The Huawei P8 Review
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 4, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Huawei
- Mobile
- P8
- Kirin 930
Camera Still Picture Performance
Having covered the camera's architecture, we'll take a look at how Sony new RGBW sensor behaves in practice. As comparison devices we have Huawei's Mate 7, and the Galaxy S6 serving as a reference camera to beat. The Mate 7 comes with an Sony IMX214 sensor and F/2.0 lens setup and image processing is handled by the SoC ISP. The S6 comes with either a Sony IMX240 (As is our test unit) or an SLSI S5K2P2 sensor and F/1.9 lens with a dedicated SLSI ISP chipset handling image processing for still image capture.
Daylight Capture
We start off by daylight shots on an overcast afternoon analysing different scenarios.
The first location represents a tough scene in terms of white-balance and exposure. Looking at the standard capture modes we see very different exposure times between the P8 and the Mate7 & S6. The P8 captured the scene at 1/361s @ ISO 64 while the S6 and Mate 7 were able to content with faster exposured at respectively 1/564s @ ISO 40 and 1/586s @ ISO 50. While the S6 does have an advantage with its wider aperture at F/1.9 versus the F/2.0 on the P8, it doesn't explain why the P8 requires a longer exposure at higher ISO than the Mate 7, which also sports a F/2.0 system.
The HDR captures make more sense in terms of the exposure time presented by the EXIF data, as the P8 captures at 1/868s @ ISO 64 with the S6 comes in at 1/662s @ ISO 40 and the Mate 7 at 1/434s @ ISO 50.
Both Huawei devices don't manage a proper white-balance as they produce a slightly too cold image in both cases. The P8 improves hugely over the Mate 7 as it manages to capture much more detail as it exposes the picture longer, better reproducing the actual scene at the time.
Moving on to picture crops of the same area of the screen gives us a better look at how the devices fare with detail. Off the bat, the difference in clarity between the P8 and Mate 7 is evident. Even though both cameras are 13MP shooters with the same lens aperture, the P8 is able to capture much higher detail in the foliage throughout the screen and also on the cobblestone underneath the speed sign. OIS could be part of the reason for the increased detail, but OIS's impact is directly related to the exposure time, so advantages due to it should only be limited in bright scenarios.
The other two scenes continue the same trend as we see the P8 show large improvements over the Mate 7, but can't compete with the details captured by the Galaxy S6's IMX240. It seems that this phenomenon is stricktly limited to foliage as other details remain within the expected differences in resolution between the two phones.
Moving to a closeup of a flower-bed, we see another scenario where all the devices struggle to get the right exposure. The P8 here ends up as the worst contender as it repeatedly overexposed the scene.
Even the S6 has issues as it also slightly overexposes the flowers. It's ironically the Mate 7 which performs best here and has the best representation of the actual colours of the red tulips.
Overall, the P8 is a large improvement over Huawei's previous camera modules in daylight scenarios, but still falls behind actual flagship shooters such as the Galaxy S6. Consistency is an important factor in smartphone cameras, and it seems like Huawei has issues with controlling exposure time consistently as many of my shots would often come out slightly differently when I took more than a couple of takes.
Low-Light Capture
Starting off with a very dark scene with only a few illumination sources we start to see the P8's advantages in low-light as it manages outperform the Galaxy S6 throughout most of the scene. The P8 exhibits clearer and more pronounced edges around objects, best seen around the building and window edges. While it seems the P8 is a bit noisier than the S6, it also retains more actual information as the S6 obviously employs heavy de-noising processing that manages to smudge details.
The P8's HDR modes makes exposure much too unrealistic, but if your goal is capturing happenings in low light, then the P8 is the right device for the job. Even with the amount of light gathered in this mode, the exposure remains reasonable at 1/4s and ISO 1000. Interesting to see is the difference OIS can make in both shots. I seemed to have an exceptionally steady hand in the standard shot and differences are only visible on clear horizontal edges such as the furthest background building's window blinds. On the HDR shot however the difference couldn't be larger as we see how OIS is able to compensate for movement at higher exposure times.
In a slightly more lit up scene, we again see the P8 outperform the S6 in terms of edge definition and detail. In the HDR shots the P8 manages an exposure of 1/17s @ ISO 640 while the S6 has to double that 1/8s @ ISO 1000 to get a similar level of brightness in the captured image. Again we see stark contrast on the P8 when shooting in HDR mode at low light, as the resulting picture is much brigther than the standard mode. It's interesting to see how the non-HDR picture actually requires a longer exposure, 1/13s @ ISO 800 to be exact. While the resulting image is darker than the HDR picture, it's able to pick up even more detail as edge definition increases for even the fartest objects.
