Huawei to launch P9 smartphone with Leica dual cameras today

The P9 sports a 5.2-inch full HD (1080p) IPS display with 2.5D curved screen. Under the hood, the phone comes with Huawei’s own Kirin 955 64-bit octa-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM on the 32GB variant, and 4GB of RAM on 64GB storage variant. Both variants also come with a microSD slot with support for up to 256GB.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Wednesday is expected to launch two variants of its latest P9 smartphone that comes with Leica-branded dual cameras in an exclusive partnership with domestic e-commerce company Flipkart. (Huawei)

Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Wednesday is expected to launch two variants of its latest P9 smartphone that comes with Leica-branded dual cameras in an exclusive partnership with domestic e-commerce company Flipkart.

The P9 sports a 5.2-inch full HD (1080p) IPS display with 2.5D curved screen. Under the hood, the phone comes with Huawei's own Kirin 955 64-bit octa-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM on the 32GB variant, and 4GB of RAM on 64GB storage variant. Both variants also come with a microSD slot with support for up to 256GB.

In terms of optics, the device features the two back cameras and an 8-megapixel selfie camera of aperture f/2.4 and full HD video recording capabilities. The P9 comes armed with a 3,000mAh battery and fast charging feature, connectivity options include dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, and USB Type-C port. On the software front, the Huawei P9 takes advantage of Android Marshmallow.

The bigger screen P9 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD display and a Kirin 955 Octa-core chipset. However, the P9 will sport 3GB of RAM & 32GB internal storage whereas the P9 Plus will have 4GB of RAM & 64GB of internal storage. There would be a 128GB model of P9 Plus, but it won't be available in Europe, but in Asia. The microSD card support up to 128GB doesn't change on the P9 Plus. While European versions of both phones will be single-SIMs, all the Asian versions will support dual-SIM cards.

It is quite obvious that Huawei wants to challenge the iPhone 7 in every way. Although the phones have been already been launched in Europe and other parts of Asia including China, it still comes ahead of the iPhone 7 launch. Leaks have claimed that Apple has been planning to launch dual cameras with the iPhone 7.

The fast charging also gives it an advantage over the new iPhone. Huawei claims that only 10 minutes of charging will give up to 5 hours of talk time, and it can be fully charged in 110 minutes.

Coming back to the dual camera setup, this is not the first time that a smartphone company has used such an arrangement to improve photography experience on a smartphone. India saw the dual camera in Coolpad and QiKU Terra handsets; the 808 and 810. Huawei's Honor 6 Plus also sported a similar setup.

In terms of price, the P9 is expected to be priced between ₹39,000 to ₹42,000. In the international markets, Huawei P9 is priced at $587, which roughly translates to ₹39,500, approximately.