Huawei P9 vs Huawei P10 specs comparison, review: How much of an upgrade is the 2017 model?

Was the Huawei P10 able to live up to the buzz its predecessor built for itself?Facebook/HuaweimobilePH

Huawei P10 was recently unveiled. Given that it is a follow-up to the fan-acclaimed Huawei P9, many fans are expecting that it will live up to the hype generated by its predecessor. Was the phone able to deliver?

Design-wise, the P9 and the P10 are so similar that those who may not have used either phone may confuse these two models at first glance. The only noticeable difference is Huawei's decision to place the fingerprint scanner, which was previously found at the rear of P9, to the front. The newer phone also sports more rounded corners compared to its predecessor.

Screen-wise, the P10 is slightly smaller, having a 5.1-inch display as opposed to the 5.2-inch display of the P9. However, the former has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, which is an upgrade of the Gorilla Glass 3 of the latter.

The P9 was heavily promoted last year for its good built-in dual-lens camera, designed with German camera company Lecia. Sadly, the P10 did not receive much of an upgrade in that department, although it can shoot up to 20 megapixels now.

Huawei P10 sports an upgraded chipset — the Kirin 960 processor. However, it has yet to be seen whether the upgraded chipset has a significant impact on the performance of the handset compared to the P9, which came with the Kirin 955 processor. Both run on Android, although the newer model comes bundled with Android 7 Nougat, while the older device came with Android 6 Marshmallow, which could be upgraded to the newer version of Android. Huawei did away with giving buyers the option to choose between 3 GB of RAM with 32 GB of storage or 4 GB of RAM with 64 GB of storage, which was the case for P9, instead fixing it to the latter set of specs for the P10. The battery life was slightly upgraded, with the newer phone now bearing a 3,200 mAh battery, as opposed to its predecessor, which only carried 3,000 mAh.

With the relatively minor specs adjustments, it might be better to go for the oldie but goodie P9 instead of the newer, more expensive P10.