(Chinese Version)

Huawei is one of the few smartphone makers that adopt dual flagship series strategy. While Mate series often come with the most advanced specs and target business people, P series follow a distinctively differentiated strategy. Relying on fashionable appearance and strong picture mode, Huawei eyes another sector of the market with P series.

On March 24th, Huawei held a press conference in Shanghai, China to release two heavyweight smartphone models, HUAWEI P10 and HUAWEI P10 Plus. However, since they came with the same specs and features as the European version announced at MWC 2017 held in Barcelona, Spain a month ago, the press release in Huawei’s home country didn’t come as a huge surprise. Rather, it was like a ritual, or a slap on the wrist.

Since Huawei P6, every new generation of the P series models has come with marked changes. With notable shades including Greenery and Dazzling Blue as well as the first hyper diamond-cut finishing on a smartphone, these latest models do give consumers the impression of “affordable luxury”.

Huawei P10 in package

Besides, there’s another notable change in P10’s appearance: the front-placed fingerprint reader, which like the iPhone 7's Touch ID, isn't actually a button but a sensor located underneath phone's glass front, which gives the P10 a more seamless look, while also making it more durable. However, unlike the TouchID, the P10's fingerprint sensor can recognize gestures, so you can short press to go back, long press to go home, swipe to open up your recent apps or do something else entirely depending on how you configure it.

As for specs, Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are both powered by its own 2.4GHz Octa Core Kirin 960 processor, which, compared to the Kirin 950, achieves an 18 per cent performance enhancement and 15 per cent energy efficiency ratio improvement. At the same time, the GPU efficiency achieves an 180 per cent improvement in graphics performance and 40 per cent improvement in energy efficiency ratio. In fact, Huawei has made a breakthrough in striking the balance between performance enhancement and energy efficiency improvement.

According to Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, Android’s kernel was optimized in EMUI 5.1. Based on artificial intelligence algorithms, 20 per cent of lag phase in WeChat APP was reduced, photo browsing processing speed is increased by five times, while WeChat Red Envelope collecting speed is also increased by 29.3 per cent, which guarantees fast and smooth operation within 18 months of regular use.

Another upgrade to Leica cameras

The “marriage” between Huawei and Leica started from P9, marking the first time dual cameras were used in flagship smartphones. Today, it has already been a standard configuration in flagship smartphone models. Users’ fond of P9 heightens Huawei’s confidence to cooperate with Leica and even strengthens its determination to upgrade Leica cameras again in P10 and P10 Plus.

Equipped with three Leica cameras, HUAWEI P10 and P10 Plus are the first front f/1.9 Leica smartphone with 8MP, 1.4um inch, f/1.9 aperture, in dim light, it supports smart wide viewing mode, 4K video, 3D facial recognition. HUAWEI P10 even senses groufies and automatically switches to wide-angle shots when more people enter the picture.

Both the smartphones feature one 20-megapixel sensor for monochrome details, and one 12-megapixel sensor that takes in RGB details in the back. The rear cameras support OIS, 4-in-1 hybrid autofocus, hybrid zoom, and event bokeh effect in mono mode, which lets the P10 create stuido-quality lighting right on smartphone.

But the big upgrade for the “Plus” is a new f/1.8 SUMMARIT lens, allowing in more light for brighter low-light shots, and improved image quality all-round.

According to Leica, both P10 and P10 Plus support its the “Leica-style” portrait mode, which uses 3D face detection and applies a combination of fake bokeh and adjustable illumination and “beautification” effects to your portrait subjects. As a result, the cameras can capture more subject detail, achieve special color effect, diversify layers and highlight the unique features of the subject.

Targeting high-end users

As is previously revealed, HUAWEI P10 and P10 Plus come with almost the same specs in the Chinese market with the overseas version, though Huawei did provide more ROM & Storage choices for domestic users.

Huawei P10 4GB+64GB sells at 3,788 yuan ($631), 4GB+128GB at 4,288 yuan ($741), Huawei P10 Plus 6GB+64GB at 4,388 yuan($731), 6GB+128GB at 4,888 yuan($814), 6GB+256GB at 5,588 yuan($931). Two two smartphones will start to sell at 18:08 [GMT+8] on Huawei websites.

Specs and price of HUAWEI P10

Specs and price of HUAWEI P10 Plus

Except for the 4GB+64GB P10 model, all the other models are priced at over RMB 4,000 (around $582), while the 6GB+256GB P10 Plus model is priced at over RMB 5,000 (around $728). As a matter of fact, few Chinese smartphone makers dare to enter the over RMB 4,000 smartphone market and compete with iPhone and Samsung in the global market.

Sincerely Huawei became the second largest smartphone makers globally in 2016 (after Apple and Samsung), its ambition was also gradually growing. In recent interviews, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, made it clear that Huawei’s goal was to “rise into the number one smartphone maker”.

Statistics suggest that the growth rate of Huawei’s shipment volume in the past few years has maintained above industry average. From 75 million in 2014, 108 million in 2015 to 140 million in 2016, Huawei’s shipment volume has continued to grow rapidly in these years. According to Huawei, mid and high-end smartphones account for 55 per cent of the total shipment volume, which certainly strengthens its determination to continue the dual flagship series strategy.

…………………………………

(Like our Facebook page and follow us now on Twitter @tmtpostenglish, on Medium @TMTpost, on Instagram @tmtpost_english and on Apple News@TMTpost)

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @TiGeek, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.