Benchmark performance of the Huawei P8 Lite

For starters, let's take a look at raw computing performance, with the Vellamo suite and its Multicore and Metal tests.

The results are far from stellar, but the Huawei P8 Lite fares reasonably well, with 1538 points on the Multicore test and 1004 on the Metal test. Furthermore, comparing it to the competition at the same price point, the Chinese phone has excellent results. Many devices in the $170-$200 price range, like the ASUS Zenfone Max we reviewed, use the inferior Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset. The scores reflect the real-life performance, since we rarely saw any lag or slowdowns during our usage tests.

We had some problems when we tried to run the GFX Bench GL Benchmark suite. Most of the tests could not be completed, and the T-Rex offscreen test produced 308 frames, which is a rather poor result. Based on the graphics tests from other devices with the same chip, we think that the bugs are more likely caused a software optimization issue than a hardware fault. We hope that Huawei will address the issues in a software update.

The browser experience is good, with rare slowdowns, and the Explore test from the Vellamo suite confirms this, with a score of 1967.

Granted, it's not a top score, but for the price and considering the alternatives, the score is average. We tested the Chrome browser, although the phone comes with its own browser. We did this in order to have a better view of the performance level of the phone compared to the competition, rather than the performance of the browsers.

We also tested the network connection using Speedtest.net by Ookla. We tested both LTE (4G) and wireless connections (the latter with a 70 Mbps download / 20 Mbps upload internet connection). The results show an average level of performance using LTE (left) and a rather poor result with using WiFi (right).

Finally, we ran PCMark to see how much juice can the battery provide. The result was rather poor, 6h 38min.

The benchmarks showed mixed results. The computing power of the Huawei P8 Lite is above the average for this price point, but the device is let down by the graphics chip and the battery with a small capacity.

The smartphone experience on the Huawei P8 Lite

Now that we've seen the numbers, how do all these results translate into real-life usage? Well, during our tests, Huawei P8 Lite was responsive and we rarely experienced slowdowns. While the results for the graphics system were mediocre, we had no issue during playback of media files and during browsing. Playing graphics-intensive games is not a very good experience on the Huawei P8 Lite, but other than that, the smartphone behaved very well.

Telephony was good: signal reception is above average, the earpiece is loud and clear and the secondary microphone helps remove the background noise and improves the quality of the user's voice during calls. The speaker is surprisingly loud, although it lacks bass.

The earphones are loud but, not being a sealed in-ear solution, lack bass.

Subjectively, the screen is not particularly bright and you may have difficulties reading it in bright sunshine. Color reproduction is good and the images are reasonably sharp.

We feared that the battery would be too weak for the features this smartphone has, but our fears were only partly justified. The battery lasted between 16 and 30 hours on one charge, which is pretty much what you can expect from the average smartphone right now.

Of course, we can't compare it to the monster battery on the ASUS Zenfone Max, but although the results could have been better, the Huawei P8 Lite stamina is okay. Charging takes a bit over two hours (no quick charging is available for the P8 Lite).

The Huawei P8 Lite is easy to handle and the materials are not only good-looking, but also fingerprint-proof. Overall, we were satisfied with this smartphone, with only two exceptions. We found a pretty important bug with the unit that we reviewed: the phone would not, despite our best efforts, display any notification on the lock screen. If you need a quick fix, there are applications in the Google Play store which provide that function, but the integration with the phone theme is far from ideal. Since it's a software bug, it may or may not be present on your device, depending on the version of the UI, and will surely be fixed in a later software release. Also, we were not happy with the lack of an app drawer (apparently we're not the only ones ), but this issue can also be fixed by using a custom launcher application.

The camera experience on the Huawei P8 Lite

The 13 Megapixel camera of the Huawei P8 Lite is as average as the rest of the package. It has no optical image stabilization, but does have a dual-LED flash. The interface is simple, with few options easily accessible. You have the option to take a normal picture, a "beauty" picture (which softens the details), you can record a video or make a slow-motion clip. Additional shooting modes include HDR, panorama, all-focus and best photo. Settings are displayed by pressing the cog button: you can toggle geo-tagging, object tracking and smile detection, and also adjust ISO and white balance.

The pictures are reasonably sharp, with neutral colors and a higher-than-average amount of noise. There is no visible distortion or chromatic aberration, but the dynamic range is very limited. The HDR effect compensates for this and produces good results, without saturating the colors too much, as you can see in the example below.

The indoor pictures are still sharp, but color reproduction is a hit and miss affair. For dark subjects, the flash is advised, in order to get accurate colors. In the image below you can see the correct shade of pink (left image, flash on) and the color of the doll without flash (right image).

Despite the BSI sensor, which helps when there is not enough light, the night shots are not really usable for anything else than social media. Then again, there are very few phones that take half-decent night shots. Below you see the same scene from the first picture, but at night.

The Huawei P8 Lite makes beautiful Macro shots, as it is able to get very close to the subject. The quality is good when there is plenty of light.

The secondary camera, despite having 5 Megapixels, is not much good beyond the usual selfies. The option to "beautify" the selfies is a neat feature, perfect for the moments when your fans want to see you but you are having a bad acne day. As always, you can take a look at the full gallery to see the actual quality of the photos.

Videos are not great, with a bitrate of under 10 Mbps for 1080p resolution and a frame rate which varies quite a lot (between 23 and 30 fps). Here is a dynamic video, with lots of fast moving objects.

We also recorded a static video, and although the lighting was good, you can clearly see the lack of dynamic range of the camera.

The Huawei P8 Lite has an average main camera, with reasonably good photos but only mediocre video recording. The front-facing camera is also not something to write home about.

Pros and cons of the Huawei P8 Lite

Summarizing our findings, we liked the following:

• Excellent price
• Elegant design and good choice of colors and textures
• Small size and large screen
• Good CPU power
• No bloatware

However, there were also some things that we didn't like:

• Poor graphics performance
• Buggy software
• No app drawer

Many of the features of the Huawei P8 Lite were average, so we can't really put them in either of the categories above.

Verdict

The Huawei P8 Lite is a balanced option for the $170-200 price range. It has more processing power than the competition, a large screen, and an elegant design. It's perfect for users who are not willing to spend a fortune on their smartphone but still want decent performance. The small size may be appealing for users who dislike the "phablet" trend and want a smartphone which can fit in the front pocket. None of the Huawei P8 Lite's features are deal-breakers except maybe the poor graphics performance in games.