Last year, Huawei launched three versions of its flagship P8 smartphone. There was the standard P8, the P8lite, and the P8max phablet. A new report says that Huawei is planning a multi-variant flagship lineup again in 2016, but this time there will be four versions.
Evan Blass reports that the Huawei P9 will be sold in four variants this year: the regular P9, a more affordable P9lite, a P9max, and a beefier P9. This fourth model will allegedly offer a display that’s “slightly larger” than the P9 as well as increased RAM and storage. The big differentiator between the P9 and its beefed up sibling, though, will allegedly be a dual rear camera setup with two 12-megapixel sensors.
If true, this upgraded P9 wouldn’t be the first Huawei phone to have two rear cameras. The Honor 6 Plus had two 8-megapixel rear cameras in 2014, and it used those photos to offer tricks like aperture adjustment and the ability to refocus a photo after its been taken. The beefier P9 is expected to offer similar capabilities as well as some new camera tricks.
Spec details for these new Huawei P9 variants are largely unknown, but it’s said that none of them will offer 2560x1440 resolution displays. As far as announcement timing goes, it’s expected that they’ll debut several weeks after MWC, which takes place at the end of February.
It seems like Huawei will try to make a P9 variant for everyone this year. The P9lite will be budget-focused, the P9max will be for phablet fans, the P9 will be the standard flagship, and the upgraded P9 will be for folks that want a step up option. The upgraded P9 sounds like the most interesting variant right now, what with its dual rear cameras and all. While Huawei has offered such a device before, the company has reportedly refined its dual camera feature set, so that should make the beefier P9 variant worth a look.
