Comprehensive Review Huawei P9 Lite Specs Prices Pros & Cons

Design and Build

The Huawei P9 Lite sports a sleek and elegant design characterized by its glass front and aluminum frame, offering a premium feel despite its mid-range pricing. The device's dimensions are 146.8 x 72.6 x 7.5 mm, making it compact enough for comfortable single-handed use. It weighs 147 grams, ensuring a light profile in everyday carry. The back is made of plastic but doesn't detract from its overall sturdy construction. The phone is available in a variety of colors, including Black, White, and Gold, adding a touch of personalization to the user experience. It also features a Hybrid Dual SIM, allowing for the use of two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card for expanded storage.

Display

The Huawei P9 Lite boasts a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display, which is vibrant and sharp with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of approximately 424 ppi. The display delivers impressive color accuracy and brightness levels, making it suitable for multimedia consumption and gaming. The screen-to-body ratio of around 69.9% ensures that the display offers ample real estate while keeping the phone compact and easy to handle.

Performance

Under the hood, the Huawei P9 Lite is powered by the Kirin 650 chipset, which is built on a 16 nm process. This chipset comprises an Octa-core CPU with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and another four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.7 GHz. The GPU is a Mali-T830MP2, ensuring good graphical performance for the device's class. The phone is available in two variants, with 2GB or 3GB of RAM, in conjunction with 16GB of internal storage. The storage can be expanded further thanks to its microSDXC support, albeit using a shared SIM slot.

Camera

The Huawei P9 Lite features a solitary 13 MP rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture, capable of capturing detailed photos with good color reproduction. Additional features such as LED flash, panorama, and HDR enhance the camera capability, allowing for a versatile shooting experience. It supports video recording at 1080p@30fps. On the front, an 8 MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture ensures decent self-portraits, also supporting 1080p video recording, a nice touch for video calls and vlogging.

Battery Life

Packed with a 3000 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery, the Huawei P9 Lite offers good endurance with an official endurance rating of 79 hours. This battery performance is adequate for a full day of moderate use, covering browsing, media playback, and regular app use without the need for frequent recharging. The device, however, lacks fast charging capabilities but provides a reliable battery life for typical daily tasks.

Software and User Interface

Running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, upgradable to Android 7.0 Nougat, the Huawei P9 Lite is equipped with EMUI 4.1. This user interface layer provides a unique flavor of Android with several custom features aimed at enhancing user experience. EMUI is known for its customization options, smooth performance, and thoughtful utility add-ons such as a range of gestures, themes, and enhanced security features.

Connectivity and Network

The device supports a range of network technologies including GSM, HSPA, and LTE. The availability of Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20 ensures broad LTE coverage for a more reliable mobile internet experience. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS with GLONASS, delivering competent wireless performance. Models L31 and L21 support NFC, broadening its utility for mobile payments and other NFC applications.

Audio and Multimedia

The Huawei P9 Lite comes with a loudspeaker and a 3.5mm headphone jack, allowing users to connect a variety of audio peripherals. With a Loudspeaker performance ranging from 66dB for voice to 83dB for ring, the device provides satisfactory sound levels. Audio quality testing yielded a Noise level of -97.8dB and Crosstalk at -97.2dB, indicating a clean sound output with minimal interference.

Additional Features

A rear-mounted fingerprint sensor secures the Huawei P9 Lite, combining convenience with security. Additional sensors such as accelerometer, proximity sensor, and compass enrich the smartphone experience by facilitating a range of applications from navigation to gaming.

Conclusion

Overall, the Huawei P9 Lite is a well-rounded mid-range smartphone that has stood the test of time with its solid build quality, good display, reasonable performance, and decent camera capabilities. While it lacks some of the more modern features in contemporary smartphones, it remains a reliable option for users looking for efficient everyday performance at a modest price point. With an original price of about 210 EUR, it offered substantial value for money at the time of its release.