Celebrate 50 years of ‘Star Trek’ at NYC’s Intrepid museum

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of boldly going where no-one has gone before, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space museum in NYC will host “Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience.” From July 8 to October 31, you too can explore the 26th century brought to life by modern-day tech like Leap Motion and voice recognition.
The exhibit is set up like a future Career Day with tours rotating attendees around the various ship-based specialties: Language, Medical, Navigation, Engineering, Command and Science. At the end of the tour, attendees are sorted into their own Starfleet house (thankfully, nobody will end up a red shirt). The exhibit simulates the tricorders, phasers and other iconic Star Trek tech with RFID sensors, planet projection mapping, holograms, and other modern gadgetry.

New York is the first stop on the Starfleet Academy Experience’s tour. During its stay, the Intrepid Museum will hold themed events like movie nights, two Trek-focused summer camp weeks, Astronomy nights, and Operation Slumber overnights.

Source: The Intrepid Museum

Judge rules for Fitbit in patent dispute with Jawbone

Fitbit just won a legal ruling invalidating the patents Jawbone was using to block it from importing its foreign-made fitness bands to the US. The ruling reduces the chance for Fitbit to face an import ban from the US International Trade Commission, but now the ITC judge is letting Jawbone sue Fitbit for stealing trade secrets.

Fitbit has been focusing on and winning the patent disputes, but Jawbone has been steadily reinforcing its corporate espionage charges. Back in March, they enlarged the case to expand the list of specific ex-Jawbone employees who allegedly left to give Fitbit over 335,000 sensitive documents. Fitbit brushed this off as an act of “desperation” due to Jawbone’s losses both at the ITC and in the marketplace.

Jawbone commented on the court’s decision saying that the two patents ruled on today represent only a portion of Jawbone’s case and that the ruling would be appealed. The corporate espionage case is scheduled for trial on May 9 in Washington, DC.

Via: The Verge

Source: Bloomberg

MacRumors Giveaway: Win an iBridge Mobile Storage Device and iAccess MicroSD Reader from Leef

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Leef to give MacRumors readers a chance to win the 32GB Leef iBridge, an iPhone-compatible storage device, the Leef iAccess, a microSD card reader, and a 64GB microSD card to go along with it.

Leef’s iBridge is designed to expand the available storage on an iPhone or iPad by connecting to the Lightning port on Apple’s devices. The iBridge can store photos, videos, music, and other files, freeing up valuable space on an iOS device, and it can also be used for backups. With the included USB 3 connector, it can quickly transfer files between a Mac and an iOS device.

With the Leef app, content stored on the iBridge can be accessed on an iPhone or iPad, so music, videos, and photos can be viewed or played directly from the device. A wide range of audio, video, and document files are supported, from .MP4, .MKV, and .AVI to .WAV, .AAC, and .AIFF. There’s also a built in tool for taking and storing photos right on the iBridge.

Available in a convenient, keychain-sized package, the iBridge, purchasable on the Leef website, comes in 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256GB capacities, with pricing that starts at $59.99. It is compatible with the iPhone 5 and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, and the third-generation iPad and later.

Leef also offers a microSD card reader called iAccess, which can be used as additional file storage for iOS devices much like the iBridge or to transfer photos from a camera to an iPhone or iPad. the iAccess is compatible with the same devices as the iBridge and it can be purchased for $49.99.

Five MacRumors readers will be able to win the Leef bundle with the iBridge, iAccess, and a 64GB microSD card. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (April 29) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on May 6. The winners will be chosen randomly on May 6 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Tags: giveaway, Leef
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Review: Griffin’s BreakSafe Cable Provides Handy Magnetic USB-C Charging, but With a Few Drawbacks

Although Apple recently refreshed its 12-inch MacBook lineup with a faster SSD, new sixth-generation Skylake processors, and longer battery life, the Retina Macbook’s USB Type-C input remains the notebook’s single port, apart from a 3.5mm headphone jack. Similar to the launch of the first generation device in 2015, many fans lament not only the inability to use traditional USB 3.0 inputs without carrying around an adapter, but the safety issues present in a charging cable lacking Apple’s trusty MagSafe technology.

