Huawei P8 Quick Review

Huawei P8 Quick Review

Brief:  Hawaii makes a super (thin) phone.

Price:  Sim Free, circa £350 or cheapest “free” on contract I see is £21.50 for 24months on iD. (300 min 5000 texts 1GB data) the closest plan is £7.50 so you’re paying £14x24=£336 for the phone.

Specification:  See here http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-phones/tech-specs/p8-en.htm

Accessories:  There are plenty on eBay circulating, including a cut out view cover case and a screen protector that adds pretend capacitive buttons to the bottom of the screen.  Its US$30 unfortunately but I love the idea.  In the box you get a white charger and white earbuds, really with a black phone!!! I hate that.

Build Quality:  Huawei clearly want consumers to think of them as a quality brand, not some cheap Chinese company.  They have gone out of their way to make the P8 look and feel lovely, which it very much does.

Aesthetics:  Like with the build, you’re supposed to think “oooh” and you do.  It’s a nice thing to have in your hand even with its very squarish edges.  It is a nice object.

As a phone:  Good and bad.  Its CPU is zippy, its GPU not so much.  Its screen, is super lovely, its custom UI, not so much.  Its specs are mostly hits but there are weird omissions, like no 5GHz Wi-Fi.  The dual sim but not for the west and you can’t use the second sim slot and micro SD cards as they share the same slot, why??? The Bluetooth stack in it, is also suspect, I had issues with the Vidonn x6 and I’ve see others report issues too.  Then the no Qi nor NFC, neither being deal breakers but their absence makes me sad face.  Everything else though was pretty great.  It’s a nice phone to use daily even with its small but hardy battery.

Sound:  Arguably the best I’ve had from an Android phone.  It is a little too exuberant and uneven for me to love it truly but it’s detailed, capable and has some oomph to drive things.  It’s a little mid/bass punchy and it’s a bit excitable up top too.  Pairs well with cheap, thick, heavy sounding IEM’s which is what it likely will encounter in the wild anyway.  Still even with the big PM-3’s it did remarkably well.  A bit flavoured, paired well with the Senn Momentum Over-Ears 2.0 too.  It felt quite at home with the big cans, its little amp was at its best when the volume was getting worked hard.  Though even sensitive things were dead silent the bigger and harder to drive the more detail came out with the bumps and dips flattening out.  A bit weird a situation that it’s a phone and I’m saying find power hungry big cans for it to be its best but that’s nevertheless true.  I wish I had the yammy Pro 500’s to try out with these.

Value:  Mostly pretty great.  It has as a phone some deficiencies that in a true “flagship” would be killer issues.  No NFC, no Qi, no 5GHz Wi-Fi are things I’d find unforgivable but….. this costs half what others “flagships” cost.  Like the so so GPU, I never game so I don’t care really.  The CPU is good and snappy, mostly the bits I care about are all good.  5 GHz Wi-Fi and NFC I miss but would I pay an extra £300 for them, errr no.  Good enough value that I bought one with my own pennies.

Pro’s:  Cheap.  Lovely looking screen.  Audio output for a phone is impressive.

Con’s:  No 5GHz Wi-Fi.  No NFC.  Questionable Bluetooth stack.