There’s a often long-winded way to say something and a short, cleaner way to say it. So let’s cut to the chase: the P10 is hands-down the best smartphone Huawei have brought to the Australian market thus far.
It’s the rare smartphone that ‘feels right’ from the moment you pick it up and one that delivers on all fronts.
This isn’t to say the P10 is perfect. After all, there’s always room for improvement and no such thing as a perfect product. However, in my opinion, it’s a sizeable leap forward for the brand and a worthy entry into (and a competitive player within) the higher-end of the market (it undercuts the Galaxy S8 by $300).
In design, the P10 strikes a great balance in echoing what you’ve seen work in other smartphones and putting a unique stamp on things. The metal shell that covers the back of the device feels lavish to the touch and surprisingly resilient to fingerprints. There’s a bar of glossy plastic that safety encases the camera, sealing it away from harm’s way. It’s one of many small but nice touches that keeps the P10 feeling like a clean and seamless package.
The only pickle here is the lack of waterproofing, which isn’t exactly a deal-breaker but given the growing ubiquity of the feature, it’s absence feels noted in a flagship product like the P10. Regardless, for us, this phone was love at first sight.
These strengths are built on and elevated by the device’s specs. The P10 fields a gorgeous 5.1-inch QuadHD display, Kirin 960 processor and 4GBs of RAM. Storage-wise, it comes with a lean 32GB of internal data storage. However, this can be buffered up via MicroSD.
It’s loaded up with the latest version of Android Nougat and, like Huawei’s recent GR5, it feels like the company have done a great job of marrying the hardware and software sides of the P10 together. Given our past experiences with both the GR5 and Mate 9, this is all the more impressive.
As someone who jumps from phone to phone, I often found myself taking longer than usual to shift gears and adjust with the way that Huawei’s EMUI sets things out. This time, it clicked with me a whole lot quicker. As a result, I found it much easier to appreciate the wide-ranging levels of customization on offer. It feels like every aspect of the P10’s software can be tinkered with, adjusted or disabled to your liking.
Then there’s the camera. The P10 packs the same dual lens camera found in the Mate 9 and P9. However, this time, it brings Huawei’s Leica-approved smartphone photography to both the front and rear-facing cameras. With the former, the P10 features an f/1.9 aperture 8-megapixel shooter. The latter combines the prowess of a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor with a 12-megapixel RBG one to produce truly stellar results.
The P10’s camera also boasts hybrid-zoom, optical image stablization, laser auto-focus and a whole suite of powerful photography and videography options. It’s not exactly going to retire your GH5. However, as far as smartphone cameras go, it’s definitely one of the best options out there. See some examples of photos shot on the P10 below:
Conclusion
All told, the P10 ends up feeling like a premium device at an ultra-competitive price-point. Coming out of my time with – It’s more than just a handset that’s easy to recommend on its merits, it’s one that I genuinely really want to. It’s the best phone that Huawei have ever brought to the market and one that can match even the most premium of smartphone incumbents tit for tat.
The Huawei P10 is priced at $899 while the P10 Plus comes in a little higher at $1099. Both are available from today through Optus, Vodafone and JB Hi-Fi.
