What is it?
The Huawei P Smart 2019 is a completely redesigned version of the P Smart, which launched in February 2018. Considering it launched for £200, it has some pretty impressive specs. The huge 6.21-inch smartphone has a Dewdrop Notch FullView display. In other words, it has a full screen with only a tiny notch for the front camera at the top (the speaker sits above it) and a small bezel at the bottom.
It comes with a Kirin 710 octa-core processor, found in Huawei phones such as the Mate 20 Lite, as well as the manufacturer's own GPU Turbo software for graphics optimisation. Running on Android 9.0 Pie and Huawei's EMUI user interface, it uses 3GB of Ram and has 64GB of internal storage, which you can expand with a micro-SD card of up to 512GB.
The P Smart 2019 is available in three colours: midnight black, aurora blue and sapphire blue.
What’s it like to use?
When we tried it out, the glossy, curved body didn't feel quite as luxurious as more expensive models, but it certainly looked the part, and it was surprisingly compact and light, considering the screen size. The Dewdrop Notch FullView display is responsive when you’re navigating around the phone though under bright lighting, its brightness is weak so you may have some trouble reading notifications while taking a stroll in the sun.
The P Smart isn't the quickest phone we've seen from Huawei – not surprising since most of its expensive models come with the likes of the Kirin 980 and 990 chipsets.
There are all the security options you would expect on this smartphone. It has the triple-whammy of Pin lock, fingerprint scanner and face recognition. They work with good accuracy but the fingerprint sensor and face scanner are a little slow; the face scanner takes a little while to recognise faces in dark environments.
How long does the battery last?
After a full charge, the P Smart 2019 got through 23 hours of use at full brightness, not far off the 24.5 hours we got from the Honor View 20 and it only takes 1 hour 45 minutes to fully charge.
We didn't get any spectacular results from our 15-minute charge test on this smartphone, but 16% battery is by no means a failure. With that much power, you'd be able to jump between apps for a modest four hours.
How good are the cameras?
On the P Smart 2019, you'll get a dual 13Mp and 2Mp rear camera, as well as an 8Mp front camera.
Pictures taken on this camera are average on the whole but the front camera is weak. During the day, the 8Mp lens makes colours appear unnatural and in low lighting, photos look terrible, they’re blurred and dark. There is a lack of detail and definition to rear camera images, especially in low lighting. Videos aren’t very good either. They’re shaky on both sides of the phone and on the rear lens, motion is blurred.
AI smarts on the P Smart 2019 add some interesting features, namely HiTouch, which identifies an object in a picture and generates internet shopping results so you can buy it.
Is there anything I should watch out for?
The sound quality on the phone could be better. When playing music out loud, audio is slightly too quiet and thin to be able to enjoy songs by your favourite bands and artists.
Is there anything else I should know?
The phone also has its 3.5mm headphone jack in tow with a set of headphones.
Should I buy it?
We suspect that this smartphone is no longer receiving security updates from the manufacturer, or that it will stop receiving them soon. As such we can’t recommend that you buy it. Security updates, or patches, help to protect your phone from the latest threats, which could potentially harm your device and compromise your personal information. For more information, read our guide to mobile phone security.
