The Huawei P Smart Plus smartphone features a modern, powerful Kirin 710 processor, a 6.3" diagonal, four cameras and a low price. In China it is called Huawei Nova 3I, in Europe P Smart Plus. As the name suggests, it is an improved version of the Huawei P Smart smartphone. The smartphone has a powerful processor, and the resolution of the main camera has increased slightly. The device has become larger and less compact. The phablet belongs to the middle price range. Its cost is about 15 thousand rubles.
Design
The Huawei P Smart Plus phone is made of glass, polycarbonate and aluminum. The view is as beautiful as most phablets. Cover available in black, white or Iris Purple.
On the rear panel there is a camera block located vertically, under which there is an LED flash. Below, in the center, there is a fingerprint scanner, slightly recessed into the body. The brand logo is printed vertically at the bottom.
The front surface consists almost entirely of the display. It occupies 82% of the area. The frames are very thin. The top frame is extended with a monobrow, which houses all the standard sensors, a selfie camera and an earpiece.
On the right side there are power and volume buttons, on the left there is a card slot. At the bottom there is a USB Type-C connector.
Dimensions: 15.8 x 7.5 cm, thickness 7.6 mm. Weight 169 g.
Display and image quality
A year ago I would have considered the Huawei P Smart 2021's display to be completely excellent, although today it's not bad either. What has changed is that modern competitors' screens offer something more. Possibly OLED technology, HDR10 certification, and some with a higher refresh rate.
Huawei has not followed any of the modern trends, so we are dealing with an average-quality IPS LCD panel. The colors are correct here, although you may notice that the blacks look grey. The contrast or brightness is not bad, however, technology has moved on, but P Smart 2021 remains.
Technical parameters and performance
Technical characteristics of Huawei P Smart Plus are located in the table:
| Chipset | Kirin 710 |
| Number of Cores | 8 |
| CRU architecture | 4 Cortex-A73 x 2.2 GHz + 4 Cortex-A53 x 1.7 GHz |
| Video processor | Mali-G51 MP4 |
| Random access memory | 4 GB |
| Built-in memory | 64 GB |
| operating system | Android 8.1 (Oreo) |
| Shell | EMUI 8.2 |
The amount of memory is sufficient at the present stage for most users. It is possible to install an additional memory card up to 256 GB by installing it in the second slot instead of a SIM card. The chipset is quite powerful and productive (12 nm process technology), it easily copes with most everyday tasks. The smartphone is positioned by the manufacturer as a device for light and medium games. They move without sagging or braking.
The presence effect is facilitated by the use of separate ISP and DSP video and digital signal processors. GPU Turbo technology helps achieve smooth gameplay and ensures stable frame rates. Quick transition between 4G and Wi-Fi allows you to not notice any connection interruptions. During the game, the main array of messages is not shown.
The Huawei P Smart Plus smartphone will help you find the item you need in the Amazon APP with a long double press. Artificial intelligence helps you sort through your photos, organizing them by date, location, or characters depicted in them.
Cameras
The Huawei P Smart Plus smartphone is equipped with two dual cameras. Their quality is average. The main one has 6 lenses, phase detection autofocus, 16 megapixel resolution, f/2.2 aperture. Daytime images will turn out to be of fairly high quality, with good detail and sharpness, but as light levels decrease, their quality drops sharply.
This is especially evident when taking pictures in automatic mode. But manually using a tripod you can get good quality photos with decent detail. You can set the shutter speed up to 8 seconds. Additional 2 MP sensors are used to create the bokeh effect. There is a blur depth sensor.
The manufacturer indicates that the artificial intelligence of the Camera application recognizes more than 20 scenarios and 500 shooting scenes. But in reality it does not have a decisive influence on the quality of the pictures.
With the main camera you can shoot 1080p video at 30fps. and slow-motion video 16x Super Slow Motion at 480 fps.
The front camera P Smart Plus has a 24 MP sensor and f/2.0 aperture. This smartphone's HDR Pro mode improves the quality of pictures taken with a hand-held camera. 3D Qmojis uses artificial intelligence to create animated GIFs based on facial expressions and movements. You can use them to decorate messages.
Huawei P Smart 2021 smartphone review
Huawei has updated its affordable P Smart smartphone, released last year, calling the new model P Smart 2021. Honestly, this name is inconvenient in every sense, but nothing can be done. But the updated device has received so many technical goodies that it has every chance of becoming the most profitable purchase in its price category. The smartphone has a lot of interesting things, from the hardware platform to communication capabilities, but there are also some shortcomings. Read about all the pros and cons of the new mobile product “for the people” in the new review of the Huawei P Smart 2021 smartphone.
