We go hands-on with the P8 Lite!

Along with the flagship P8, Huawei also unveiled their sleek new mid-range smartphone yesterday. The P8 Lite takes several design cues from its bigger (and more expensive) brother, but gets a few downgrades to make the phone more affordable.

Huawei P8 Lite

• 1.2GHz Kirin 620 octa-core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD display, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD
• 13-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera
• 3G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, NFC
• Android 5.0 Lollipo, EMUI
• 2,200mAh battery

Initial Impressions: Has the style of the P8, but none of its brawn

We’re usually wary of phones that have either Mini or Lite appended to their name as that’s usually a tell-tale sign of a gimped flagship. While that’s partly true with the P8 Lite, Huawei has managed to strike a nice balance between create a cheaper, more affordable version of their flagship without completely erasing the flagship’s design identity. The P8 Lite has many of the P8’s design cues, though the phone is now made out of plastic and not metal.

The P8 Lite still uses a sealed back, and is styled much in the same way as its bigger brother. There’s a mettalic trim running along the sides of the phone in an attempt to make the phone seem more premium than it actually is. Aside from the plastic body, Huawei has also dropped the full HD 5.2-inch display in favor of a smaller, 5-inch HD display.

The P8 Lite also sports a lower-tier Kirin 620 processor instead of the scorching fast Kirin 930 that’s on its bigger brother. That’s paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. While the P8 Lite isn’t going to set any speed records anytime soon, its performance is on par with the Honor 4X that we reviewed a few days ago. The P8 Lite is essentially a prettier, nicer looking Honor 4X.

Priced at SGD 329 or Php 10.8K, the P8 Lite isn’t a bad little device for people looking for a solid mid-range device. If Huawei can manage to price the P8 Lite a little lower for the PH market, then people looking for a stylish, relatively powerful mid-range Android phone may just have found their next device.