Huawei P8 review: Light in motion

Benchmarks

The Huawei P8 is powered by a home-brewed HiSilicon Kirin 930 chipset. It is equipped with a total of eight Coretex-A53 processors, four clocked at 2.0 GHz and another four at 1.5 GHz. On paper, this looks like quite an adequate setup by current standards and we can only expect the chip to perform up to par with current high-end offers by the likes of Mediatek and Qualcomm.

But, the real problem with the custom Kirin 930 is that it features a far-less powerful GPU than those by the competitors. The Mali-T628 MP4 is hardly a powerhouse and can potentially hurt the graphics performance of the phone significantly.

It is also interesting to note that there is a version of the phone with a Kirin 935 SoC. The difference between the two, however, seems to be limited to a higher maximum clock for four of the cores - 2.2 GHz. The Mali-T628 MP4 is still on board.

We've had at least a few Huawei devices come through the office and yet, there are no other entries in our database for either the Kirin 930 or the Kirin 935. The closest we have managed to come is the Huawei Ascend Mate 7, with a Kirin 925, the Huawei Honor 6, with a Kirin 920 and the P8's predecessor - the Ascend P7, which runs on a Kirin 910T. We have included them in our comparison as reference points for how the P8 compares to the rest of Huawei's lineup.

As far as the other chosen competitors, the Huawei P8 happens to sit in a pretty premium cost range. With an asking price of €450-€550, the phone is not quite up to par with the current generation of flagship devices, but definitely brusher elbows with last year's top-of-the-line offers. And don't get us wrong. We can definitely justify the price, as the Huawei P8 is a textbook example of a premium device through and through. Still, performance-wise, the P8 enters into a tough crowd, but, we'll let the benchmarks do the talking.

Just a small note, the new EMUI 3.1 is based on Android 5.0, so, we would expect that the P8 has all the benefits that the new code brings about at its disposal. So, to be fair, we have included, where possible, Lollipop benchmark scores for any other device on the list that has already received an update.

First up, we have the raw CPU performance test with GeekBench 3, which should be straight-forward enough. The eight-core Cortex-A53 setup of the P8 really does leave its competitors in the dust. Bear in mind, that most other models on the list are now close to a year old and while still quite capable, they don't have the benefit of recent ARM advancements and technologies.

Naturally, the LG G Flex 2 outshines the competition with its beastly Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810, but not by a whole lot. The Meizu MX4 Pro does also show admirable scores in this department, thanks to its Exynos 5 Octa 5430 SoC, despite being based on older Cortex-A15 and A7 chips. Going down the list below the P8, we see that most scores are not that far apart. There is, however, a quite observable line of improvement in the Kirin SoC generations. The Ascend P7 with its Kirin 910T is at the very bottom with almost half the score of the P8. It is followed by the Honor 6 and then the Ascend Mate 7, in the expected order. The difference between the scores of the latter is not as significant, but, it proves, without a doubt that Huawei has done a nice job designing its own chipset.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  3604
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  3386
• Huawei P8
  3380
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  3214
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  3165
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3120
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  3094
• Huawei Honor 6
  3081
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  2970
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  2937
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  2923
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2880
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2860
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• LG G3
  2370
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1895

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which also takes into account RAM and GPU performance. Here we see pretty much the same arrangement. Here, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha takes the cake.

Like the Meizu MX4 Pro it uses an Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset and just like the P8, it has a slightly underwhelming Mali-T628 MP6, albeit slight better. But GPU doesn't really seem to be the defining factor in the race, seeing how the Ascend Mate 7 uses the exact same Mali-T628 MP6 model and is almost at the bottom of the chart. Optimization seems to be key and the Galaxy Alpha has proved a prime example of software done right in quite a few of our tests.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  51905
• Huawei P8
  50876
• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  48489
• LG G Flex2
  47680
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  45660
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  45632
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  45530
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  45348
• Huawei Honor 6
  42688
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  42211
• LG G3
  42038
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  41510
• Sony Xperia Z3
  40393
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  31436
• Huawei Ascend P7
  28758

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  49
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  31.3
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  28
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  28
• Sony Xperia Z3
  27.7
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  27
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.3
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  26
• LG G3
  26
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  16.4
• Huawei Honor 6
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.3
• Huawei P8
  10

Moving on to Basemark OS II, which is a truly all-round benchmark. Here, we get a first glimpse of the P8 falling short in overall scores. The result is most-likely due to the already mentioned poor GPU, which drags down the otherwise excellent number-crunching power of the eight core processor setup.