Main characteristics of Huawei P Smart 2021 (model POT-LX1)
- SoC Huawei Kirin 710, 8 cores: 4×Cortex-A73 @2.2 GHz + 4×Cortex-A53 @1.7 GHz
- GPU Mali-G51 MP4
- Operating system Android 9, EMUI 9
- Touch display IPS 6.21″, 2340×1080 (19.5:9), 415 ppi
- Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB, internal memory 32 GB
- microSD support (up to 512 GB)
- Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
- GSM/WCDMA networks
- LTE FDD B1/3/7/8/20 networks
- GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz)
- Bluetooth 4.2
- NFC
- Micro-USB, USB OTG
- Audio output to headphones (3.5 mm)
- Main camera 13 MP, f/1.8 + 2 MP; video [email protected] fps
- Front camera 16 MP, f/2.0
- Proximity and lighting sensors, magnetic field, gyroscope, accelerometer
- Fingerprint's scanner
- Battery 3400 mAh
- Dimensions 155×73×8 mm
- Weight 160 g
| Average price of Huawei P Smart 2021 (3/32 GB) | Average price of Huawei P Smart 2021 (3/64 GB) |
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| Retail offers Huawei P Smart 2021 (3/32 GB) | Retail offers Huawei P Smart 2021 (3/64 GB) |
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Appearance and ease of use
Huawei P Smart 2021 has a bright and catchy design. However, upon closer examination, it was implemented using simple means, which is not surprising, given the price of this smartphone. The plastic case does not have a metal side frame; it is made in the form of a solid trough covering not only the back, but also the sides.
The body has a mirror reflection, like a Soviet Christmas tree decoration. Not everyone likes such “shiny things”; many will prefer matte rubberized and much more ergonomic cases. But Huawei is one of those companies that rush headlong into any fashion trends, and then move away from them for a very long time.
In this case, since the body is made of plastic, and not metal and glass, you can expect that over time the layer of this metallized paint will crack and peel off, this has been observed more than once. But while the smartphone is new, it looks attractive - for those who love shiny things.
Of course, the lacquered body quickly becomes covered with fingerprints, loses its presentable appearance and tends to slip out of your hands. By the way, Huawei decided not to include a protective case in the kit. Although it would be nice, considering how difficult it is to find a suitable case for such models.
But they included a protective film in the kit, as if they didn’t know that few people could stick it on their own without bubbles. Was it really so difficult to stick it on at the factory, creating additional convenience for the buyer?
But there is also good news: this budget smartphone has the most successful of all screen cutout options - a drop-shaped one, like the flagship Mate 20. It takes up minimal space, is not conspicuous, and is not annoying.
The sad news is that Huawei P Smart 2021 does not support the simultaneous installation of two Nano-SIM cards and a microSD memory card. You will have to sacrifice something by inserting two cards into this hybrid connector, which, fortunately, most manufacturers are now moving away from. Hot swapping of cards is supported.
The hardware buttons on the side are large and tactilely distinct, as the power key has a ribbed texture. They are easy to feel blindly, their movement is moderately pliable - in short, they are ideal buttons with the correct location.
The cameras on the back side protrude quite a bit, but when you touch the smartphone lying on the table, it does not wobble and lies stable. The fingerprint scanner, installed nearby on the rear panel, works quickly and clearly, without any glitches. Its platform is slightly recessed, making it easy to fumble blindly.
The interface connectors are installed at the bottom end, and, as usual, for some reason the Chinese engineers did not bother to center them. It looks sloppy. In addition, instead of modern USB Type-C, the outdated and slow Micro-USB, which is inconvenient with its asymmetry, is again used.
How this is possible in 2021 and how much longer Huawei will mock customers is anyone’s guess. It was thought that at least this year manufacturers would finally switch to the faster and symmetrical Type-C, but again no. It’s good that they retained the 3.5 mm audio output.
It’s also not very convenient that for some reason they began to embed the connector for installing SIM cards and memory cards into the top end, although the side panel traditionally used for this is completely empty. In a hurry or in the dark, or just thinking, you can easily insert a paper clip into the hole of the auxiliary microphone, located right there. By the way, in this case it is impossible to pull out the slide using the proprietary key from the Apple iPhone; for some reason the usual length of the pin was lengthened.
