Huawei P10 Review: still a wonder maker

Over the years, Huawei has been consistently making smartphones with features too irresistible to shy away from. When they launched their first smartphone with lens co-engineered with Leica (read our review of Huawei P9), they set the standard of mobile photography so high – up to the point of influencing their competitors to follow suit.

A few months ago, Huawei officially launched their latest iteration of their P-series. This time, with Huawei P10, the partnership between Huawei and Leica has reached its maturity. While its overall look didn’t change much from its predecessor, what’s ticking inside it make it worthy adversary to other flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and even the LG G6.

Without any doubt, one would easily take notice that the hardware design of P10 is close to its predecessor. Overall dimensions is almost identical; the P10 is a little heavier by .03oz, but the slight difference is barely noticeable.

Huawei P9 (top); Huawei P10 (bottom)

Its screen size is smaller by .1 inch though. One major contributory factor to this slight change is the relocated touch sensitive home button with fingerprint sensor, which is now a few millimeters away from the screen. Nevertheless, the screen is still able to show full HD (1920×1080) rich media content with precise color projection and saturation.

Antenna lines are more discrete on the P10. The lines at the bottom now merge with the bottom portion of the phone. This seeming minute change on how the antenna lines are laid out may be a big deal to those who love minimalist design on smartphones.

Huawei P10 has a total of 4 hardware keys: volume rockers, sleep/wake button (with a red Leica-signature accent) and a capacitive home button. I personally prefer the latter to be at the back of the phone (just like the P9), but Huawei has a valid reason for relocating it to the front.

As a smartphone with features heavy on photography, I would have preferred it to have a dedicated button for photography; one that some brands have adapted over the years. Having the volume up key as shutter – while being the usual setup – still feels unnatural.

Let me now talk about its most celebrated feature and unique selling position: the ability to take quality and cover-worthy photos. Here’s the TL;DR of this review segment: Huawei P10 is superior in almost all grounds when it comes to mobile photography. All thanks to its new Summarit-H main camera: 20MP monochrome + 12 MP RGB with f/2.2; and front-facing 8MP camera.

Its main camera has all the features needed to produce photos that can capture wonderful moments. The synergy between its monochrome and RGB lens put a lot of definition, depth and color to every picture I’ve taken with the device. Color saturation and reproduction are almost always on point in various lighting environment, albeit performing less better in low light conditions.

Huawei P10, just like its predecessor, processes photos in portait mode at excellent precision. Bokeh is applied at spots I wanted; and the camera software and interface are flexible enough to let me tweak to my liking. No other company can trump Huawei in this feature, and it looks like it will take years for other brands to catch up. Huawei has truly redefined modern portraiture, and they have all the right to brag about it.

The technologies behind Huawei’s wonder maker make it a fitting contender to this year’s smartphone of the year like 3D facial detection and dynamic illumination, to name a few. As of this writing, it is simply the best smartphone camera we have ever used this year.

Huawei’s new baby girl has tricks up its sleeve when it comes to taking selfies. It magically adjusts the focal length when taking groufies. It can suck in more light too (f/1.9) so you’re assured that your selfies look great and lit even at low light conditions. It is just a little funny though that they prioritized on having lens with larger aperture in front that its main camera, which only has f/2.2.

If you’re after power and gaming capability, Huawei P10 is definitely not a slouch. It has a 64-bit 8-core processor: 4 cores with 24GHz frequency, and another 4 cores with 1.8GHz. It has 4GB RAM, and internal memory of 64GB, which may be expanded up to 256GB.

Playing games, which require more computing power and memory, is a breeze on Huawei P10. Mobile Legends, Lineage 2 and Fallout Shelter play smoothly on this smartphone. I guarantee that you won’t have any issues, although I had fairly smoother and better experience on the Galaxy S8 than this smartphone.

Its 3200mAh battery can last for 8-9 hours at moderate usage, which is acceptable by my standards. It supports Huawei Supercharge too.

I never had any issues too when making calls, surfing the internet and sending SMS. Local to cellular internet connectivity performance is topnotch.

Verdict

We take selfies and photos to capture wonderful moments. We don’t usually marvel at the tool we use to “freeze time” and document the amazing things we experience. With Huawei P10, it’s worth stopping and marvel at its capability and performance as a smartphone camera. Huawei P10 isn’t just a tool to capture wonder; it – in itself – is a wonder maker in many respects.

Giancarlo Viterbo

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Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.