Introduction, design and display
The Huawei P8 is the Chinese firm's latest foray into the flagship market, and it's arguably its best handset to date after the comparably sedate Ascend P6 and Ascend P7 of the past couple of years.
The "Ascend" name has been dropped in favour of the cleaner Huawei P8 moniker, which tidies up its previously messy naming regime.
In terms of price you're looking at €499 (around £395, $580, AU$760) for the 16GB model, or €599 (around £465, $680, AU$900) for 64GB of internal space, making the Huawei P8 comfortably cheaper than the current fleet of 2015 flagships.
There's a 5.2-inch full HD display up front, while the metal unibody design comes in at just 6.4mm thick - making the Huawei P8 thinner than the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6.
Picking up the P8 I found it to be well weighted, manageable in one hand and indeed it does look and feel premium.
The slightly curved, chamfered edges provide a little extra grip, although the completely flat rear and super slim 6.4mm profile means it's not the most comfortable to hold. It does however, slip effortlessly in a pocket.
Huawei made a point of saying how solid the aluminium unibody is on the P8, and while there's no obvious cause for concern in terms of bend-ability I look forward to seeing others applying more pressure to see if it goes the same way as the iPhone 6 Plus.
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.
The metal power lock key is situated about half way down the right of the P8, in a slightly recessed dip making it easier to find when you run a finger along the edge.
The volume rocker sits above it, while below are two trays - one for your 4G nanoSIM and one for a microSD card (up to 128GB in size) which also doubles as a second nanoSIM port.
There are both single and dual SIM variants of the Huawei P8, so the handset you get may not have the clever second SIM functionality in the microSD bay.
You can pick the Huawei P8 up in four colours; mystic champagne, carbon black, titanium grey and prestige gold. The champagne and grey only feature on the 16GB model while black and gold are reserved for 64GB.
Something for you eyes
The full HD display may not match the 2K Galaxy S6 and LG G3 in terms of resolution, but with the Sony Xperia Z3 and HTC One M9 both sporting full HD panels it's not really being left behind by the QHD crowd.
That means it has a pixel density of 424ppi - matching the One M9, although the Xperia Z3 wins here thanks to its smaller 5-inch screen giving you 441ppi.
It's bright, colourful and responsive making everything look clear and easy to read, and bezels have been kept to a relative minimum apart from the area of dead space below the screen.
You'd expect to see a physical home key or some touch navigation keys here, but Huawei doesn't deal in home buttons and it's moved navigation on screen leaving a bar of blank space.
This isn't unique to the P8 - plenty of handsets have additional space on the front - but it's surprising Huawei hasn't seen fit to even stick its logo here.
At 5.2 inches it's on the cusp between manageable and slightly too big for one handed use, so if you have smaller palms it may be a little tricky to reach all areas of the screen.
It doesn't break any ground, but it doesn't need to, and the display on the Huawei P8 provides a strong level of performance, allowing you to enjoy the on-screen experience.
Interface and performance
The Huawei P8 comes with the latest iteration of Google's operating system, Android 5.0 Lollipop, but it's not the stock version offered up by the search giant.
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.
Download an app from the Play Store and it gets an annoying coloured border round the edge, rather than a transparent background like pretty much every other interface.
The interface seems more suited to Asian markets, but there is a way round it. The Huawei P8 comes with a Themes app where you can download alternative skins.
You only get six pre-installed on the P8, but that at least gives you some flexibility and you can customise each one to fine tune it a little more.
Wind back to the lock screen though and things do look a little more professional. By default you get a magazine style slide show of images on the lock screen, giving you a new picutre each time you fire up the screen.
You can select for a few categories of image with the likes of travel, cars and sport on offer. The number of images are pretty low, so you'll soon be seeing the same images again and again, but it's more interesting than having just one static picture.
If you're not a fan of the default images then you can always add in your own from the gallery to give it a more personal touch.
With no app tray all applications are stored on home screens, and folders are your friend on the P8 allowing you to keep various things in order. Just drag and drop one app onto another to create a new folder.
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.
Pull down the notification panel and you'll get a list of all your latest alerts, with a second tab at the top of the screen providing access to a variety of quick settings including screen brightness and torch.
The stock apps (phone, contacts, messages etc) have all been given Huawei's Emotion treatment and while they're all functional they're not quite as clean cut or intuitive as the stock versions from Google.
