Back in April 2016, Huawei Technologies launched its P9 series of flagship smartphones which consist of only two devices at the time — Huawei P9 and Huawei P9 Plus. We were taken by surprise a little when Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. only released the mainstream P9 on May 28th, together with another device Vinot called “the runt of the series” which was the P9 Lite. But the wait for the larger variant is a short one; just a few days later on June 2nd, the company revealed that the P9 Plus will go on sale in Malaysia on June 10th, for RM2,599.
- Huawei P9 Plus (Haze Gold, Quartz Grey): RM2,599
- Huawei P9 (Mystic Silver, Prestige Gold, Titanium Grey): RM2,099
- Huawei P9 Lite (Black, Gold, White): RM1,099
Update (June 18th): Besides purchasing one from stores in the meatspace, Huawei P9 Plus is also available at Lazada and its own Vmall.my stores. Even though Huawei promised two color options, only the Haze Gold model is available, and the Quartz Grey option is still out of stock.
Huawei is also having a photography contest called ‘Change the way you see the world’ which will run from May 30th to June 19th. That’s three weeks in total, and each week a winner will walk away with a Huawei P9. In the first week, contestants are required to take a creative photo of something that resembles an ‘OO’ shape. In the second week, the theme requires creative photos that relates to the number ‘9’. The final week’s requirement — a black and white photo, which makes it easier to enter, but way harder to win. Contestants are to share their photos to Facebook and/or Instagram with hashtags #OO, #HuaweiP9MY, and #HuaweiP9, while tagging Huawei Malaysia’s Facebook and/or Instagram accounts. The terms and conditions of the contest can be found here.
Huawei P9 Plus’ main attraction is its dual-camera setup at the back, claimed to be co-engineered with Leica. One of the 12-megapixel camera captures in color, while the other 12-megapixel sensor only does monochrome. The monochrome camera is supposed to be able to capture additional details in a frame.
For those who’d prefer a smaller-size device, getting the Huawei P9 seems to be the better choice. Besides being cheaper, the P9 shares a lot of the specifications with the P9 Plus including the dual camera, processor, display resolution, dual-SIM support (in Malaysia), LTE Cat 6, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, dual-band 802.11 ac WiFi, USB 2.0 Type-C connector, among other things. Both variants also come with Huawei Malaysia’s Standard Premium Service option which includes free one-to-one exchange (within the 12-month warranty period), free door-to-door pickup and delivery, three-month display warranty, two free cleaning service (within the warranty period), and a dedicated “VIP” hotline service at 1-800-22-0086.
That being said, for RM500 more, Huawei P9 Plus has a bunch of other tricks its sleeve. Some of you may appreciate its bigger 5.5-inch AMOLED, but P9 Plus’ display also does Press Touch, which is exactly as described — a pressure-sensitive touch display. Being a larger device, it also has a larger 3400 mAh battery. In Malaysia, we’re getting the 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage variant of the P9 Plus, which has twice the storage of the regular P9. And finally, it also has an IR blaster, which the P9 doesn’t have.
