Huawei P9 Lite With 13-Megapixel Camera Goes Official

Huawei's third P9 variant, the P9 Lite, has finally been launched. As per a report, the P9 Lite has been officially launched in Germany at EUR 299 (approximately Rs. 22,500), and will go on sale in May.

The launch was reported by German website Teltarif. The Huawei P9 Lite comes with a lot of identical specifications as the original Huawei P9 though there are some differences as well. Much like the Huawei P9, the P9 Lite features a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display. The Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based Huawei P9 Lite runs Emotion 4.1 UI. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core (1.7GHz quad-core + 2GHz quad-core) Kirin 650 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. There is 16GB of storage which is expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB).

The P9 Lite does not bear the dual-rear camera setup of the Huawei P9 or P9 Plus, and instead sports a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. To recall, the 'dual-lens camera' by Huawei (https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/huawei-p9-p9-plus-launched-with-leica-made-dual-rear-cameras-price-specs-and-more-822626 ) in the P9 and P9 Plus sports two 12-megapixel sensors, with one capturing light in colour, and the other in monochrome. The dual-lens camera setup combined with contrast, depth, and laser autofocus systems is said to provide sharp, detailed shots in both good light and low light conditions. The dual lenses sport an f/2.2 aperture. Since the launch however, much controversy has arisen about the extend of Leica's involvement in the P9's camera, which it supposedly "co-engineered".

Much like the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus, the P9 Lite sport a fingerprint scanner at the back. The P9 Lite is backed by a 3000mAh battery, same as the Huawei P9. The smartphone supports LTE Cat. 6 and other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS, GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, and Micro-USB.

Unfortunately, there is no word whether the Huawei P9 Lite will be launched in more markets other than Europe.

Reacting to the above mentioned controversy about the P9's rear camera, Leica and Huawei have released a joint statement trying to put a stop to speculation. In the release, Huawei claimed that the camera module on the P9 series achieves great picture quality which is a result of collaboration between Huawei and Leica.

"Leica has been deeply involved in the development of the camera-module of the P9 and P9 Plus," noted the company in the release. The statement, while vague, may be the only official response we get about the origins of the rear cameras on the P9 and P9 Plus.