BEAUTY IS SO MUCH MORE THAN SKIN DEEP

Huawei is a premiere phone brand.

Trouble is, even now, especially in New Zealand, not everybody knows it.

That could be about to change, because if the latest Huawei offering isn't the best phone of 2017, it's certainly in the top three.

One thing's for sure, the Mate 10 Pro is definitely the prettiest phone I've seen this year.

Usually I'll go for the tried and true (and admittedly, boring) black when it comes to handset colour. I feel like white has done its dash and I know it's sexist to say, but gold is just too girly for me. (By that I mean, as a mere male, I don't deserve nice things like gold)

Silver is functional, but industrial and while some phones have had other brightly coloured variants, if they're too garish, the whole operation starts looking a bit cheap. Don't ask my why, it's just the way it is.

I'll stretch to a very dark blue if I have to and in a perfect world, my phone would come in metallic blood red.

Meanwhile, the mocha of Huawei's Mate 10 Pro will do me just fine. It's a luxury colour. Soft, but sophisticated. More subtle than gold... almost an antique look to it. Mocha is classy - which is appropriate, because everything about the Mate 10 Pro is classy.

For the first time, Huawei has wrapped the whole device in glass, front and back, which gives it the premium feel we've come to expect from high end products by other manufacturers.

The rear dual-lens camera is set in a contrasting stripe (I think of it as a racing stripe) and I wonder if this is inspired by Huawei's recent partnership with the Porsche design team.

The impressive 6 inch display curves slightly at the edges, combining ergonomically with the arc of the back panel to ensure this phone is not at all slippery to hold. Rather, it's silky smooth and comfortable in the hand.

One handed operation is surprisingly doable for a handset with such a large screen. This is partly due to the edge-to-edge nature of that display, which allows the Mate 10 Pro to be significantly smaller overall than 2016's Mate 9 - even though last year's screen wasn't as big.

The other one-handed feature is the fingerprint sensor, ready and waiting for your forefinger in the centre of the back panel. You know... where your forefinger naturally sits. It's even slightly recessed to make it impossible not to find. It's lightning quick, unlocking and opening the phone to the last used screen instantly.

In fact, everything about the Mate 10 Pro is lightning quick. If you thought the Kirin 960 chip in the Mate 9 and P10 had things humming, the Mate 10's Kirin 970 is yet another leap forward. Huawei has spent millions on R & D to develop an Artificially Intelligent phone brain that is truly next level.

Much of this AI functionality has been directed to the cameras. On the back, one Leica lens is 20MP monochrome, while the other is a 12MP wide-aperture Leica to let in the most light possible. Not only does this mean a range of on-trend "bokeh-style" dual focus effects, but with the widest aperture lens on the market, low light shots are no longer hit and miss.

But back to the Mate 10 Pro's massive brain.

Since becoming one of the first phone makers to incorporate dual-lens technology into its handsets, Huawei has offered the potential to snap photos of the highest quality - if you knew what you were doing. Often I found I had to play around with the expert settings (which to be fair, have always been just a swipe away) to get my shot just right.

Now the Mate 10 Pro literally does my thinking for me. This new age of photographic A.I. means the phone already recognises millions of images and keeps learning on the job. So point the camera at your dinner, a little knife and fork symbol appears and the shot becomes instantly Instagrammable. Frame up a pretty tree and the flower symbol comes on, ensuring those blossoms look prettier still. Portraits are recognised straight away - group or solo. These cameras really are the final word in point and shoot.

Oh, and there's a neat trick; The 3D panorama shot which renders a VR style picture you can pan around by swiping or just by moving the phone. You can also use this effect shooting around your subject, resulting in a portrait you can see all sides of.

This is quite simply the most user-friendly and fully-featured camera configuration I've encountered to date.

With 128GB of on-board storage, you'll have plenty of room to store your nice new pics too.

Of course, all that processing power pays off with the rest of the Mate 10 Pro's operation. Whether it's the downloading and installation of apps, streaming, browsing or multi-tasking all those things, you just can't slow this beautiful beast down.

