Huawei today launched the Huawei P8 Lite 2017, an upgraded variant of its namesake predecessor which, despite a low price tag, failed to impress.
Huawei P8 Lite costs marginally higher than its predecessor but brings in several spec upgrades and new features.
With the new P8 Lite 2017, Huawei has more or less covered every disadvantage that its predecessor suffered from, especially low processing power, poor battery life, lack of a fingerprint sensor or low memory. The new phone is slightly larger, wider and offers significant performance improvements over its namesake.
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The new P8 Lite 2017 comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD 2.5D IPS display with rounded edges, an much-improved Kirin 655 processor featuring four 2.1GHz A53 cores and four 1.7GHz A53 cores, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a fingerprint scanner, a 3,000 mAh battery, 12-MP and 8-MP cameras and the latest Android 7.0 Nougat OS with Huawei's Emotion UI interface.
The processing power of the Kirin 655 is twice that of the Kirin 620 chip which powered the earlier Huawei P8 Lite. While an increased 3GB of RAM compared to 2GB in the latter will support multi-tasking and gaming, Huawei has stuck with 16GB of base storage, out of which around 10GB will be available to users to save their files and media. At the same time, Huawei have increased the MicroSD slot capacity from 128GB to 256GB, thus allowing users to save a lot more data than they could in the older phone.
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Another significant upgrade in the new phone is battery life. While a 3,000 mAh battery isn't too impressive compared to batteries in other modern devices, it is significant compared to a 2,200 mAh one in the older P8 Lite. According to Huawei, the new battery will support 15 hours of video playback, 36 hours of phone calls, 11 hours of 4G navigation and 93 hours of music. On a single charge, the phone can survive for as long as 1.7 days on an average.
The new Huawei P8 Lite will also be the first Huawei phone in a while to not feature a dual rear camera setup. The single 12-MP rear cam comes with large 1.25μm pixels and PDAF and can capture brighter images in low light conditions. The 8-MP front cam features a f/2.0 aperture and is capable of automatic recognition of faces and photography modes.
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UK network Vodafone will stock the Huawei P8 Lite exclusively from 1st February and will offer the phone on PAYG and Pay Monthly deals starting from £16 per month. On PAYG, the phone will retail for £185 at retail stores and Vodafone online from 1st February.
Here's a detailed spec-wise comparison of the old and new Huawei P8 Lite models:
| Specifications | Huawei P8 Lite 2015 | Huawei P8 Lite 2017 |
| Price | £159.99 | £185 |
| Operating System | Android 5.1 Lollipop | Android 7.0 Nougat |
| Dimensions | 143 x 70.6 x 7.7mm | 147.2 x 73 x 7.63mm |
| Weight | 131g | 147g |
| Resolution | 720 x 1280p; 294 ppi | 1920 x 1080p |
| Display | 5-inch IPS LCD | 5.2-inch IPS 2.5D |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz Kirin 620 octa-core | 2.4GHz Kirin 655 octa-core |
| Rear camera | 13-MP with OIS and f/1.7 | 12-MP, 1.25μm pixels and PDAF |
| Front camera | 5-MP | 8-MP |
| Storage | 16GB; 128GB MicroSD | 16GB; 256GB MicroSD |
| RAM | 2GB | 3GB |
| Battery | 2,200 mAh | 3,000 mAh |
| Fingerprint sensor | No | Yes |