With last year's P8 Lite proving to be a success, Huawei has launched the P8 Lite 2017 that brings some welcome upgrades with it such as a bigger, higher resolution display, a higher capacity battery, more RAM and better cameras. The P8 Lite 2017 will also launch running Android 7.0 Nougat and EMUI 5.0 out of the box. Join us after the break for more details.
The P8 Lite 2017 features a polished glass exterior with 2.5D glass, and the fingerprint reader is, as is usual for Huawei/Honor handsets, placed on the rear panel below the camera lens. The volume and power buttons are situated on the right-hand-side, and the SIM tray is on the opposite side.
Last year's P8 Lite came with a 5-inch 720p display, but this year's iteration boasts a 5.2-inch IPS LCD panel with Full HD resolution. It's quite likely that its the same panel found on the Honor 8, which wouldn't be a bad thing.
Internally, the P8 Lite 2017 runs on the HiSilicon Kirin 655 Octa-core processor (16nm), with 3GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, as well as MicroSD card support via the Hybrid SIM tray that also offers Dual-SIM connectivity for two nano-SIMs. Being a Hybrid SIM tray, the user will have to choose whether they want to add extra storage or use dual SIMs.
On the rear of the phone is a single 12MP camera with PDAF (Phased-Detection-Auto-Focus), LED flash, and a f/2.2 aperture that Huawei says will allow for improved pictures in low-light conditions. The front camera has been boosted from 5MP to 8MP, and this should result in higher quality selfies. Being a Huawei handset, I'm sure there will be a few software features baked into the camera app that offer some glitzy options for selfie pictures.
Getting through the day should be a breeze with the P8 Lite 2017 sporting a 3,000mah battery, up from the previous model's 2,200mAh. Huawei claims that the handset will manage 1.7 days worth of use, with up to 36 hours of call time.
WiFi compatibility is limited to 802.11 b/g/n, while Bluetooth 4.1 included. It's unknown whether the P8 Lite 2017 supports NFC (Near-Field_Communications), but we have emailed Huawei to clarify and we'll update the article once it's confirmed one way or the other.
Huawei has announced that the P8 Lite 2017 will launch in the UK on February 1st, debuting on Vodafone in Black for £185 ($232) on PAYG, or for £16 monthly on contract. It's unknown as yet if the P8 Lite 2017 will launch in other regions in the coming months.