To that end, at CES this year Griffin Technology introduced a third-party solution to the lack of a magnetic charging cable on the 12-inch MacBook, called the BreakSafe Magnetic USB-C Power Cable. The $39.99 kit comes with a six-foot cable and small metal dongle, which is about 3/4 of an inch long. Setup is simple: the cable is capped by a USB-C output, which users plug into Apple’s packaged-in wall outlet brick. The dongle is plugged into the USB-C slot on the MacBook, so users can then charge the notebook using BreakSafe’s quick-release magnetic connection.

Similar to MagSafe, BreakSafe’s purpose is largely to prevent the MacBook from tumbling down off of furniture — or kicked along the floor — when something snags the charging cable connected to a wall outlet and the computer itself. The messaging is focused on computers (and charging power only, as data and video are not supported), but the company does note that the idea transfers to USB-C supported smartphones and tablets as well.

Design

The dongle side of Griffin’s new accessory hews closely in size to the Satechi Type-C USB Adapter I reviewed last year, but with the added bonus of a more ergonomic design. With its rounded edges, the BreakSafe comes out ahead of Satechi’s adapter in feel, although Griffin is limiting users to one universal silver color that was slightly lighter than my Space Gray MacBook. Users with a Gold, or the new Rose Gold, color option might be bothered more by the dongle’s clashing color so close to their preferred MacBook colorway.

The dongle has a mark on the top side to remind users which side goes up when plugging it into the MacBook, although USB-C does allow reversible inputs so it doesn’t much matter (a small Griffin logo resides on the opposite side). That gray line does have to line up with a similar engraving on the charging cable; otherwise the BreakSafe’s reverse polarity pushes the two magnetic ends apart and fails to induce a charge to the MacBook.

That’s the first minor issue — of only a few — with Griffin’s MagSafe alternative. Apple’s proprietary technology allows users to plug their MagSafe cables into their notebooks in either orientation; even the later-generation L-shaped MagSafe could be attached in reverse, albeit with the power cable blocking a few USB ports.

When aligned incorrectly, the two ends fail to click and magnetize together
BreakSafe doesn’t provide such a feature and as such isn’t as slickly easy to use as the first-party alternative. Griffin informed me that the major reason behind its decision to not make BreakSafe reversible was its attempt to keep the connector as small as possible, while still managing to provide magnetic attraction and charge to the MacBook.

The company described the small markings on the cable and dongle, and the reverse magnetic push users receive when aligned incorrectly, as integrated “safety features” of BreakSafe, helping accustom users to regularly aligning the cable and connector. The system is a step above needing to look or feel for the MacBook’s USB-C port to connect the cable, but it’s also a step below Apple’s seamlessly reversible MagSafe function.

Daily Use

Griffin’s rough-and-tumble cable design, which is guaranteed for life by the company, helps make up in areas where the accessory lacks. I’ve only been using BreakSafe for a week so I can’t refer to its long-term durability, but in direct comparison to Apple’s, the third-party cable is far thicker and more resilient to annoying coiling prevalent in Apple’s thin white cable. It is slightly shorter at 6ft (1.8m), compared to Apple’s 6.5ft (2m) cable.

Powered off of Apple’s 29-watt USB-C Power Adapter that’s included with every 12-inch MacBook, Griffin’s 60-watt BreakSafe cable has shown reliably fast charging speeds when the MacBook is both close to dying, and just in need of a quick top-off. I ran a charging speed test over the weekend to compare it with Apple’s and, expectedly, the two came in around the same time. BreakSafe fueled the MacBook from 35 percent to 100 percent in 1 hour and 27 minutes, while Apple’s included USB-C cable completed the same battery test in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

What will be the deciding factor on Griffin’s BreakSafe cable for many users is the introduction of another minuscule accessory (12.8mm long to be exact) that needs to be kept track of to be able to fully use its features. The dongle is small in form factor, but recognizably thicker in comparison with Apple’s charger. When inserted into the MacBook, there’s a a definite protrusion and even a slight amount of wiggle when touching the BreakSafe plug, which gave me some hesitation about keeping it attached when not in use.

