Chinese phone maker Huawei unveils flagship P9

Huawei unveiled its latest flagship phone, the P9, as it moved to push back against Apple and Samsung.

In keeping with its previous handsets, the Chinese phone maker was playing up the phone's camera prowess of the P9, but this time around, it created the phone through a partnership with iconic imaging brand Leica Camera.

"We're proud of the partnership with Leica," said Huawei's Richard Yu, unveiling the handset and its bigger sibling the P9 Plus. "We wanted to bring you the art of craftsmanship, photography and new technology."

On the rear of the P9 is a dual camera that is intended to deliver better images with improved detail and colour, using a 12 megapixel Sony image sensor with larger pixels to bring more light to pictures.

According to Huawei, its two sensors allow 270 per cent more light than the iPhone 6S and 90 per cent more than the Galaxy S7.

The phone uses a hybrid focusing system that includes laser focus for short range and precision depth focusing for longer-range images. It also has a new image signalling processor and has a Leica film mode with three different styles: standard for true to life colours; vivid for more intense colours; and smooth for more balanced colours. It also has a Leica black and white mode.

Leica chief executive Oliver Kaltner said the partnership on the P9 was the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the two companies that would provide great opportunities.

“Our vision is to have everyone in the world connected with picture taking,” he said, adding that mobile devices would allow everyone to be a creator. “Leica openly welcomes smartphone in the world of photography,” he said, describing it as a democratic visual language without boundaries.

Metal unibody

Like the P8 before it, the P9 is designed with a metal unibody. It comes in six different colours, including a white ceramic and gold colour.

The phone, which is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 95 64-bit processor, comes with a 5.2in display with 423 pixels per inch, and a choice of 32GB and 64GB of storage space. Huawei has also improved its fingerprint recognition technology, and included a 3000 mAh battery in the device, aimed at lengthening the average time a user gets between charges.

The company claims users will get more than a day of heavy usage from a single charge, with about 20 hours of talk time on 3G networks, 12 hours of video and eight hours of browsing over 4G networks.

A second phone, the P9 Plus, comes with a larger display of 5½in – the same size as the iPhone 6s Plus but in a shorter, thinner body – and a higher capacity 3400 mAh battery, with both phones having the ability to charge quickly, getting five hours of talk time from a 10 minute charge. The new handsets will also use the USB C connection that has been seen in the Nexus 6P and other new phones.

Huawei has always been keen to push its credentials in creating mobile equipment, with its previous flagship handsets offering a dual antenna system that would, in theory reduce the rate of dropped calls when switching between mobile phone towers.

The P9 extends that to a virtual triple antenna technology, smartens up the wifi search and also provides fast network searches while roaming. There is a dual sim option too, which uses the MicroSD card slot.

The mobile firm also unveiled its new wearable band, the B3 Talkband, which comines an activity tracker and notifications with a bluetooth headset.