Going back to the speed-sign scene and location during the night we see a role-reversal when it comes to camera performance. The P8 struggled to pick up details in the same shot during daytime, but in low-light it's easily capable to holding up and beating the Galaxy S6.
One aspect the P8 still has issues on is proper white-balance, as the processing on the Huawei device tries too much to get a colder picture. Here the S6 is much better at picking up the correct colour of the yellow sodium-vapour street lamps.
Finally in our last scene, we try to see how the phones compare in a mixed lighting condition. The P8 and S6 are neck-on-neck, with each having some advantage or disadvantage over the other. The S6 seems to favour longer exposure at lower ISO, while the P8 goes for a faster exposure at higher ISO. The S6 manages to get a clearer depiction of the grass and shrubbery directly in front of the patio, while the P8 gets better definition in the further away objects and structures. The P8's HDR consistently better than the S6's as for some reason the latter smudged the texture on the concrete columns.
On top of the normal shooting modes, Huawei introduces a new extreme low-light mode exclusive to the P8. Essentially this "Super Night" mode, which is only available through the settings menu, simply pushes exposure and ISO to ridiculous levels. The above shot was captured at 1/5s @ ISO 2500, and while the result has extremely high noise, it's surprising that a cellphone camera is even able to capture much at all as basically the pathway in the scene was mostly lit just by moonlight and some very dim lamp-posts. This mode is only useful when the scene you want to capture is uniformely dark, as the software will try to expose for the brightest element in view. Having a single bright lamp will cause the phone to expose for that lamp and cause everything else to be too dark.
Overall the P8 impressed a lot in low-light photography. I think it's safe to say that it beats the Galaxy S6 in most scenarios. The RGBW sensor seems to have paid off in that respect as the results speak for themselves.
However what makes a camera is more than just low-light photography, and while the P8 is able to hold its own among the best low-light shooters, it's the daylight scenes that are more concerning. Sony's RGBW IMX278 sensor just wasn't able to compete with a more traditional Bayer sensor when it comes to sheer detail in sufficiently lit conditions.
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Peichen - Friday, June 5, 2015 - link
I am an iPhone 6+ user but I have no problem this review uses Galaxy S6 camera for comparison as the S6 have an excellent camera. The SONY RGBW sensor in this camera might be used in the upcoming iPhone 6S in September and it will be interesting to see with SONY and Apple's refinement how it will stack up against Note 5 and G4.serendip - Friday, June 5, 2015 - link
Huawei should really stop with this Kirin nonsense. The modem sucks power, the SOC's power management is a joke, yet Huawei are crazy enough to charge flagship prices for a midrange phone that struggles to keep up with much cheaper offerings. A Mi Note is a cheaper and better option.TekDemon - Saturday, June 6, 2015 - link
I know this isn't a nexus review but these charts would look rather different if a nexus 5 running 5.1 and a nexus 6 on 5.1 were used since Lollipop 5.1 finally brought a lot of changes into android that were manufacturer dependent. The nexus 5 on 5.1 posts better random writes than any of the phones on this list for example.OOwl - Saturday, June 6, 2015 - link
I do agree with you in terms of 5.1 improvements. I am currently testing a small upcoming Motorola handset and although it's not a monster in terms of power and should be on paper lower powered than the processor in the P8 Lite, it is soo much more responsive. Battery life is also rather underwhelming on these Kirin SoC powered handsets...R3MF - Saturday, June 6, 2015 - link
just picked this up on contract for £21x12, or looked at another way; ~£250 for a phone with 300m/5000t/1gb.for that price its flaws pale into insignificance.
sunnohh - Sunday, June 7, 2015 - link
Jelly, 1 year contracts across the pond! Extremely low rates. Don't tell me you get reliable service everywhere.R3MF - Sunday, June 7, 2015 - link
i live in a rural area, we never get reliable service. :)sunnohh - Sunday, June 7, 2015 - link
I pay 45$ for unlimited call text and 5gig data through wal mart's plan that uses an AT&T sim. Nexus 5 is about 97% reliable, but it's bring your own phone. Which around here is the exception rather than the rule. The rule being Verizon near 100% reliability and exhorbinate rates and long contracts with obscene break up fees.Ethos Evoss - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
Jeeezus anandatech u made me sweat PROPERLY I finished this mega ,tera hexa .. eem .. NO !I will go rather other way ...
It took me over and hour to finish this mini, micro , nano , piko , errr.. I'll skip rather all metrics and I'll jump directly to deep ATOM review I have EVER seen in my life ..
ALWAYS when it comes to Huawei devices especially to find EVERY single NEGATIVYTY to their products..
I will say you are MOST weirdest website in actual WORLD ..
