Huawei's P10 breathing on Samsung's shoulder

Conclusion

The P10's superior sibling: the P10 Plus. The giveaway is the f/1.8 Summarit lens

The P10 story is one of steady improvement, rather than revolutionary change. But the odd thing is that the real action here is going on with the P10’s bigger sibling, the 5.5inch display P10 Plus. For only £50 more SIM-free, the P10 Plus boasts a Leica Summilax f/1.8 aperture main sensor, offering far better low light performance, 4x4 MIMO antennas for 600mbit/s download speeds on LTE, and an infra-red blaster. The display is true QHD (1440 x 2560 at around 540 ppi) And, as you’d expect, you the Plus packs a bigger battery.

And for all that, the P10 Plus isn’t that much bigger (153.5mm x 74.2mm x 7mm) nor that much heavier (165g)

So why all the emphasis on the still-pricey but weaker 5.1 inch model? It’s baffling to those of us who have made the ergonomic adjustment to larger phones. Wouldn’t it make sense to make the Plus model the flagship and drop the "Plus" tag, with the P10 becoming the P10 Slim? Presumably, the answer is that the market pays a premium for a smaller, slimmer model. And maybe "Slim" or "Lite" doesn’t shift many units.

The P10 is a very fine piece of work indeed, and affirms Huawei's ascent into the top tier. But punters are more discerning than ever, and hanging on to their phones for longer. For £579 (if you can actually get one, that is) the P10's goodies come in a superb business workhorse with a 4000mAh battery, in the shape of the Mate 9.

Although we’ve yet to give the P10 Plus a thorough review, it's the Plus that looks like Huawei’s strongest card this year so far.