensions of the Huawei P8, the smartphone settings have several options to simplify working with the device with one hand, as well as various functions related to gestures and movements - turning off the sound when the screen is flipped, and so on.
Controls
In terms of controls, the Huawei P8 is a typical Android smartphone with a pair of hardware keys and touch-sensitive on-screen buttons. The hardware buttons are located on the right edge: on top is the volume key, below is the power button. Even lower are two slots for SIM-cards and a memory card. One of these slots is combined with microSD, respectively, you can choose what to use this slot for - to install a second SIM card or for a memory card. The left edge of the smartphone is empty.
On the top end there is an additional microphone (noise reduction) and a 3.5 mm mini-jack. On the bottom is the main microphone, a microUSB connector and a grille for two speakers.
The on-screen keypad includes three buttons: "Back", "Home" and a call to the manager of running programs.
If desired, the location of the buttons can be changed, a button for calling the notification curtain and a button for hiding the navigation bar itself are also added here. It is very comfortable!
When you touch any of the on-screen buttons, the device vibrates slightly.
Unfortunately, you cannot unlock your smartphone by double-tapping the screen. Perhaps this feature will appear with new firmware, because in the previous Huawei smartphone that I tested, Honor 6 Plus, I also did not have it. At the same time, several readers immediately after the review sent screenshots of their devices, bought not in Russia, where the possibility of unlocking with a double tap is present.
On the front side, there is a speaker, an 8 MP camera eye and sensors on top.
A factory-made thin protective film is pasted on the front panel, the quality of the film is such that it is difficult to see it the first time without peering. I did not shoot it for this reason, the film is virtually invisible.
Screen
The Huawei P8 uses a high-quality IPS LCD matrix with a diagonal of 5.2"" and a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. Screen with maximum viewing angles. At whatever angle you reject it, diagonally, edges or ends, the picture is not distorted. There is a good margin of brightness. The color reproduction of the display is close to natural, while in the settings you can always adjust the color temperature, making the picture on the screen warmer or colder. Personally, I preferred to “twist” the temperature on my P8 a little towards cold shades.
The automatic brightness adjustment works very well, as is the case with the Honor 6 Plus. Having enabled this option, I forgot that sometimes on other smartphones I set the brightness manually depending on the conditions (during the day - one brightness, in the late afternoon at home - another).
An important point related to the Huawei P8 screen is the standard themes. I will return to “themes” later in the text, but for now I want to note one important feature. If we take all the well-known Chinese brands: Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi, Meizu and even some smaller ones, then Huawei's proprietary shell in terms of design will probably be the most unattractive. We are talking about the design, and not about its capabilities. How does this relate to the screen and its perception? Very strong, in fact. When you take the Huawei P8 for the first time, turn it on and see a scary basic theme with icons in protective colors, it seems as if the screen of the device is at least dim or dim. It is worth changing the theme to a more juicy one, or simply filling the start screen with app icons instead of basic ones and changing the picture, and you already see a good display. In the end, I stayed on the basic theme, because, having shoveled about 4 GB of themes for EMUI, I did not find anything worthy, but take this point into account. The display itself in the P8 is excellent, but its perception when you first turn it on can be a little spoiled by not the most successful “themes”.
In the settings of P8 there is an item "smart film". By enabling this mode, judging by the description, you can transfer the functions of the on-screen keys to the area under the display, as well as assign the selected actions to touching the corners of the case from the top left and right of the screen, provided that there is a special film on the glass. With the factory film, this mode does not work.
Camera
Probably half of the entire time of the presentation of Huawei P8 was devoted to the device's camera. Highlights: Sony's new 13MP quad-color RGBW sensor, optical image stabilization and a dedicated ISP. In theory, the camera should be one of the best among all smartphones on the market in any shooting conditions: day, evening, night, and also in low light (f / 2.0 will come in handy here).
The camera interface is simple and straightforward, switching modes, enabling HDR and other essential settings are collected on one screen, it is called up by clicking on the options key, more detailed settings can also be opened by clicking on the options button already in this window.
Burst shooting modes are available, after which you can choose the best shot, as well as the mode that is already familiar to all top-end devices with the choice of the focus point on the final picture (the camera takes several frames with different focal lengths and glues them into one). There is a “beautification” mode for both the front and the main camera, in which a retouching effect is applied to the skin, wrinkles, pimples, and so on are smoothed out.
An interesting “light” mode, a lot of attention was also paid to it at the presentation. The bottom line is this: you press the “shoot” button, and the camera starts taking pictures of one frame, while the picture goes in such a mode as if you had chosen a shutter speed value in the region of a minute, conditionally. But in fact, you do not choose the shutter speed before shooting, but simply stop photographing after as many seconds as you need. It turns out shooting with a shutter speed set at the end of the photographing process. The mode is interesting, and with the help of it, together with a tripod on the Huawei P8, you can take unusual shots at night. However, I note that this mode, in fact, is a piece of the manual mode present in HTC, Lenovo, Meizu and Xiaomi smartphones, where you can also select the shutter speed manually, but before shooting.
