LG G5 review

KEY FEATURES

• 5.3-inch IPS QHD screen
• Snapdragon 820 processor & 4GB RAM
• 32GB onboard storage and microSD slot
• 2,800mAh battery
• USB Type-C v3.0 port
• Fingerprint sensor
• 16-megapixel rear camera & 8-megapixel front camera
• Additional 8-megapixel wide-angle rear camera
• LG UX 5.0 on Android Marshmallow
• Manufacturer: LG

WHAT IS THE LG G5?

You can’t fault LG for trying something different. The G5 doesn’t try to be the HTC 10 or Samsung Galaxy S7, instead it goes modular with a bunch of add-ons.

Yet, it’s the modules that let the phone down the most. If you just take it as a regular Android phone, then that’s where it impresses.

The camera is great, the screen gorgeous and the battery life good, yet LG just can’t seem to make a phone that feels high-end.

LG G5 – DESIGN AND MODULES

Metal body, removable battery, modular system, rear fingerprint sensor, sloped top, 159g

In pictures the LG G5 looks curvy and sleek, but pick up the smartphone and it feels oddly hollow.

LG played up its switch from the plastic body of the LG G4 to a metal one on the G5. However, in the hand the G5 really doesn’t feel like any other metal phone I’ve come across. the handset has an odd finish that feels much more like plastic than the advertised “microdized” metal. I do like the slightly sloping top, though, but it's the only feature that sets it apart.

Related: LG G5 vs Samsung Galaxy S7

The G5's design is very clean too, with only a single volume clicker and SIM-tray present on either side. The volume control suffers from having a very shallow push, but it's usable nonetheless. While LG has ditched the volume keys on the rear, the lock switch remains in the slightly unorthodox position just below the camera sensors.

In my opinion it's far better to have all the buttons in the same spot, be it on the back or sides of a phone. Positioned as they are, I’m forced to move my hands around the G5 more than normal just to reach everything.

Related: LG G5 vs LG G4

The standby switch now also houses a fingerprint scanner – something I consider a must for any 2016 flagship. V10 aside, for which there's been no UK launch, this is the first phone from LG to use a fingerprint scanner.

I'm pleased to report that it does a superb job – it’s fast and accurate. In addition, you don’t even have to press down to unlock the phone; simply glide your digit across and it’ll bypass the lockscreen completely.

As with all back-mounted scanners I’ve tried, it can sometimes go off randomly in my pocket. On more than a few occasions I’d pull it out of my pocket to be met with a message reporting "too many incorrect attempts, fingerprint blocked". But I guess this is a side-effect of it being so sensitive. The scanner itself is also quite small, which might be issue if you have large fingers.

The LG G5’s modular system is its stand-out feature. Now, it isn’t quite at Google Project Ara levels of customisability – so you won’t be switching out the RAM or CPU – but it’s clever and unique nevertheless.

It works like this. Along the side of the handset there sits an almost indistinguishable button set just almost flush to the body. Press this in with the tip of your nail and the bottom chin of the phone will pop out; pull it off and out comes the battery.

The battery comes apart from the bottom unit – which can feel like you’re breaking the device – and then you can attach it to other modules, or "Friends" as LG calls them. At launch, there are two modules available and neither are going to be a draw in themselves to sell the phone.

The camera grip adds a touch more battery, a separate shutter button for both photos and video, and a jog dial for zoom. The second module is a DAC powered by some B&O tech. The DAC gives you 32-bit audio and an extra headphone jack.

Related: 5 modules for the LG G5 we'd love to see

        I find myself wishing that LG had started off with slightly more enticing accessories. The DAC is a nice idea – I’m all for ways to improve smartphone audio – but the camera grip doesn’t actually make the camera any better; it just makes the shooting process "easier". I also don’t like the fact it encourages people to use digital zoom – photo tech that universally produces terrible photos on all the smartphones I’ve tested, including the G5.

These two modules are also much pricier than I'd anticipated. The B&O DAC costs £150, while the camera grip will set you back £79. Problems will also likely arise when you’re ready to upgrade to the LG G6 – will the new device support the same modules? I'm not convinced.

LG is encouraging third parties to make their own Friends, so hopefully they’ll be a few more to choose from in the coming months. However, if the LG G5 fails to sell in large enough numbers then maybe there won't be much incentive to build a costly module.