Of course, removing the dongle when not in use would negate the entire reason for its existence, since every time you plug it back in you return to the original problem of correctly aligning a USB-C plug into the MacBook. To replicate a MagSafe-like experience on the 12-inch Retina MacBook, you would have to keep the BreakSafe dongle plugged into your MacBook at all times.

Such a decision comes down to personal preference, but as someone who’s by-and-large gotten accustomed to daily USB-C charging, the idea of adding yet another Type-C accessory to a growing list of necessities needed for my year-old 12-inch MacBook, especially when traveling, just isn’t worth the hassle.

Griffin’s alternative also feels tangibly less magnetic than MagSafe. That means BreakSafe will successfully disengage when users place enough pressure on the cable, but I also found it to disconnect unintentionally without me even knowing. In the first test, I left the cable plugged in and returned intermittently to check my MacBook’s charge level, and discovered twice that the two correctly aligned magnetic ends were touching, but not fully connected.

This might be an individual issue (my MacBook was placed on a standing desk which was raised and lowered a few times during the test), but the thickness of BreakSafe’s cable seems to generate one negative in this regard, occasionally pulling on the slightly-weaker-than-MagSafe connection and disrupting charge to the MacBook.

Bottom Line

Someone who is just joining the USB-C world that Apple is forging with the Retina MacBooks could find Griffin’s cable a decent alternative to using Apple’s included charging cable, and users who routinely use their machines in environments where the charging cord is likely to be pulled or tripped over will appreciate the peace of mind BreakSafe brings.

It’s a quality accessory in any capacity, and running for $39.99, BreakSafe is also largely competitive with Apple’s $29.99 USB Type-C cable. It’s not without some drawbacks, the biggest one being its lack of magnetically reversible charging, so if you’ve already gotten used to the USB-C setup it may not be worth the effort and expense to switch back to a magnetic interface.

How To Buy

Griffin is currently selling the BreakSafe Magnetic USB-C Power Cable from its website for $39.99.

Related Roundup: Retina MacBook
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook (Buy Now)
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Coach Planning to Debut Designer Bands for Apple Watch Later This Year

Well-known designer brand Coach is reportedly working on a line of high-quality Apple Watch bands, which could debut as soon as June. According to Haute Écriture’s David Boglin de Bautista, a sales associate at a Coach boutique informed him of the upcoming release after seeing his Apple Watch and showed him pictures of the bands.

Coach is said to be debuting around eight watch bands, in colors that include white, red, black, and brown. Some bands are decorated with charms, while others have patterns like flowers stitched into them, with each band set to retail for approximately $150.

The bands are designed to match Coach handbags from its Spring/Summer 2016 Collection, and according to de Bautista, one band was stitched with flowers to match Coach’s Tea Rose Appliqué bag.

It is not clear if Coach is teaming up with Apple or releasing the bands independently. Apple has partnered with Hermès to launch a line of Apple Watch models with Hermès bands and a unique watch face, but Coach may be working independently.

A few other designers, including Rebecca Minkoff and Colette have released Apple Watch bands without Apple’s assistance, Minkoff in partnership with Case-Mate and Colette in partnership with Casetify.

Tag: Coach
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Tor Myhren Officially Joins Apple as Vice President of Marketing Communications

Former Grey Group chief creative officer and New York president Tor Myhren has officially joined Apple and has been added to the company’s Executive Profiles webpage. Apple first announced Myhren’s plans to join the company back in December of 2015, when it announced new roles for Jeff Williams and Phil Schiller.

According to his profile, Myhren will lead a creative team focused on Apple’s advertising, internet presence, package design, and other consumer-facing marketing. Myhren is replacing Hiroki Asai, who is retiring after spending 18 years handling marketing communications and graphic design at Apple.

Myhren has overseen popular Grey ad campaigns like the ETrade talking baby and a series of commercials for DirecTV starring Rob Lowe.

A two-time TED speaker, Tor has been named to Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, AdAge’s Creativity 50 honoring the world’s 50 most influential creative minds, and was inducted into the Advertising Federation of America’s Hall of Achievement.

Like all Apple executives listed on Apple’s Executive site, Myhren will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
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Gear VR is possibly the best reason to buy a Galaxy S7 (review)

Last week I published my review of the new Samsung Galaxy S7, one of the best phones that will be released this year, if not the best. That leadership status is really leaning on the fact that it is partnered with one of the only commercially available VR headset units at the moment, Gear VR. I honestly found the Gear VR to be the biggest selling point for the phone and I know I’m not the only one.

