alextrela
Supreme Member
- 28 November 2011
- 3,109
Huawei P8 review
A slick, svelte smartphone which may give the big boys a run for their money
Our Verdict
The Huawei P8 has all the right ingredients for a top smartphone, but something's not quite gone to plan in the baking stage. The lower price point certainly helps, but the mainstream flagships can rest easy.
For
Premium design
Decent display
Feature packed camera
Attractive price
Against
Emotion UI remains
Slightly laggy performance
While the Huawei P8 does sport a premium metal body, it doesn't quite match the same style and grace of the iPhone 6 or HTC One M9.
The all metal unibody just doesn't look or feel quite as premium as its rivals - whether it's the finish Huawei has chosen to apply or use of cheaper materials, it's not clear.
It feels like there's something still missing to really push it into the design stratosphere, but it's another positive step forward and the Huawei P8 is still a premium device
As with all of its Android handsets, Lollipop has been coated in Hauwei's relatively heavy Emotion UI which does away with the app tray for a slightly more iOS look and feel.
Emotion UI has been improved over the years, but it still lacks the polish of stock Android and HTC's Sense overlay.
It's a shame as the brightly coloured, slightly childish icons detract from the premium appeal of the hardware on display here - and makes the Huawei P8 seem a little cheap on screen
Notifications appear on the home screen, but there's no way to open them from here - you have to unlock the Huawei P8 and navigate to the application manually, which is a little counter intuitive.
In terms of pre-installed applications on top of your stock smartphone apps and Google's suite the P8 comes with a few extras including an office solution and NQ Anti-virus.
Frustratingly the anti-virus app appears to be baked into the firmware rather than being a standalone offering and every time you download an new app it'll appear in the notification asking if you want to scan it.
You can disable it, but only after you've enabled it and then gone into settings.
The 2600mAh battery is locked inside the aluminium body and can't be swapped out, but Huawei reckons the P8 will go for a day and a half with normal usage.
It also says power users should see a full day of use from the P8 too, although in reality these claims don't ring true.
With "normal usage" I found the Huawei P8 could see out a day pretty easily, usually ending up in the low teens by the time it came to plugging it in at night. There certainly wasn't enough left in the tank to get another half a day of use though.
Power users may find themselves dashing for a charger come late afternoon/early evening, and I found a couple of hours of heavy gaming took its toll on the P8's battery.
It falls in line with the current flock of flagship smartphones, with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 also struggling to see out more than a day on a single charge.
The Huawei P8 is the best smartphone to come out of the Chinese firm to date, and it shows some very real promise that the company is heading in the right direction.
It still doesn't quite hit the same heights as the flagships its trying to compete with though, and that becomes apparent after spending some time with the P8
The Huawei P8 is the best smartphone to come out of the Chinese firm to date, and it shows some very real promise that the company is heading in the right direction.
It still doesn't quite hit the same heights as the flagships its trying to compete with though, and that becomes apparent after spending some time with the P8.
We liked
The slender, all metal body of the Huawei P8 is certainly premium in look and feel, allowing the handset to stand proudly next to the iPhone 6, HTC One M9 and Samsung Galaxy S6.
I wouldn't say it's quite as nice as these handsets, but it's up there and for that Huawei should be commended.
The full HD display is easy on the eye, the camera has a decent range of features - even if some of them are a bit gimmicky - and the price tag attached the Huawei P8 is eye catching in its own right.
We disliked
In an attempt to differentiate itself from the mobile market Huawei has added some slightly left field features in Knuckle Sense and Voice Wakeup.
On the surface you can understand the potential of these features, but I was disappointed to find just how poorly both had been implemented.
Voice wakeup isn't good enough at recognising your alert phrase over normal conversation, but at least you can turn it off. More annoying is Knuckle Sense which can't be disabled and constantly mixes up your finger and knuckle.
Considering there's an octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM stuffed inside the P8's super slim body the performance on screen doesn't make it all that clear, which is a shame.
Verdict
The Huawei P8 has all the right ingredients for a top of the range smartphone, but something's not quite gone to plan in the baking.
Its screen, power, camera and battery life are just about on par with the high-end competition, but software quirks and interface inefficiencies hamper the overall experience of the Huawei P8.
The 499 (around £395, $580, AU$760) price tag is not to be sniffed at though, as you're getting a lot of tech for money. If Huawei can sort out some of the nagging issues with a firmware update than the P8 becomes a really attractive proposition.
As it is though it feels like a second tier device compared to Apple, Samsung, Sony and HTC - a stigma the firm is still struggling to shrug off.