The modular system also hampers the build quality of the device. Both parts of the phone don’t quite fit flush together; there’s an ever-so-slight gap between the two. It’s minimal, but wide enough that I can see light filtering through.

LG G5 – SCREEN

5.3-inch, IPS LCD, quad-HD display with always-on mode

LG’s past few flagship devices have benefited from impressive displays.

While they can't be described as perfect, they’ve always adopted new tech and utilised it well. LG was one of the first manufacturers to really bring quad-HD, 2,560 x 1,440 panels to the mainstream, for example, and since the G3 it has gone from strength to strength.

I’m happy to say that the display on the LG G5 is the best yet – even though on the surface it appears that not a whole lot has changed.

LG hasn't made the switch to a 4K display; it remains quad-HD. Although in my opinion this isn't a bad thing – quad-HD is the highest resolution a phone needs to be unless it will be used for VR. The display on the G5 remains a IPS LCD panel too, rather than the AMOLED panels favoured by Samsung and Google.

The biggest change here is that the screen is actually marginally smaller than before – 5.3-inches as opposed to 5.5-inches. But the number of pixels remain the same; they're simply crammed into a smaller surface area.

The display is ridiculously sharp, far more true-to-life and softer than the Galaxy S7 display. This isn't necessarily a positive, though – it’s all down to personal taste, with some preferring accurate colours over vibrancy. Viewing angles are on point.

LG has also improved the brightness of the screen, not that the G4 suffered much in this area. At its highest, it's at 900 nits, but there will be few instances in which it will need to be set so high. Around 50% is right, or you can opt for auto-brightness.

I'm not a fan of auto-brightness on Android devices, and it's no different here. It’s too obvious, results in a stuttering motion and is rarely accurate in its judgements.

Related: Android N hands-on

The G5 display's black level – an area in which many IPS displays struggle – is solid. While not as deep as those on the Samsung Galaxy S7, blacks on the LG G5 are suitably inky and deep, and mean the display has a great contrast ratio.

Just like the Samsung Galaxy S7, the LG G5 has an "always-on" display mode, so the time and your notifications remain visible even when the phone is locked.

LG’s implementation is much better than that of Samsung in just about every way. It uses less battery, about 12% a day (8am to midnight) as opposed to the Galaxy S7’s 15%. The LG G5’s always-on screen also displays all your notifications, including those from WhatsApp and Gmail. This makes it far more useful than the S7, which pushes alerts from only a limited selection of apps.

The display on the G5 is less customisable, however, and since it isn’t AMOLED, it lights up every pixel rather than just the clock. This means it’s far more noticeable, and more distracting, in low light.

LG G5 – SOFTWARE

Android Marshmallow, LG UX 5.0

The software on the LG G5 is a little hit and a miss. It includes the latest version ofAndroid – that’s 6.0.1 – with all the fantastic tweaks and additions that Google added towards the end of last year. However, like the majority of Android phones, it’s been heavily skinned.

LG’s UX 5.0 is nowhere near as sleek as vanilla Android. It doesn’t even match Samsung’s TouchWiz for overall style, and is way behind the HTC 10. Although, being fair to LG, it’s still slimmer and less in your face than it was previously.

Related: Android Marshmallow features

The biggest deal-breaker is that LG has – gasp – completely ditched the app drawer, which is exactly what Huawei has done. I know there are a few die-hard fans who view the removal of the app drawer as an unforgivable sin, but I’m okay with it. In fact, I might even prefer Android without it.

Hopefully, the rumours claiming that Google plans to let users choose if they want an app tray in Android N will ring true, keeping those on both sides of the fence happy. But for now, at least, the LG G5’s skin is only good for people like me.

The other problem here is the serious amount of bloatware loaded onto the phone. Combine this with the lack of an app drawer and your homescreen becomes super-messy. Alongside your typical Google apps, there's LG’s own music player, email client and app store. LG Backup is present too, as is its RemoteCall Service plus Evernote, Instagram and Facebook.

I understand that most folk use Facebook, but I'd rather have the option to install it myself than it being forced on me.

Considering I haven’t felt the need to use any of these pre-installed apps should prove that they aren't particularly good.

However, I should add that the UI is very fast and smooth, something that wouldn’t have been the case in the past.