The P8 still surpasses its Huawei siblings, as well as the aforementioned Meizu and Galaxy Alpha, which is still an admirable achievement. This observation is further backed up by looking at the single and multi-core performance breakdowns. Little complaints can be made about CPU performance.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  1601
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1509
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  1370
• LG G3
  1327
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  1202
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  1173
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  1147
• Nokia Lumia 1520
  1116
• Sony Xperia Z3
  1109
• Apple iPhone 5s
  1089
• Nokia Lumia 930
  1067
• Huawei P8
  1056
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  1003
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  922
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  915
• Huawei Honor 6
  863
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  830
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  786

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  2579
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  2559
• LG G Flex2
  2528
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  2510
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  2499
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  2426
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  2334
• Huawei Honor 6
  2279
• LG G3
  2267
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  2236
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2114
• Huawei P8
  2111
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1967
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  1891
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  1572

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  15096
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  15012
• Huawei P8
  14046
• Huawei Honor 6
  13916
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  10320
• LG G3
  9975
• Motorola Nexus 6
  9915
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  9827
• LG G Flex2
  9758
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  9646
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  9590
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  9364
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  9284
• Sony Xperia Z3
  8792
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  7399

The same, however, definitely can't be said about graphics performance. Things really look bad in this department, almost catastrophic. The P8 barely churns out enough frames to be on the chart. Frankly, we expected poor GPU performance, but, there seems to be something more going on here, besides the underwhelming GPU itself. Even the Ascend P7 (1080p screen) with its Mali-450 MP4 does better than the P8 and so does the Honor 6 (1080p screen) with a Mali-T624 MP4.

But perhaps, most surprising of all is that the Ascend Mate 7 (1080p screen), which uses the very same Mali-T628 MP4 still manages to outperform the P8 in terms of graphics. This leads us to believe that there might be some severe optimization issues, most-probably related to the new EMUI 3.1 and the adoption of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Hopefully, these issues will be ironed out in the future, as the poor performance is really unexpected, even for the Mali in question.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  49
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  31.3
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  28
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  28
• Sony Xperia Z3
  27.7
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  27
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.3
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  26
• LG G3
  26
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  16.4
• Huawei Honor 6
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.3
• Huawei P8
  10

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  48.4
• LG G Flex2
  48
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  30
• Sony Xperia Z3
  29.3
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  29
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  28
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.7
• LG G3
  20
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  17.4
• Huawei Honor 6
  17
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.4
• Huawei P8
  10.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  22
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  13.4
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  13
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  12
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  12
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  11
• LG G3
  11
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  9.9
• Huawei Honor 6
  8.1
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Huawei P8
  5.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  25.3
• LG G Flex2
  22
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  13
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  13
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12.7
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  11
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  10
• Huawei Honor 6
  8.7
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8.5
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  7.8
• LG G3
  7.7
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Huawei P8
  5.7

Speaking of poor OS optimization, there seems to be a lot more of it in terms of browser performance. Bear in mind, however, that the below scores are from the bundled default browser. Chrome, which is also included out-of-the-box does a significantly better job.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• LG G Flex2
  4621
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  4911
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  5567
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5968
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  6260
• Sony Xperia Z3
  6355
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  6382
• Huawei Honor 6
  6937
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  7023
• LG G3
  7632
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  10193
• Huawei P8
  11867
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  12266

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  2086
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  2066
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  1655
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  1562
• Sony Xperia Z3
  1533
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  1460
• LG G3
  1453
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1447
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  1364
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  795
• Huawei P8
  764
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  748
• Huawei Honor 6
  745

The Huawei P8 benchmark performance is a mixed bag and not surprisingly, suffering from the choice of custom hardware. This, however, is only part of the story. Kirin chipsets have historically been bundled with rather meager GPU's and this one makes no exception.

CPU performance however is spectacular and everyday tasks are a breeze with no noticeable delay or stuttering in the UI. The 3GB of RAM without a doubt helps in this respect too.

Adapting EMUI for the Android Lollipop has taken its toll on GPU performance, which will hopefully be fixed come future updates. Still, if you are keen on doing a lot of graphics-intensive 3D gaming, the Huawei P8 shouldn't be your first choice. For most everything else, however, the device is fluid, responsive and a pleasure to use.