Huawei's keyboard on the P8 is passable, but I found myself making a lot of mistakes with the travel and key size not feeling quite right.
There is next word prediction and the swype style input, but again it doesn't excel in these areas and alternative options such as SwiftKey make typing much easier.
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.
In terms of power Huawei has opted to stick its own Kirin 930 processor inside the P8, and its 64-bit architecture and eight core setup along with 3GB of RAM means it's more than ready for the demands of today's applications and games.
Moving around the Android Lollipop interface I found the P8 to be generally fluid and smooth, although I didn't experience the zip I got on the Galaxy S6 Edge.
Firing up apps and performance didn't exactly sparkle - with demanding games such as Real Racing 3 and Family Guy: Quest for Stuff experiencing noticeable wait times compared to the Galaxy S6 or One M9.
Considering the Huawei P8 is being touted as a rival to the flagship devices from Samsung, HTC and co. it doesn't quite hit the same marks with performance, and that also comes across in the Geekbench 3 results.
The Galaxy S6 averaged a supremely impressive 4850, the One M9 was closer to the 3800, while the P8 musters around 3620. All three manage to comfortably beat the new iPhone 6 though, which clocked in at 2905.
It's not a terrible result by any means, and considering the considerable price difference between the P8 and its main rivals you can somewhat accept the slightly patchy performance. It does mean that the most demanding games and applications don't run quite so well here.
Camera, battery and early verdict
In terms of power Huawei has opted to stick its own Kirin 930 processor inside the P8, and its 64-bit architecture and eight core setup along with 3GB or RAM means it's more than ready for the demands of today's applications and games.
Moving around the Android 5.0 Lollipop interface I found the Huawei P8 to be fluid and smooth, although I didn't experience the zip I got on the Galaxy S6 Edge.
The software may not quite be a final build, so this could change, but some apps just took an extra millisecond or two to load for me.
Don't get too excited at the mention of the Lollipop operating system either, as it hasn't escaped the clutches of Huawei's Emotion UI on the P8.
It will be interesting to see how it compares to the likes of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 and Samsung's own chip in terms of performance and power efficiency, but you'll have to wait for the full review for the answers.
A new feature Huawei has baked into its interface Voice Wake Up - allowing you to say a pre-determined phase for your phone to recognise and then call out to tell you where it is.
It's not likely to be a feature that's used all that often, and the ringtone which actually says "I'm here" is a bit odd coming from your phone - but if it works properly it could save valuable searching time.
There's been a lot of work in the camera department of the Huawei P8, with a host of modes and features packed inside the impossibly slender device.
Round the back you'll find a 13MP camera with dual-LED flash and OIS (optical image stabilisation). Huawei went as far as to say it outperforms the snapper on the iPhone 6 Plus. Fighting talk indeed.
Low light enhancement promises clearer, brighter images in poorly lit areas thanks to the world's first four colour RGBW smartphone sensor, independent DSLR-quality ISP (image signal processor) and beefed up OIS.
A new time lapse mode allows you to take photos at specific intervals and then stitch them together to make a short video. You can even add a soundtrack if you wish. It's slightly on the gimmicky side of things, but it's fun to play with.
Fancy another camera gimmick? Well you're in luck, as the rather odd 'light painting' mode lets you 'sketch light tracks in the air to create spectacular and unique night shots' - umm... right.
Battery life is a hot topic in the smartphone world and the Huawei P8 makes some bold claims about how long it can last on a single charge.
The 2600mAh battery is locked inside the aluminium body, and Huawei reckons the P8 will go for a day and a half with normal usage.
Power users should see a full day of use from the P8 too - which would put it ahead of the Galaxy S6 and One M9.
You'll have to wait for the full review to find out if the Huawei P8 can live up to its claims.
Early verdict
The Huawei P8 is the most exciting handset to come out of the Chinese firm over the past few years, possibly ever, and it shows some very real promise.
Some big talk about a vastly improved camera, impressive battery claims and a stylish design wrap up a decent display and a heap of power - add to that an attractive price tag and there's a lot to like here.
Performance wasn't as slick as I hoped, but that could change before the P8 goes on sale, and the Emotion UI hasn't really moved on - but this is a serious flagship smartphone and one which will have Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony looking nervously over their shoulders.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1PNZdMk
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