Especially given its massive battery, at 4000mAh, surely one of the biggest on the market. Fully charged, you'll easily pump through a full day, if not two depending on your binge-watching habits. Sometimes a high-capacity battery means an inconveniently long charging time. Not the case with the Mate 10 Pro - it comes with what Huawei calls a "Supercharger" and yes, it is very quick. Sadly, still no wireless charging from Huawei. Maybe next year.

Another unique feature offered by the Mate 10 series is Desktop Mode - simply plug into any screen with an HDMI port and you've converted your phone into an ultra-portable PC, no dock required.

Nobody's perfect, and while some features of the Mate 10 Pro come close, one or two fall shorter than I would have expected. The Mate 10 Pro carries an IP67 dust and water resistance rating, certainly better than nothing, but not fully submergible like some of its IP68 competitors.

The Mate 10 Pro is also part of the new phone breed to spurn its headphone socket, you'll have to use the earbuds with the USB-C connection included in the box or buy an adapter. I use bluetooth earbuds so this didn't bother me in the slightest.

Perhaps most significantly of all, (if you're a geek like me) the Mate 10 Pro is built on Android 8.0 (Oreo), the first such device widely available in New Zealand. This means a noticeably improved settings interface with many more customisation options. Combined with Huawei's latest EMUI operating system, I finally have almost all the features I demand from a large-screen device. Why don't all smart phones offer a home screen that will rotate to landscape? Or side-by-side email display?

Because there aren't any phones that can do all the things the Mate 10 Pro can do.

That's why it makes my top three phones of the year... and at $1299 it's actually several hundred dollars cheaper than the other two.


Click here for more information and pricing on the Huawei Mate 10 Pro

WHAT MORE DO YOU REALLY NEED?

How do you make a budget phone?

Do you start with an empty slate and fill it up till you've met your price point?

Or do you start with your premium device and strip features off it until it's affordable?

Whichever way they did it, I'm here to tell you, Huawei have come up with a damn fine phone for $249...

There's a lot the Huawei Y7 doesn't do.

There's no fingerprint sensor. It doesn't charge wirelessly. In fact, it still uses a microUSB not USB-Type C. (how quaint)

There's no second screen on the back. It isn't waterproof.

As for the camera, well... Given Huawei was one of the dual-lens pioneers and has been producing handsets with amazingly high-specced cameras for years now, the lack of performance from the camera on the Y7 is surprising to say the least. For starters, the rear-facing camera is only single-lens and while it can shoot up to 12MP, I found the results merely average. Picture quality was adequate in good light conditions, but after dark things get a bit ropey. It's by no means the worst camera on a phone right now, but if photography's your passion, this is not the one for you.

So is the Y7 so bad, it's not even worth $249?

No.

In fact, I reckon you could pay three times that and you'd still be happy with the Y7's performance.

All the limitations I've just listed are really just optional extras that haven't been added on. When it comes to the way this phone actually runs, it purrs like a sports car.

As I always do, I used the Y7 as my personal phone, attempting to all the things I normally would with my phone every day. Usually with a device in this price range, I can't wait to get back to my go-to handset, frustrated by a lack of power and various shortcomings when it comes to what the phone is capable of, under the hood.

By stark contrast, the Y7 was a genuine pleasure. Somehow Huawei keeps managing to get more than seems technically possible out of the processors they install in their handsets. The Y7 isn't even equipped with the famed Kirin chip you'll find in Huawei's premiere devices. Instead, the more commonplace Qualcomm Snapdragon brain is running things here, but it's doing a stellar job.

Whether connecting to bluetooth and WiFi accessories or streaming video, there really doesn't seem to be any task too taxing for the Y7. I really think this may be the most powerful phone I've encountered in this price bracket.

Appearance-wise, the Y7 may not win first prize in a handset beauty pageant, but its metal casing, while slightly industrial, certainly lends itself to a solid, dependable feel.

The 5.5inch display is another plus-sized feature included for not much money. That's plenty of on-screen real estate for pretty much whatever you want to watch - and like Huawei's other 2017 handsets, you can run the Y7 in Te Reo if you prefer.