Huawei P Smart 2021 is offered in two body colors: Midnight Black and Aurora Blue. The blue version has a gradient color transition, and the black color is solid. The smartphone did not receive protection from dust and moisture.
Screen
Huawei P Smart 2021 is equipped with an IPS display covered with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The physical dimensions of the screen are 66x144 mm, diagonal - 6.21 inches, resolution - 2340x1080 (with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9) , dot density - 415 ppi. The frame around the screen has a width of 3 mm on the sides, 7 mm on the bottom, and 4 mm on the top (excluding the cutout).
According to the creators, “to protect users’ eyesight, an Eye Comfort Mode is provided, certified by TÜV Rheinland and effectively reducing eye strain during long-term work.” What our editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev , read below.
The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Huawei P Smart 2021, then they can be distinguished by size):
The screen of the Huawei P Smart 2021 is noticeably darker (brightness according to photographs is 101 versus 111 for the Nexus 7). The ghosting of reflected objects in the Huawei P Smart 2021 screen is very weak, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS - One Glass Solution type screen). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, which is better in efficiency than that of the Nexus 7, so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.
When manually controlling the brightness and displaying the white field in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 420 cd/m², the minimum was 1.9 cd/m². The maximum brightness is quite high, therefore, given the excellent anti-glare properties, screen readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at an acceptable level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located at the bottom on the edge of the front panel to the right of center - the location is not ideal, but during normal operation the brightness does not seem to fluctuate). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider: with it the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If you do not interfere, leaving everything at default, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 12 cd/m² (normal), in an office illuminated by artificial light (approximately 550 lux) it sets it to 170 cd/m² (suitable), in very bright environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 420 cd/m² (to the maximum, as needed). The backlight brightness level depends on the position of the slider in dark and average conditions, and in very bright environments it is always set to maximum. The default result satisfied us, but for the experiment we moved the slider a little to the left in complete darkness and for the three conditions indicated above, we got 5, 160 and 420 cd/m² (an ideal combination for those who need it darker in the dark). It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. At any brightness level, there is no significant backlight modulation, so there is no screen flicker.
This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The microphotographs show a typical IPS subpixel structure:
For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.
The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which identical images are displayed on the screens of Huawei P Smart 2021 and Nexus 7, while the screen brightness is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 K.
There is a white field perpendicular to the screens:
Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.
And a test picture:
The colors on the Huawei P Smart 2021 screen are clearly oversaturated, and the color balance varies between screens.
Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:
It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens, but on the Huawei P Smart 2021 the contrast has decreased to a greater extent due to the greater highlighting of blacks.
And a white field:
The brightness at an angle of the screens has decreased (by about 5 times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but the Huawei P Smart 2021 screen is still a little brighter. When deviated diagonally, the black field brightens greatly and remains conditionally neutral-sulfur. The photographs below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same!):
And from another angle:
When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good:
The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1100:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 20 ms (10 ms on + 10 ms off). The transition between halftones of gray 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 33 ms. The gamma curve, constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, did not reveal any blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.12, which is lower than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve noticeably deviates from the power-law dependence:
This device has a dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness with a non-obvious dependence on time and on the nature of the displayed image. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) may not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen. For this reason, we carried out a number of tests - determining contrast and response time, comparing black illumination at angles - (however, as always) when displaying special templates with a constant average brightness, and not monochromatic fields in the entire screen. In general, such non-disabled brightness correction does nothing but harm, since constantly changing the screen brightness can at least cause some discomfort.
The color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:
Let's look at the spectra:
The spectra of the components are quite well separated, which determines the wide color gamut. For a consumer device, a wide color gamut is not an advantage, but a significant disadvantage, since as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have an unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photographs above.
However, not everything is so bad: when you select the Normal , the coverage is compressed to the sRGB boundaries.
Colors in images become less saturated (and color balance changes slightly):
The balance of shades on the scale is a compromise, since the color temperature is significantly higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is below 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, color temperature and ΔE change little from hue to hue - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)
This device has the ability to adjust the color balance by adjusting the hue on the color wheel.
In the graphs above, the curves are Without corr. correspond to the results without any color balance correction ( Vivid ), and the curves Corr. — data obtained after selecting the Normal and shifting the point on the circle to the position indicated in the image above. It can be seen that the change in balance corresponds to the expected result, since the color temperature has approached the standard value, and ΔE has decreased, at least on the white field. There is some benefit from this correction - however, the brightness has decreased by 25%. Note that this function is implemented more for show, since there is no numerical reflection of the correction and there is no special field for measuring color balance.
