Just under two weeks ago, we attended Huawei’s launch event for the P9 and P9 Plus. Unusually, the company didn’t use the event to show off the entire P9 range which will eventually make it to market this year. While we’re fairly certain there will be a ‘Lite’ version of the P9 (and maybe a Max too), Huawei kept quiet on those. Fortunately, it seems retailers are planning for their arrival anyway. Romanian retail site, Cel.ro had the P9 Lite listed in three different colors and priced at 1209 Romanian Leu, or around $305.
Although the original store listings have since been taken down, the pricing seems just about right to us, given the Huawei P9’s starting price of £449 GBP ($637). While the prices don’t translate well as affordable when converted directly to USD, it’s worth nothing that EU prices rarely do, and that they include sales taxes (usually around 20%). Despite that, the Huawei P9’s rumored spec list makes for good reading, even if the device is slightly underpowered compared to the flagship P9.
Like the P9, the P9 Lite will allegedly feature a 5.2-inch full HD display, but will be powered by a mid-tier Kirin 650 processor, rather than the Kirin 955 found inside the high-end model. Huawei is expected to place 2GB RAM and 16GB along with this chip as well as a 3,000mAh battery. There’s also a 13MP single camera on the back, 8MP front facing camera plus the option to expand storage via MicroSD by up to 128GB. It will run Android 6.0 with Huawei’s EMUI on top.
On an equally speculative note, perhaps the biggest reason we didn’t see the Huawei P9 Lite at the launch event was down to Huawei’s partnership with LEICA. It was clear throughout the launch that LEICA wanted a huge amount of focus placed on its camera technology. Given the fact that the P9 Lite is likely to feature a standard, single 13MP camera with non-LEICA optics, it wasn’t mentioned during the event and will, instead, get a quiet retail launch with little fanfare.
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