LG G5 – PERFORMANCE

Snapdragon 820, 4GB RAM, Adreno 530, 32GB internal storage

The internals at play here will be familiar to anyone who's seen a flagship phone this year. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 is backed up by 4GB RAM, an Adreno 530 GPU and a single storage option – 32GB. That’s pretty much the same as US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10 handsets.

What do all these high-powered internals give you? A super-fast phone – obviously.

Browsing, scrolling through menus, opening up apps, and all the other things you do all-day, everyday on your phone are mostly smooth and lag-free. However, since general performance is so decent, it makes those moments when things don’t quite go to plan even more jarring. This is rare, but there has been a couple of instances when the phone grinds to halt.

Most of the time, though, the G5 performs brilliantly. Games run as intended, whether it’s an intensive title such as Hitman: Sniper or something far simpler, and there’s no stuttering when streaming 1440p video on YouTube.

In our usual array of benchmarking tests, the LG G5 performs admirably. Its picks up a score of 5,241 in the Geekbench 3 multi-core test and 2,255 in the single-core version. This puts it behind the Samsung Galaxy S7 (6,307) but ahead of the HTC 10 (5,065). It’s much the same in Antutu, where the G5 scores 126,842 and the Galaxy S7 picks up 129,468.

Benchmarks aside, there isn’t currently anything you can really do with Android that pushes these high-end components to their fullest. It’s all about future-proofing them really.

32GB seems to be the sweet-spot for Android phones right now. Especially since most of them now make microSD expansion standard. There’s no 64GB option available for the G5, but expandable storage makes this less of an issue.

Be warned, though: the LG G5 doesn’t feature adoptable storage, which is disappointing. Adoptable storage is a useful feature Google debuted on Android Marshmallow. It enables phones to treat SD cards as internal memory – meaning that, if you shell out for a decent one, you shouldn’t suffer the performance issues associated with microSD cards.

Related: LG G5 vs Samsung Galaxy S7

A single down-facing speaker produces adequate audio, but it isn't in the same league as the HTC 10. It can reach quite loud volumes, which is handy for various alarms, but it lacks any sort of bass and depth for listening to music.

Still, the phone supports 24-bit audio so tunes sound will sound decent enough with a pair of headphones.

Call quality is superb, with my voice exceptionally clear even in howling wind. There’s a loud speakerphone too, and the microphones are very accurate.

LG G5 – CAMERA

16-megapixel rear with secondary, wide-angle sensor; 8-megapixel front

LG is adept at producing smartphone cameras. In 2015, the company treated us to, arguably, two of the best camera-phones on the market with the G4 and V10 handsets – and the way things are going, LG is set to do the same in 2016.

It will be the modular system of the G5 that will earn it many plaudits. For me, however, it's the second, wide-angle camera sensor – which sits next to the regular 16-megapixel sensor – that's the star.

This lets you capture GoPro-esque footage with a 135-degree field of view, which is in fact more than the human eye can actually see. Most phones tend to have a 75-degree view.

 An example of a wide-angle shot

It’s an 8-megapixel sensor, so the results aren’t quite as sharp as the main camera, but the pictures it produces are genuinely different and, well, cool. It’s great for landscape shots, although I’d avoid using it for close-ups.

The main 16-megapixel, 16:9 camera is far more by-the-book, but it’s excellent nonetheless. Colours are natural, the laser-auto focus system is spot on, and each shot is packed with details. I generally prefer 16:9 photos, too, since they let you cram in far more of the background. It is possible to switch to 4:3 if you prefer, though.

Intricate detailing in walls, licks of paint on a picture and wool strands from a carpet are all picked out perfectly. 

The laser auto-focus doesn’t do quite such a good job in low-light. It struggles with focus points when there’s a lack of a light source; it takes a couple of goes to get it right.

But low-light shots in general are really good. The f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilisation combine to produce pictures that are bright, with strong colours, and mostly blur-free. You will need to hold the phone as still as possible, though – moving it suddenly throws the whole picture off.

This was a very dark scene, but the camera still picks out the colours in the drinks

Switching between each sensor is easy and quick, and the camera app itself is fully featured without being overbearing. There are number of fairly useless modes, however, including one that lets you take a picture by saying "kimchi" (that delicious Korean fermented vegetable). Yeah, I don’t get it either.

