Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, although not as popular as Samsung and Apple worldwide, has been enjoying its fair share of attention with the launch of Google Nexus 6P, and the recently popular flagship smartphone, Huawei P9. The Chinese company announced an increase in the sale of smartphones by 64% over the last year, selling more than 2.6 million Huawei P9 and P9 Plus, allowing it to capture 8.5 percent share of the highly competitive smartphone market. The new flagship phone Huawei P9 has been so popular that Huawei is now holding the third spot among top smartphone companies worldwide. Initially available in Europe and selected parts of Asia, Huawei has finally announced the launch of its flagship phone in the Indian market and sent out invites for the event.
The event for the launch of Huawei P9 in India is scheduled to be held on 17th August, and the specifications of the device are expected to remain the same as available now. The flagship device was initially launched in May and is the successor the previous generation Huawei P8. Huawei is one of the few manufacturers that use their in-house chipset in phones, and the P9 is no exception to this. The P9 is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 955 CPU, a 64-bit Octa-core processor consisting of a quad-core A72 CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz paired with the more power efficient A53 CPU, clocked at 1.8 GHz. The graphics chip powering the phone is Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. The Huawei P9 comes in two variants, one having 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, and the other with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB of storage.
The focal point of this device is its unique dual camera setup, co-engineered with Leica, a famous German lens and camera manufacturer. Both cameras are similar, the sensors being Sony’s 12-megapixel IMX286, and both include Leica Summaritz lenses having an aperture of f/2.2. However, one of these sensors is monochrome, capturing images in black and white, which Huawei boasts, can take better pictures than the Apple iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S7. The phone also houses an advanced fingerprint sensor, and a USB C-type charging port and has retained the 3.5mm headphone jack. It is also powered by a 3000 mAh battery, and Huawei touts an improved smart antenna system which will be able to switch from 4G to 3G seamlessly.
At the time of launch, the Huawei P9 was priced at €599 (about RS 44,299) for the 32 GB model, and €649 (about RS 47,999) for the 64 GB model, but the Indian prices have not been revealed yet. The launch of P9 Plus in India has not been confirmed by Huawei yet. The five color variants originally available for the device are Ceramic White, Haze Gold, Prestige Gold, Rose Gold, Silver, and Titanium Grey, but it is not clear as to which ones will be available for the Indian market.