Huawei P9 ‘Lite’ revealed ahead of April 6 launch

While there is still much mystery surrounding Huawei’s April 6 launch event in London, at least one of the pieces has fallen into place, with new information on a stripped-down version of the flagship P9 set to debut at the unveiling. Retail branding is not yet known for this handset — we’re calling it the P9 “Lite,” though its internal codename is Huawei Venus — but a person familiar with the phone tipped several of its key features to VentureBeat.

Unlike last year’s P8 Lite, whose specs trailed the regular P8 in nearly every category, this year’s “Lite” model attempts to achieve budget friendliness with strategic changes and omissions. First of all, it’s supposedly not any smaller than the 5.2-inch P9, and even more surprisingly, retains its full HD, 1080p resolution as well. Moreover, it is said to feature the same amount of RAM: 3GB.

The cuts were described as applying to the system-on-a-chip, which should be lower-end than the P9’s Kirin 950 from Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon. They continue on the body of the device which, unlike the standard P9, will apparently not be fully metal. And of course those dual cameras, a signature feature of the upcoming flagship, are also missing. “Lite,” or Venus, does manage to incorporate a rear fingerprint scanner, in the same manner as all of Huawei’s top-of-range handsets since 2014’s Mate 7.

We’ve now seen full or partial details of three handsets tipped to launch on the 6th: the P9, P9 “Premium,” and P9 “Lite.” Still up in the air: the alleged P9 “Max,” a phablet-class device that will likely incorporate many of the highest-end features detailed on these other models.