Importantly, it’s quick to open. A double-tap on the volume-down button from the lock-screen takes you straight into shooting mode, and while it isn't as efficient as double-tapping the home button – as you do on the Samsung Galaxy S7 – it works perfectly well.

4K/UHD video looks great, as you'd expect. It's smooth and crisp, although shooting for long periods does cause the device to warm up ever so slightly.

Selfies taken with the 8-megapixel front-facing camera aren't in the same league as the HTC 10, but they get the job done. It has a wide-angle lens, so you can cram multiple faces into the frame without the need for a selfie stick.

LG G5 – BATTERY LIFE

2,800mAh (removable), Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, USB Type-C

The battery life on the LG G5 is good. Not phablet good, but it managed to easily last the day with about 10% remaining when I plugged it in before bed.

The 2,800mAh battery isn't the biggest on the market; it’s beaten by the Galaxy S7and the HTC 10, which both boast 3,000mAh units. It is removable, however, so you could throw a spare into your bag to double your running time.

Over the course of a week I managed about three hours screen-on time per day, which is about the same as the HTC 10. Sixty minutes of streaming Spotify takes about 4-5%, while watching an hour-long HD TV episode on either Netflix or BBC iPlayer with auto-brightness enabled chews through 8-10%

Standby time is fantastic – leaving the phone unplugged overnight only saw a drop of around 3%.

The G5 is Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0-enabled too; the S7 is stuck on Quick Charge 2.0. However, LG doesn’t supply a charger to take advantage of this boost – it includes only a regular 2.0 one.

Regardless, the battery powers up pretty swiftly. You’ll get a full charge in about an hour, and 60% in half that. One I've used Quick Charge tech, I struggle to go back to a phone without it.

LG is also using a USB Type-C port, rather than the more standard micro-USB. It's reversible, meaning it's possible to plug in the cable either way – which is the future.

Once it’s more widely adopted, it will allow you to power your laptop, phone and tablet, meaning you'll need only one cable for all your

SHOULD I BUY THE LG G5?

The LG G5 is a really good phone, but in a year of really great phones it can’t quite match the impressive standard set the by the HTC 10 and Samsung Galaxy S7.

It shares many of the same components – fantastic screen and high-end internals, plus a camera that tries to do something a little different. Then there the "mostly"exciting prospect of the modular Friends, too.

However, the G5 feels a little cheap compared to other flagship handsets and LG’s software remains on the "less attractive side".

There are questions, too, over how well these modules will actually work and whether anyone will bother making them. A greater number of modules on the market will make this a more enticing phone, but whether or not third-party companies will take the step to produce “Friends” for the G5 remains up in the air.

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Sony Xperia X review

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• 5 inch Full HD display
• 23 Megapixel rear camera
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow

VERGE REVIEW

Sony’s smartphone business is in dire need of a reboot — something to jumpstart the company’s mobile ambitions after years of being ignored by US carriers. Competitors like Samsung and Huawei are producing the very best devices they’ve ever made while Sony has been dealing with having its phone outright cancelled. The refrain is getting tired, and success still eludes, which brings us to the Xperia X. This is Sony’s latest try at that resurgence, this time marked by the company taking its US...

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The next HTC-made Nexus could have a 5-inch screen

Earlier this year, HTC was essentially confirmed as the maker of the next generation of Nexus phones — codenamed at Google as Marlin and Sailfish. Now, Android Policeis following up on its initial report with rumors of what we can expect to see built into the Sailfish. We’ve got:

• 5-inch, 1080p display
• Quad-core 2.0GHz 64-bit processor
• 4GB RAM, 32GB storage
• 2770 mAh battery
• 12-megapixel rear camera
• 8-megapixel front camera
• USB-C port
• Fingerprint scanner
• Top-mounted headphone jack

Android Police gives its speculation an eight out of 10 on the reliability scale, so I suppose that’s resounding enough? Hopefully we’ll get more concrete details and maybe even a photo leak soon.

Meanwhile, these specs show some interesting decisions on HTC's part. Its move to keep the headphone jack goes against Apple and other companies' work to rid our world of traditional headphones. The iPhone 7, for instance, is rumored to come without a headphone jack and LeEco launched three jack-less phones earlier this year. You're going to love dongles and Bluetooth. That being said, the new Nexus does fit into the small-is-back phone trend. The iPhone SE had Apple retreating from its 6 and 6S Plus and moving back to a 4-inch screen. Such trends.