I didn’t know what to expect when I donned the Gear VR for the first time. You can watch as many experience videos as you want, but you still really won’t understand what it’s like to be in the virtual reality world. The app/game store isn’t very sprawling and the interface within the headset leaves something to be desired, but there are a lot of games and apps available for your entertainment.

One game that I tried was called Drift, which is a game that thrusts you full speed ahead toward the finish line. The objective of the game is to duck and turn through a series of obstacles and it has a narrator who brings the jokes similar to Wheatley in Portal 2.

Each level is a little longer and harder, introducing new ways to navigate the maze and new things to avoid (being shot or chopped in half by a samurai are some of the things to avoid). The best way I can describe it is by comparing it to a sideways runner, like Sonic, except that it’s 3D, so you’re running/flying forward and it feels like there’s an actual threat when you come upon one. The game was a lot of fun, but it’s almost more fun to watch someone else play it.

As much fun as that is, my favorite feature of the Gear VR was actually the Netflix app. It obviously plays Netflix movies and TV shows, but it’s in VR so they put you into a room in a cabin in the mountains with a TV wall and you’re sitting on a couch surrounded by Netflix show posters and some magazines on the coffee table. All of this was cool in general but I was just intellectually impressed by the level of thought that Netflix put into this. When you turn on a show/movie, the lights in the room go down so that there are fewer distractions. What’s more impressive, though, is that much like in real life how the TV can light up the room when there’s an explosion on TV, the virtual room would be lit up (with the tints of the colors on screen) whenever the screen got bright.

The Gear VR is still a first generation VR headset, so it isn’t perfect. I haven’t used any other VR units yet other than a prototype of Oculus about 2 years ago (and Google Cardboard) so I really don’t have a lot of experience with “today’s” VR landscape but, from what I hear, there are much better options, a la the HTC Vive, on the horizon. The problem with the Vive and Sony’s PlayStation VR headsets is that they require the user to be tethered to a PC or gaming console that does all of the graphics processing instead of using a tiny phone GPU and they are much more expensive.

Ultimately, there’s going to be a trade-off on these early generations of VR between quality and freedom of portability where the Gear VR fits squarely in the portable category. The quality of video is just not as good and it’s probably going to take a long time before we get to a point where it is. We can film something with 4K cameras, but it won’t be 4K anymore when you get done stretching the stitched-together images across a 360-degree viewing angle. This is particularly evident on things that aren’t computer-generated, but real films like this interview The Verge did with First Lady, Michelle Obama.

What I found about watching video like this on the headset (apart from its incredibly low quality) was how difficult it would be for the typical end user to load the video for viewing. If a video was set up to be viewed in 360 3D, the user has to put the video into a specific folder on the internal storage of the phone (/Oculus/Movies/360videos but the 360videos folder doesn’t exist by default, so you have to create that) and then append “_LR” to the end of the name of the video if it is in a left/right format or “_OU” if they are in over/under format. Other instructions that I have seen online are even more complex and would go way over the head of the average Samsung Galaxy user.

I’m sure that there will be better ways to do this in the future (a simple software update should be able to do it) but right now, that entire process is too much.

As far as looking through the Gear VR headset to see the real world around you, I would say you’re a fool to try; I certainly was. Take the already low quality of the video and then cut the viewing angle to about 60 degrees and that’s what you have when you enable this feature. You’ll be lucky if you are able to pick up your drink without spilling it; I certainly was.

Obviously, there are a lot of things that can be improved and I’m sure they will be, but it’s hard to criticize this too harshly considering it’s a first-generation product. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the Samsung Gear VR (and so did nearly every friend that I had over to my house while I was reviewing it) and I look forward to what Oculus and Samsung cook up in the future.

Best third-party watch bands for Huawei Watch

All the watch band things for Huawei watches

Whether you need to replace a broken watch band or you simply want to try a different style of band, you have many choices for your Huawei watch.

We’ve rounded up a few of the best third-party watch bands available.