Now about the quality of the photos.
I'll start with the main thing - the Huawei P8 has an excellent macro. The minimum distance to the subject when shooting is about 3-4 centimeters. For example, in Meizu MX4 Pro with an excellent camera, this distance is about 6-7 centimeters, and in HTC One M8, also with good macro photography, this distance is about 7-8 centimeters. At the same time, for macro photography in Huawei P8, you don’t even need to turn on any separate mode, you just point your smartphone at the object as close as possible and take a picture – that’s all.
When shooting on a bright sunny day, the photos are generally good, although personally, when examining the pictures, I have the feeling that the frames are a little lacking in overall juiciness. The downside is that in the center of the frame you can often notice the transition of the picture to pink colors, this “feature” is also typical, for example, for some HTC smartphones and is most clearly manifested when shooting a white sheet with text. At the same time, I want to note the chic work of optical stabilization - even when you just drive your smartphone in search of a frame, the operation of this system is visible on the screen, the picture moves smoothly, shooting on P8 with OIS is more comfortable than on devices without a “stub”, often there , where on another smartphone I would need to take 3-4 frames to select one sharp one, on the Huawei P8 I just took one photo and got the desired sharp shot.
Shooting at night is perhaps one of the strengths of the Huawei P8 camera. Yes, in complete darkness there is still some blurring and blurring of frames, but if we compare the final night photos with pictures from many other smartphones (I compared it with the LG G3 and G4, for example), the difference is in favor of the P8, and it is noticeable "by eye" . Photos are sharp, with small details distinguishable on them, albeit with a noticeable presence of digital noise.
When shooting at night, you can manually set the shutter speed and ISO.
Also in the camera there is a shooting mode with overlay effects and HDR, the latter works very well and neatly.
Front-camera. The front camera with a resolution of 8 MP and a fixed focal length in Huawei P8 is very good if we are talking about shooting portraits. Yes, there is no autofocus here, but this does not interfere with taking photos with good detail: you can see all the pimples and black "figovina" on the face, and if you wish, you can remove them by turning on the "decoration" mode.
Video recording. The smartphone records video at a maximum resolution of 1080p, the device does not have tracking autofocus, only the choice of focusing by tapping on the screen, which now, when this feature is available in almost any smartphone, looks rather strange. But there is software stabilization in addition to optical, if you turn on both, the image is very smooth. I propose to evaluate the overall quality of the video in the attached files with examples.
If we evaluate the camera in Huawei P8 according to some individual shooting modes, it has strengths and weaknesses: excellent macro, good shooting at night, but at the same time, lack of juiciness when shooting on a clear sunny day and average video quality. The front camera is excellent, there are no complaints about it. As for the main one, I cannot call it one of the best among modern smartphones. Yes, it is more or less versatile and allows you to get decent photos in difficult conditions, and the price for this is not the most convincing quality when shooting in seemingly ideal situations on a sunny day. Perhaps with software updates, Huawei will improve this aspect, because the potential for this sensor on the P8 with optical stabilization is simply huge.
Offline work
The smartphone uses a non-removable Li-Pol battery with a capacity of 2680 mAh. In my case, Huawei P8 worked on average until the evening with the following mode: 40-60 minutes of calls, 10-20 text messages, Gmail, 3-4 hours of music listening and about 1-2 hours of active mobile Internet use (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook messenger, browser) plus the use of the camera (about 50 pictures conditionally). The indicators are not the best, the device is inferior in terms of operating time to such smartphones as LG G3, HTC One M8 and M9 and many others. However, if, like me, you are used to constantly carrying an external battery with you or charging your smartphone as soon as possible, this will not be a problem. Not the best indicators of operating time - a fee for a thin and compact body of the device.
platform, memory
The smartphone is built on Huawei's proprietary platform - HiSilicon Kirin 930/935 (depending on the version and memory size) with a 2 GHz quad-core processor (Cortex-A53) and a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor (Cortex-A53). Graphics subsystem (GPU) - Mali-T628 MP4. The device has 3 GB of RAM and 16 or 64 GB of internal memory for storing user data. There is also a slot for a memory card, combined with a slot for a second SIM-card.
There are no performance issues for the device. Everything, from the shell and launching programs to toys like GTA San Andreas and WoT Blitz, runs quickly and without delay at maximum graphics settings. Below are the test results of Honor P8 in Antutu benchmark.
I did not notice any noticeable heating of the smartphone case (as in the case of the HTC One M9) even under load.
Interfaces
The smartphone works in GSM, HSDPA and LTE networks, all bands for LTE common in Russia are supported. You can enable and disable wireless interfaces through the settings or using one of the notification curtain pages.
For synchronization with a PC and data transfer, the included microUSB cable, USB 2.0 interface is used.