HTC last manufactured the Nexus 9 for Google, which wasn't great, but its original Nexus One was actually good, so maybe Sailfish and Marlin will be the re-do HTC needs.

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Huawei P9 review

Huawei wants to play with the big boys. The Chinese company wants to be taken seriously as a competitor to Apple and Samsung, but right now it's rooted firmly among the second tier of Android manufacturers, competing with the likes of Sony, LG and Motorola in western markets.

A reputation for pairing high-end specs with lower prices than some of its competitors, backed up with some solid marketing, has enabled Huawei to start standing out a little from the crowd. And now the company hopes the P9, plugged with an ad campaign starring none other than Superman (Henry Cavill) can take it to the next level.

But Huawei still needs to impress people. No one buys a phone from a manufacturer they barely know without doing a little research first. Huawei knows it, and the P9 has the specs on paper, and a focus on camera technology, that will catch the eye of even the most discerning prospective purchaser.

The promotional campaign and launch event for the Huawei P9 focus mostly on the camera, but the real question on most lips is whether it holds up as a smartphone in 2016.

The price is certainly a highlight of the Huawei P9. While it's not as cheap as flagships from competitors like OnePlus or Oppo, then handset is still cheaper than an iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy S7 or anything from Sony.

It comes in at £449.99 (about US$690, AU$900), which is roughly what a Huawei P8 would have cost you when it launched in May last year.

Design

The Huawei P9 has taken the design of the P8 and refined it into a much better-looking device that feels comfortable to hold. It's compact compared to other Huawei devices (like the Mate 8), and that works in its favor.

The P9 is a similar size to the iPhone 6S, but Huawei makes better use of the real estate by packing in a larger screen. The Huawei P9 has dimensions of 145 x 71 x 7mm while the iPhone 6S is 138 x 67 x 7.1mm. So there's just a few millimeters in it, yet Huawei manages to include a 5.2-inch screen while the iPhone 6S only has a 4.7-inch display.

The P9 is a little taller than the iPhone, but that's not a problem. The bezels along the top and bottom of the display are still slim, but allow Huawei to pack a lot of tech inside without compromising the look of the handset.

Before starting this review I was using a Nexus 6P, which is a larger phone made by Huawei, and the P9 is noticeably smaller. Personally I prefer larger phones, but if you're one for a smaller handset with a large screen this is one of the best-designed phones you'll find today.

The back of the handset is made with an aluminium unibody and the metal does feel premium, although sometimes I would tap the back of the phone and it echoed a little, which didn't make it feel as high-end as, say, the Nexus 6P.

The overall look of the phone is great though, and I particularly like the rounded corners and edges, with the latter making the P9 look even slimmer than its 6.95mm.

On the right hand edge of the phone is the volume rocker with the power button just below it.

I found myself rarely using the power button as the fingerprint scanner turns the phone's screen on anyway. The slight grated effect on the button made it easy to identify when in the pocket though. I regularly find myself reaching into my pocket to adjust volume controls and on some phones you can hit the wrong button, but there's no excuse for that here.

On the back of the phone at the top sits the dual-camera sensor, which I found made some onlookers perk up when they spot it, as right next to it is the Leica logo.

I personally wasn't a fan of this at first, but I've come to terms with it, and it does highlight the fact that Huawei has tapped into Leica's 100 years of photography expertise to develop the camera setup on the P9. Huawei has been pushing this feature at every turn – and with some justification, as we'll see later in this review.

It's also worth noting that Leica and Huawei have managed to make the back of the camera sit flush with the rest of the phone. Camera bumps have been a trend on a lot of flagship phones in recent years and it's good to see a company fighting against it without sacrificing camera technology.

Color choices for the Huawei P9 are aplenty with three types of gold available as well as silver and grey. Sadly, in the UK you can only buy the silver and grey versions and it isn't quite clear which will be on sale in Australia or the US yet.

There's also a ceramic white version of the phone knocking around somewhere, but no-where seems to be stocking that model yet.

We haven't managed to see it in the flesh either, but Huawei assures us it has a metal body with a ceramic coating on the back to give it a different feel.

Huawei is selling the P9 on the camera abilities of the phone, but though it's got a great snapper this handset isn't all about the camera capabilities.