There is a fancy setting that allows you to reduce the intensity of the blue component.
Marketers tried to intimidate the user in order to show the level of care of the manufacturer. Of course, there is no harmful UV radiation (see spectrum above), and there is no eye fatigue caused specifically by blue light. In principle, bright light can lead to disruption of the circadian rhythm (see the article about the iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch display), but everything can be solved by adjusting the brightness to a comfortable level, and there is absolutely no way to distort the color balance, reducing the contribution of blue sense.
To summarize: the screen does not have a very high maximum brightness, but has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors even on a sunny summer day without any problems. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. It is also possible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. Also, the advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, high contrast, sRGB color gamut (if you choose the right profile) and good (after a small correction) color balance. The disadvantages are the low stability of black to the deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane. Taking into account the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the quality of the screen can be considered high.
Camera
The front camera of Huawei P Smart 2021 received a sensor with a resolution of 16 megapixels and a lens with an f/2.0 aperture. In general, the front camera is not bad in terms of detail and color reproduction; it is a confident average level; the quality is quite consistent with the price of the device.
The main camera of Huawei P Smart 2021 is double. The main module with a 13 MP sensor resolution and an f/1.8 aperture lens is complemented by a module with a 2 MP sensor resolution for measuring depth of field. Phase detection autofocus (PDAF) is fast and adequate, the flash is single, but quite bright.
The camera’s operation is controlled by AI, which identifies more than 500 types of scenes in 22 categories in real time, setting the optimal shooting parameters, according to the automation. As usual, there are several separate modes, but there are fewer of them than usual: there is night and portrait, but no monochrome. In night mode, like older models of Huawei smartphones, the camera simulates a long exposure mode of 4 seconds, merging several images into one. There is no standard option to save pictures in RAW, even in manual mode.
The camera shoots at a pretty decent average level. Of course, it has its drawbacks (it’s hard to expect anything else from a smartphone costing 15 thousand), but nothing truly disastrous or unexpected. Noise is suppressed to almost zero, because of this, in the shadows the image becomes “plasticine” in places, wires in the sky are often a not very confident dotted line, and bare branches of trees in the distance merge into mush. Up close, however, everything is quite decent; in good lighting, details are preserved in sufficient quantities. Yes, there is a noticeable loss of clarity at the edges of the frame, traditional for inexpensive optics, but these zones are not that large.
I was pleased with the night mode. It doesn't perform miracles or turn night into day, but the software processing is quite adequate. As a result, you can normally look at not only beautifully illuminated objects, although to look at it it’s better to make the image smaller; in full resolution the picture is ugly. Let us remind you that the night mode does not allow you to shoot dynamic scenes (due to the displacement of moving objects between the “stitched” frames), but it eliminates the shaking of the hands of a photographer trying to shoot in the dark, which is very clearly visible in our test photographs. The only serious criticism of this mode is the questionable white balance.
regular photo
night mode
regular photo
night mode
night mode
night mode
Video can be shot in 1080p format at 60 fps, this is the highest possible quality. There is no 4K video shooting, no stabilization. The quality of video recording is average - both in terms of detail and sharpness, and at night the camera shoots video frankly poorly. The sound is recorded more or less cleanly, without distortion in the form of an echo, but the noise reduction system cannot cope with strong wind noise.
- Video No. 1 (46 MB, 1920× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)
- Video No. 2 (45 MB, 1920× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)
Telephone and communications
Huawei P Smart 2021 supports the most common LTE FDD bands in Russia (Band 3, 7, 20). The Kirin 710 platform theoretically has a modem supporting LTE Cat.12 and Cat.13, but the official specifications state that it is LTE Cat.6.
In practice, within the city limits of the Moscow region, the device demonstrates reliable operation in wireless networks, does not lose connection, and quickly restores connection after a forced interruption. There is Wi-Fi (2.4 and 5 GHz, with support for 802.11ac), Bluetooth version 4.2 and NFC with support for Google Pay. The “My Travel Card” application for working with Troika cards in this case also functions fully.
The navigation module works with GPS (dual-frequency, with A-GPS), with the domestic Glonass and the Chinese Beidou. True, during a cold start, searching for the first satellites took a lot of time, and there are certain complaints about the positioning accuracy. The smartphone has a magnetic compass, necessary for navigation programs.
The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts. Methods for sorting and displaying contacts are standard for the Android interface. Medium power vibration alert. There is support for VoLTE.
