What’s New in the Huawei P10 Compared with the P9 Smartphone

Huawei, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has unveiled the new Huawei P10 and the Huawei P10 Plus smartphones today at MWC 2017. Both the smartphones are successors to the existing P9 and the P9 Plus smartphones, and it looks like we are indeed getting a good and worthy upgrade this time around. Speaking of a better upgrade, if you are wondering which one is the best when it comes to design, hardware or overall performance, we suggest you go ahead and read on to more about them in detail as we put both the Huawei P10 and the Huawei P9 side-by-side to see which one is a better pick.

A similar design language

[quote align=’left’] Huawei P10 & P9 both more or less have a very similar looking design[/quote]The Huawei P10 has more or less a very similar looking design in comparison to the P9 smartphone. This around we do have a more rounded edge that gives it a more seamless look when compared to the Huawei P9. The most noticeable difference is with the antenna bands which now runs on the top and the bottom just like the iPhone 7, whereas in the P9 it was simply put out there across the body. The fingerprint scanner is also at the front now which is again a major difference when it comes to usability.

The camera setup, on the other hand, looks very similar to what we saw last year with the P9. On the front, we have a curved edge, and the phone overall is built out of metal that gives it a nice and premium feel in hand. The front of the device remains unchanged for the most part if you ignore the fact that the fingerprint scanner is now on the front as mentioned earlier. Overall, if you are looking for a huge design refinement, you are not going to see much difference other than the colors.

Comparatively better internals

[quote align=’right’] Comparatively better internal but nothing revolutionary [/quote]The Huawei P10 smartphones have upgraded internals for the most part. The Huawei P10 is powered by the new 2.3GHz octa-core Kirin 960 processor which will be supported by 4GB of RAM. The Huawei P9, on the other hand, was powered by a Kirin 955 chipset but had the same amount of RAM. Hence, you can’t really expect a huge difference, but it is slightly better none the less. The P10 now comes with 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded as well if you wish, but you have to give the secondary SIM for that since it is a hybrid slot.

The Huawei P10 comes with 5.1-inch display on the front which is a WQHD display. This is similar to what we saw with the Huawei P9 i.e. the size of the display remains unchanged. The camera is however even better this time as we have improved sensors fro Leica. There is a 20MP monochrome sensor along with a 12MP sensor for colors and just like the iPhone 7 Plus, Huawei now has introduced a new portrait mode of its own. Do make a note that the P10 Plus has a slightly better sensor at the back with f/1.8 aperture whereas the P10 has f/2.2.

EMUI is now better and matches the color of your device

[quote align=’left’] Don’t let the software be a deciding factor [/quote]The Huawei P10 will run EMUI 5.1 out of the box which runs on top of Android Nougat. This is supposed to be better than what we saw on the P9, however, EMUI is a custom skin and we all know that it is nowhere near the stock feel of Android. However, on the other hand, we don’t have any new virtual assistants as we were expecting it. Having said that, don’t expect too many refinements here since the software on the P9 was pretty good and it will eventually get updated to this new one.

Not a huge upgrade since the P9 was already good

[quote align=’right’] Huawei P10 is a great device, but so is P9 [/quote]Overall, to sum it all up, the Huawei P10 is not all that great or at least we can’t call it a major upgrade since it is more or less the same. Eventually, all the software changes will migrate over to the P9 and the hardware is also not all that outdated with the P9. Hence, at $685, the Huawei P10 is not a bad device but if you already have the P9, then might want to stick around with it for a while until we have any better offerings from Huawei’s Mate series, etc. With that said, check out LG’s new G6 as well if you want a new smartphone or maybe stay tuned to PhoneRadar to see what HMD global has in store for us with the Nokia smartphones.