The smartphone has support for USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) – you can connect flash drives and other storage devices to the device via an adapter, for example, a camera to transfer pictures from it to the device’s memory.
Bluetooth. Built-in Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP and LE support.
WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n). Wi-Fi module in Huawei P8 without support for the 5 GHz band, only familiar and common 2.4. The module works flawlessly.
wifi router. As usual for Android-smartphones, there is the possibility of "sharing" 2G / 3G / 4G Internet connection via Wi-Fi. In the settings at the first start, you need to select a network name and password (WPA2).
NFC. The smartphone has an NFC module, it works correctly: you can check the balance on the transport card and write tickets to it or top up when you install the appropriate application.
Navigation
The smartphone has support for GPS / Glonass, it takes a minimum amount of time, from 5 to 15 seconds, to search for satellites. There is no special navigation software in the smartphone.
Soft, EMUI 3.0
The smartphone runs on Android 5.x, as the shell uses the proprietary Emotion UI - EMUI version 3.1. According to the general logic, the shell resembles MIUI and Flyme, and goes back, respectively, to iOS - there is no separate application menu, all programs are collected on desktops.
There are many detailed settings and useful things: displaying the network speed, showing or hiding the operator's name, changing the location of the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen, customizable do not disturb mode, and so on.
There is some illogicality in some shell solutions. For example, when you see a notification about a new event (message, missed call, WhatsApp, etc.) on the lock screen, you need to swipe the notification card to the right to go to it. And when you see the same notification while on the home screen or in some application, you just need to tap the card to go to it. At first it is uncomfortable, you need to get used to it.
But most of all, what upsets me personally seems to be a trifle, but very annoying in my case. The fact is that all themes for EMUI change some of the application icons to their own. And to find a topic where such a substitution would not be, I could not. And to make sure that there are no such themes, I shoveled about 4 GB of themes for all versions of EMUI for stock icons. What do I mean by "stock icons"? This is when, having installed Instagram or WhatsApp, you will see the same program icon that is displayed for it on Google Play, that is, it was conceived by the developers. In EMUI, about half of the programs appear with changed icons, this does not affect the usability of the smartphone at all, but it annoys me, at least. An attempt to remove all the icons in one of the basic themes so that when the theme is installed they are replaced by the standard ones from Android, the system “digs out” very old icons from its bowels and puts them at the heart of the interface. In general, so far I have not found a solution to overcome this feature of EMUI.
Another feature of EMUI that I personally don't like is that it's too much of a rework compared to the pure Android OS. In this regard, the current versions of LG UI and HTC Sense are closer to me, where the developers tried to leave all the convenient functions from Lollipop - the notification shade, cards and the logic of working with them on the lock screen, and some other things. In EMUI, all these elements have been redone, and if you switch to Huawei P8 from some device with Android 5.0, you will need to study the interface again.
If we close our eyes to it, as well as to some of the illogicalities of the shell described above, then in general, EMUI turns out to be quite a convenient interface, with many detailed settings and useful options.
Accessories
Along with the presentation of the Huawei P8 smartphone, the company also presented an interesting accessory for it - a cover with an e-ink screen. The accessory is produced by Oaxis, known for producing similar cases under its own brand, and is equipped with a 4.3" e-ink display, its own battery, a charging port and connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth.
Conclusion
I had no complaints about the quality of signal reception during the use of Huawei P8. The device catches the network well, the sound in the conversational dynamics is clear, without wheezing and extraneous noise, there is a volume margin. The vibrating alert is well felt in different conditions, including when walking. The loudspeaker volume is above average, while the sound is clear and sonorous, but without wheezing. At the presentation, the function of quickly searching for a network was also announced when leaving an area where the network does not catch, or turning off the “on the plane” mode, but, to be honest, there is not much difference here between Huawei P8 with this function and, say, LG G4 and Meizu MX4 Pro did not notice without it.
In Russia, the smartphone will go on sale in a single 16 GB version and with two slots for SIM cards, one of which is just combined with a microSD slot. The exact cost of the device for Russia has not yet been determined, but the preliminary price for Huawei P8 will be about 30,000 rubles. If we recall that immediately after the presentation, an estimated price tag in the region of 40-45 thousand rubles was announced, 30 thousand now seem to be more adequate. This is about 10-15 thousand cheaper than the cost of the flagships from Samsung, LG, HTC, and given that Huawei P8 is not far behind them in terms of characteristics, and looks even more interesting in terms of dimensions, the price is quite acceptable.
Yes, Huawei P8 is far from an ideal smartphone, but the strengths of this device, such as a high-quality display, high speed without much heating of the case even under load, moderate dimensions, small thickness and a good main camera, combined with an excellent front camera, make the shortcomings forgivable . If you are looking for a compact modern smartphone with up-to-date specifications, but are not ready to overpay for a flagship from a major manufacturer and for some features that are unnecessary for you (like 2560x1440 resolution on a five-inch screen), you should take a closer look at Huawei P8.