Personally I think the display is a real highlight of the Huawei P9. It's large considering the compact size of the phone as a whole. It features a 5.2-inch 1080p screen that some have seemed disappointed in as it didn't follow through with the 2K jump the Nexus 6P began.

Instead it's opted for Full HD and I think that's a big help. Huawei has decided to focus on getting a better battery life rather than upping the pixels on this phone, and I barely noticed it wasn't a 2K one.

 The screen offers up 423 pixels-per-inch and I never felt let down by the quality of image on show.

I was especially impressed with how bright the screen can be– the Huawei P9 makes a gorgeous picture when watching video. It's not as stunning as the Nexus 6P screen, but that phone suffers for the luxury by offering poorer battery life.

The camera is certainly one of the highlight features on the Huawei P9. I'll go into more depth later in this review, but what you need to know here is that a lot of the hype is deserved.

The two sensor set up makes this one of the best camera phones you can buy right now. Huawei made a big deal out of it by including a lot of professional photographers at the launch to highlight its powers, but I don't think that's entirely accurate.

You're going to get a great shot out of the Huawei P9 no matter what you're shooting and if you use the auto mode it's still impressive. There are a lot of pro features within the camera when you're looking for something a little more complex and want to dabble in the professional world too.

It's worth highlighting the USB Type-C support on the P9. Not every phone manufacturer has embraced the new connection technology but the P9 uses a USB-C port for charging and data transfer.

It can prove a little irritating if you've got accessories with microUSB connectors, but it makes it much easier to fit the charger in as it works either way up.

Then there's the fingerprint scanner. If you've ever used a Huawei phone before you'll know the company makes the strange decision of placing them on the back of the handset rather than below the display. It may be odd, but I prefer it here.

A lot of Android manufacturers choose to put it within the home key under the screen or even on the side of the phone, but on the rear it's a much more natural position.

Your index finger is already on the back of the handset ready to tap it and I like the simplicity of that. It does mean you end up entering your PIN or pattern to unlock it when the phone is laying down though, which can get annoying.

The fingerprint scanner on the P9 is what the company refers to as "Level 4". Huawei hasn't made it clear exactly what that means apart from it's meant to be better than the "Level 3" scanner from the Huawei Mate 8.

All you really need to know is that it's fast and it's going to get you into your phone very quickly. It's something you get used to using and when I have to slowly enter my PIN it really highlights how quick the scanner is to register my print.

Huawei produces its own processors to use within the P series and in the past they've been quite hit and miss. That means whenever I take a Huawei phone on as my own I'm always a little unsure on how it will perform under strenuous testing.

The good news is the Huawei P9 is a powerful phone. I've been quite surprised by how strong it actually is, in fact.

It features a HiSilicon Kirin 955 processor, and this is the first phone to do so. The truth is when looking at raw benchmarking results this handset holds its own against some of the big hitting phones you can buy right now.

One of the strongest phones on the market at the time of writing is the Galaxy S7, which got a multi-core score of 6542 when using the Exynos version of the handset. The Huawei P9 came out with 6400 in benchmarks.

That's only a small difference and in general I've been very impressed by what the Huawei P9 can do.

Gaming especially took me by surprise. Graphically it managed to make Real Racing 3 look fantastic and there was absolutely no lag at all.

There's also 3GB of RAM in the P9 for high-end gaming, while multi-tasking proved to be an absolute breeze. I never experienced any problems when multi-tasking and swapping between some very high-intensity apps.

This day to day performance matched what the Huawei P9 achieved in our techradar smartphone speed test against the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10,iPhone 7, LG G5 and Sony Xperia Z5, the full results of which you can see in the video below.

The test had it start up and then launch ten apps and games twice over and while the P9 didn't top the table it came a very respectable third, behind the iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S7 but ahead of its other Android rivals

In some markets you can also purchase another version of the phone with 4GB of RAM, but I haven't had the chance to test this out yet. Looking at the performance of the 3GB version I think it highlights how adding more RAM into a handset isn't always the answer and 3GB actually suits the P9 well.

The 3GB of RAM version comes with 32GB of storage and the 4GB RAM model comes with 64GB of storage. If you're after more space you can use a microSD card of up to 128GB. It is a shame Huawei hasn't embraced the trend of 200GB microSD support, but you're still going to have enough here unless you're a very heavy duty user.

