Display

While the Huawei P9 and P10 are roughly the same size in general, the P10 has a slightly smaller display, moving from 5.2- to 5.1-inches. Like the P9, however, both displays still use IPS-NEO technology with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. In the P10, this equates to a pixel density of 432 PPI.

Huawei are continuing to use 1080p displays on their flagships, which are fine for everyday use, particularly at the smaller size used for the P10. I can tell a difference in sharpness and clarity moving up to 1440p at this size, though I don't imagine many people would be able to discern the minor improvement without a side-by-side comparison.

One thing I did notice with the P10's display is a slight 'texturing' on white or light areas, potentially caused by the wave-like RGB subpixel arrangement. Again, this is a very minor issue and something most people wouldn't notice.

In terms of display quality, the P10's display is similar to the P9 in almost every way. Peak brightness has improved thanks to a brightness boost feature in strong lighting, though brightness at the manual 100% level remains at 530 nits. Contrast is near identical at 1400:1, as are viewing angles, which are very good.

Huawei has continued to use similar calibration for their top-end phones, opting for a moderately cold display with a wider-than-sRGB gamut. My P10 review unit reported sRGB coverage of 134% with a white color temperature of 7305K, which shifts colors away from red/yellow and towards blue. This leads to an oversaturated experience, although most images and apps look fantastic with these settings applied.

Default color accuracy isn't amazing due to these choices Huawei made, though it's not the worst phone I've reviewed. In the display settings, you can use the color temperature wheel to correct the white balance issue by pushing the dot to the edge of the circle in the orange/yellow zone. However, this doesn't correct the oversaturation of the display, which remains well above sRGB.