Huawei P9 Plus hands-on – A bigger, more powerful version of the Huawei P9
It seems that you’re not a real phone brand in 2016 unless you have a slightly larger, more powerful phablet sitting alongside your main flagship. Apple has the iPhone 6S Plus, Samsung has the Galaxy S7 Edge and now Huawei has the P9 Plus.
It takes the regular P9 and ups the ante a bit, adding a beefier battery and larger display. There are also a few other exclusive goodies too.
It seems that you’re not a real phone brand in 2016 unless you have a slightly larger, more powerful phablet sitting alongside your main flagship. Apple has the iPhone 6S Plus, Samsung has the Galaxy S7 Edge and now Huawei has the P9 Plus.
It takes the regular P9 and ups the ante a bit, adding a beefier battery and larger display. There are also a few other exclusive goodies too.
This gives you a press sensitive display, allowing you to perform additional functions depending on the level of pressure you apply to the screen. Currently 18 native applications support Press Touch, but the functionality is limited.
In the gallery for example, you can hard press on an image to get a magnifying glass bubble on screen, allowing you to see an area of an image in more detail. In practice though I found the zoomed mode was pixel heavy, while Press Touch wasn't overly receptive.
The hope is third party developers will build Press Touch features into their apps and games, but in its current state it doesn't appear to match up to Apple's 3D Touch.
The display itself is a step up from its smaller brother. Both handsets pack a full HD resolution, which means the P9 Plus has a lower pixel density, but it benefits from being a Super AMOLED panel. In the standard P9 you're stuck with a less vibrant IPS offering.
On screen action is bright and clear, but it's not the same level of clarity as the QHD-toting Galaxy S7 Edge and LG G5.
Under the hood Huawei's own Kirin 955 octa-core, 64 bit processor runs the show, backed up by a sizable 4GB of RAM. That's more than enough power, and Android Marshmallow flowed nicely under finger during my time with the handset.
It's not stock Android however, with Huawei coating it in its own Emotion UI - version EMUI 4.1 to be exact. This sees the removal of the app drawer, redesigned app icons and a slightly altered notification panel.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and while the version on the P9 Plus is an improvement over previous iterations of the software it doesn't feel quite as polished as Google's stock platform or the interfaces by Samsung and HTC.
On top of the Huawei P9 Plus you'll find an IR blaster, allowing you to control infra-red appliances such as TVs, set top boxes and home entertainment systems.
Meanwhile 64GB of storage is joined by a microSD slot on the side of the device allowing you to build on the space with cards up to 128GB in size.
When it comes to battery life Huawei is promising big things from the 3,400mAh power pack it's managed to squeeze inside the P9 Plus' slender body. It claims with 'normal usage' you'll get two full days from a single charge, while heavy users can expect 1.35 days. I'll be putting those claims to the test in the in-depth review.
Fast charging is also present via the USB Type-C port on the base of the P9 Plus. It sits next to one of two speakers on the P9 Plus, with the other located in the earpiece location, for stereo sound.
If you fancy getting your hands on the Huawei P9 Plus it goes on sale in Europe and Asia on May 20, with a SIM-free price of €749 (around £600). It will arrive in four colors; Quartz Grey, Rose Gold, Haze Gold, Ceramic White, although it's unclear which countries will receive each color.
Early verdict
The Huawei P9 Plus is an accomplished smartphone. It's got a great feature set, impressive performance and a premium design - trouble is the competition is also excellent.In the past Huawei's flagship handsets have had a lower price than the likes of Samsung, Apple, LG, Sony and HTC, but the P9 Plus is priced at a similar level. You then have to look to see if it offers a better experience all round than our current best phone in the world, the Galaxy S7 Edge.
The early verdict is no, it doesn't - the Samsung still seems to be the top of the pile, while iPhone users are highly unlikely to opt for a P9 Plus over the iPhone 6S Plus.
For those looking for something a bit different, and a unique camera experience though, the Huawei P9 Plus could fit the bill nicely.
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