While many expected Huawei to announce their next flagship phone at MWC 2016 (as many other manufacturer’s did), they went in a different direction with the announcement of their Matebook instead. Their flagship phone will have to wait, but it might not be waiting much longer, with photos of the actual device being released by Evan Blass, now of VentureBeat.
After the success of last year’s P8, and the undeniable credibility boost that Huawei took from producing the Nexus 6P, it is safe to say that anticipation for the P9 is rightfully high. Perhaps confusingly, though, the P9 won’t be the only handset released this year, with three other variants in the pipeline:
- The Huawei P9 will be the fifth generation P-series flagship
- A budget friendly model – likely the P9 Lite — will be released following the P8 Lite last year
- A larger screened version – P9 Max or P9 Plus
- A premium model, as yet unnamed
VentureBeat’s source reports that the Huawei P9 will feature a Kirin 950 / Mali-T880 GPU pairing, supported by 3GB of RAM. This processor, an ARM-based Octa-Core CPU in the big.LITTLE configuration, will sport 4 x 2.53GHz cores for intensive work, and 4 x 1.8GHz cores for routine processing to keep power consumption down when it isn’t needed. Storage looks to be a one-size-fits-all 32GB, with suggestions of larger storage options in the premium line.
Perhaps the standout feature is a battery capacity (as reported by the OS) of 3,900 mAh, which would be one of the larger battery capacities we’ve seen in a non-phablet device. This is more stunning, because as you can see below, the Huawei P9 is one slender handset. A rear mounted fingerprint sensor rounds out the deal.
Those looking at the header image might notice the dual camera setup. While there’s little information about how this will operate, indications are its a dual-12MP sensor, which should enable some fairly unique capabilities. Wide angle shots seem likely, and perhaps some form of 3D imagery as well (of the kind we saw with HTC’s One M8?)
Not much else is known, and a second quarter launch is predicted — this fits with what we’ve previously heard about the Huawei P9 anyway.
This is the Huawei launch we can’t wait to hear about this year. Stay tuned.
