Huawei P9 review - Elegant, powerful but flawed

We've been living with the all metal and glass, premium smartphone from Huawei for the past week or so, and we're ready to bring your our review. While hardware is as impressive as ever from the Chinese OEM, software still has a lot of room to improve, but it's getting slowly better...
Huawei P9 Unboxing - • Huawei P9 - Unboxing a...
Huawei P9 first look at London event - • Huawei P9 & P9 Plus - ...
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[@NewtHew]

How did you get fast charge, I got mine on contract with Vodafone UK, and I cant get fast charging, even with the stock charger and cable - did you have to buy a separate cable?

[@bryandavesy]

i need help!! which looks better? titanium gray or haze gold?

[@mendellopez984]

I noticed that my unit getting hot easily when i use camera...is that normal? Considering im using it with battery saving mode... my os is nougat already...please tell me is that same with your unit too? Or what you do to fix it?

[@anoniemousmd]

Cam, does this phone support 4G LTE on both sim slots at the same time? Or you need to switch manually to 4G LTE on either sim from time to time?

[@ananthusajith8395]

Why do the software keep changing?

[@alfredcorporal2233]

p9 is a good phone. it's underrated but once you have it you'll be satisfied. It doesn't overheat, good camera, good battery life, good sound, and snappy. what's missing? waterproof like sony...

[@shanehorne22]

Alfred Corporal the sound is shit man

[@beogradskikauboj9879]

P9, Mate 10 Lite or A5 2017? Thanks :) Nice video

[@FunnYGameEeR]

Nice Video Man ! Can you test the P9 battery (how much time it takes to charge etc........?)

[@ismailmazlan5703]

What you mean by straight line in the middle of the screen..

[@bomkenkamchi]

quick charge is supported, r u sure?

[@DunnGolfing]

P9 just got an update how cool is that it's now 2018 long live the P9 👍😁

[@xperiago8049]

its not flawed its the best

[@xkmto]

just bought it - completely worth it!

[@saswineey]

how's it holding up? especially the 'lag factor' if any, and the battery thanks!

[@xkmto]

+Sashvin Raj I usually end the day with about 40-50% with relatively heavy usage (KZbin, music, messaging, 9gag etc) and I don't really notice any lag at all. The only place that I've seen where it doesn't keep up is the 3d games area, so if you're into mobile gaming it might lag a bit. Luckily mobile gaming isn't my thing so I'm good!

[@saswineey]

+DedPixel nice!!! what's your average screen on time though?

[@xkmto]

+Sashvin Raj a good amount actually, anywhere between 2 to 5h. I end on 40% on those heavy usage 5h days, when I'm out the entire day etc

[@smood8761]

Hey Ded The P9 can run games you just need to switch the mode to the one that is for Gaming.

[@JajabarBangladesh]

Very well made. Thanks.

[@MillieonaVespa]

Lovely to hear that voice again Cam ....! ..

[@mesharyhd7646]

thank you for a thoughtful honest review yes these visible lines from the digitizer and the touch layer above the screen it's also visible in the mate 8 I feel this is the shortcut Huawei took to shave the price. for further tests download snap speed picture editor and drag left to right you will see the jumping in numbers this problem also occurs when you adjust the brightness there's no accuracy

[@1blackballed]

Good review cam, I hear you say it supports fast charging? Is this true as also seen elsewhere it's not!? And roughly how long would you say it takes to charge from zero to full? I'm due an upgrade and was all for the htc10 but then this appeared and there is a great deal of a free Huawei watch right now on preorders right now which is really temping me over the htc.

[@CamBunton]

they mentioned it at the launch event. I'm fairly certain that it does.

[@CamBunton]

+Muhd Nurhaikal Even with a QC 2.0 charger? I'm gonna have to test.

[@1blackballed]

Yeah cam a test would be great, as if it takes 2 hours to charge then that might make me go for the htc! Seen another review say it goes from near dead to about 70% in just over an hour.... Not great and think they have messed up a bit not having quick charge capability! But if it has real good battery life I could look past it! But if you could test and put up a video that would be great thanks as good batter does mean a lot to us heavy users lol

[@CamBunton]

+Muhd Nurhaikal Snapdragon isn't a necessity. Exynos powered Samsung devices support QC 2.0.

[@DonFather]

good tips on the phone's ui.

[@Vivekchitra]

name of the games in this video please

[@weedbreeder]

nobody mentioned its got poor audio, no equalizer. also adoptive memory feature from marshmallow is disabled in this phone.

[@protoNiumZero]

hi, I think there is a bug with Huawei P9 for gaming because it will be very low sound when try to play the game, this is what I found out about the low sound problem, when I try to minimize the game and then restore back the game, the sound become loud but when I try to interact with the game (touch), the sound suddenly become low.. already try crank up the volume when it happened but also same result.. anyone else can verify this? you can check out the video that I recorded for this issues...

[@mjabdus86]

hey cam! long time no see! missed you in phonedog

[@SCtester]

Same!

[@a.aa.a9564]

just bought it also.very good indeed.

