By 2017, nearly 80 percent of all photos will be taken using mobile phones. That’s one of the claims made at the Huawei Consumer Business Group 2016 Southern Pacific Conference held recently in Bali, Indonesia.

 

But isn’t it happening now, especially in the Philippines, where almost everyone posts photos on social media with a phone camera?

 

Problem is, the camera in so-called smartphones has limitations, especially in capturing images in motion or in low light conditions.

 

Huawei, a Chinese telecom equipment and services company, wanted to solve that problem. It poured in money—US$37 billion in the last 10 years—for research and development, including the improvement of the quality of its smartphone line.

 

The result is the P9—the latest in its award-winning “P” series—a handset that is said to “reinvent smartphone photography” because its camera, co-engineered with well-known German optics brand Leica, functions like a DSLR (digital single-reflex) camera, or the type used by professional photographers.

 

The P9 was launched at the Bali conference, attended by officials led by Huawei Southern Pacific Region (Consumer Business Group) president Peter Tong, and which culminated with media members having a hands-on feel of the phone, along with other Huawei products.

 

The engineers at Leica helped Huawei in producing the P9’s dual lens—an RGB sensor and a monochrome sensor. (RGB means red, green and blue light which, added together in various ways, reproduce a broad array of colors; monochrome is black and white.)

 

The P9’s dual 12-megapixel (MP) cameras allow the user to capture sharp, professional quality photos in all conditions, reproducing authentic colors in three modes: standard, vivid and smooth colors.

 

While other smartphone brands already have a black-and-white photo mode, the Huawei P9’s monochrome sensor is said to have more detail in its shots.

 

Fast focus

 

For selfies, the P9 has an 8MP auto-focus front camera with a wide aperture of F/1.9, which gives clear photos even in low light settings.

 

Another significant camera feature is the fast focus, which ensures blur-free photos that freeze the moment.

 

And something that would make anyone who doesn’t have a power bank glad: the P9 boasts a rapid charging time of 10 minutes.

 

At the launch, samples of photos taken with the P9 were on exhibit, such as a majestic shot of a castle in Mont Saint-Michel, France, taken by Vincent Mathieu; a pensive shot of a lonesome man crossing an old bridge in Yunnan, China, by Yinghao Zhu; and a dynamic shot of a street scene in Madrid, Spain, in black and white, by David Gutierrez.

 

The Huawei P9 is now available in the Philippines; visit huawei.com/ph/