Huawei P10: What’s the story so far?

Huawei has made a strong name for itself in the smartphone world over the last couple of years. Its more recent devices have delivered premium build qualities and some great specs for a lower price than many competitors, making them a serious consideration.

With the Mate 9 launch out of the way, all eyes are on Huawei’s next device and what it might bring. Here is everything we have heard so far about the Huawei P10. Be sure to grab the salt and take a big pinch as nothing has been confirmed as yet.

Huawei P10: Release date

Huawei tends to announce its “P” flagship smartphone in April and its Mate series in the latter half of the year so we’d expect the P10 to make an appearance in April 2017 for a summer launch.

No specific date has been rumoured as yet, but leaks will no doubt start to increase over the next couple of months.

Huawei P10: Design

• Leaked engineering sample shows similar design to P9
• Fingerprint sensor could move position from rear to front
• Dual rear cameras likely again

Some images have appeared on Weibo claiming to show an engineering sample of the Huawei P10 in a rose gold colour. The device has an interesting “Dreams” logo and odd wording, putting it into question but the shape and a number of its features show similarities to last year’s P9. 

The leak presents a solid metal unibody design with a dual camera setup on the rear and as with the P9, the camera sensors and flash seem to be positioned at the top within the antenna band. No Leica branding is seen on leak, but we’d expect this collaboration to continue.

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The fingerprint sensor appears to have moved positions however, with the leak indicating a move to the front of the handset rather than the rear. Huawei put a fingerprint sensor on the front of the special edition Mate 9 Porsche Design model, suggesting it might be testing it out and do the same for the P10, but aside traditionally it has opted for rear-mounted.

How reliable these sample images are remains to be seen for now, but a metal body and dual camera setup within the antenna band for the Huawei P10 are most definitely plausible features.

• Huawei P9 review

Huawei P10: Display

• Leak suggests 5.5-inch Quad HD display for P10

A leak on GFXBench suggests the Huawei P10 could feature a 5.5-inch display with a Quad HD resolution. The Huawei P9 features a 5.2-inch Full HD display, while the Huawei P9 Plus offers a 5.5-inch Full HD display, meaning the leak could refer to a larger P10 rather than the standard model. 

The leak gives the model number LON-L29, but it doesn’t specify anything else. The P9 had the model number LON-L19, which is where the P10 theory comes from. Either way though, if the leak is accurate, we will hopefully see a bump in resolution and possibly size.

A 5.5-inch display with a 2560 x 1440 resolution would result in a pixel density of 534ppi compared to the P9’s 424ppi and P9 Plus’s 401ppi.

• Huawei P9 Plus review

Huawei P10: Camera

• 8MP front camera suggested for P10
• Dual Leica rear camera expected

The leaked specs from GFKBench don’t mention the rear camera of the Huawei P10 or whether it will offer a dual setup again, though they do suggest we can expect an 8-megapixel front camera, which is the same as what the P9 offers.

If the leaked engineering sample image is to be believed, the dual-camera setup will remain on the rear and continue with the same layout as the P9, rather than following the same path as the Mate 9. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a bump in resolution of the monochrome sensor to match the Mate 9 however.

If this is the case, a 12-megapixel RGB sensor could be coupled with a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor on the rear. Expect optical image stabilisation too.

• Huawei P9 vs P9 Plus vs Mate 9: What’s the difference?

Huawei P10: Hardware

• Kirin 960 processor reported with 6GB RAM
• 256GB storage option also rumoured

According to the leaked specs, the Huawei P10 could arrive with a new 2.3GHz octa-core Kirin 960 processor and 6GB of RAM as standard, which would mean double the RAM of the P9 if true.

The leak also suggests we might see up to 256GB of internal storage, an option Apple introduced on its latest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Nothing has been claimed for the battery as yet but we would expect the same as the P9, which was 3000mAh, or perhaps a slight increase, especially if the display size increases.

• Huawei Mate 9 review

Huawei P10: Software

• Android Nougat with EMUI

As you might expect, the Huawei P10 is reported to be coming with Android 7.0 Nougat straight out of the box, with the company’s EMUI skin over the top. This is likely to be EMUI 5.0, which can be found on the Mate 9.

We suspect the experience will be very similar to that of the Mate 9, though a few extra features will probably be announced with the new device too.

Huawei P10: Conclusion

The Huawei P10 rumours are still in the early stages for now, but we expect them to pick up over the next couple of months.

Most succeeding devices make improvements on their predecessors in various departments, so while we don’t yet know specifics, we are expecting a faster processor, more RAM, camera enhancements and battery improvements for the P10.

Watch this space as we will continue to update this feature as we come across more leaks or rumours.