Huawei to go
The P-Smart has a great screen and good camera – making it a good choice as a travel phone
Huawei P Smart From €229, consumer.huawei.com ★★★★
The smartphone market constantly ebbs and flows with technology and even fashion trends. One trend I don’t like, is the increasing price of flagship phones from top tier makers whereas one I do like, is the rapid increase in quality of the mid or budget range smartphones.
The P Smart falls right in to the budget batch of smartphone. However Huawei has tried to lift it above rival phones from Samsung and Moto with an array of higher end features at a price that doesn’t make you gasp.
Picking up the P Smart I was struck first by the huge screen. It’s a slim phone, at just 7.5 millimetres thick and pleasantly light but not flimsy and weighs 143 grams. The phone’s screen however, is a super-sized 5.65-inch panel. Given the trend now for the 18:9 aspect ratio this means you get a great big screen but it is easily held in one hand.
The screen can’t match the richness or range of high-end smartphones but it performs exceptionally well for a budget device. It’s an IPS LCD screen with resolution of 1080 x 2160 and it’s bright with good contrast and sharpness. There’s a colour temperature adjustment, so you can tune it a bit for your own taste.
Flip the phone over and you see the fingerprint sensor, which is great feature to find on a mid-range phone. It’s recessed, easy to find and unlocks the phone quickly. The back of the phone itself looks sleek and the aluminium body feels like it can resist knocks and everyday treatment, but it is not water resistant.
Also on the back is the dual camera set-up with 13MP and 2MP lenses as well as the camera flash. The camera performance is good, with low-light being the only fly in the ointment but daylight shots look great. In a phone that is certainly aimed at the selfie generation the P Smart has additional photo features like face detection and will do some face detection to make you look your best. The P Smart will run for well over a day on a full charge but
Pros: l Smart camera features l Great screen for the money Cons: l Interface still a little curious l No USB-C
curiously it has a micro-USB rather than a USB-C connection. With an increasing number of USB-C accessories and headphones being released this may date the phone in a year or two.
Its performance isn’t blistering
IT WILL RUN FOR WELL OVER A DAY ON A FULL CHARGE
but the Kirin 659 chip that powers this phone moves everything along at a good pace. There is 3GB of RAM and storage of 32GB is good but can be extended to 256GB.
Huawei have shaved away a little here and there to help get the phone down to this price. It may be primarily aimed at a younger, selfie-style audience but I think it could also be a wonderful travel phone for popping a SIM in to for the holidays.
A great screen, good performance and decent cameras combined with a budget price helps the P Smart to shine in the mid-range.