How does the Huawei P9 compare to other flagship smartphones?

The Huawei P9 was launched in India just a few days ago and our first impressions about the same are already out. While we are putting the dual lens camera smartphone through its paces for the full review, it’s about time we took a long hard look at how Huawei’s first flagship in India compares to the rest of the competition. Huawei P9 Price: Rs 39,999  Beginning with the Huawei P9 itself, there’s plenty of new stuff in here worth talking about. This is indeed Huawei’s first flagship smartphone and it does come with a “flagship” price tag of Rs 39,999. With that said, there is enough in here to justify the same as it packs in some unique features that you would not find on another smartphone. There’s the Huawei-made HiSilicon Kirin 955 chipset, which is quite the contender when it comes to the rest of the Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890 competition. Add to this the USP of the device, its dual lens camera module, which has been co-engineered by the camera and lens experts, Leica. While I have had the chance to fidget with the smartphone, I must say that I was impressed by the camera quality, but more on that in our full review. With two cameras on board, the Huawei sadly, was not able to incorporate optical image stabilisation (OIS), which is now a standard feature on Android flagships. Still then, Huawei did claim that their dual lens camera setup brings in 200 percent more light than the iPhone 6s and other competitor offerings. We will have to wait and see how this translates into real life performance. LG G5 Price: Rs 52,990  LG’s G5 flagship was supposed to be the camera smartphone of the year. But with all our testing (as put down in our full review ) the results were not impressive. In case you were wondering, the G5 uses its dual camera setup in a different way compared to the Huawei P9. LG uses two sensors (16MP and 8MP) behind two different types of lenses, the first one a standard, and the second a wide angle. While the standard one packs in OIS, the wide angle lens does not. I used the LG G5 for while. It’s wide angle lens did give a whole new perspective to mobile photography, but the quality of those images was far below our expectations. Software-wise everything was super smooth, but the design and finish of the smartphone leaves a lot to be desired. At the given price tag, I would pick the P9 instead. Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Price: Rs 56,900  Nimish reviewed the Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung’s current flagship until the Note 7 arrives in the market. And for the current year, it is the smartphone to beat. This can be attributed to a number of features including the powerful yet battery-friendly Exynos 8890 inside, the lighter Touch-Wiz software, a class-leading 12MP camera and that beautiful glass and metal body. From the camera, to software down to the fit and finish nothing comes to close to this beauty, except for the Note 7 (may be). Priced at a hefty Rs 56,990, it certainly beats the P9 in terms of looks and power and for now, even stands tall as the best camera around. Apple iPhone 6s Plus Price: approximately Rs 79,000, 64GB  The **Apple iPhone 6s Plus** is the only offering one can get when it comes to flagship iOS devices. It packs in the battery life to match the droids and is the only other model in Apple’s mobile devices lineup to feature an OIS-friendly camera apart from the iPhone 6 Plus. With ’s’ badge it also gets 3D Touch, a feature that Apple is expected to make the norm with iOS 10, which will be out in September. While the iPhone 6s Plus is almost a year old, it still holds its ground and provides a silky smooth iOS 9 experience. While the standard 6s does it better (thanks to the smaller display) it loses out on battery life and standby time. A big leap with 6s models launched last year, was the camera, which finally got bump up into the double digit space. The smartphone features a 12MP camera on the front and finally a decent 5MP front-facing camera which is a big upgrade since the past models. It takes the cake when it comes to 4K and Full HD (60fps) recording and frankly speaking few smartphones out there do it better. It’s a great combination of hardware and software, but that price tag even a year later, will give anyone a heart attack. You can check the image samples in our **full review** . OnePlus 3 Price: Rs 27,999  For once, OnePlus did not market its OnePlus 3 flagship with the usual “flagship killer” tag and things turned out to be pretty well. When it comes to a true all-rounder (including the price), the OnePlus 3 is the smartphone to beat. It has a capable camera, a Snapdragon 820 and heaps of RAM (6GB) combined with an almost stock version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Priced at Rs 27,999 it makes the Huawei P9 feel vulnerable and small. But its camera is certainly no match for double barreled P9. Xiaomi Mi 5 Price: Rs 24,999  Another smartphone coming from China, Xiaomi currently presents itself as a value for money offeing if you are looking for smartphone with a Snapdragon 820 chipset inside. You do however have to live with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage which is a bit limited, but it is what you get with the Rs 24,999 price tag. Indeed this is one smartphone that will find it tough to stand up against the P9 even with its powerful processor as the camera is a bit above average at best (same goes for the software as well) as seen in our full review .