But that's fine that is your probably style to do autopsy to find weakness..
To summarize your (in few ways) misleading review to pull people off buying phone bcos of bribed by apple or who knows who doesn't bother me .. but u are cowards anyway ..
we can start :
1.introduction and design:
* ''only supports UE Category 4 LTE speeds, reaching up to 150Mbps downstream and 50Mpbs upstream.''
-So u claiming that this phone supports LTECat 4 only ?? u liying or u have wrong info as this phone supports LTECat 6 !
*''We had some very harsh words for Mate 7’s camera performances, as both featured very disappointing photo and video quality.''
-Ecxuse me ?? I have feeling that u HAS no experience of taking pictures at all I own Mate 7 and everybody says that my pictures on phone are amazing WTF u trying to say weirdos?? liars! isheep!
*''This is the second kind of implementation RGBW (Or RGBC) after the OmniVision unit found in the original Moto X.''
-yeah why u higlighting it IT WAAS second?? why nobody been talking about it THEN in crappy fail moto x ? what u trying to protect ? or put itno negativneses ?? so WHAT if it''s second ?seriously!
*''It should be noted that the black frame surrounding the actual screen makes it seem as if the device’s size-bezels are much smaller than what they really are, something which is very visible on the lighter coloured models.''
-yeah u picked white version so what u been expecting ?? so stupid every phone which is in withe color must have black borders jesus christ u are unbelieveable .. did u mention this in crapple iphone 6 review? you need more knowledge that if u have black screen version u don't notice any borders! mentals..
*''Huawei called the design a “single audio chamber speaker system”, but in practice the right grill is essentially just for aesthetics and only serves as a housing for the bottom microphone. Covering up the left grill will completely dampen the audio output of the device.''
-eem excuse me and what is the problem that phone has simetrical grills which gives better look ?!?
on your crapple phone wht is there 5 holes on right side and 2 on the left how rubbish crap looking !
dampen audio ?? oh yeah even iphone 5 or 6 or s6 or edge has dampen audio bcos everybody covers holes so obviously sound will be dampen WTF u mentiong this SHT??1?!!? ar u nuts?
* camera module seems to be still 1.5mm underneath the glass.
-ar u serious with this mention ?? jeezus christ .. u are total weirdos FOR REAL ! ATOM REVIEW!
*''he only gripe I’ve had with it is that it seems to have some empty space underneath the back of the phone as if you try to squeeze it will flex inwards by up to 1mm''
- Whaaaaa??? OMG what THE HELL are you doing with smartphones seriously u need HELP !
2.Software - EmotionUI 3.1
*''Huawei continues the choice of not including an application drawer with the EmUI launcher, so all installed apps are placed on the launcher screens.''
-So what? BETTER NOT complain here as u wud have to complain to your beloved iphone so u rather stayed quiet right ?
*''It would be appreciated if Huawei had at least included the option to disable app-icon framing throughout the OS''
-I NEVER EVER heard in my life that SOMEBODY wud comes up with this NON-SENSE sht called ''app-icon framing throughout '' trully u are word inventors ! ... app icon framing .. jeezus christ ..
*''I've praised Huawei's inclusion of a per-app permission manager in the Honor 6 and Mate 7, and it sadly seems that the P8 drops this practice as it no longer is exposed to the user''
-the reason why they didn't include this feature anymore was because all constant annoying remind to close all important apps and services which needs to be running and users been complaining by not receiving notifications , locations not found ! in other phones never been why it bothers you now???
*Although the P8 lacks a fingerprint sensor ''
-trully who uses it?? nobody .. only gay geeks with their glasses 200 bioptries
*''a feature where one would double-tap or draw with a knuckle to capture a screenshot''
-I believe if u root the phone which is easy to do so .. u can nicely disable this feature in file systems (eg build prop)
3.CPU & System Performance
I really NOT going to break down this section as there are 1000 negativeness I would be here till next christmas..
Simply your bars, graphs and compares ARE TOTAL POINTLESS/USELESS t
Completely obsolete as I browse or edit on my mate 7 or on P7 perfectly no problems as any other phone.
I noticed that If iphone or any other phone you adore has less or shame/laughable results u simply not include it in your graphs .. u cowards ..!
4.GPU Performance
Same as above no comment on useless completely not REAL world results as everybody plays games on the phone without any issues .. or play films.. on P7 we normally watch youtube vids in 1080p or 720p without problem ..
yeah your pathetic iphone can be on top but good luck it its even crappier battery which will stay last half a day or less !
5.WiFi Performance and nand
I really don't understand another pointless tests of wifi performance ..
it is clearly USELESS /POINTLESS to have strong wifi another battery drain ??
