Huawei Unveils P10 And P10 Plus With Dual Rear Leica Cameras And Kirin 960 Processor

Huawei today trotted out a couple of new flagship smartphones for photography buffs at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. They include the P10 and P10+ (or P10 Plus), both of which the company says it co-engineered with Leica to bring studio-like effects to enhance portrait photography. It's not that Leica actually had a hand in building these devices, but it did provide the cameras.


To that end, both phones feature a front-facing 8-megapixel shooter with an f/1.9 aperture made by Leica. It's the first time that Leica's sensors have been used for a phone's front camera. And just as interesting are the rear cameras—the P10 and P10+ each boast dual cameras provided by the German optics company. One is a 12-megapixel color sensor and the other is a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor. The rear setup has an f/2.2 aperture and optical image stabilization.

"With Huawei P10 and P10+ we have created a smartphone that revolutionizes and redefines portrait photography. Thanks to the evolution of our partnership with Leica Camera users now have an incredible Leica front camera on their Huawei device in addition to the rear. To match this innovation inside, Huawei's partnership with Pantone Color Institute ensures that the devices are equally as beautiful on the outside. The Huawei P10 and P10+ are smartphones that are as fashionable as they are functional," said Richard Yu, CEO of the Huawei Consumer Business Group.


Having dual cameras on the back allows the phones to take photos with the bokeh effect. This involves blurring the background so that the main subject is better focused in the image, giving it some pop. The results can be pretty stunning, though as with photography in general, it largely depends on the skill of the person taking the picture and manipulating the photo.

As with the P9 and P9+, the new P10 phones come in two sizes. The P10 sports a 5.1-inch display with a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) resolution, which translates to 43i pixels per inch, and the P10+ bumps things up to a 5.5-inch LCD with a 2560x1440 resolution. Even though it's physically bigger, the higher resolution offers more densely packed pixels—534 pixels per inch. Both are protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Huawei's new phones are powered by a Hisilicon Kirin 960 system-on-chip (SoC) consisting eight 64-bit cores (4 x 2.4GHz A73 + 4 x 1.8GHz A53), a step up from the Kirin 950 found in the Honor 8. The P10 has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, while the P10+ has either 4GB or 6GB of memory paired with either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. Both are expandable via microSD.


Other features include a 3,200 mAh (P10) or 3,750 mAh (P10+) non-removable battery, USB Type-C connectivity, and Android 7.0 Nougat covered with an EMUI 5.1 skin out of the box. In our experience with EMUI, it feels a lot like iOS.

The P10 and P10+ will start shipping next month in several countries. MSRPs have been set at 659 euros ($685) for the P10 and starting at 699 euros ($738) for the P10+.