• Yesoo magnetic Milanese stainless steel strap for Huawei watch
• Yesoo stainless steel butterfly buckle watch band for Huawei watch
• Xiemin fabric nylon leather watch band for Huawei watch
• Eagwell crocodile genuine leather watch band
• Monoy stainless steel metal bracelet watch band for Huawei watch
• Motong leather watch watch band for Huawei watch
• MODE hot-swap watch band for Huawei watch

Yesoo magnetic Milanese stainless steel strap for Huawei watch

If you’re looking for style and that rich, upper-crust feeling, then look no further than Yesoo’s magnetic Milanese watch strap.

Yesoo blends elegance and durability together with this watch band. Made of stainless steel, its beautiful Milanese loop pattern won’t look out of place at a black-tie event.

Forget fumbling and struggling with buckles to get your watch strapped on. Yesoo’s magnetic clasp clicks into place with little effort and stays closed until you decide to take your watch off.

This watch band is 18mm wide and adjusts to fit wrists that measure 12.5mm to 17.5mm in circumference.

See at Amazon

Yesoo stainless steel butterfly buckle watch band for Huawei watch

A great everyday choice for a watch band is Yesoo’s stainless steel butterfly clasp band.

Uncomplicated to put on, the butterfly clasp of this watch band ensures that your expensive Huawei smartwatch stays where it belongs: on your wrist.

Composed of stainless steel with large links, this watch band implies simplicity and strength.

Like Yesoo’s Milanese patterned watch band, this one also measures 18mm wide and is adjustable to fit wrists between 12.5mm to 17.5mm in circumference.

See at Amazon

Xiemin fabric nylon leather watch band for Huawei watch

If you’re just after a replacement leather band for your Huawei watch, give this watch band by Xiemin a try.

Made of genuine leather, this watch band is built to last. It comes in three different colors: black, brown, and blue.

The band itself is 18mm wide and fits wrists between 5.12 inches and 6.8 inches in circumference.

See at Amazon

Eagwell crocodile genuine leather watch band

Another great replacement band comes from Eagwell. Its leather bands are made from genuine crocodile leather, so if you want a replacement leather band with a little bit more panache, this is the one for you.

The other nice touch about Eagwell’s crocodile leather band is that it is hand-stitched together with care and precision.

18mm wide, this watch band will fit wrists between 5.5 inches and 7.1 inches in circumference.

See at Amazon

Monoy stainless steel metal bracelet watch band for Huawei watch

If you had a stainless steel band on your Huawei watch, this offering from Monoy makes a good replacement choice.

Made of quality stainless steel with a high-tech finish, this band is comfortable to wear all day and into the night.

Its dual fold-over clasp is easy to put on and remove, and most importantly, straps your watch securely to your wrist.

See at Amazon

Motong leather watch watch band for Huawei watch

Made of beautiful Italian leather, Motong’s replacement band lends a touch of European elegance to your Huawei watch.

This replacement band has strong fold-over clasp that feels comfortable against your wrist and keeps your watch securely fastened to your wrist. You can release it with a single press of a button, too.

Measuring 18 millimeters wide, it is about 6.9 inches long and adjusts to fit most wrist circumferences.

See at Amazon

MODE Bands

MODE bands get rid of the hassle of dealing with those pesky pins all the time and they might just be the easiest watch bands to install ever! Take a gander at the neat video on the MODE site, you can see just how easy these bands can attach to your Huawei Watch.

All you have to do is replace the original pin that is on your Huawei Watch add the MODE pin. Then it’s just a simple matter of sliding your MODE band over the pin, and locking it shut!

The only manufacturer making the MODE bands right now is Hadley Roma and they start around $50. Remember, in order for the MODE bands to work with your Huawei Watch you need to get the the 18 millimeter band, don’t make the mistake of getting the wrong size!

See at Amazon

Take a look at Trips, Google’s upcoming app for travelers

It was recently revealed that Google was testing a new app for travelers, and now we have a better idea of what it might do. The new app called Trips, is currently in beta testing, and apparently tracks your upcoming and past trips, making recommendations about places to visit, stay, and eat. The app pulls information by scanning messages in Gmail, looking for hotel confirmations, flights, and more.

