Huawei P8 Challenges Galaxy S6 with Superslim Steel Design

LONDON -- How do you stand out in today's sea of smartphones? Huawei is betting on the premium design of the P8 to win over shoppers. Announced today (April 15), the Huawei P8 sports a fetching design made of steel and glass, and it's only 0.25 inches thin (thinner than the Galaxy S6). Other highlights include an octa-core CPU, 5.2-inch full HD screen and a new Super Night Mode for the 13-megpaixel camera.
The US variant of the Huawei P8 will arrive stateside in May, and retail unlocked for under 500 euros (about $529). Huawei also launched the huge 6.8-inch P8 Max phablet, which will be available globally next month. During my preview of the P8 (international version), I was charmed by its looks and intrigued by its potential.

Design

While the generic-looking, black rectangle didn't immediately wow at first, I was won over with a single touch. The steel unibody and glass construction feels solid and luxurious. With a barely-there profile of 0.25-inches and a 5.2-inch 1080p display, the P8 is minimalistically sexy. There is nothing on the front other than the 8-megapixel camera and a small 2 by 3 grid of sensors above the screen. The phone's also available in silver and gold.

The P8 is one of the slimmest smartphones around, beating the Samsung Galaxy S6 (0.27 inches), the iPhone 6 (0.27 inches) and the HTC One M9 (0.37 inches). I liked the small square power button on the right side, below the volume rocker, as it's easier to press and identify by touch than some competitors.

Specs

Inside, the P8 carries Huawei's own 2.0-GHz octa-core, 64-bit Kirin 930 CPU with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. A 2,600-mAh battery also sits under the hood. That's bigger than the Galaxy S6's 2,550-mAh one, which lasted 8 hours and 32 minutes. The P8, however, is smaller than the HTC One M9's (2,840 mAh), which lasted 7:14. The P8 supports NFC and Bluetooth 4.0.
During my time with the P8, the phone was mostly zippy when opening apps and sliding between home pages. It did struggle to keep up sometimes, pausing to return to the home screen from the camera app, for instance. I liked how bright and sharp the display was, and viewing angles were generous -- the image quality did not change as I tilted the phone from side to side.

Camera Improvements

The P8 carries the same 8-MP front and 13-MP rear camera setup as its predecessor (Huawei Ascend P7), but has a new Super Night mode to enhance low-light shooting. Huawei said the new mode is optimized to leave the shutter open for longer and reduce noise (grain) when activated. The P8 offers an Ultra Panorama mode that lets you shoot panoramic scenes not just horizontally but vertically as well, for a more rounded, almost 360-degree view. A cool new Light Painting mode (in low light) uses long exposure to let you capture the path of moving light, as if you were painting with a light source.
Aspiring filmmakers will appreciate the P8's cool new Director Mode, that lets you record, in real-time, video from four different smartphones. As long as one of the four is the Huawei P8, it doesn't matter what the other three are. After filming, you can immediately stitch together and edit the footage from the phone's app for a multi-cam video.

Software: Android Lollipop with Emotion UI 3.1

The P8 runs Android 5 Lollipop with Huawei's Emotion UI 3.1 overlay. This software skins the OS with quaint-looking icons for apps such as browser, files and messages. It removes the apps drawer as well, putting all your downloaded programs on the home screen, a la iOS. With Emotion UI, you can create custom skins, which lets you set your own icons, color schemes and backgrounds. This feature will not be available in the US, however.

As on the Ascend P7, you can double press the volume down button when the device is locked to quickly snap a picture without having to open the camera app. I found this to be very handy, although the pictures I snapped came out blurry. Since you won't be able to see what you're shooting onscreen, your pictures shot this way might not be framed the way you intended. But this is a nifty feature for when you want to quickly capture a fleeting moment.
In place of your typical Google apps, the P8 uses its own apps, including Huawei's Browser, Camera, Clock, Phone, Messaging and File Manager. You'll have access to the Play Store to download other options. Huawei also loads the P8 with Search, Music, Huawei Cloud+ (available in some countries for data backup) apps, which are somewhat helpful. It's not clear specifically which apps will be available on the US version just yet.

Enhanced for connectivity

Huawei says it optimized the P8 for connectivity in a number of ways. First, the phone will more quickly connect to a network during bootup. It will also automatically detect the strength of your cell and Wi-Fi connections and switch to the stronger of the two for better speeds. You can choose to enable this feature automatically or have it ask you before switching, so you don't accidentally get off Wi-Fi abroad and drum up roaming charges.

P8 Max phablet

The company also unveiled its large 6.8-inch P8 Max phablet at the event. It looks like a supersized P8 but also a little like the iPhone 6 Plus. At 0.26 inches thin though, the P8 Max is one of the slimmest phablets around, compared to the iPhone 6 Plus (0.28 inches) and the Galaxy Note 4 (0.4 inches). The P8 Max sports a display that Huawei claims is richer and more vivid than the iPhone 6 Plus. It will also run Android 5 Lollipop with Emotion UI, and comes with Split Windows and other features that make use of the large screen for better multitasking.
The P8 Max's large 4,360-mAh battery will last about 2.23 days and 1.4 days of normal and heavy use respectively, according to Huawei. And with the company's patented 7-layer heat conduction thermal tech, the P8 Max should stay cool regardless of how much you use it.