The other major feature is the massive 4000mAh battery. Again, this kind of battery life is something you hardly ever find below the $700 line, let alone below $250.

The only limitation that really bothers me is the Y7's lack of internal storage. 16GB is simply not enough these days. Sure you can easily store your music, video and pics on a microSD, but there are certain fundamental apps that run better when installed internally, and by the time you take away the space required by the operating system and other pre-installed software, you're not left with much room to move.

In saying that, I filled the memory up pretty chocka and things still kept ticking along smoothly, so perhaps adding in that microSD might be all you need to convince yourself the Y7 is a thousand dollars better than you paid for it.

Ask yourself, do you need a great camera? Do you have to have the prettiest phone on the table? If your answers are "no" and "no" give the Huawei Y7 a go.


Click here for more information and pricing on the Huawei Y7

THE PEAK PHONE DEBATE

What more could we possibly ask for?

How good do these phones need to get before we're satisfied?

For some time now, we've been offered features and functions we hadn't even thought of, let alone demanded.

Turns out, there's always something better and besides, after a firey 2016, Samsung is still on the road to redemption...

Without dwelling on the disastrously flammable fate of last year's Galaxy Note7, there's no escaping the fact Samsung has taken a bold step continuing with the Note brand at all. It's a testament to the devotion of Note users that many of them have simply waited all this time to upgrade their existing phablet.

This means they could still be using the Note5, released this time in 2015 and will be itching to get their hands on some of the developments Samsung have offered over the last 2 years.

Of course, the Note5 was (and probably still is) a fantastic phone. Big screen, curvy back, fast processor, fingerprint sensor - even wireless charging. (That's right, you iPhone addicts - Samsung has literally been doing it wirelessly for years)

The Note5 introduced the clickable S Pen too, a stylus that actually feels like a pen, with a lot more functionality.

Probably the best phone of 2015 by quite some margin. So if you're still using one today, you'll be feeling pretty smug about the fact other manufacturers are only now starting to successfully copy some of those features.

There wasn't a Note6. In order to sync up with the Galaxy S releases, 2016 meant the Note7 instead. As we now know, too hot to handle.

So how far has the Note come since August 2015?

I was a little surprised the first time I encountered the Note8 at its lack of curviness. For some time now, Samsung handsets have been whittling away the edges both front and back, pioneering the now famous no-bezel appearance. While the Note8's display does still reach right to the edge, there is now a noticeable ridge between the screen, the frame and the glass back. I believe this is supposed to make the phone easier to hold, but for me, it just makes it more uncomfortable and less sexy to look at.

In fact, due to its sheer size and weight, I initially felt as though this is probably the hardest-to-hold phone I've ever tried to get a grip on.

But, as is often the case, first impressions can be deceiving.

While both the Notes 5 and 7 featured 5.7" screens, the Note8 clocks up a mighty 6.3 inches. I assumed this would make it impossible to fit in my pocket but like the S8 and S8+ from earlier this year, the screen is much longer (or wider, depending on which way you're holding it) due to the 18.5:9 aspect ratio. In other words, the Note8 isn't fat, just tall.

So while the glassy finish and sharp edges make it slippery, at least it's still narrow enough to wrap one hand around.

What keeps the Note8 looking better than many other phones in its class (not that many are in its class) is the fact the dual-lens rear camera now fits completely flush with the back of the handset, making it less prone to dirt and scratches. Although some people lost their minds when Samsung moved the fingerprint sensor from front to back on this year's S8s - it's still there, thankfully, as it's the obvious place for a finger to go when you're holding a phone this big in one hand. In response to the moaners who were too uncoordinated to keep their fingers off the camera lens, Samsung have moved the sensor slightly further away by placing the flash in between.

The other important physical feature of any Note, is of course, the on-board S Pen. Still the most versatile stylus available, you can draw, write, highlight, select, drag and drop more effectively than ever. There's something tactile about clicking the S Pen out of its slot to make a quick note - even when the screen's off. This season's S Pen can help you translate whole passages of text with one easy selection. There's also a fun feature called Live Message, which creates an animated Gif of your hand-written note you can then send to someone else. Very bespoke.