Wake up, u measuring NETWORK speed instead of INTERNET speed ! What u wanna tell me now u playing multiplayer over smartphones behind desks like idiots like onPC where wifi network speed is inevitable
Pleease DON'T be naive, Huawei instead of you THINK and don't implment stupidly highest wifi module tuner radio JUST for pointless network speed which nobody will NEVER use it for every day use ! Everybody needs fast internet download speed for quick loading pages or downloading files don't you think ? And this P8 managing at best ! Yu fkin thanks god u didn't unsolder wifi chip to check if it's OK or what.. myyy gooosh ..
* While the new eMMC doesn't break any records, it's now among the "average" performing devices out there, as opposed to the horrendous performances of the Mate 7 and Honor 6
-horrendous .. wow so dramatic? I never noticed any horrendous like u oddly describing - bitching !
6.Display Measurement and power
*''together with a NovaTek NT35695 display controller IC''
-jez so u mentioning controller wt-hell and u can tell us brands of capacitors and resistors too ? i think that is important too n ?
*''I noticed a very weird behaviour of the display's brightness that cannot be explained by usual mechanisms such as CABC. The OS clearly alters brightness depending on the application - for example using a browser such as the stock one or Chrome, along with other random applications such as Dropbox or FX Explorer will cause a dimming in the display, if one opens up the recents menu or goes back to the home-screen then one can see how the backlight brightens up. One would think this can be explained with by assuming the default launcher and OS elements are allowed a higher luminosity than other apps, but I've discovered that many other apps don't dim the display.''
- Right here is ONLY first thing right now I can agree with this issue ... yes I have noticed dimming in chrome but u didn't consider it is caused by app ? the chrome app causing this and some others because when u open chrome it auto changes resolution don't thik that you surfing in 1080p ...
this happens to me with my mate 7 so i just increase brightnes a bit and volia .. problem solved..
*''Huawei P8 backlight bleed''
Every phone with ips screen has bleed it is caused by stress which is put by phone frame where screen glass lies .. i means that you will NEVER craft housing middle frame bezel 100% straight by machine .. it would have to be laser machine NOT CnC .. so when screen is placed into frame there is significant bend , squeeze of glass ass glass is slightly bendable elastic
Huawei's GREAT feature which NO ONE phone has it is white Color temperature
In this case , I will call it ; this new case (new and new IPS technologies comes across) this neo-ips screen it seems that is not playing together with color temperature feature..
As it perfectly works with M7(mate7) P7 I have color temperature set nearly to max about 85% !
Looks like due to new IPS technology and that RGBW or RGBC feature in LCD has conflict !
In this case (as been this explained in warm results and cold results) It is necessary that once user will be watching films or photos will have to change color temp to warm and WHEN will be surfing on internet and reading text definately slide it to the cooler side ... (not max as it result bluish distortion)
7.Battery life and charging
Again your beloved iphone has to be on top.. aaahh well ...
I truly doubt it is better than mate 7 .. rubbish .. ppl saying it has not great battery at all ..
I won't comment this
In my real world battery life on my mate 7 is nearly two days and on my GF's P7 is whole day ..
I don't genuinely believe your iphone or others has better battery .. NO chance !
For charge I don't mind as I charge phone over night so in morning all is ready ...
8./9.Camera and video
Only to say that seen couple vids on youtub or pics on parena or Garena and ppl managed to make nice, great photos so don't really understand your AGAIN so much hatress to this phone
I agree video recording is not good part but pictures are very good and even at night ..
10.
DISASTER ... ANANDATECH ....YOU are ICON of the internet
I will name you KINGS of WEIRDO-GEEKS ... :DDDDD
Huawei haters from unknown reason ... bribed by apple ? to keep your site above water..? as everybody corrupted smartphone sites..
Remember Huawei phones ARE NOT for any performance .. you are brainwashed by your fixed bug in head that all in the world HAS to be highest, fastest, best... you are all wrong..
Huawei manuf. they DID described it what they phones are for.. for what use
Firstly for elegance , then smart look, for smart ppl not for kids like you type; aah that is sloow that is crap I don't want it gpu and cpuu is sloow..
This smartphone is for grown ppl grown man in suits , for managers, for social women in beautiful dress they love nice and sleek and slim light design, which they will stick this review into your ass and we will say ''WE SIMPLY DO NOT CARE'' if it's not highest specs. GTFOOO
|You GLASS-GEEKS
CIAO
hmdqyg - Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - link
The "T-Rex Offscreen Power Efficiency" is pretty useful. Could you perform the same test on Tegra X1, Tegra K1, A8x, Snapdragon 810 and Snapdragon 801?