From TechCrunch:

However, in the case of the Google Trips app, it seems the focus is less on mimicking the somewhat utilitarian nature of most travel planners and companion apps, and more on the fun that comes with exploring a new destination.

As an app built using Google Maps data, Trips lets you find things to do – both inside and outdoors – around your location. It also helps you manage reservations, find nearby food and drink, access a list of saved places, and plan how you’ll get from one place to the next.

Screenshots of the app have also been posted by Androidworld:

The app is being beta tested by members of Google’s Local Guides program, and no launch plans seem to have been determined.

Huawei P9 review: Dual cameras meet the best EMUI yet

With but a few minor software annoyances and a wealth of options, this is easily Huawei’s best mainstream phone yet.

The quick take

Huawei’s newest flagship phone — the P9 — isn’t the most inspired design you’ve ever seen. It’s sort of your basic smartphone. But this is the best iteration of its EMUI software yet, full of features you might want in a third-party launcher. Huawei’s Kirin 955 processor sings, and Huawei’s new dual-camera setup works very well.

The Good

• Much-improved software
• Excellent camera and fingerprint sensor
• Slim, with a great display
• Good battery life

The Bad

• Pricey, starting at €599
• Sheer amount of features is overwhelming
• Annoying power management alerts
• Occasional software lag

From China, with love

Huawei P9 Full review

Ask anyone of us who have used the Huawei P9 what we think, and we’ll quickly tell you that it’s the least broken of Huawei’s phones that we’ve used. And while that’s accurate — it’s not really fair. There’s a whole lot going on with this phone from a company that — let’s face face it — non-nerds in North America haven’t heard a whole lot about.

Huawei has made some really good (if not necessarily inspiring) hardware for some time now. The Nexus 6P. The Mate series. Its Honor sub-brand. It helped spread good fingerprint sensors to the whole of Android. It’s had above-average cameras for a while now. The anchor dragging it down has always been its EMUI software — its iOS-inspired user interface.

That had as much to to with how EMUI was implemented as it did the fact that it’s simply different than what most of us on Android are used to. No app drawer. A different sort of notification drawer and quick-settings scheme. And in the process of changing all that, things were broken — particularly when Huawei’s phones were sold outside China and Google’s services were added back in.

In fact, we need to change “least broken” to “really good.” Pretty much all of the showstopping bugs we’d experienced before have been fixed. Even the still-niche Android Auto works out of the box — something we can’t say for some of the major phones being sold in the U.S.

That’s not to say this is a perfect phone, or maybe even the best Huawei has done. But it’s probably the most complete thought from the Chinese manufacturer.

This, then, is our full Huawei P9 review.

Press play

Huawei P9 Video review

The little things

About this review

We’ve been using the Huawei P9 (EVA-L09) exclusively for more than two weeks. This is the lesser spec’d of the two P9 options, with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, as provided to us by Huawei. It’s running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with EMUI 4.1.

Immediately before publishing this review we received the “B135” update. The changelog doesn’t appear to address any issues we had during our review time, but we’ll update should we see something new.

We had the P9 connected to an LG Watch Urbane for the entirety of this review.

It’s a smartphone

Huawei P9 Hardware

You can say this about Huawei: It’s among the more consistent manufacturers when it comes to its industrial design. You can read that as “boring” if you want. But if you’re looking for a solid, basic sort of smartphone, Huawei does this very well. (And has for a while.)

A well-built, if not overly inspiring design.

There’s nothing particularly exciting about the design — it’s your standard smartphone slab, with nicely milled aluminum. It’s pretty light at 144 grams and comes in at just under 7 millimeters in thickness — surprisingly thin for something with as big a battery as the P9 has.

Metal and glass. Glass and metal. Fingerprint reader on the back, buttons where you’d expect to find them on the side. It’s all in a really good size with a 5.2-inch screen. No too big, not too small. That display is excellent outdoors and in my eyes is better than what you get on the LG G5 or HTC 10, by far, with none of the polarization issues when wearing sunglasses. The top and bottom bezels maybe feel al little big, but some of that is the contrast in color between the colored metal and black screen.

The headphone jack’s on the bottom, along with the single speaker. It’s surprisingly loud, but it’s still just a single smartphone speaker, so you’re not going to get much bass out of it. But it’s fine for casual music playback and calls.

