What can you get from this £219 Huawei smartphone?
Since its launch in April 2016, Huawei P9 Lite has not yet gained a satisfying market share in the upper middle-class market. The price of £219 for a P9 line sounds appealing, but why it couldn’t make a big noise? Let’s look into it.
Workmanship
The first feeling about Huawei P9 Lite is good because the workmanship is quite good. Although Huawei gave up using an aluminum cover for this mobile phone, the coating on the plastic cover still gives a very good metallic feel.
Display
The 5.2’’ full HD IPS panel makes this smartphone very valuable. The brightness and color reproduction are great, almost the same as P9, which is 50% more expensive. Besides the new processor, HiSilicon Kirin 650, we find it very smooth when playing videos or switching between different apps.
Very smooth when playing videos
Camera
For lower costs, Huawei decided not to work with Leica this time for the P9 Lite. Instead, it is a 13 MP main camera with f/2.0 and autofocus. Since the optical image stabilizer is missing this time, the image quality is harder to control, although the aperture is f/2.0. Images in low light conditions are not satisfying.
Lack of image stabilizer, not satisfying images in low light condition
Fingerprint sensor
The strongest selling point of P9 Lite is the fingerprint sensor. It is amazing that Huawei has moved a step forward to make the fingerprint sensor not only for unlocking, but also other actions like swiping images or opening the notification. Controlling the mobile phone by fingerprint is easy.
The fingerprint sensor can control more than unlocking
Battery
We had charged the phone in the morning, used it for a whole day, and there was still 30% power left. It is extraordinary. The controversial overheating problem does not appear at all.
Overall verdict
Apparently, Huawei wants to extend its good reputation of P9 to this middle-class mobile phone with an attractive price of £219. Some performances beat most competitors, including the fingerprint sensor, the processing speed, and the f/2.0 aperture. The only thing we are not satisfied with is the lack of image stabilizer. However, it is an ideal smartphone for a £300 budget.
Overall rating
Wowcamera 