The real strength of the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus is the dual lens camera system that was created in partnership with well-known photography brand Leica.
So much so, there is an argument as to whether you will call this a smartphone with a camera or a camera that makes phone calls.
That’s not a bad thing when you consider our phones have become our go to device to document the world around us.
While the device can do a lot more than just take photos, the dual lens camera system is rightly front and centre when admiring the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus.
DESIGN
The P10 and P10 Plus have different size screens (5.1 inches and 5.5 inches respectively) but identical designs with subtle curved edges and hyper cut diamond edges to give it a premium look and feel.
The P10 display has full high definition resolution while the larger P10 Plus has a quad HD screen.
The device feels sleek yet solid in your hands thanks to the sandblasted back panel.
One feature Huawei has reintroduced to the P10 is a physical home button to the front of the phone just below the screen.
Last year’s P9, one of the first smartphones to feature a dual lens camera, had the home button and built-in fingerprint reader located on the rear panel.
This time out, the reintroduced front home button cannot only read fingerprints but also acts like a mini trackpad to navigate and control the device.
This seemed like an odd choice given the trend is to do away with the home button and increase the screen size with that reclaimed real estate.
We didn’t find the home button too intrusive and we were able to control what it could do in the settings.
The device is also waterproof with an IP67 rating.
On the back the dual lenses sit flush along a band beside the flash at the top of the phone.
One issue with the design that we picked up, was with the screen. Usually a display has a type of coating to prevent the oil in our skin leaving smears and fingerprints.
The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus screen has omitted this feature and as a result the screen can look like a smudgy mess.
The product also looks a lot like the iPhone – especially from the back.
PERFORMANCE
The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are powered by the Kirin 960 processor which makes the device wake up quickly and switch between screens and apps instantly.
Also on board is Huawei’s Ultra memory technology so it can allocate and compress memory to maintain the phone’s performance.
The device is running the Android 7.0 operating system and Huawei’s EMUI (emotion user interface).
CAMERA
Without a doubt, the camera aboard the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus is the standout feature of the device.
And the P10 Plus camera is slightly better than the smaller P10.
On-board is the Leica Dual Lens 2.0 but the P10 Plus has a Leica Dual Lens Pro which includes new SUMMILUX-H Leica lenses with a larger F1/8 aperture and higher optical capability.
The camera includes a 12-megapixel colour lens and a 20-megapixel monochrome lens and packs in optical image stabilisation.
These offer remarkable quality no matter which mode you choose to shoot with.
Shooting in auto mode means all you need to do is point and shoot and you get a great picture.
But if you want to go more hands-on with your photos, the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus have plenty of options.
You can access a Pro mode by flicking up from the bottom of the screen while the camera is on so you can control things like ISO, white balance, shutter speed and a whole lot more.
Swiping from the left and you can then choose to shoot in monochrome, shoot 4K video, panorama shots, night shots, time-lapse and slow mo.
One of our favourites was wide aperture mode, accessible on the camera’s main screen, and it allows you to capture images you would typically take with a DSLR.
Pictures taken in this mode can even have the point of focus changed after the images been taken.
Even selfies come alive in Portrait mode which keeps you in focus in the foreground and artistically blurs the background.
These look amazing but the point of taking a selfie is often to capture what is behind you as well so not everyone will be a fan of this type of shot – you can disable portrait mode to take a normal selfie. But it still looks great.
There’s hardly any lag when you take your photos thanks to the super quick autofocus.
Shooting in lowlight was also impressive. The P10 and P10 Plus came up with surprising results in conditions where other cameras would struggle.
If you love your photography, this smartphone produces excellent results.
BATTERY
On the battery side, the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus have 3,200mAh and 3,750mAh capacities respectively.
For our reviews, we worked both devices pretty hard and easily made it to the evening with plenty of charge still left on board.
But even when you’re running low on power, the fast charging means it’s not long before you’re at 100 per cent again.
Huawei P10
Price: $899
Huawei P10 Plus
Price: $1,099
VERDICT
The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are quality high-end well-designed smartphones that offer great performance and a camera that is one of the best on the market.
[taq_review]