The P9 also is using the new USB-C port. The SIM card tray doubles as the microSD card slot, which is useful for augmenting the 32 gigabytes of internal storage. It’s perfectly milled into the phone, too — something that too often isn’t 100% nailed on a lot of phones.

Where things get more interesting is on the back. Two cameras — one monochrome, the other full color — outputting 12-megapixel images. They work together as well — and you end up with some really good pictures because of it. Indoors, outdoors, low light — straight into the sun — you name it. This camera does most things really well.

	5.7 in145mm
2.79 in70.9mm		0.27 in6.95mm
5.08 oz 144 grams

• Display:
  • 5.2-inch IPS LCD
  • 2.5D glass
  • 1920×1080 resolution (423ppi)
• Cameras:
  • Dual 12MP (color & monochrome), ƒ/2.2 lens, Leica certified
  • 8MP front camera
• Battery:
  • 3000mAh capacity
  • Non-removable
• Chips:
  • Huawei Kirin 955
  • Quad-core 2.5GHz
  • 3GB or 4GB RAM
  • 32 or 64GB internal storage
  • microSD slot

Storage, processor and battery

As you can see from the specs, there are a couple versions of the P9 floating around out there. We’ve got the one with 32 gigabytes of storage and 3GB of RAM. We’ve got about 25 gigabytes to use for apps and pics and stuff. (And after a couple weeks we’re down to 16GB of that still free.)

You can (and probably should), of course, slot in a microSD card. We’ve been using a 128GB card without issue. Like a number of other manufacturers, Huawei is not using Adoptable Storage, so you’ll be able to stick the card in a computer or another phone to move things around as you please.

Kirin 955 builds on the strengths of the 950, but 4GB of RAM should be standard.

The 3 gigabytes of RAM is really the only questionable hardware decision for us at this point. While Huawei’s software is extremely aggressive about memory management — and the Huawei Mate 8 with the Kirin 950 processor was pretty darn smooth — we’ve been running into a little bit of lag with the P9. Maybe not quite enough to sound the alarm at, but there have have been too many times where apps are a little slow to load (especially the camera), and we have to wonder if 3GB of RAM is enough for EMUI 4.1.

Otherwise, we’ve not got any real complaints about the newer Kirin 955 processor, which has been updated with a number of tweaks for the dual camera.

As far as battery life goes, it’s pretty much same as it ever was. A 3,000 mAh capacity is pretty standard at this point, and it’s good for pretty much a full day’s use. More time spent on LTE will chew away at that, of course. But if you’re on good Wi-Fi, you shouldn’t have a problem getting from sunup to sundown.

You will, however, miss out on quick charging. Huawei’s included charger (we got a European brick, so we’re talking theoretically here) does things at 5V at ~2A. Not exactly a trickle charge, but not the new (and disputed) hotness.

Best EMUI yet

Huawei P9 Software

It’s time to stop turning your nose up at Huawei’s EMUI software. There are a ton of features (some new, some still hanging around) in EMUI 4.1. The launcher (that is to say the user interface) is so full of options, in fact, that you could spend a couple of weeks with it — which we have — and still find something new, which we are.

The number of features here can be intimidating, but they’re also as powerful as any other launcher.

Loads of lock-screen options. Plenty of ways to arrange your home screens and place widgets. Multi-page folders. Even an entire section dedicated to apps you want to hide from the main view. And while it’s cool these days to complain about the lack of and app drawer, the simple fact is that this is the best version of EMUI we’ve used. If you can’t make it work for you, that’s not the phone’s fault. It DOES take a little extra work to move things around — and you absolutely should move things around. But I’ve forced myself to not run to my usual launcher, and EMUI is serving me just fine. But if you don’t like what Huawei’s doing here, you can switch to your favorite launcher just fine.

Notifications look different — and the icons are so small in the nav at the top of the screen they might as well not be there. But all in all this a very useable user interface. It just looks different than what you’re used to.

