Tech : Huawei P9 Lite Review

Hey, it's time for a new phone! Upgrading from a 4-years old Galaxy SIII model to this is really a big step forward for me personally. No more laggy interface and apps anymore!

I choose the black one because it looks super edgy
(photo credit: huawei.com)

The flagship P9 with two leica lenses and top-end specs looks very appealing especially the price which is almost a quarter less than it's competitors, but I could not justify spending that much money on a phone (yes, I am kiam siap). Thank god, Huawei came out with a lil P9 sibling - P9 lite. First of all, this phone is a bang for the buck. For just a thousand ringgit, I can have the latest phone with some good specs. I am not a power user or phone gamer, so I am certainly very satisfied with it. 

I really like design of the phone: a medium size phone with rounded square edges and a thin body (7.5mm). Coming from Galaxy SIII, I thought 4.8" screen size is the maximum that I am wiling go, but these days most mid-tier android phones are roughly 5" or larger. One month later, I still find it difficult to adjust to the size but it is not impossible to live with it, I can make do for the trend. Plastic material was chosen for the cheaper counter part but this does not mean the phone looks cheap. I find the built quality is very good, every corners join perfectly and feels solid holding it.

The phone is powered by Huawei's own Kirin 650 chip and Octa-core CPU. Coupled with 3GB Ram and android Marshmallow the phone flies through every applications I use. App switching is equally fast enough. Mind you, my normal usage usually 1-2hrs of web browsing, 1-2hr of social media/messaging, under 1hr of youtube-ing and some random apps or calls. Whenever I'm indoor I'll connect to wifi if not mobile when needed. That's why the 3000mha could easily last for 2-3 days and sometimes even longer. Also, I notice there is no overheating issue when using the phone. 

The phone also comes with a fingerprint scanner at the rear of the phone. It can be use to unlock the phone and as a track pad to slide down notification tray and other interface navigation. I find the track pad function very useful and starting to use it more frequently. There's a 13 mega-pixel camera with led flash. The camera launching speed is good enough and packed with settings and features for some who like to venture out of autofocus. Picture quality is fair enough but not great. I find pictures tend to have a lot of noises. So, you might want to think twice if ya'll like to capture nice pictures and selfies.. 

Another thing is the user interface. If anyone who is familiar with ios interface will sure find the similarities here. The emotion ui is very similar to ios and some may like it and some may not. It's a matter of preference I think. I personally is familiar with ios so I have no complain with it or I just don't mind (the similarities doesn't bother me). The Ram management is quite good as I always have 1.6-1.8GB of free memory space. Plus, it's easy to close all apps with just one button. 

After one month of usage, I certainly have no major complain using this phone. For anyone that need a decent phone with good quality. P9 lite should be in your consideration. Final remark, this phone actually has a notification light! My No. 1 criteria for buying a phone.