HUAWEI P9 RANGE RUMORS AND NEWS LEAKS
This may be the dual-camera Huawei P9
The Huawei P8 is a beautiful phone, one of the most attractive of 2015, and a sequel is almost inevitable. Rumors are already starting to gather regarding what’s being called the Huawei P9, along with a mystery enhanced edition, as well as its larger spin-off sister device the P9 Max, and a P9 Lite. Nothing is official yet, but here’s what we think we know about the new P9 range so far.
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Huawei P9 announcement
The Huawei P8 launched in May last year, so it’s still under a year old. How long will Huawei contain the sequel? There were rumors of an event in January at CES for the P9, but instead the Mate 8 smartphone made its debut. At MWC, Huawei revealed the MateBook tablet/laptop 2-in-1.
After these two major early 2016 events, the announcement may come at any time. At the beginning of March, a teaser for an event in Berlin on March 9 was leaked on to the Weibo social network. It didn’t specifically mention the P9 — only ‘beer’ actually — but the source has consistently posted Huawei P9 news, giving it some credibility. However, the date is still unofficial, and would come rapidly after MWC.
Huawei P9 design
In keeping with tradition, we expect the Huawei P9 to look fantastic. The latest leak from VentureBeat gives us a peak at what the device may look like from the front and rear. The shape is very similar to the P9, but the rear is now host to a fingerprint sensor and a dual-camera lens. The front shows a large touchscreen with thin bezels. Both pictures show a phone that’s almost identical to previous leaks, but this is the first time we’re seeing a ‘real’ phone, rather than rendered images. The main difference is the front camera and ambient light sensor are to the side of the speaker, rather than flanking it.
Before this, leaked images give us a look at the upcoming Huawei P9. in a series of supposed official renders, but as this is still a leak we can’t verify the source, so take them with a grain of salt. The P9 will be coming in white, black, silver, gold, and pink options, and if these images are accurate, they confirm the dual-camera setup on the rear of the device.
With the metallic finish, the rest of the device isn’t too different from what you get on the usual Huawei device — there’s the standard fingerprint sensor on the device’s rear, no physical buttons on the front, and a dual-tone LED on the back in the top center.
Last year, rumors suggested that the next version of the P8 would have a very different design this time, with a curved rear panel and a curved screen to match. It was speculated that the screen size would stay at 5.2 inches, but the camera would grow to 16 megapixels, up from the P8’s 13 megapixels.
In October 2015, a Twitter leak showed a rear section supposedly taken from a P9 prototype, which had two cutouts for two camera lenses. If the newly leaked images turn out to be correct, it won’t be the first time Huawei has played with more than one camera sensor, since it has been employing the same technology on the Honor 6 Plus.
Huawei P9 specs and camera
How about the P9’s possible specs? A Weibo leak claimed the Huawei P9 will have a dual-camera, 6GB of RAM, an octa-core Kirin 950 processor, and a Mali T880 MP4 graphics processor. All those components will apparently be fitted inside an all-metal body, with a 5.2-inch QHD resolution display. This final specs contradict some of the most recent rumors, as well as Huawei’s continued support of 1080p resolution screens.
The inclusion of the Kirin 950 processor has been repeatedly mentioned in reports, so we suspect that will be the processor of choice. The Kirin 950 is official, and is confirmed to have eight cores capable of operating at either 2.3GHz or 1.8GHz, plus a smaller always-on co-processor. There are many tweaks to give around 40-percent more performance over the previous Kirin chips, with an impressive 60-percent reduction in power consumption.
The leaked images have shown a dual-camera setup on the rear of the P9, which according to VentureBeat will be the second generation of the technology seen on the Huawei Honor 6, providing refocusing, live filters, and other fun features. The report states both sensors will have 12-megapixels, and the sensors will be made by camera legends Leica, following the official announcement of a partnership.
Huawei P9 family
Huawei might be launching a family of P9 smartphones this year, with successors to the P8, P8 Lite, and P8 Max, alongside an enhanced version of the P9, all rumored in a VentureBeat report.
The enhanced P9 might feature a larger display, but not large enough to infringe on the P9 Max’s territory. Inside Huawei, the enhanced edition is supposedly not considered a premium model, suggesting it doesn’t have any major technical advantages over the standard edition. The report also says that none of the four devices will feature 1,440p resolution displays, with Huawei supposedly not interested in sacrificing battery life for more pixels.
Huawei P9 Max
Alongside the P8, Huawei also launched the P8 Max, a much larger counterpart which came with a similar design and specs. Our first P9 Max hint came in November, when a benchmark test was leaked, detailing the device. Benchmarks are easily faked, so it’s not actual proof a P9 Max is being developed by Huawei.
According to the test, the P9 Max may also use the Kirin 950 processor, and may have a massive 6.2-inch screen (though not as giant as the 6.8-inch P8 Max), with an equally huge 2,560 x 1,600 pixel resolution. The specifications may also include 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage space, and Android 6.0. If it’s all accurate, then the P9 Max sounds impressive.
Sadly, since the benchmarks, we haven’t heard much about the P9 Max, which suggests either that it is being delayed or has been cancelled.
If Huawei is getting ready to release either version of the P9, the P9 Max, or the equally likely P9 Lite, it may do so in the next few months. This means more leaks are almost inevitable, and we’ll keep you updated right here.
Read more: Soft Tech
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