When the Huawei P10 Plus was unveiled at the MWC this year, it sure turned a lot of eyeballs. It had a fresh design, was not too heavy, and had the innards to support the hardware. Back then, it felt as if the P10 Plus was here to rule, but with the growing months, competition has increased, and now, the P10 Plus faces a tall order if it has to maintain its spot among the top. Huawei has been striving to get that winning combination in its smartphones and in this review, we will see if the Huawei P10 Plus is the answer to the company’s prayers. Before diving into the review itself, lets take a quick look at what the Huawei P10 packs :-
- Aluminium unibody ( which means non removable battery )
- 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 and back camera plate.
- 5.5 inch IPS-NEO LCD display with 1440 x 2560 resolution
- IPX3 certification ( Water proof but is not protected against total immersion )
- Leica co-engineered dual cameras: 20MP monochrome / 12 MP colour sensors with OIS, both with f/1.8, 28mm equiv. focal length; 4-in-1 hybrid autofocus (phase/laser/contrast/depth sensing); dual-LED, dual-tone flash; 2x hybrid zoom; 2160p and 1080p @ 30/60fps video capture;
- 8MP selfie cam with f/1.9; 26mm lens; simulated bokeh effect.
- Kirin 960 octa-core CPU (4 Cortex-A73 clocked at 2.4GHz + 4 Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.8GHz), i6 co-processor, octa-core Mali-G71 GPU
- 4GB of RAM plus 64GB storage / 6GB of RAM plus 128GB storage ( MicroSD slot is a hybrid slot ).
- Android 7.0 Nougat with Huawei EMUI 5.1.
- 3,750mAh Li-Po with Fast charging.
- Front mounted fingerprint sensor.
If you look at the bullet points above, you will notice that Huawei has out in a lot into its camera departments and off late have been touting the very same with all their smartphones. We shall see if their cameras are worth the hype as the review progresses.
Table of Contents
DESIGN and DISPLAY
Ever since Huawei shed the ascend monicker, their design and build have received a significant bump up. The P series is Huawei’s attempt to show the world that they are not out of the race just yet. The P10 and the P10 Plus have both received royal treatment from the designers at Huawei in the sense that that the device is truly premium to look at and thanks to its various available finishes, it is very very premium to hold. As of today, the P10 Plus is available in almost 10 different colour options – Ceramic White, Dazzling Blue, Dazzling Gold, Prestige Gold, Graphite Black, Mystic Silver, Rose Gold, and Greenery. While not all options are available everywhere, it is good to see Huawei give such a wide catalogue to its customers. capping off the design area is the back camera setup and casing. The P10 Plus features the Leica co engineered dual camera setup with no camera hump whatsoever. While bigger phones like the iPhone and even the Galaxy lineup have struggled with the camera bump, the P10 Plus has got it absolutely spot on. Also, Huawei has gone a step further and replaced the usual plastic protection for the cameras with gorilla glass 5. On the front end we have the beautiful 2.5D curved display which works beautifully with the aluminium unibody . The P10 Plus also comes with an IPX3 certification, which means its splash proof, but the phone will not hold up if immersed or exposed to running water.
Coming to the display, the P10 Plus features a 5.5 inch IPS-NEO LCD display with a 1440 x 2560 resolution. While this looks good on paper, there are some ghosting issues with the display on the P10 Plus. There are also some issues with the screen’s response times as well. The display brightness settings are also not consistent, since, at the lowest settings, the content on the screen is hardly visible. Also, scrolling through emails or other content leaves a visible halo effect on the screen. The issues however have been encountered in many new phones today and it seems to be more of a manufacturing defect than anything else. Otherwise, the display unit works pretty fine for its billing.
Sunlight legibility is pretty good, especially for an LCD. The P10 Plus remains perfectly usable outdoors – a strong case in favour of IPS NEO panel after the above-average contrast with relatively deep blacks.
Overall, the P10 Plus isa powerhouse in terms of design, and for someone looking for a looker, this model is a must consider. Display wise, maybe they could have gone for a better display unit, but the job is done decently so I guess its alright for now.