I could rabbit on at length about the speed and reliability of the Note8, but the sad fact is, I take all that stuff for granted now. Samsung have been making amazing devices for a long time and I've been using them for so long that it's only when I'm reviewing another brand I appreciate just how well every part of a high-end Samsung works. In saying that, the processing power of 6GB is not to be sneezed at, but that's the sort of grunt you need for the top-level dual-lens photography on offer, not to mention the Note8's multi-tasking abilities, now enhanced by a new Edge Panel feature that allows you to open two apps with one swipe.

In fact, I used to find the Edge Panel used to be a bit of a gimmick but it's now been refined to be genuinely useful, accessible even from a locked screen if you like.  Your calendar, favourite apps and contacts are now only a swipe away.

I remain less convinced about the practicality of Samsung's virtual assistant, Bixby. Like the S8s, there's a dedicated Bixby button on the Note8, with more and more Bixby functions being introduced all the time. I'm not really sure why we need Bixby when all Android phones offer Google Now already. In saying that, I have definitely made use of some Bixby features, especially converting images to text (like a scanner). This is one trick Bixby performs really well.

I was surprised by the sound quality offered by the Note8. Strangely, still no stereo speakers here but in terms of sheer volume, I was impressed. What's more, the latest bluetooth connectivity seems more reliable and powerful than ever. Me likey.

There are so many other features that make this a great phone, but as I've already said, you'll find most of them on previous Samsung devices. Fast, wireless charging, water resistant, amazing battery life, user-friendly yet high quality cameras, brilliant accessories... it's all there.

As for the exploding elephant in the room, I have talked to the Samsung people personally and they have convinced me their new safety and quality control regime is rigorous and includes independent checks to ensure these phones keep their cool. Given the success of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, it looks like they're on the right track.

At $1599, the Note8 had better be the coolest phone you've ever experienced. It probably is. 

What's more, if you're still using that Note5 from 2015, definitely time for an upgrade.


Click here for more information about the Samsung Galaxy Note8

BEST CAMERA FOR THE COST

I don't do selfies.

The last thing I want to see online is an image of me.

As result, I've never really made camera quality a priority when it comes to choosing a smart phone.

But some things are just too good to ignore...

There's a reason Oppo labels its handsets "camera phones." As far as sheer megapixel power goes, I'm not aware of another phone that matches up to the Oppo R11.

Not only does the R11 boast the same dual-lens configuration you'll find with the rear facing cameras on the latest top-of-the-line models from Samsung and Apple, the lenses on this Oppo device are even higher specced - at a whopping 20 and 16MP.

What's more, the forward-facing (selfie) camera is also 20MP.

This adds up to an insane amount of photographic fire-power, especially when this phone is literally less than half the price of some of those other handsets.

Of course, none of this cool camera craziness means anything if the rest of the phone doesn't match up. Well I'm here to tell you, given Oppo only arrived in New Zealand earlier this year, now they've definitely moved in for good.

From the moment you pick the R11 up, you can't help but be impressed. It's ultra-light and super-slim, but the metal casing means the phone feels sturdy, not flimsy.

The best, most unique physical feature of the R11 is its natural curve - the rounded back fits into your palm snugly like a phone-shaped glove. Those aforementioned dual-lenses are the only slight blemish here; because the camera is so grunty, it's too large to fit seamlessly into the casing so has a slightly raised edge. This isn't really a negative I suppose, more a feature of this phone's stunning design.

Some people have compared this device's appearance to the latest iPhone, but that's a bit unfair... to the iPhone. The R11 is much better looking, with none of the square, boxy edges you'll find on the Apple device. Everything about the Oppo is bevelled, rounded and curved - even the dual-antenna strip looks more like a racing-stripe than something functional.

Under the hood, the pleasant surprises keep coming. The Qualcomm SDM660 processor provides enough brainpower to push things along at a reasonable pace. 4GB of ram is sufficient to multi-window two apps at once, making use of the R11's ample 5.5inch screen space. 64GB of internal storage seems to be the standard with top-end phones these days, but there's an SD slot to expand this if you need to. However, you may choose to use that slot for a second sim card. The R11's dual sim functionality is easy to access and means you can take full advantage of different plans, or keep work and private phone use separate, in a single handset.

