Wrap Up: A Cracking Statement for Last Year'due south Model

In a vacuum without any competition, the Huawei P10 would be a decent device. It boasts solid operation, decent battery life, a great brandish and respectable cameras. The design is comfortable thanks to is smaller-than-average brandish and metallic unibody construction. Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to use and packs a good feature set overall.

Unfortunately for Huawei, the existent world isn't a vacuum, and when faced with potent contest this year, the P10 struggles. When a acme contender like the Galaxy S8 costs merely $100 more than, or a solid performer like the LG G6 is available at roughly the same price, I see trivial reason to take hold of the P10 over a telephone with a superior feature set.

On the positive side, the P10'south aluminium unibody, largely unchanged from the P9, is even so compact and premium. It has features like a microSD card slot and USB-C. But its screen to body ratio and large bezels are no longer impressive. Oh, and the P10 doesn't come with an oleophobic coating, which is the nearly baroque feature omission I've seen this year.

Performance is decent, thanks to the Kirin 960 SoC that we kickoff saw in the Mate nine. However, it'south non every bit fast equally the Snapdragon 835 in either CPU or GPU workloads, and falls backside in some areas relative to the Exynos 8895. Information technology's not helped by significant amounts of throttling, more than its aforementioned competitors, and weaker wireless connectivity. Storage performance is splendid, but only if you're lucky enough to get a UFS 2.1 model.

The dual camera organization on the rear is respectable. Its detail and accuracy is specially impressive, as is the steadily-improving simulated bokeh consequence. Unfortunately, though, the camera simply isn't as good every bit the Galaxy S8, LG G6 or Pixel XL, all of which compete in the same cost bracket.

The P10 didn't blow me abroad with its battery life, but it'southward generally dependable every bit a mid-table performer, with gains in battery life over the Huawei P9. High-performance usage such as gaming will hammer the battery more significantly than earlier, simply I was happy with battery life in other areas.

Huawei'south EMUI software notwithstanding needs a lot of work, particularly to minimize bloatware, condense the settings menu, and reintroduce features Google has been pushing through stock Android. I'k non pleased with Huawei'southward update runway record either, which is currently leaving the P10 with security updates from three months ago.

Fifty-fifty though I've generally discussed how the P10 compares against current contenders similar the Galaxy S8 and LG G6, the biggest competition comes from Huawei's ain P9. The P10 is only a minor upgrade, with marginally better functioning, a slightly ameliorate camera and other modest tweaks. But as it stands on Amazon right now, the P10 costs $640, while the P9 is available for about $360.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Huawei P10 on Amazon
  • Huawei P9 on Amazon

If you like the Huawei P10's feature ready and what it brings to the table, I'd recommend y'all save some cash and take hold of terminal year's model at a far lower cost. If you accept the cash to spend and you lot're looking for the best smartphone, unfortunately you'll observe that elsewhere.

Pros: Great performance with dependable bombardment life. Huawei's compact aluminium unibody withal feels premium. Improved dual camera system can take good photos.

Cons: Merely minor upgrades over the now much cheaper P9. No oleophobic blanket. EMUI software needs piece of work, and Huawei'southward update track tape is not corking.