A classy and desirable phone let down by some surprising and not so surprising problems

Sleek and classy casing; Lengthy battery life; High quality screen; Generally excellent camera

Camera issues; Annoying interface overlay

Huawei has officially been selling its smartphones in India for over two years now, under the brand name Honor. The Honor phones are meant for budget conscious buyers and barring the Rs 20,000 plus Honor 7, most of the other Honor devices have traditionally seen very competitive price points.

The Huawei P9 rolls powerful Leica camera tech into a well-made, attractive handset. The specs won't set the world on fire, but there's more than enough to admire.

Leica camera; attractive metal design; smooth performance; decent battery; sensible price

Emotion UI; no fast charging; gimmicky

Having a DSLR is great for taking pictures, but not a practical option for taking your everyday photos. However, the shooter I always have on me is my smartphone. This is why Huawei has teamed up with century-old, and much revered, German camera and optics manufacturer Leica to provide a powerful...

Dual-lens camera; Lightning fast fingerprint reader

Huawei Emotion UI

Huawei's back with two awesome flagships for 2016. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Huawei P9 and Huawei P9 Plus

Great Design; Amazing Camera; Powerful; Well Optimised

Huawei's Custom UI is a bit squiffy

The build, the feel, the camera and fingerprint sensor are all top-notch on the Huawei P9. It is the best smartphone the Chinese manufacturer has made, and is so close to competitors Samsung and Apple. The one thing that lets it down is the software.

excellent camera; brilliant fingerprint scanner; good screen; great build and feel; microSD card support; USB-C; good battery stats; decent battery life

EMUI not quite up to scratch; fixed-focus selfie camera; no quick charging; no removable battery; screen not good for VR (low res

I like the Huawei P9, but I think it's a bold claim to say it'll change the way you see the world. It's well made, it's a really solid performer, but that camera isn't as good as they promised. Liked this

Sleek design; Interesting camera set up; Good battery life

Nothing innovative; Screen lackluster; Camera could be better

Huawei's latest top-of-the-range handset, the 5.2-inch P9 , certainly looks like a premium smartphone should -- all aluminium, glass and soft curves. But it's also a little safe, lacking the futurist stylings of Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge , for example.

Dual-lens (RGB; B&W) camera system; Excellent fingerprint scanner; Good battery life

Emotion UI overlay may not appeal; Uninspired design; Moderate screen resolution; Lacks wireless and fast charging

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. The cameras aren't the absolute best out there, it doesn't top the charts in game tests and the screen isn't Quad HD, but these minor quibbles are outweighed not only by the price but also because, unlike the Nexus, the P9 lets you stick in a microSD card to expand the storage. If you can afford it, the Galaxy S7 is a better phone overall, but this is a great choice if you can't.

T he Huawei P9 has also taken a few giant leaps forward in terms of smartphone cameras. While many OEMs have spent copious amounts of time and money within their R&D departments to reduce costs and increase capabilities of their cameras, it wasn't until the release of Nokia's 808 PureView, and a...