The hardware platform allows the smartphone to support both SIM cards in 4G mode at the same time. This way, the voice SIM card will work in 4G standby mode even if another card is assigned to 4G data. The cards operate in Dual SIM Dual Standby mode, there is only one radio modem.
Software and multimedia
Huawei P Smart 2019 uses the latest version 9 of Google Android as its software platform, which is very nice considering the low price of the device. It has its own fast and well-optimized EMUI 9 shell, and this is also the latest version of the proprietary interface.
Huawei's interface is surprisingly good and user-friendly. True, it is not as laconic as that of Meizu, but it is also not “sprawling” to the point of disgrace, like MIUI and other Chinese shells with an endless number of settings and sections. In general, this is a kind of “golden mean” that Huawei has recently decided to respect by calling itself an “international” company instead of a Chinese one.
There is a face unlock function, and, surprisingly, it works even in the dark: the smartphone screen lights up as brightly as possible, and this, apparently, is enough to illuminate the face for the camera. There is no full night IR unlock here.
There is only one main speaker in the device, and it sounds, frankly, mediocre. For listening on headphones, the Huawei Histen audio effects system is provided, there are presets for different types of headphones, and in general the smartphone sounds decent with them: the sound is clear, loud, rich. It’s also nice that there is a 3.5 mm audio output, FM radio and a decent voice recorder with good sensitivity.
Performance
Huawei P Smart 2021 runs on the Huawei Kirin 710 single-chip system. This SoC is configured with two CPU clusters: four Cortex-A73 cores with a frequency of 2.2 GHz and four Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.7 GHz. The Mali-G51 MP4 GPU is responsible for graphics performance.
The amount of RAM is 3 GB, the storage capacity is 32 GB. Installing a microSD memory card is supported, as is connecting external devices to the Micro-USB port in USB OTG mode.
Huawei Kirin 710 is a fresh SoC, which is produced using a 12-nanometer process technology. The platform does not belong to the top level, but, as the manufacturer itself promises, relative to its predecessor Kirin 659, the new platform is 75% faster in single-threaded mode and 68% faster in multi-threaded mode. But even without these statements, it’s clear how good this new platform is, demonstrating the highest average level in all tests - it practically “breathes in the back” of the top SoC.
In any case, the speed and smoothness of the system and any applications does not cause any complaints, as does the performance in games. All tested games, including Modern Combat 3, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2 and PUBG, run confidently without stuttering, although not at maximum, but at medium settings.
Testing in comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench:
For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.
| Huawei P Smart 2019 (HiSilicon Kirin 710) | Yandex.Phone (Qualcomm Snapdragon 630) | Oppo RX17 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 710) | Nokia 5.1 Plus (MediaTek Helio P60) | Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 636) | |
| AnTuTu (v7.x) (bigger is better) | 122309 | 91323 | 169866 | 119772 | 116703 |
| GeekBench (bigger is better) | 1527/5402 | 856/4220 | 1849/5960 | — | 1344/4916 |
Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark and GFXBenchmark gaming tests:
When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).
| Huawei P Smart 2019 (HiSilicon Kirin 710) | Yandex.Phone (Qualcomm Snapdragon 630) | Oppo RX17 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 710) | Nokia 5.1 Plus (MediaTek Helio P60) | Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 636) | |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot ES 3.1 (bigger is better) | 941 | 836 | 1851 | 742 | 951 |
| 3DMark Sling Shot Ex Vulkan (bigger is better) | — | 849 | — | 747 | 767 |
| GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (Onscreen, fps) | 13 | 9 | 20 | 20 | 10 |
| GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (1080p Offscreen, fps) | 14 | 10 | 23 | 10 | 10 |
| GFXBenchmark T-Rex (Onscreen, fps) | 33 | 28 | 55 | 42 | 34 |
| GFXBenchmark T-Rex (1080p Offscreen, fps) | 36 | 30 | 65 | 29 | 36 |
Testing in browser cross-platform tests:
As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.
| Huawei P Smart 2019 (HiSilicon Kirin 710) | Yandex.Phone (Qualcomm Snapdragon 630) | Oppo RX17 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 710) | Nokia 5.1 Plus (MediaTek Helio P60) | Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 636) | |
| Mozilla Kraken (ms, less is better) | 4062 | 5220 | 3837 | 4582 | 4561 |
| Google Octane 2 (bigger is better) | 9637 | 9817 | 10127 | 8328 | 8875 |
| JetStream (bigger is better) | 50 | 29 | 50 | 42 | 42 |
AndroBench memory speed test results:
Heat
Below is a thermal image of the rear surface obtained after 15 minutes of fighting with a gorilla in the game Injustice 2 (this test is also used to determine autonomy in 3D games):
The heating is localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat camera, the maximum heating was 43 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), which is slightly higher than the average value in this test for modern smartphones.