Interface

The interface is my biggest problem with the Huawei P9. It looks childish on most Huawei phones and it's a real issue for me as soon as I turn one of them on.

The P9 is lucky enough to be running the latest in Android 6 Marshmallow software, but it's hard to tell with the amount of overlays Huawei has put on top of it. Even for the most seasoned Android fan it's difficult to tell what version of the OS this phone is running without heading into the settings and looking it up.

If you take a look at the apps within the screenshot below, you can see exactly how the style takes over how they look on your phone.

Huawei has its own way of making the apps into a square and it means the dynamic looking icons from stock Android don't look as good on the Huawei P9 as they could do.

WhatsApp, for example, has a big white box around it and in 2016 it shouldn't look that bad on my home screen.

Emotion UI 4.1 is a bit better than the Huawei interfaces of the past, but it's still lacking an app drawer. That means the only way of organizing your home screen is by placing your apps into folders. It's not something I'm a fan of doing and I'd rather Huawei made an app drawer an option within the settings of the phone.

Like previous Huawei products, there is also a lot of bloatware on the P9.

It comes with a lot of unnecessary Huawei based apps that Google services (which are also readily available on the phone) do better anyway.

There's a calendar app that doesn't offer anywhere near the functionality of the Google Calendar, for example.

If you want to change the design of your phone interface you can do so within the Themes app where there are free and paid for options. Personally I don't really find much difference here apart from the color of the pages and the background images it supplies, but some people like it.

Then there are a load of games in a folder as well. Most of these are pointless additions to the phone that you're never going to play.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of the Huawei P9's interface. Every time I bring the subject up to Huawei reps I'm always told that it works in China and it doesn't need changing.

Personally I think it wouldn't be much of an issue for Huawei to offer its hardware in the western markets with a slightly less invasive version of the software, but it doesn't look like Huawei is going to change its mind anytime soon.

The camera technology is the big selling point for the Huawei P9. The Chinese company is focusing on the dual-sensor set up as the focus of the phone, but is it really good enough to make you buy this handset?

It's not the best camera phone out there right now, but it's still great.

Huawei has partnered with famous German camera company Leica to work on its smartphone photography and this is the first handset to come directly from that partnership.

The long and short of it is that it was worth Huawei making this partnership. It works wonders compared to the camera technology found on other Huawei phones.

On the back of the handset are two 12MP sensors that work together to create higher detailed images on the fly. Zooming into some of the shots I took I was surprised by the amount of details I could get from the camera.

The phone features a 12MP RGB sensor to pick up the color of images, while the second sensor is also 12MP but monochrome (black and white) to get the detail of the image in a better quality.

The camera will then use this to ensure the photos are even more detailed than you'd find on other Huawei handsets.

Take this picture of Big Ben for example, you can zoom in to the clock face at this distance and still make it out with phenomenal quality. The best part of this is it's all done through the auto mode as well.

There are a variety of pro features on the Huawei P9, but most phone users won't be playing with those and just want the auto mode to be the best it possibly can, which it is here. You'll be getting the highest quality image from the camera possible by just pressing the button to take it.

You can take photos just using the monochrome sensor if that's your bag, but you need to use both sensors to take photos in color.

When just using the monochrome sensor I didn't notice a drop in the quality and it worked a lot better than taking a normal image and putting a black and white filter over it for social networking.

There are also larger pixels on this phone compared to the P8, which according to Huawei means the phone will have better low light shots.

Night shooting with the P9 is better than I found on the P8, but I still wasn't that impressed with night shooting overall. A lot of the image quality seemed to be lost in low light and I didn't manage to get any of the quality shots that Huawei claim you can at night.

My favourite mode on the Huawei P9 is the wide aperture effect. This is useful for when taking photos with items in the foreground.

It uses both the camera sensors to add depth allowing you to focus on either the foreground or the background of the image.

When I first began to use this feature it felt like the camera was just blurring the background, but you can edit these on the fly and after a while I began to get the hang of it. It means you can put the focus of the image onto the item in the foreground and you can come up with some very creative shots.

These are easy to create by just tapping on where you'd like to focus, how blurred you want the other areas to be and then taking the photo. The interface is simple and you can even edit the wide aperture effect at a later date, as long as you took the photo in that mode already.

