​Huawei P10 smartphone review

Battery Life

The P10 comes with a reasonable 3,200mAh battery. However, despite all of Huawei’s promoted optimisations, as with the Mate 9 and P10 Plus, we hoped for longer than the single day battery life that we saw here. Even when we weren’t punishing the phone with its complicated photo processing, it would be low in the evening.

Other features

The P10 Plus isn’t waterproof but it is splash-proof. While this can’t compete with the fully-IPX certified Samsung Galaxy S8 waterproofing it’s better than nothing. Tales of phones dying due to a single drop of rain aren’t uncommon.

The phone also comes with a cheap, plastic case. It doesn't look great but it's thin and doesn't make the phone too bulky. More importantly it should protect against some drops and scratches.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve seen the P10 Plus it’s a bit harder to rave about the P10. Perhaps we should have reviewed them the other way round? At $899 it’s an excellent phone for the money. The camera pulls the rug from almost everything around it… other than Huawei’s own similarly-priced Mate 9 and older, cheaper P9.

But to our minds the P10 Plus is worth the extra $200. The camera optics are just that bit better, the speakers are better, the screen is better and there’s also the option for a dual SIM. However, if you can’t justify the extra, and if the much-larger Mate 9 is too big for you, this is one of the very best mid-range phones on the market.

If it’s still too much, it may also be worth looking at the HTC U Play which has already fallen in price to just $649. It’s much prettier but doesn’t have the dual-lens camera system (or a headphone jack) but is still a great alternative if you don't need elaborate photography features.