Huawei still has a “Phone Manager” app that gives easy access to, well, phone management options. There’s system optimization, which attempts to clean up memory and empty out other files you might not need anymore. We generally let Android just do all this on its own. But if it makes you feel better, you can use it. Huawei’s overly aggressive power consumption tool is here as well. And it’s as annoying as ever. And just do yourself a favor and don’t bother with the Swype-based keyboard.

There’s a traffic manager so you can see what apps are using data — and when they’re using data. There’s a “harassment filter” for blocking unwanted calls and messages. You’ve got quick access to the battery manager, and its three power management plans, and an option for lowering the screen resolution even further to 720p. And you can lock individual apps behind a password or your fingerprint — which is something we want to see on every phone at this point.

So, yeah. There’s a ton of stuff on the P9.

Two lenses, no waiting

Huawei P9 Cameras

There’s a ton of stuff going on with the cameras, too. Again, we’re talking about dual f/2.2 lenses on the back that feed into 12-megapixel sensors with 1.76-micron-equivalent pixels. (The real physical pixel size is 1.25 microns.) So not the widest aperture or the largest pixel size we’ve seen, but that’s pretty decent. The real power of this camera is in the processing, and in the camera app itself.

It’s all kinds of busy — pretty much any feature you could hope for is baked in here. A swipe left gets you to 14 modes, including HDR, beauty, panoramas, light painting, time lapse, slow motion, watermarks, document reading, audio notes, night shots, video, black-and-white — you get the idea. A swipe the other direction gets you to the world of settings, including a bunch of film modes. Pull up from the bottom and you’ll get full manual controls, including the option to shoot in RAW.

While the P9 is just fine in automatic mode — absolutely among the top cameras you can find in a smartphone — this is a pretty intimidating camera app. There is a LOT going on here.

Selfies look great, too, thanks to all that processing, and an 8-megapixel sensor. And they’ve still got that beauty mode the kids are into, if the real thing just doesn’t do it for you.

One word you might have noticed we’ve kept from saying so far is “Leica,” which has lent its name to the camera system in the P9. It’s really not any more than a branding thing, and that’s not uncommon for smartphone features. You see it all the time with audio in a phone — it’s just that with Leica you usually expect some sort of hardware tie-in. With the P9 it’s more of a “certification” thing.

The end result? Some pretty good pictures. I’m not really a fan of all the film modes Huawei included here. (Other manufacturers have been doing that as well.) And I’d prefer to switch the top-level macro button for HDR, as the aperture control is really aggressive and looks over-processed, like what we’d get from the single-lens cameras through software a few years ago. (As in the out-of-focus parts are really out of focus.)

At the end of the day this is still a smartphone camera. But it’s still a REALLY good one, with tons of options.

And same goes for video. The P9 tops out at 1080p and doesn’t shoot in 4K, but that’s probably just fine for 90% of the population. You still get manual controls, and top-level access to all those film filters. What you do really miss out on is optical image stabilization, and the microphone was pretty quickly overwhelmed by wind noise.

So you can shoot video, and it’s decent. But not fantastic.

The bottom line …

Should you buy it? Maybe

There’s a lot to like the Huawei P9. And it’s probably the company’s most finished phone, too. (That’s aside from the Nexus 6P — which while very much a Huawei product sort of doesn’t count in that context.)

This is the best mainstream phone Huawei has made.

The biggest problem for us at this point is availability, and price. You still can’t get phones running Huawei’s own Kirin processor in the United States. While the P9 is launching in a whole bunch of other countries, it’s not necessarily cheap there — the retail price starts at €599 Euros (about $680 U.S. dollars) for the 32-gigabyte storage option, and ramping up to €649 Euros ($737 U.S. dollars) for the 64-gigabyte option with 4 gigs of RAM. That’s a lot of money (though price does vary some depending on your country) and it puts the P9 in the same range as the Galaxy S7 or a top-spec’d iPhone — which is exactly the league Huawei wants to play in.

And you know what? The P9 holds its own. It’s different. It’s maybe a little overpowering, with all those options in the UI and in the camera app. But the end result is a very useable phone and an excellent camera setup.

And it’s an excellent effort from Huawei.

Where to buy the Huawei P9

If the Huawei P9 sounds like the phone for you, and you’d like to check out its pricing, hit up the retailers below.

See at CPW
See at Vmall
See at O2
See at Vodafone