Huawei’s latest smartphone, the Huawei P9, has made a considerable amount of noise with the dual-camera setup on the smartphone in partnership with Leica. Leica has provided Huawei with SUMMARIT f/2.2 lenses for the two cameras and the phone itself uses two Sony IMX286 Exmor RS image sensors, each capable of shooting 12-megapixel photos. While one captures chrominance (colour data), the other is used to capture the blacks, whites, light and contrast data.
Huawei also uses advanced algorithms, along with dedicated processors to enhance smartphone photography experience. With all of this at hand, how does the Huawei P9 fare in terms of the best smartphone shooters that we have around us? This is what we try to find out.
The mechanism
As we have already stated in our review, the Huawei P9’s dual-camera mechanism works in similar fashion to the Qiku Q Terra. One 12-megapixel sensor is tuned to capture all the colours, and the other one captures the blacks and whites, adding to the sharpness and contrast of the photographs you shoot with it. Additionally, the presence of two sensors allow for more light to be captured than a regular image sensor on smartphones. Huawei has used two IMX286 Exmor RS sensors by Sony, which have larger pixel size of 1.25mi to allow absorption of more light data, thus giving the Huawei P9 the ability to brighten frames even in low light environment. This mechanism also allows the Huawei P9 to retain accuracy of colours uniformly across various lighting environment. The dual-lens setup also allows for all the fractal-like bokehs that look wondrous.
Note: Photograph has been cropped by 100%
All of this, theoretically, makes the camera setup on the Huawei P9 one of the most alluring smartphone cameras to look forward to. Plus, the presence of Leica makes it all the more appealing.
Standalone performance
Right from the onset, there’s little doubt to the fact that the Huawei P9 is a very good smartphone shooter. The display somewhat oversaturates everything, but transfer the photographs to a neutral display, and you realise that the photos are actually quite good. There is a definitive amount of sharpness to the photographs, along with a good balance of vibrancy and contrast levels in the colours. The saturation levels are slightly enhanced, but with the excellent levels of sharpness and contrast, I’m not entirely convinced if that was necessary.
Colour accuracy is fairly decent, nonetheless. Skies come close to the forget-me-not blue of August sunshine, and the grey of dust on a potted plant is sharply reflected against the fading green of the leaves. The Huawei P9 is a step in the right direction for smartphone cameras, and under broad daylight, you will be delighted with the results that the Huawei P9 produce. The algorithm ensures that sensor noise does not interfere during amply lit conditions. For instance, under daylight, photographs shot retain ISO at 50 or ISO 80, and shutter speed is shot upwards as necessary. This controls the amount of light in one frame, along with retaining excellent sharpness in photos.
Note: Photograph has been cropped by 100%
In standalone terms, the Huawei P9 is delightful to shoot with. What you get are sharp, crisp photos with slightly accentuated colour balance, very good contrast levels and minimal noise. As light decreases, the Huawei P9 does render more noise as expected, and Huawei has chosen to opt out of aggressive noise reduction, which actually retains photography aesthetics to an extent. In terms of overall balance, the Huawei P9 is an excellent smartphone shooter, and is definitely among the best smartphone cameras out there right now.
In comparison
In direct comparison with OnePlus 3 and Apple iPhone 6s, two of the tested smartphone cameras, the Huawei P9 does hold its ground to an extent. Comparing the photos, the OnePlus 3 shoots photos with the best colour, sharpness and saturation balance, in bright daylight situations. Noise levels, though, are rendered higher than what the Huawei P9 manages. In situations where the Huawei P9 shoots at ISO 50, the OnePlus 3 shoots at ISO 125. The noise levels on the iPhone 6s fall somewhere in between the P9 and the OnePlus 3, although photographs appear flatter than the two.
The Huawei P9 is more consistent at keeping noise at acceptably low levels, along with retaining sharpness of subject and focus. The OnePlus 3 is the livelier one, and is undoubtedly the faster between the two. Huawei offers a Pro mode, where you get to set manual focus, continuous or servo autofocus, center-weighted/spot/matrix metering, shutter speed, ISO and white balance. The f/2.2 lens adjusts iris according to the ambient light, and does well. All of these modes combined, though, make the Huawei P9 somewhat sluggish. This is the price that you pay for all the advanced controls, although not too many might want to use the manual options too often.
This, though, is the deal with the Huawei P9. While it is indeed a good camera smartphone, it is not light years ahead of the competition. Samsung, with its Dual Pixel sensor, and Apple with Sony’s RGBW pixel array sensor, come close to offering similar sharpness, contrast and details, and even the Sony Xperia X performs at arguably the same level. Huawei has designed the camera app with great patience and caution, presenting almost every possible tool for you to tinker with and enhance your smartphone photography. You may not find yourself using them very often, though.
What we feel
The Huawei P9 is a great camera smartphone, and reminds us of the Qiku Q Terra’s Sony IMX278-powered dual-camera setup, which functioned with the same logic. It adjusts well to different lighting conditions, has enough bells and whistles to please the photographer in you, and offers top notch sharpness and details in the photographs it shoots. It does not really outperform the likes of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but is better than the OnePlus 3 in terms of stability and uniformity of performance. It is, indeed, quite commendable.
What we would have enjoyed even more is the lenses to have been f/1.8 or wider.