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User interface
- Latest version of Android
- Huawei/Honor EMUI 9 UI
- Highly customizable
The fact that the Huawei P Smart (2019) runs Android 9 is a very good thing. It’s the latest version of Android, so brings with it the benefits of a customized ‘digital wellbeing’ center, as well as battery- and app-management tools and the latest security updates from Google.
Huawei customizes Android with EMUI, and the P Smart features version 9, as introduced on the Mate 20 Pro. It’s easy to get to grips with, and features plenty of tools for tinkerers to get stuck into, although being so feature-rich it might turn some Android purists off.
With home screens and a pull-down notification bar, key elements will be familiar to Android and iOS users.
While there isn’t an app tray by default, you can activate one in the settings. You can also hide the navigation bar, so that the on-screen back, home and recent apps buttons are hidden giving you extra screen to display your content. As for the nav buttons functions, they can then be activated by gestures.
All these features are optional, and make the P Smart (2019) a versatile handset that offers a ridiculous amount of scope given its mid-range positioning.
While there isn’t an applications tray by default, you can activate one in the settings. You can also hide the navigation bar, so that the on-screen back, home and recent apps buttons are hidden, and their functions can then be activated by gestures.
If all of this sounds like overkill, don’t worry – it’s all optional. Out of the box, everything works fine without any tweaking.
In turn, while Huawei and Honor phones aren’t great for stock Android fans, they are versatile, and offer a ridiculous amount of scope for geeks to go crazy and customize their phones without the need to hack into them.
Performance, storage and connections
- Kirin 710 processor
- 3GB RAM depending on region
- 64GB storage plus SD card support
The Huawei P Smart (2019) uses the Kirin 710 chipset, combined with 3GB of RAM and 64GB storage.
The phone performs well when powering through basic tasks, but we definitely noticed slowdown when we jumped between power-hungry apps and games.
Basic games are handled without any issues, and provided that you’re okay with the occasional wait of a second or two when jumping from one app to another, the speed of the Huawei P Smart (2019) won’t frustrate you much.
When you start loading up intensive 3D games, though, things start to stutter noticeably, at times interfering with gameplay.
As for storage, 64GB coupled with microSD card support of up to 512GB is excellent for a phone under £300, let alone one that costs less than £200.
Connectivity is also great, with 4G, NFC and Bluetooth 4.2 all on board. The micro USB port is a telltale sign that this is definitely not a flagship phone, however – a USB-C port would have been preferable, but we really can’t fault this feature given everything else Huawei has managed to cram in here.