Note that in Malaysia, the Huawei P9 Plus and Huawei P9 variants we’re getting here are VIE-L29 (dual-SIM, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage) and EVA-L19 (dual-SIM, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage), respectively. Here are the specifications for you to compare the two:
Anyway, here are the key specifications of both devices for us to ogle at while we wait for their arrival:
| Huawei P9 (EVA-L29, EVA-L19, EVA-L09) | Huawei P9 Plus (VIE-L29, VIE-L09) | |
| SoC / CPU / GPU | 64-bit octa-core (4 x 2.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 processors + 4 x 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 processors) Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 955 SoC, with built-in dual-core ISP, DSP, and depth measurement ISP for the cameras, as well as ARM Mali-T880 MP4 graphics. | |
| OS / UI | Runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EMUI 4.1. | |
| Display | 5.2”, 1920 x 1080 (FHD), IPS-NEO LCD screen with a pixel density of 423.64 ppi. Comes with 2.5D curved glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 4, covers 96% of NTSC colour gamut, and a luminance of 500 cd/m2 (nits). | 5.5”, 1920 x 1080 (FHD), AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 400.53 ppi. Comes with 2.5D curved glass, ‘Press Touch’ display, Corning Gorilla Glass 4, covers 96% of NTSC colour gamut, and a luminance of 500 nits. |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM (LPDDR3) with 64 GB internal memory for EVA-L29, 3 GB RAM (LPDDR3) with 32 GB internal memory for EVA-L19 & EVA-L09, and accepts microSD card of up to 128 GB using 2nd SIM slot. | 4 GB RAM (LPDDR3) with 64 GB internal memory, and accepts microSD card of up to 128 GB using 2nd SIM slot. |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac dual-band with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, and USB 2.0 with Type-C 1.0 connector. | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac dual-band with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, IrDA transceiver, and USB 2.0 with Type-C 1.0 connector. |
| Data / Network | Supports GPRS, EDGE, HSPA+ and 4G LTE Cat 6. Two SIM slots (nano-SIM + nano-SIM/microSD) with dual standby for EVA-L29 & EVA-L19. Single nano-SIM slot for EVA-L09. | Supports GPRS, EDGE, HSPA+ and 4G LTE Cat 6. Two SIM slots (nano-SIM + nano-SIM/microSD) with dual standby for VIE-L29. Single nano-SIM slot for VIE-L09. |
| Camera | 2x 12 MP rear camera with Sony IMX286 Exmor RS CMOS BSI sensor at 1.25 μm size (one captures in colour and the other monochrome), 2x Leica certified Summarit H 1:2.2/27 ASPH lenses with 27 mm focal length, hybrid laser/contrast/depth autofocus, and dual-tone dual-LED flash. 8 MP front camera with Sony IMX179 Exmor R CMOS sensor, and 26 mm lens. Aperture is rated at f/2.2 for the rear cameras, and for the front, f/2.4 on the P9 and f/1.9 for P9 Plus. | |
| Additional info | Fingerprint reader, Gyroscope, Professional mode camera with RAW capture capability, IMAGEsmart 5.0 mobile image-processing technology, Picture Quality Algorithm (co-engineered with Leica), Hybrid Autofocus with contrast-detection, laser and depth measurement, Extra shooting features (choice of film, wide aperture effect), Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, and Supports additional formats/codecs for audio (FLAC, OGG, RA) and video (H.265, RV). | Fingerprint reader, Gyroscope, Professional mode camera with RAW capture capability, IMAGEsmart 5.0 mobile image-processing technology, Picture Quality Algorithm (co-engineered with Leica), Hybrid Autofocus with contrast-detection, laser and depth measurement, Extra shooting features (choice of film, wide aperture effect), ‘Press Touch’ screen pressure recognition technology, earpiece can work as tweeter when used vertically for audio and stereo when in landscape position, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, and Supports additional formats/codecs for audio (FLAC, OGG, RA) and video (H.265, RV). |
| Battery | 3,000 mAh, non-removable Li-ion polymer battery. | 3,400 mAh, non-removable Li-ion polymer battery. |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) and weight | 145 x 70.9 x 6.95 mm and weighs 144 g. | 152.3 x 75.3 x 6.98 mm and weighs 162 g. |
| Colour(s) | Comes in Haze Gold for EVA-L29, as well as Prestige Gold, and Titanium Grey for EVA-L19 & EVA-L09. | Comes in Haze Gold for VIE-L29, as well as Quartz Grey, and Ceramic White for VIE-L09. |
| Price | € 599 (~RM 2,660) for EVA-L19 & EVA-L09 (3 GB/32 GB), and € 649 (~RM 2,882) for EVA-L29 (4 GB/64 GB) | € 749 (~RM 3,327) |
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