The smartphone landscape is changing so fast that what worked a year ago would be a disaster today.
Every manufacturer deals with it in its own way: Apple is moving at its own pace, careful to add one marquee feature in each new iPhone. Samsung seems to love tossing in a dozen odd features in the hopes something will stick (although the company's toned down the gimmicks this year). The up and coming Chinese manufacturers just try to make a good looking, powerful phone and sell it cheap.
With its latest flagship P9 (and P9 Plus), Chinese smartphone maker Huawei — the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world according to IDC — is trying to out-Apple Apple. The P9 is an exceptionally well-built phone that sort of apes the iPhone aesthetic, but it's not cheap. And it has one very distinctive feature: dual cameras on the back.
I spent a week and a half with the P9 — the base model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, in Mystic Silver — and the experience was very pleasant, but is it worth the 549 euro starting price?
The P9 is visually very similar to its predecessor, the P8, which is visually quite similar to the iPhone. However, with so many other manufacturers adopting the iPhone's "antenna lines" design, I wouldn't say the P9 is copying anyone. So while the design is elegant — tapered Gorilla Glass on the front and aluminum on the back — it's definitely not breaking any new ground.