Huawei P8

S21

The Huawei P8 is a flagship smartphone that costs less than you'd expect. We love its ultrathin metal design, its superb screen, its 8-core processor, top camera performance and decent battery life. Its only fault is the Huawei brand, so unless you're a brand snob, you'll find it to be a superb alternative!

Techweez | Emmanuel Chenze

To compete at the very top level, one has to bring their A-game. With the P8, Huawei did exactly that. Yes, even without the bells and whistles like fingerprint sensors and Quad HD displays.

AndroidPit | Robert Zak

Huawei did almost everything right with the P8: the processor is powerful, the price is reasonable, and most of the extra features are well-implemented and useful.

Android Authority | Lanh Nguyen

With its elegant design, fantastic camera, and smooth performance, Huawei checks all the right boxes with the P8, a device that can go toe to toe with the current crop of flagship smartphones.

NotebookCheck | Daniel Schmidt

The P8 is Huawei's best smartphone so far. Huawei can still improve a few things. Connectivity in particular lacks some features. The performance does not really remind us of a high-end smartphone. We think the P8 is a successful smartphone with a great price/performance ratio.

jmcomms | Jonathan Morris

As a cheaper alternative to the other flagships on sale today...the P8 is definitely good, even excellent, value for money – and brings a certain level of uniqueness that you grow to love, if you're willing to give it the time.

TechRadar | John McCann

The Huawei P8 has all the right ingredients for a top smartphone, but something's not quite gone to plan in the baking stage. The lower price point certainly helps, but the mainstream flagships can rest easy.

Tom's Guide | Cherlynn Low

From its beautiful design to its sumptuous display, the Huawei P8 is a real feast for your eyes. Its handsomeness is matched by a very capable camera... The P8 isn't the fastest phone in its class, and its interface is far from pure Android, but its design, display and photography prowess make it one of the best Android phones of 2015.

Digital Trends | Andy Boxall

Huawei's gorgeous P8 has a stunning screen, a strong camera, and a much-improved user experience. It suffers with battery performance, but what slim flagship smartphone doesn't? Huawei's right to be proud of this one.

Recombu | Chris Barraclough

Huawei's P8 is impressive in so many ways. However, the myriad of software issues and merely-good screen make it a difficult recommendation over rivals like the S6 and LG's award-winning G3, the latter of which is now available for less money than the P8.

Digital Versus | Romain Thuret

Huawei has not yet converted the good try it scored with the Mate 7, but delivers a polished handset, with high-performance software and one of the best screens on the market. It's a shame about the photos; though Huawei raved about them and they do have a certain charm, they don't live up to the competition. The battery life also disappointed.

What Hi-Fi?

For the money, the Huawei P8 is a success. You get looks, features and a performance that is just about comparable with some of the big names. It's not perfect but if you're looking for a good multimedia device that can save you some cash, it's worth investigating.

Trusted Reviews | Jon Devo

Don't rule it out. Sure, it lacks big name prestige, but it's much cheaper than phones it matches and sometimes surpasses, and what you lose in recognition you gain in owning a phone few people will know. They'll certainly notice it when they see it – it looks great.

Stuff | Andrew Williams

After the disappointing Ascend P7, Huawei's back in action with the P8. It solves the older phone's key issues, resulting in a phone that's a bit of a smasher once you've tweaked away the stranger bits of the quirky custom interface. Most people willing to put in this extra effort should find it easy to get on with the Huawei P8. However, what it lacks is something to really give it an edge over the bigger names – bar being a shade cheaper.

PC Pro | Jonathan Bray

The Huawei P8 finds itself in an awkward position. On the one hand it isn't a match for the very best smartphones we've seen. On the other hand, it isn't quite cheap enough to get our wholehearted recommendation, especially with its disappointing battery life. The P8 is certainly an interesting proposition, especially if you value great camera quality above all else.

The Guardian | Samuel Gibbs

With the P8, Huawei has proved that it is a smartphone manufacturer worth paying attention to, and the P8 is certainly worth considering, especially given it costs significantly less than rivals.

MobileTechTalk | Mark Ramos

Its quality for a phone is high and when you combine its micro SD card-carrying abilities you really could use it as your audio player of choice...a P8 therefore would be a notable step up in audio quality. Really nice as a phone, but only a fairly good audio device.

CNET UK | Andrew Hoyle

The Huawei P8 lacks some of the shine of its flagship phone rivals, but it still delivers an uncompromising mix of features and performance for a far cheaper price.

Coolsmartphone | Jp_hero

The Huawei P8 is one of those phones that look good, damn good to be precise. Some may say it looks a bit like an iPhone, or an Xperia Z3 or an HTC One, but there is no arguing in that it looks good, damn good.

Brighthand | Dragan Petric

The Huawei P8 has a credible finish, excellent display, and notable performance.... Sure, its photos are a bit soft, the battery is average, and Huawei blatantly copied rivals with the design, but those are minor nitpicks.

Register Hardware | Andrew Orlowski

The Huawei P8 represents the classiest and most capable Android from a Chinese manufacturer yet, and a strong advance from last year's P7. The hardware design is superb and it has a terrific camera. The biggest differentiator is actually quite useful: the microSD slot doubles up as a SIM slot, too.

What Mobile | Alex Yau

An attractive device that gives you top-of-the-range specs and a fantastic camera. The performance isn't as slick as its major rivals, but that isn't a deal breaker.

ITProPortal | Ian Barker

The P8's hardware is well up to the standard you'd expect of a flagship phone, the camera in particular is impressive, and it feels well made. The only major thing missing is a fingerprint scanner. But spend a bit of time tweaking the user experience and it's a phone you can quite happily live with and not feel that you've bought second best.

Mashable | Stan Schroeder

Huawei's P8 is a solid Android flagship for those who want elegance but aren't willing to pay the price of an iPhone or a Galaxy S6.

PC Advisor | Chris Martin

The Huawei P8 has excellent design and build for a price lower than other flagship rivals. On the whole hardware is decent too, particularly in the photography department. However, poor performance and buggy software taint the experience to frustrating level which make it very difficult to recommend.

Expert Reviews | Katharine Byrne

A brilliantly made phone, yet the P8 wasn't the flagship alternative we were hoping for... We really want to like the P8, but Huawei's best efforts have failed to live up to expectations. It's a beautifully made phone, but battery life and usability pales in comparison to the current crop of competition.

Android Central | Alex Dobie

The Huawei P8 is a great phone with a capable camera, long battery life and an expansive array of features, set back by weird software. The hardware is top-notch, but Huawei's EMUI 3.1 is buggy in places, and often at odds with Google's preloaded services.

Mobile Choice | Sunetra Chakravarti

Very good for basic usage, taking pictures or even as a starter phone, the P8 Lite will do well until you need sheer grunt power or better battery life. But for the price it is a solid handset and quite popular.