Toybox: Huawei P8

Hot: Stylish, metal body; thin; fantastic cameras; great screen. 

Not: Lacks 5GHz wifi and user-replaceable battery.

Tech specs: 5.2-inch IPS LCD display; 424 ppi; 1920x1080 resolution; HiSilicon Kirin 930 8-core 2GHz CPU; 3GB RAM; 16GB storage (MicroSD expandable to 128GB), optical image stabilisation; 13MP rear/8MP front cameras; 144g

Price: $799

At a glitzy press event in Singapore last week, Huawei chief executive Richard Yu stood on stage and relentlessly hammered home the point that his company is dead serious about busting in on the cosy, Apple/Samsung smartphone duopoly. In front of more than 100 journalists flown in from all around the Southeast Asian region, he extolled the virtues of not just the brand new P8 smartphone but of Huawei as a contender in the consumer market.

What became abundantly clear (some 90 minutes later) was that Huawei pulled out all the stops in designing a smartphone that matches iPhones and Galaxys, almost spec-for-spec.

The P8 is an all metal uni-body design wrapped around a large 5.2-inch, 1920x1080 IPS LCD panel. It’s wonderfully good looking, incredibly thin (thinner than both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and IPhone 6) and feels as much a high-end device as either of those two, more famous rivals. Similarities between the P8 and its competitors are inevitable – there are, after all, only so many ways one can design a smartphone based around a 5+ inch touchscreen display – and at a glance you could easily mistake the P8 for an iPhone 6.

Feature for feature, the hardware spec of the P8 actually outshines the iPhone 6 in many departments, including screen size, resolution, pixel density, camera sensor size and battery power. While ‘out-speccing’ Apple is a game many manufacturers play at, it’s also clear that Huawei isn’t actually interested in playing it, taking a more pragmatic approach to the feature set. For instance, the P8’s 1920x1080 display sports fewer pixels than any current gen Samsung flagship or even the LG G3. It would have been easy to chuck in a higher res display, and yet it did not.

During the press conference, Mr Yu responded to questions about this by, ironically, playing the Apple card – saying that if you put a 1920x1080 display next to a 2560x1440 Samsung S6, you can’t even tell the difference. He also said that the only real impact such a high-res display is in the way it drains the battery faster. That’s logic that’s hard to fault – the P8’s display looks spectacular.

One area that Huawei is paying particular attention to is the camera. The 13 megapixel main camera sports a “world first” four colour RGBW sensor that enhances brightness in low light and does a truly wonderful job. The 8 megapixel front-facing camera is better than the main camera on many phones. Huawei has spent considerable time on the software, too, with settings that create top notch low-noise night time photography as well as capturing detailed shots during the day.

Huawei has  opted for a highly customised version of Android Lollipop, which takes some getting used to. Whether this is an issue for you depends on your attachment to stock versions of Google’s operating system.

In terms of operation and build quality, it’s impossible to fault the P8. The hardware spec isn’t leading but is up there with the best. However, as good as the P8 is, whether Huawei can gain traction or not might all come down to price. New Zealand pricing isn’t announced yet. However, if it can match the $699 Singapore price (that’s some $300 less than a Galaxy S6 in that country), then we might just have a scrap on our hands.

Scott Bartley is a former reviews editor for NZ PC World and home theatre and gadget title >>FFWD.