You can’t ignore Huawei any more. With increasingly premium smartphones on the market, the Chinese company is having a very good go at challenging Samsung, LG and Sony. In fact, it now outsells Apple globally.
But a Huawei phone doesn’t have to be brand new to market. The older P10 models are still excellent phones, even if the P20 is very impressive.
The P Smart is a cheaper way into the Huawei world, and you may even want to look at an older P-series phone to save a lot of money. It depends if you like Huawei’s EMUI Android skin, as it changes the stock experience quite dramatically.
We are fans though - these days anyway - and Huawei has come from being a network equipment provider to a coveted consumer electronics brand in a matter of years. Mind you, it’s not short on cash.
Here are the best Huawei phones you can buy in 2018.
Best Huawei phones 2018
1. Huawei P20 Pro
- RRP: TBC
In the P20 Pro Huawei has delivered a stunning phone which should be on your shortlist along with the Galaxy S9 and iPhone X. Sure, there are some niggles such as the lack of stabilisation for 4K video, no headphone jack and no wireless charging,but if your priority is photography then the P20 Pro does not disappoint.
Add in the long battery life, dual SIM slots and great screen and you've got the complete package: this is one of the best phones of 2018.
It's a fair amount more than the regular model so save yourself £200 on the regular P20 if you don't mind 'only' dual rear cameras, no waterproofing and an LCD screen vs OLED.
Read our Huawei P20 Pro review.
2. Huawei P20
- RRP: Approx $799
The Huawei P20 is a phone we can recommend with hardly any reservations. It lacks a headphone jack and waterproofing, but aside from that is one of the best phones of 2018.
It holds its own thanks to outstanding cameras, excellent battery life and the most premium design on a Huawei phone ever. It has a notch, but you can hide it in the software settings, making it no issue.
At £599, we can recommend it alongside the Samsung Galaxy S9, though you might want to spend more on the S9 for the OLED display, waterproofing and headphone jack.
Read our Huawei P20 review.
3. Huawei Mate 10 Pro
- RRP: $799
- Buy from Huawei
The Mate 10 Pro is easily one of the best phone from Huawei yet and although the cameras aren't as good as the Pixel 2 XL's, it has a better screen, better battery life and just as much processing power.
In fact, with the AI processor there's arguably more on board, but there's no guarantee that apps will appear to make use of it. Even if they don't, this is still an outstanding phone.
4. Huawei P10 Plus
- RRP: £679
- Buy from Huawei
The P10 Plus is another solid smartphone from Huawei offering attractive design, high-end hardware and much improved software. However, it's missing a few features compared to rivals such as waterproofing and wireless charging.
You should be able to find it cheaper than the RRP given the release of the P20 line.
5. Huawei P10
- RRP: £569
- Buy from Huawei
The Huawei P10 is an impressive beast – it’s gorgeous, powerful and the dual cameras are a huge improvement over the 2016 flagship, the P9. Portrait mode works better than expected, photos are crisp, vibrant and detailed and even the selfie camera has had a meaningful upgrade.
Huawei’s EMUI, one of the most controversial Android overlays, is much better to use than with previous smartphones, and offers machine learning algorithms that should speed up your phone the more you use it.
Battery life isn't great but the price, now being the old model, is very attractive at £349.
6. Huawei Mate 9
- RRP: $599.99
- Buy from Huawei
The Mate 9 was once the very best Huawei phone. It has a huge screen, powerful specs and a headphone jack - something the newer Mate 10 Pro lacks.
It's a bit of a large device unlike the slimmer 18:9 phones we have now in 2018 but if you want to save some money buying a Huawei phone outright, it's a steal, and also has an enormous battery capacity.
7. Huawei P Smart
- RRP: £229
- Buy from Huawei
With a decent 18:9 screen, the P Smart is a fine Android phone that should appeal to anyone looking for a cheap contract phone. However, the fact it’s so similar to the Honor 9 Lite (which costs £30 less when bought SIM-free) makes it hard to recommend, especially as the Honor has a couple of extra features – dual SIM and a second front camera – which the Huawei lacks.
8. Huawei P9
- RRP: $680
Although it's a couple of years old, the P9 is still a solid smartphone. The old flagship can be found for about £300, under half of newer Huawei phones.
Bear in mind the cameras won't be as good and the software won't be updated to the newest versions for much longer, but it's a capable device even today. Though you can get the P10 quite cheap now, too.
9. Huawei Nova
- RRP: 399 Euros
So, what do we think of the Huawei Nova? While it’s good on paper, it’s slightly underwhelming in real life. The processor isn’t quite as quick as the competition, the graphical capabilities aren’t great and the quality of low-light photography is less than expected, even for a mid-range smartphone. What is good is the design – it’s sleek, gorgeous and is extremely comfortable to use, and definitely doesn’t look like a ~£300 smartphone. While it’ll suffice for the likes of Facebook, Snapchat and managing email, we wouldn’t recommend it for high-end gaming or for use as a replacement DSLR. With companies like OnePlus dominating the mid-range scene with high-end internals, it makes it hard to recommend the fairly average Huawei Nova.
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