Huawei's P9 is ready to rumble with it's incredible Leica camera tech and sleek metal body.

Amazing camera; Beautiful design; Compact metal frame; Strong battery life; High performance processor; Smooth software

Quite slippery; Some UI niggles; No software update to EMUI 5.0

Huawei has come from nowhere over the past few years, from its humble beginnings producing uninspired budget devices to having a full complement of Android handsets, including impressive flagships that are not limited to Google's well-regarded Nexus 6P .

Excellent, ergonomic design; The dual-camera system is unique and produces wonderful photos; Decent system performance with a blazing fast fingerprint sensor

EMUI is a heavy, lackluster software skin; Poor GPU performance; No 4K video recording

I finished writing my review of the Huawei P9 on Friday. Today's Tuesday, I have a Galaxy S7 and two iPhones in my immediate vicinity, and I'm still using the Huawei P9.

True premium design; Perfect dimensions for single-handed use; Super fast fingerprint sensor; Information-dense notifications

Not the best battery life or performance from an Android flagship; Display and camera are just fine; not outstanding; Fans of stock Android should look elsewhere

The Huawei P9 is a great smartphone for photography buffs, with image post-processing being some of the best you'll find in any phone. Improvements are needed in the power-saving department but, since I have had good experiences with Huawei devices in terms of software optimization, I don't see this...

Quality Leica photos in RAW format; Outstanding reception performance; Long battery life

Aggressive automatic power saving restricts usability; Distorted images

Huawei's smartphones seem to be getting better with every model they release and the P9 is no exception. For a relatively new smartphone, the sim-free price is reasonable, although some might argue that the 'premium' devices offered by Apple and Samsung are still superior and as such, the price...

Pleasing image quality; Simple to use; Great screen; Fun features; Great photo editor; Slow Motion Capture; Aperture adjustments in real time; Adjust focus after taking a shot; High quality black and white photos

Can struggle with scenes with a high dynamic range and at night; Video can be over saturated; Doesn't record 4K video

Huawei has been chipping away at the flagship smartphone block for years now, gradually adding appeal to its seemingly desired western audience with each iteration. But while last year's P8 lost its way with sloppy software and knuckle-based nonsense, this year's P9 - which mimics the same handset...

Best fingerprint scanner on the market; slender design; dual camera solution is fun; microSD card expansion; ample power for all tasks

Some questionable software points; battery life not standout (as 3,000mAh would suggest); camera software (defocus) glitchy

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, HTC and Motorola in western markets.

An innovative camera, plenty of power and lovely build aren't quite enough to add up to overall perfection

High-quality build; Much improved DoF camera effects; Bright; colourful screen

Disappointing low-light camera performance; Software messes with Android a lot

Since the arrival of the Nokia 808 PureView manufacturers have been battling ever harder to create the very finest phone camera. We've seen everything from mainstream adoption of optical image stabilisation to custom technologies like LG's laser autofocus and HTC's Ultrapixels – which reappeared on...

Dual lens tech is great; Solid performance; Decent battery life; Super fast fingerprint scanner

EMUI skin is heavy; Camera software can be fidlly

When comparing the P9 to other flagships, it's important to remember the ￡449 price which makes it considerably cheaper than many of its rivals (but not the identically priced Nexus 6P that's also made by Huawei). Overall, we're impressed with the phone: it's well built, feels good and looks good.