Playing video
To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a table.
| Format | Container, video, sound | MX Video Player | Standard player |
| 1080p H.264 | MKV, H.264, 1920×1080, 24 fps, AAC | plays normally | plays normally |
| 1080p H.264 | MKV, H.264, 1920×1080, 24 fps, AC3 | plays normally | no sound |
| 1080p H.265 | MKV, H.265, 1920×1080, 24 fps, AAC | plays normally | plays normally |
| 1080p H.265 | MKV, H.265, 1920×1080, 24 fps, AC3 | plays normally | no sound |
Further testing of video playback was performed by Alexey Kudryavtsev .
We did not find the MHL interface, like Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In the tests we used the MX Player video player in the “Hardware” mode. The test results are summarized in the table:
| File | Uniformity | Passes |
| 4K/60p (H.265) | cannot be played | |
| 4K/50p (H.265) | Fine | a lot of |
| 4K/30p (H.265) | Great | No |
| 4K/25p (H.265) | Great | No |
| 4K/24p (H.265) | Great | No |
| 4K/30p | Fine | No |
| 4K/25p | Great | No |
| 4K/24p | Great | No |
| 1080/60p | Great | No |
| 1080/50p | Fine | No |
| 1080/30p | Fine | No |
| 1080/25p | Great | No |
| 1080/24p | Fine | No |
| 720/60p | Great | No |
| 720/50p | Great | No |
| 720/30p | Great | No |
| 720/25p | Fine | No |
| 720/24p | Fine | No |
Note: If both columns Uniformity and Skips have green ratings, this means that, most likely, when watching films, artifacts caused by uneven alternation and skipping of frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect comfort viewing. Red marks indicate possible problems with playback of the corresponding files.
According to the frame output criterion, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since in most cases frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly at the height of the screen (in landscape orientation), one to one in pixels, that is, in the original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: all shade gradations are displayed in shadows and highlights, which is required for correct playback of typical video files. Note that this smartphone does not support hardware decoding of H.265 files with a color depth of 10 bits per color.
Battery life
Huawei P Smart 2021 has a built-in 3400 mAh battery. With it, the smartphone does not break records, but demonstrates average battery life. In real life, the smartphone confidently survives until evening charging.
Testing has traditionally been carried out at the usual level of power consumption without using power saving functions, although the device has them.
| Battery capacity | Reading mode | Video mode | 3D Game Mode | |
| Huawei P Smart 2019 | 3400 mAh | 15:30 | 10:30 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Oppo RX17 Pro | 2×1850 mAh | 19:30 | 15:00 | 5 h. 30 m. |
| Nokia 5.1 Plus | 3060 mAh | 18:00 | 10:00 am | 5 h. 30 m. |
| Yandex.Phone | 2970 mAh | 16:00 | 11:30 am | 4:00 am |
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro | 4000 mAh | 19:00 | 10:00 am | 5 hours 40 minutes |
Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted 15.5 hours until the battery was completely discharged, and when continuously watching videos in high quality (720p) With the same brightness level, the device operates for up to 10.5 hours via a home Wi-Fi network. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone can work for up to 5 hours, depending on the specific game.
The smartphone is fully charged in 2 hours 15 minutes with a current of 2 A at a voltage of 5 V, gaining exactly 50% of its volume in the first hour. Wireless charging is not supported.
Bottom line
Huawei P Smart 2021 is the cheapest of the company’s smartphones, and it can still be called affordable: in official Russian retail it sells for 14,770 rubles. The price does not go beyond the psychological barrier of 15 thousand, while the device is based on the latest and very powerful Kirin 710 hardware platform, which is chic for a budget device, which can also decorate much more expensive mobile devices. The good thing here is not only a powerful platform, but also a large, bright screen with a high (not reduced) resolution, as well as excellent communication capabilities, including support for dual-band Wi-Fi and full NFC. Average (but in a good way) cameras, average (decent) battery life, good sound in headphones, catchy and bright (for everyone) body - the combination of all this makes this model perhaps the best choice in its price range. There are minor oversights and flaws, but for such hardware at a price of less than 15 thousand rubles, a smartphone can be forgiven a lot.
