Huawei P Smart Review

Huawei P Smart is a perfect solution for users that want a dual-sensor camera and great build quality at an affordable price. As we all know, when it comes to the mid-range market, Huawei and OnePlus are one of the best manufacturers to look for. Huawei indeed struggled to bring their phones to the highest level, but the past few years were really good for this company. Just in December of last year, Huawei P Smart came out and some good promises were made. Is this phone worth its hype? Let’s find that out!

Design and Build Quality

Huawei P Smart sports a nice, aluminum-based design with some plastic parts here and there. On the front, we have almost no bezels at the side and that’s where the high-quality 18:9 display lays. When looking at this phone from behind, we can see the dual sensors in the top left corner, alongside an LED flash and fingerprint sensor underneath. Another great thing here is that the back of the phone isn’t glossy or shiny. This leaves no space for fingerprints but also excludes the glass, which makes it a little dated.

Due to its slightly curved edges, Huawei P Smart fits nicely in hand. Believe me when I say that since I have very small hands and I was able to use it properly in most scenarios. When it comes to building quality, this is where this phone shows some weaknesses. For example, the back of the phone can be easily scratched since it doesn’t have glass protection. Also, the plastic caps on the phone aren’t the most durable. These issues can be rectified by purchasing additional protection and your Huawei will still look great.

Display

As this is a $320 phone, you can’t expect a display that’s going to blow you away. But, this display isn’t to be dismissed that easily. We are dealing with a 5.65-inch IPS display that packs some vivid and punchy colors all over the place. You can argue that this isn’t the biggest display out there but with its pixel density of 427 PPI, it’s razor-sharp. At this size, Huawei brought a resolution of 1080×2160 pixels for some stunning details. We can see that the display follows this standard 18:9 trend that almost all of the phones at this time have.

The color reproduction is great and the accuracy is solid. However, I found this display a little underwhelming when it comes to brightness. The IPS display is known to produce great brightness, but not this one… at least not at direct sunlight. If you’ve used a Samsung device before, you’ll see what I’m talking about.  Furthermore, we don’t have any kind of Gorilla Glass here, making this display not that well protected. At this price range, however, I would say it’s great but not the best it can be.

Camera

Do you know when something is just mediocre and you don’t have anything special to say about it? I’m not that happy to say that this camera isn’t that good. Despite having two sensors, I still found the camera a bit lackluster. We have one sensor with 13 MP and the other is 2 MP. This wouldn’t sound so unimpressive if it weren’t for the poor video quality that can reach only 1080p at 30 fps. The videos are sometimes very shaky, blurry, and lack some details here and there.

When it comes to photo quality, we can spot some great details in good lighting conditions. Yes, the dynamic range is solid, the color accuracy is great, but we still aren’t impressed by the depth of field. Sure, you can achieve that bokeh effect but it’s not that impressive. Another important thing to mention is the 8 MP front camera. I mean, it’s important just because it’s there and not because it’s anything great. It’s an average performer and still good for your Insta selfies.

Performance

Huawei P Smart is like a huge mixed bag of both bad and good features when it comes to the performance. The great news is that Huawei implemented the newest Android 8.0 OS here and the bad news is… well, that it isn’t a buttery-smooth experience. For the most part, the phone works relatively well. However, after some time, it can get quite buggy and not that snappy. Despite the mid-range HiSilicon Kirin 659 chipset and 4GB of RAM, I still find this one quite underwhelming.

If you are worried about the gaming performance, you should know that we have the Mali-T830 MP2 GPU. This is, of course, the bad news. This was a solid GPU a few years ago, but at this point, I don’t think it’s a good idea to use this one for gaming. For the casual gaming, though, Huawei P Smart does a great job, but don’t expect it to run Asphalt games 60 fps.

Battery and Speaker

On the paper, the 3000 mAh Li-Po battery sounds very modest. This isn’t an impressive battery at all. The great thing is that the hardware isn’t that powerful and the display isn’t AMOLED so you can squeeze some juice out of this one. For a moderate user, it can be pretty good, allowing you to endure a full day without charging. And if your battery gets empty, it’s good to know that there isn’t a fast charging feature… kinda odd! As for the speaker, still it could be a little louder than it is. But, what more to expect at this price point?

Verdict

Huawei P Smart is both hit and miss for Huawei. It’s a budget-oriented phone made for those with significantly lower expectations. That being said, you can expect some nice visuals here and there, a solid display that packs a lot of pixel density, and a solid camera for the price. We can’t say we’re impressed with Huawei’s work and if you don’t like this one, you can always opt for the other budget options on the market. For example, Huawei P20 Lite is one of the best phones you can get for your buck and would easily outperform this one.