[@awdz123a2]

such beautiful elegant phone , I want one~~

[@matt9874]

I want itttttt

[@axne12]

I'm so close to pulling the trigger on this phone, but then I think "why don't I buy the 6p"😉

[@staytrippymayne2197]

+Max Edelstahl he meant the nexus lol

[@mrme4402]

you need a pop guard for your mic matey

[@swaksharghosh2705]

what's the price? Heard it's almost 630 USD

[@rubenarancibia7145]

by now is around 460 USD

[@johnb2001jb]

Dbrand needs to get on this!!!

[@hnaku8748]

What's the name of the game on 4:47 ?

[@puneethshetty7571]

Score! Hero. You're welcome☺

[@hnaku8748]

+Puneeth Shetty Thanks!

[@HollyPlusHorizon]

amazen

[@dnbeventsinbenelux2450]

p9 or 6p?

[@darnellrandall4395]

😂😂 that's funny it DOES look just like the 6p Huawei always seem to steal designs from other companies

[@Vitols666]

+DnBEventsInBenelux I would totally go for 6p but it's way too big for my taste. Will buy p9

[@LiteGaming10]

jokes on you the tampered glass screen protector will have the same issue with the OnePlus X

[@AmmarMalik]

Enviable scores in benchmarking? What are you smoking? The Kirin chipset is destroyed by both Snapdragon 820 and Exynos

[@malachij6949]

is the p9 better than the s5

[@xperiago8049]

Malachi J its better than s7

[@arifsyazwan7731]

+Userv Dragon no s7 is better by 15% but p9 is better than 6s

[@xperiago8049]

Arif Boy actually its all about opinion and for me p9 os better than s7 by 150%

[@arifsyazwan7731]

Ofc because it copys ios

[@xperiago8049]

Arif Boy i meant "is" insted of " os" And even if its like ios so what It has the chape of ios but features like android

[@shanehorne22]

Fantastic pictures lol that's the funniest thing I've ever heard

[@wanderer1955]

Most of what you mentioned was irrelevant. But the bit I did want you to speak about wasn't mentioned. How the heck do you put your music in the phone????

[@MrNoLIF33]

if you are planning to move it to another device, meaning it is stored in your device, you can hook up your current phone to a computer. From there you can roam around it and look for your music or look for it in the search bar. Copy the folder into your computer, hook up the new device, find the music folder and paste the music folder. hope it helps.

[@wanderer1955]

Thanks but I have done all that already. My lappy doesn't seem to acknowledge my Huawie when they are connected.

[@MrNoLIF33]

make sure the phone is unlocked when you hook it up, else it wont show anything on its drive.

[@wanderer1955]

I have and it shows gallery, contacts, and video, but no music AT ALL.

[@MrNoLIF33]

try downloading music on your phone, see if it creates a music folder and go from there.

[@mohdbasri700]

best phone of the year yet

[@portiajanes2064]

I bloody love my p9 its incredible my note 5 is just terrible in comparison

[@saswineey]

I'm considering the p9, but why do you favor the p9 over the note 5? thanks!

[@portiajanes2064]

+Sashvin Raj where do I start.. the finger print sensor is just incredible lightning quick. beautiful photos and its super light to hold and good battery. I just wish I'd got the plus!!!

[@saswineey]

+Portia Janes what about day to day usage? which one runs smoother? the p9 or note 5? thanks!

[@brainactivity737]

100% with u on this one. there is some missing in my samsung s7. I just keep going back to my p9

[@saswineey]

I got the p9, found a really really good deal, and this guy is fasssttt! I got mine in gold

[@ryancollins312]

it may be cheaper than the s7 or s7 edge but it's also not a patch on them. I was looking forward to the p9 plus but can see on the p9 the battery is pretty bad compared to my s7 edge.

[@caiyuhui]

so good,yet,so cheap!

[@Randomizer92mx]

I wouldn't give on this phone more than $400. It is really not that impressive than I would have thought. The UI is not helping, only 1080p is already a Huawei tradition and no 6GB of RAM as it was initially rumored. On the camera the thing which impressed me was the low light condition quality, while the rest of it is pretty gimmicky (how many people shoot b/w photos daily?). All in all it's an OK phone, but not at the same level with S7, G5 and HTC 10.

[@TheNowISTIME]

iPhone 6s plus is also a 1080p along with 2gb. lol

[@Randomizer92mx]

+TU JUT iphone is a joke...i am talking about real phones here

[@luvqama]

htc 10 is ugly

[@MsQwerasdf1234]

+Terrorcowboy 2k in 5.2inch phone? really?

[@Zyrazor]

Typical IPS LCD doesn't need 2k, only amoled pentile pixel layout needs 2k resolution.

[@haleIrwinG]

Nova launcher to save the day!

[@brainactivity737]

of course if it wasn't for the nova launcher I honestly would have sold the phone. Loving it now

[@haleIrwinG]

ikr? now it's amazing..haha

[@aliasrehbar9693]

Atleast better than HTC 10 lol.

[@gass3764]

+Alias Rehbar hows it better?

[@aliasrehbar9693]

In many ways, bitch. In ..many...ways.

[@gass3764]

***** so basically its not

[@darnellrandall4395]

RIGHT!! That new HTC 10 sucks sheep balls

[@swampy1234]

+Gass it is. In many ways, bitch.