Till now, I haven't been a fan of Oppo's own operating system, ColorOS which is built over the top of the more flexible Android foundation. On the R11 version though, there's a lot more functionality, with a new settings shortcut window you can pull up from the bottom of the screen, giving you instant access to functions like Do Not Disturb which were hard to find on previous iterations.

Still no app drawer though, so you'll be stuck with as many home screens as it takes to fit all your apps on.

The fingerprint sensor (under the home key) isn't just fast, it's lightning. I don't know how Oppo does this, but I'm glad they do.

The 3000mAh battery, while not the biggest available, might well be one of the fastest-charging, thanks to Oppo's VOOC "flash-charging" system which means even if you're starting to run low, plugging in for as little as five minutes can buy you another 2 hours talk time. Oddly, Oppo's still using microUSB rather than the more versatile USB-C connection. That said, I now have so many phone cords and adapters floating around my house this kind of thing makes little difference these days.

But we really have to finish where we started. The cameras are genuinely impressive - even for a guy like me who isn't usually that impressed by cameras. You can choose either the telephoto or wide-angle lens on the back, or do what I usually do and leave it to the phone to decide. The much hyped "bokeh" or blurred-background effect is so easy to achieve with the R11, I used it on everything, making me feel like a real artist.

The selfie camera isn't just high-res, it's packed with more options than a Subway sandwich with everything on it. You can take pics by waving your hand at the phone - ideal for group shots on the end of a selfie-stick. The camera will automatically optimise the shot if there's two of you in it instead of one. But my favourite has to be the filters - not just available for stills but for video too. My Insta feed never looked so nostalgic.

All of this sounds like premium stuff and it really is. From the way it looks, the way it feels to the way it performs and of course, the R11's stunning photos, this is the most fun I've had with a phone for a while. For under $770, it's hard to justify buying anything else.


Click here for more information on the Oppo R11

A PHONE OF TWO HALVES

For too long New Zealand telcos have kept us chained down when it comes to using different sims in different devices.

In fact, it's a pretty clear example of the bad stuff that can happen when there's not enough genuine competition in a given market. While mobile customers in other countries have easy access to dual sim devices and standalone sim devices like smartwatches that can connect to mobile networks independently, we've been left out in the cold.

Oppo has now changed all that.

The 5.5inch A77 (and the slightly smaller 5.2inch A57) feature the first genuine dual-sim slots I've seen available on the New Zealand market. A few other handsets (generally only available from 3rd party retailers) have had the option of inserting a second sim in the microSD slot, but that's stupid because then you can't use an SD card as well.

So why do you need two sims in one phone and why do telcos not like it?

The answer is basically freedom.

Different phone companies offer different plans and rates. Data, texts, calls - depending on who you're connecting with and when, you may want to take advantage of more than one plan at a time. Dual-sim capability lets you do that.

Perhaps more importantly, if your company provides you with a phone, chances are they have some fairly clear restrictions on how much data and call time you're allowed for personal use - but obviously carrying two phones around would be a major pain in the bum. The Oppo A77's dual-sim slot means you're using two phones in one.

Of course, none of that matters if the phone isn't any good. Luckily, the A77 is good. Very good.

To begin with, this phone really is one of the classiest looking phones around. Available in black or gold, the metal body is extremely slim and in spite of the large 3200mHa battery and ample 5.5inch display, the A77 feels remarkably light in your hand.

There's a fingerprint sensor under the home key (not a physical button, just looks like one). This is one of the fastest I have used so far. Speaking of speed, the A77 is actually pleasantly quick - as it should be with its 4GB of RAM and 64-bit octa-core processor. These are all very high-end numbers but the A77 comes at a decidedly mid-range price.

Right now it's retailing at just $529 and given it's power, camera quality and large 64GB of built-in storage you really are getting bang for buck.

