Introduction
Huawei has long had a spot on the smartphone map, devices like the P8 and Mate 7 trying really hard to break new ground in the premium segment. Refined exterior and competitive specs but not quite competitive price points, Huawei wants to be a brand driven by quality, not discounts.
The Huawei P8 has the flagship looks and build quality but the matching price tag would've been easier to live with was it not for the essentially midrange performance. But as far as build and finish go, the P8 makes no compromise. It leaves that to the P8lite.
As the name suggests, it's an attempt at an affordable but equally stylish alternative of the flagship, from which it does take a lot of design cues. Of course, to nearly cut the price in half Huawei had to swap metal for plastic and most of the hardware has been toned down more than just a notch as well. Still, the look and feel is there - and for a fraction of the price.
As you can surely guess, like most other Huawei handsets, the P8lite is powered one of the company's custom chipsets - the HiSilicon Kirin 620. There is also a Snapdragon 615-based variant of the same device, bound to the US, but most units you're likely to come across have the Kirin chip. This custom architecture is a bit of a gamble but, at least, in this price bracket it will compete against the likes of Qualcomm's S615 and even 410.
We got our hands on both versions so we'll be able to give you a comparative look on how they fare in the performance and battery life departments.
Key features
- Dual SIM
- 5.0" 720p IPS LCD (294 ppi) capacitive touchscreen
- Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipset - octa-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A53, Mali-450MP4 GPU; 2GB of RAM;
- US version: Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 - quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 405; 2GB of RAM;
- 13MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording
- 5MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording, selfie panorama mode
- Android OS v5.0 Lollipop with Emotion UI 3.1
- 16GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot, doubling as a secondary SIM slot on the Dual SIM model
- Cat. 4 LTE (150Mbps); Dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS/; FM radio; NFC; microUSB port
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- 2200mAh battery
Main disadvantages
- No Wi-Fi ac support
- Non-removable battery
- No quick charging or wireless charging support
- No USB On The Go support
Huawei might have skipped on some premium finish on the P8lite, but the build quality is still impressive. The phone looks quite sturdy, everything is tightly assembled and fits nicely. The frame even does a pretty good job at emulating a brushed-metal finish and can definitely be confused for the real thing, even up close.
The custom chipset, however is slightly off-putting. Kirin chips have frequently failed to deliver high-end performance in the past so that's one thing we'll certainly watch closely. And the 64-bit Kirin 620 is significantly underpowered compared to the Kirin 930 inside the P8, so we don't really expect much from the eight Coretex-A53 cores, running at only 1.2 GHz. The Mali-450MP4 GPU has also consistently failed to impress. We certainly have higher expectations of the US-only Snapdragon 615-based version.
Let's not rush to judgment though. Follow along to see the Huawei P8lite from every angle before we proceed to benchmarking.
Display
The Huawei P8lite is equipped with a pretty standard IPS LCD panel. It is definitely a step down from the the P8 in both size, 5.0" instead of 5.2, and resolution, 720p vs. 1080p. Still, it does look pretty sharp.
294ppi is also far from ideal but perfectly adequate, considering the asking price. When compared to the P8 however, there is an easily noticeable difference in quality. Huawei might have managed to keep the P8 look and feel intact in the lite version, but the IPS-NEO screen isn't there.
As a result, we can't really expect near AMOLED blacks and contrast, which the original P8 delivers.
The P8lite is quite dim with only 362 nits at full blast. This is nowhere near the 584 of the P8 and quite surprisingly, also far from what the older Ascend P7 is capable of. The fact is that you can easily pick up a much brighter device in the same price range. Contrast is also quite poor, again almost half that of its premium sibling.
Sunlight legibility of the device is fairly good. Definitely not spectacular, but you won't have any problems using the phone outdoors if you avoid direct sunlight.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Huawei P8lite battery life
The Huawei P8lite is powered by a 2200mAh battery. It is non-removable and of slightly smaller capacity than the one inside the P8, which however has a more power-hungry screen and chipset.
Huawei seems to have shaved a number of software features off the P8lite and that includes some of the more-advanced power saving options its bigger sibling has. This might be part of the reason why it did rather poorly in our battery life tests, scoring a total endurance rating of only 53 hours.
To put things in perspective, the original Huawei P8 scored 64 hours under the very same conditions. This comparison is important, but also flawed, as the two phones do use quite different chipsets and the P8 does have the advantage of an extra 480mAh of juice.
Still, a browser score of only 8:27 hours is disappointing. Granted, things are a lot better when using Chrome instead of the bundled browser but video playback, which was rated at 9 hours is also low and we find it hard to blame the built in video app in this case. Still, you can definitely count on the P8lite lasting through a full day on a single charge. Make sure you use the browser and the media player sparingly if you want to squeeze more time out of it.
In comparison, the Snapdragon-based version of the P8lite managed to do noticeably better in our battery tests. The main improvement over the Kirin version seems to be in the Stand-by and Call segments. With a total endurance rating of 61 hours, the Snapdragon 615-based P8lite is a lot closer to the premium P8 and definitely offers an improvement.
Unfortunately, there is no support for Quick Charging or wireless charging on either models.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.
Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.
Connectivity
As previously mentioned, the Huawei P8lite is a dual SIM device. It also offers dual standby. It comes in two main flavors - we're testing the Kirin 620-powered version but there's a Snapdragon 615-powered variant, intended for the US. Naturally, they support different network bands but both come with quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE and 3G with HSDPA. The Kirin variant has tri-band 3G and quad-band 4G, whereas the Snapdragon ALE-L04 model offers quad-band 3G and a penta-band 4G.
Both can reach speeds of up to 42.2Mbps of download and 5.76Mbps of upload on HSPDA, as well as 150Mbps of downloads over Cat.4 LTE. This is available on both SIM cards, but one of them does share a slot with the microSD card.
Local connectivity is covered by Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi 802.11ac is not supported. Bluetooth 4.0 is also on board with A2DP, EDR, and LE mode. The microUSB 2.0 port does not support USB host.
The satellite navigation chip inside the phone is compatible with GPS/GLONASS. There's an FM radio on board too. NFC with contactless payments is supported as well.
The P8 does also include a few advanced connection options, like Wi-Fi+, Signal+ and Roaming+, which are missing on the P8lite. We understand that the Signal+ cell switching feature requires special hardware, but the Wi-Fi and network connection enhancements in roaming could have perhaps been left in the lite model.
[via GSMARENA]