A slick, svelte smartphone which may give the big boys a run for their money
Our Verdict
The Huawei P8 has all the right ingredients for a top smartphone, but something's not quite gone to plan in the baking stage. The lower price point certainly helps, but the mainstream flagships can rest easy.
For
Premium design
Decent display
Feature packed camera
Attractive price
Against
Emotion UI remains
Slightly laggy performance
While the Huawei P8 does sport a premium metal body, it doesn't quite match the same style and grace of the iPhone 6 or HTC One M9.
The all metal unibody just doesn't look or feel quite as premium as its rivals - whether it's the finish Huawei has chosen to apply or use of cheaper materials, it's not clear.
It feels like there's something still missing to really push it into the design stratosphere, but it's another positive step forward and the Huawei P8 is still a premium device
As with all of its Android handsets, Lollipop has been coated in Hauwei's relatively heavy Emotion UI which does away with the app tray for a slightly more iOS look and feel.
Emotion UI has been improved over the years, but it still lacks the polish of stock Android and HTC's Sense overlay.
It's a shame as the brightly coloured, slightly childish icons detract from the premium appeal of the hardware on display here - and makes the Huawei P8 seem a little cheap on screen
Notifications appear on the home screen, but there's no way to open them from here - you have to unlock the Huawei P8 and navigate to the application manually, which is a little counter intuitive.
In terms of pre-installed applications on top of your stock smartphone apps and Google's suite the P8 comes with a few extras including an office solution and NQ Anti-virus.
Frustratingly the anti-virus app appears to be baked into the firmware rather than being a standalone offering and every time you download an new app it'll appear in the notification asking if you want to scan it.
You can disable it, but only after you've enabled it and then gone into settings.
The 2600mAh battery is locked inside the aluminium body and can't be swapped out, but Huawei reckons the P8 will go for a day and a half with normal usage.
It also says power users should see a full day of use from the P8 too, although in reality these claims don't ring true.
With "normal usage" I found the Huawei P8 could see out a day pretty easily, usually ending up in the low teens by the time it came to plugging it in at night. There certainly wasn't enough left in the tank to get another half a day of use though.
Power users may find themselves dashing for a charger come late afternoon/early evening, and I found a couple of hours of heavy gaming took its toll on the P8's battery.
It falls in line with the current flock of flagship smartphones, with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 also struggling to see out more than a day on a single charge.
The Huawei P8 is the best smartphone to come out of the Chinese firm to date, and it shows some very real promise that the company is heading in the right direction.
It still doesn't quite hit the same heights as the flagships its trying to compete with though, and that becomes apparent after spending some time with the P8
The Huawei P8 is the best smartphone to come out of the Chinese firm to date, and it shows some very real promise that the company is heading in the right direction.
It still doesn't quite hit the same heights as the flagships its trying to compete with though, and that becomes apparent after spending some time with the P8.
We liked
The slender, all metal body of the Huawei P8 is certainly premium in look and feel, allowing the handset to stand proudly next to the iPhone 6, HTC One M9 and Samsung Galaxy S6.
I wouldn't say it's quite as nice as these handsets, but it's up there and for that Huawei should be commended.
The full HD display is easy on the eye, the camera has a decent range of features - even if some of them are a bit gimmicky - and the price tag attached the Huawei P8 is eye catching in its own right.
We disliked
In an attempt to differentiate itself from the mobile market Huawei has added some slightly left field features in Knuckle Sense and Voice Wakeup.
On the surface you can understand the potential of these features, but I was disappointed to find just how poorly both had been implemented.
Voice wakeup isn't good enough at recognising your alert phrase over normal conversation, but at least you can turn it off. More annoying is Knuckle Sense which can't be disabled and constantly mixes up your finger and knuckle.
Considering there's an octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM stuffed inside the P8's super slim body the performance on screen doesn't make it all that clear, which is a shame.
Verdict
The Huawei P8 has all the right ingredients for a top of the range smartphone, but something's not quite gone to plan in the baking.
Its screen, power, camera and battery life are just about on par with the high-end competition, but software quirks and interface inefficiencies hamper the overall experience of the Huawei P8.
The 499 (around £395, $580, AU$760) price tag is not to be sniffed at though, as you're getting a lot of tech for money. If Huawei can sort out some of the nagging issues with a firmware update than the P8 becomes a really attractive proposition.
As it is though it feels like a second tier device compared to Apple, Samsung, Sony and HTC - a stigma the firm is still struggling to shrug off.
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