On the front of the phone there's an 8MP selfie shooter camera. Other Chinese brands have put a big focus on the front-facing camera in recent months by upping the sensor to even 13MP, for example in the case of the Oppo F1.

8MP is more than enough for the front of a handset though and as long as the lighting was good I didn't struggle with getting a high-quality selfie.

It makes your eyes bigger and smooths out the blemishes on your skin. I don't personally find it a useful feature, but you may do if you're more into selfies than myself.

Here this is enough for what you really want from a selfie camera. The truth is you use the selfie camera to take a photo for your Snapchat feed or to upload to Instagram. You don't need the professional elements on the front-facing shooter and the 8MP sensor brings out satisfactory detail for your narcissistic shots.

Comparing the Huawei P9 to some other phones on the market highlights how the camera features aren't as great as Huawei wants them to be. Huawei wants this to be the best camera phone you can own right now, but the truth is there's a lot of stiff competition out there.

The shots taken on the Huawei P9 in this test were typically dull and dark compared to the likes of the iPhone 7 and HTC 10, with the phone particularly struggling in poorer lighting.

Compared to the Galaxy S7 in particular this is struggling to keep up – but that said, I still love what the Huawei P9 is capable of. It stands up well to the Sony Xperia Z5 for example and there are a lot of different modes to play around with on the phone and most are fun to use.

You can also go a lot further in depth with the pro mode to fiddle with the ISO and other features, but personally I just want to point and shoot my camera.

The Huawei P9 doesn't struggle with that even though it has a professional focus, as the auto mode is still good enough.

The Huawei P9 is one of the best phones the Chinese company has ever made. It does feel like everything is coming together in terms of Huawei products.

The hardware employed here is fantastic and there are a few really key selling points that stand out as highlights of the Huawei P9.

But there are also a few drawbacks that do make me think twice before recommending this phone to some people.

What we like

The Huawei P9 has an impressive spec set up. The processor and RAM combination is rivaling the big guns of Samsung and Apple now and means you can do any task you'd ever want to on a smartphone without any problems.

With a solid amount of storage as standard and all the spec you'd hope for you won't be disappointed by what the Huawei P9 can do on a daily basis.

I particularly enjoy the display on the Huawei P9. This is the kind of screen that proves it's not always worth manufacturers wasting time plugging in extras pixels.

It isn't as clear as the Nexus 6P display, but this is the perfect size for those who like smaller phones and Full HD is suitable for most things. It only really becomes an issue when you're looking to do VR tasks, as stick this in a Google Cardboard and the res is suddenly a little too low.

The camera on the Huawei P9 is also another highlight of the phone. The partnership with Leica has improved the technology for Huawei and even though the pro features are largely useless for most smartphone users, the auto mode more than makes up for it.

The two camera idea isn't as exciting as some may have expected at first and big name flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S7 have it beat, but you'd be hard pressed to find another phone with a camera this good and below the £450 mark.

What we dislike

The Emotion UI 4.1 is still a big problem for me when using Huawei phones. As soon as I booted up the Huawei P9 I was a little disappointed by the look of the screen.

The interface just looks a little bit childish and has too much going on for my tastes.

There are a few useful extra features that if you fully embrace the look will prove their worth, but in general I don't enjoy the interface.

Especially after coming from the Huawei made Nexus 6P, which is beautiful hardware paired with the good Google stock Marshmallow experience.

The battery life on the Huawei P9 isn't up to scratch either. It's not the worst I've ever experienced but it also didn't impress me and I'm always upset for my phone to die off before the end of a day. Plus the lack of wireless and fast charging features is disappointing as well.

Final verdict

The Huawei P9 is one of the best looking and performing phones the company has ever produced. There's a lot to love here in terms of the design, the spec and how everything comes together to work.

Paired with a strong camera that works perfectly on auto-mode and a fingerprint scanner that boots up the phone in a matter of milliseconds, it's hard not to recommend the Huawei P9.

But on the other hand, it's also hard to recommend when the software is still such an issue. I do feel if Huawei offered this with a cut-down or even stock version of Android I'd love it even more than I do now.

With battery life that doesn't stun anybody, the Huawei P9 is a good, solid phone but it's just not hit the right level of greatness yet.

If you're looking for a smaller Android phone experience that needs high-end spec without a high-end price tag or a cumbersome design, try the Huawei P9.

First reviewed: April 2016

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