Huawei Launches P10 and P10 Plus

To launch their newest Huawei P10 and P10 Plus smartphones, the global consumer technology brand recently invited media and guests to step into an artistic studio. The launch event, built around the tagline, “Make every shot a cover shot”, focused on the next generation of cutting-edge Leica cameras that are set to change the meaning of smartphone photography.

Most advanced camera smartphones in the market

At the media launch, Huawei had kicked off the event with a welcome address by Cheng Jiangfei, Country Head, Huawei Consumer Business Group in Singapore, who had highlighted the key milestones of the Huawei brand leading up to the launch of the new P series smartphones. Co-engineered with Leica, the Huawei P10 and Huawei P10 Plus are set to enhance portrait photography and come in a suite of unique colours developed in partnership with the Pantone Colour Institute.

Said Cheng, “Building on the success of the P9 and Mate 9 series, we have co-engineered the new Huawei P10 and Huawei P10 Plus with Leica to bring you the most advanced smartphone cameras yet.”

He added, “Our latest technology advancements in the new P Series smartphones with stand out design and hardware features, places a photo studio right into your pocket. We are committed to deliver the most amazing technology and customer experiences to our consumers in Singapore.”

Following the unveil of the two new smartphones, media and guests were then introduced to Clement Wong, Director, Product Marketing, who presented the dual-camera Leica system and brand partnerships behind the new smartphones.

Huawei has been investing in the camera

Said Wong, “Since our P Series launch from a couple of years ago, we have been constantly investing in the camera, and last year we chose to partner with Leica and they did a great job to make the smartphone photos more artistic with great quality. I think everyone loves great images using their smartphones. In fact one of the major functions of smartphones today is to be able to take great pictures.”

He added, “The portrait mode gives the photos are more artistic feel. We also have a bouquet effect which is great, and the contrast, colour and clarity of our photos are excellent as well. Our unique algorithm makes the photos taken by the P10 and P10 Plus very gorgeous. Everyone loves good images, and that is the whole fundamental principle of the Leica cameras.”

Huawei had also set up a beautiful photo gallery at their “artistic studio”, in order to display some photos taken with the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus. I took a walk around the small photo gallery, and I was definitely impressed with the look, feel and quality of the photos, which had all been taken by world renowned photographers. But it was still quite hard to believe that these had been taken with a smartphone, and not a DSLR camera.

Cheng and Wong then joined a panel discussion on the key features of the Huawei P series. They were accompanied by guest of honour Datuk Professor Jimmy Choo, OBE, and Sunil Kaul, Managing Director, Leica Camera Asia Pacific.

Some of the features discussed, had included the world’s first Hyper Diamond-Cut finishing and the two new on-trend colours, as well as the enhanced performance thanks to the Huawei Ultra Memory and improved camera systems.

Said Wong, “For the colours, we partnered with the Pantone Colour Institute and worked together to find out the colours that people love, yet are new to the market. “Greenery’ is totally new; nobody has done that before and we hope that consumers love it. The same applies to the ‘Dazzling Blue.’ Different people may love different colours, but Pantone is an authority on colour, so we trust that they have made a good choice with us.”

He continued, “To many people today, a smartphone is a must-carry item. If you forget your smartphone you will feel lost. But to stand out, the phone must look outstanding. The Pantone colour “Greenery’ makes you stand out from the crowd, and together with our portable yet powerful camera, we want to create the perfect experience for customers who use our Huawei P10 and P10 Plus phones.”

Datuk Choo, who has been using the new Huawei P10 model for some time, is impressed by what he has experienced so far. He said, “The P10 is the best phone I have come across so far. A phone has to be modern and fashionable at the same time, and with Leica’s partnership with Huawei, every photo I take on the P10 is sharp as well. It feels like paying a photographer to take a photo for you.”

He added, “The quality and design of the P10 is also great. I want something light and thin, and at the same time, the P10 has a powerful battery too, so I do not need to worry at all, that the battery will die on me in the middle of a fashion show. I have had other phones where I need to charge the phone after three to four hours of usage.”

Key Features

In summary the key features of the new Huawei P10 and P10 Plus smartphones include the following.

The Huawei P10 features a Leica Dual Camera that incorporates artistic portrait enhancement technologies such as precise 3D facial detection, dynamic illumination, natural colour or monochrome bokeh, automated wide aperture effect and Huawei Hybrid Zoom that allows macro shots.
The Huawei P10 Plus features the Leica Dual Camera Pro Edition, which consists of all of the features of the Huawei P10 but also incorporates a new SUMMILUX-H Leica rear camera lens with larger aperture for taking brighter images.
Both phones feature a Leica front camera, a world’s first, that also contains a new brighter sensor and larger aperture lens for outstanding self portraits.
Sturdy uni-body metal construction and trendy colours developed in conjunction with the Pantone Colour Institute. Unique finishes on selected models with Hyper Cut Diamond Finishing – a world first – that gives the phones a luxurious feel.
4.5GB enabled Huawei P10 Plus with cutting edge 4×4 LTE MIMO antenna system and 2×2 WiFi MIMO antenna for amazing WiFi performance.

Added Wong, “The P10 Plus has four antenna that gives our users the best connectively all the time. For the WiFi, we have a dual antenna to provide customers with strong signals all the time. The battery life, software and UI (user interface) is also great.”

Technical Specifications

Here is a full list of technical specifications of the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus:

Hands-On with the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus

Members of the media also got the chance to take their own cover shots using the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus cameras, as well as the opportunity to check out the other features of the phones at the display booths.

I tried having a couple of photos of myself taken, and the phone camera photos really do look great – I thought that the pictures were pretty incredible for a smartphone camera.

At the same time, when browsing through the phones to check out the speed and features, the phones are definitely fast and speedy – this would probably be good for playing Pokemon Go without suffering from much lag time.

In terms of the weight, the phones are definitely light. At 145g for the Huawei P10 and 165g for the Huawei P10 Plus, they do feel substantially lighter in my hand, as compared to what I am used to.

Availability

In Singapore, the Huawei P10 is priced at $798 (64GB ROM + 4GB RAM) and is currently available in Prestige Gold (Sandblast) and Graphite Black (Sandblast) colours.

The Huawei P10 Plus is priced at $998 (128GB ROM + 6GB RAM) and is available from 15 April 2017 in Dazzling Gold (Hyper Diamond-Cut) and Graphite Black (Sandblast).