My only major issue with the A77 is Oppo's operating system, ColorOS 3.0. Many phone makers insist on forcing their own look on top of the base Android configuration and this can often make things overly complicated and you can be left to deal with a lot of unnecessary features and unwanted bloatware.

ColorOS 3.0 is kind of the opposite of that. Oppo describes the experience as being, "smooth, steady and lightweight." I totally agree, but while I'm a fan of smooth and steady, lightweight isn't necessarily what I'm looking for, especially when it comes to customisation settings.

While there is a theme store app available, there's very little you can do to change the home-screen layout. Other than any widgets you may use, you're stuck with as many screens of icons as you have apps, iPhone style. No app drawer, and also very limited when it comes to changing up the lock screen and navigation button layout. Accessing features like Do Not Disturb is a cumbersome, multi-step process and unlike most other Android phones, there's no option to search the settings menu for keywords which I definitely missed.

However, that really is the only bad word I have to say about the Oppo A77. I found the battery life to be excellent (as it should be at such a large size) and it performs well when it comes to connectivity, multi-tasking and streaming.

There's no question this is a top quality phone given its mid-range price tag. If you're looking for genuine dual-sim capability, the A77 should be your first stop.


Click here for more information on the Oppo A77

VODAFONE COMES TO THE RESCUE... AGAIN

There's nothing like owning a high-end smart phone with all the bells and whistles.

Ah, the sheer luxury of taking your phone swimming after charging it wirelessly in under 10 minutes.

In saying that, perhaps $1400 is too much to spend on something that can fall out of your pocket on a bus...

We’re at that point in history where technology has advanced faster than we have. Sure we can now buy a phone that slots into a VR headset so we can pretend we’re walking on Mars, but weirdly, not everybody wants to do that.

Even more weirdly, lots of people just use their phones for calling, texting, taking pictures and monitoring their social media feeds.

For these people, a $1400 fast-charging, underwater phone may be overkill.

By the same token, you still want your phone to do that talkie-texty-photo-emaily-social thing as well as you possibly can.

So Vodafone went straight to the Germans.

The German-designed 5” Smart N8 and 5.5” Smart V8 handsets are both very attractive phones as phones go. The V8 is slim, comfortable to hold and has a cool metal feel. As a matter of fact, it has a cool metal look too – it’s only available in a colour called “Cool Metal.” It also appears to be constructed of some kind of cool metal.

By contrast, the N8’s rear casing is plastic but is available in both graphite and gold. Just because the casing is plastic, doesn’t mean it feels cheap. It’s textured and the phone is still solid to the touch.

The other first-class feature you’ll find on both these phones is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, situated in my favourite position, right in the centre, just below the rear camera lens. Other manufacturers keep changing their mind on where to put the fingerprint sensor, but the centre-back position makes most sense to me because that’s where your fingertip naturally goes when you’re holding your phone with one hand. I found the sensors worked very efficiently on both phones, unlocking them straight to the home screen.

Interestingly, both phones boast the latest version of Android straight out of the box, with virtually no bloatware. This is good news for people who’ve been frustrated by other phone-makers’ operating systems installed over the top of the one that works perfectly well already.

As for how well these two phones actually run that operating system, this is where the similarities start to end.

The Smart V8 is packed with a lot more processing power and storage space than the N8. In fact, with 3GB of ram and 32GB built-in storage, the V8 purrs along very reliably and smoothly, genuinely on a par with many other high-end phones from other brands. It will run multiple apps simultaneously and has excellent battery life.

When it came to multitasking, the less powerful Smart N8 came up pretty short. Streaming to other displays, screen mirroring, running multiple Bluetooth devices at once, all these activities tended to max out the N8’s processing power, sometimes even requiring a reboot to carry on.

Meanwhile, the appropriately named V8 just kept on trucking.

My other big concern around the N8 is limited storage. 16GB just isn’t enough these days. Yes, you can expand storage via a microSD slot on both handsets. Trouble is, while the V8 features the (now standard) pop-out sim/SD drawer on the side, on the N8 you have to remove the back entirely to access the separate sim and SD slots. Let’s be honest, that’s a major pain.

