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Report: Huawei’s plans for 2016 include four P9 smartphone variants, one with unique dual-camera

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Huawei went from being relatively unknown to being one of the biggest smartphone makers in the world over the course of 2015. This was thanks to a strong portfolio of devices, ranging from low to high end in prices and performance.

While the Honor sub-brand sold like hotcakes in Europe, it was the P8 which really opened our eyes to how well this company could make smartphones. Writing for VentureBeat, well-known leaker Evan Blass claims the follow-up could come in four variants

According to a person “with knowledge of the company’s plans”, Huawei intends to launch four versions of its P9 flagship smartphone. Sadly, there are no in-depth specs shared in the post, although each of the four phones will have a unique selling point.

Blass claims we’ll see a regular Huawei P9, a more affordable P9 Lite, a P9 Max and a more feature-rich version of the P9 which will apparently have more RAM, more storage and a dual camera sensor. This dual camera will work in a similar way to the camera tech found on the back of the Honor 6 Plus which uses the secondary camera to offer post-capture refocussing, manual/virtual aperture control and live filters. It’s expected that Huawei will use these features, plus add more unique abilities in the ‘P9 Premium/Plus’.

Unusually, VentureBeat‘s source claims that the Nexus 6P will remain the only Huawei-made smartphone to have a QHD resolution display. It’s claimed that Huawei doesn’t feel the trade-off in battery performance is worth the slight visible improvement in image quality over a Full HD panel. All of the P9 range (and all other Huawei phones) will have a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080.

Huawei is expected to announce the P9 family at its own independent event a few weeks after MWC, which is due to kick-off on February 21st.

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