Camera quality may also be a deciding factor between these two phones. While both run the same camera app, the slightly more limited hardware on the N8 resulted in quite a few blurry snaps. Again, the V8’s pics were much more satisfactory.

None of this means you should write the Smart N8 off as an option and here’s why; $199. If you’re only doing one thing at a time with your phone, you’d struggle to find one this good-looking, with a fingerprint sensor, that works this well for this price.

One "but" though…

Can’t you find another $150? Because the Smart V8 isn’t just $150 better than the N8. I’d say it’s at least $500 better. If you’ve ever regretted buying a budget handset because you ran out of space after a month or it couldn’t run the games your friends were playing on their phones, the Smart V8 is incredible value at just $349.

You can’t use it in the pool, but it really doesn’t have too many other limitations.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Vodafone Smart V8

Or...

Click here for more information and pricing on the Vodafone Smart N8

WHY BIGGER ACTUALLY MEANS BETTER

Plus.

You have to have a Plus model these days. The question is, does that just mean a bigger screen, or have other features been plussed too?...

The Huawei P10 Plus features a 5.5 inch display, which by today's standards, is not massively plussy. The standard P10 is 5.1 inches, so is 0.4 of an inch enough to justify an extra 200 bucks? Actually, for a lot of people it probably is. 

Don't get me wrong, the P10 is a truly excellent phone, powerful, fast, amazing camera, plenty of storage. It's just...

Little.

And to be honest, right at this point in time, people seem to prefer something with... girth.

So choose the P10 Plus and girth you get. Yet surprisingly light and extremely thin. This means even though it's a genuinely large phone, it'll still slide into a front pocket without too much difficulty - even if you're using the clear case included in in the box.

I won't get too bogged down (or blogged down) with the finer details involved with the operation of the P10 Plus, because in most respects, it really does work the same way as the Huawei P10. It has the same home key/fingerprint sensor setup and the same volume key and power button configuration on the right-hand side. 

It's really important you should know the power key on the P10 Plus is also red. Just as cool.

So other than a bigger screen, is there anything else for your extra two-hundie?

Well hang on a minute, because the screen isn't just bigger - it's better. 

Another high-profile phone to hit the market recently also offers a plus-size option, but while that screen is bigger, there are no more pixels so the picture quality certainly isn't any better. Not so with the Huawei P10 Plus. Here you jump from the P10's 1920 X 1080 display, with 432 PPI, to a significantly higher 2560 X 1440 screen which squeezes 540 pixels into that same square-inch. Admittedly, there are a lot of numbers there but you can definitely see a difference when you compare the two displays side by side.

The other major gain is the main camera's wider aperture. The dual-lens Leica on the smaller P10 was already pretty stunning, definitely among the top phone cameras on the market. The P10 Plus goes even further with noticeable advances in low-light shooting.

Whether you choose HDR mode (easily accessible with a swipe to the right) or you use Huawei's unique trick of the "Always-On" flash, those indoor, nighttime shots are now magical works of art instead of noisy, blurry mistakes, waiting to be deleted.

If you've ever missed that crucial blowing-out-the-candles moment because your phone was blinded by the candles and you couldn't see any cake, let alone the birthday blower, the P10 Plus captures everything in 20MP clarity.

So let's say that bigger, better screen is worth an extra $75 and the cooler camera another $75, is there something else about the P10 Plus that can convince you to part with $50 dollars more for the step up?

I believe battery-life is the answer.

A larger phone invariably means more space for a bigger battery. Yes a wider, taller screen takes more power to run, but while the P10 had me a little nervous about how much charge was left by the end of the day, the P10 Plus absolutely cruises through, with plenty of juice to spare.

Again, like the P10, the Plus fast charges and Huawei makes a big deal about the multiple layers of built-in protection against any potential overheating or overcharging issues.

So there's my 3-part $200 argument in a nutshell; bigger screen, specced-up camera, longer battery life.

If you're spending a thousand dollars on a phone you may as well go the whole hog and the Huawei P10 Plus still works out significantly cheaper than some of the other "Plusses" out there.


Click here for more information on the Huawei P10 Plus