Huawei made an iPhone a luxury unibody phone. Are the specs as pretty as the case?

5.2" 1080 x 1920 (~423 ppi) IPS-NEO LCD

Huawei Kirin 955 Octa-core CPU (4x 2.5 GHz Cortex-A72 + 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) and Mali-T880 MP4 GPU

Dual 12 MP, f/2.2, 27 mm, Leica optics, dual-LED flash; 8 MP front-facing camera

32 or 64 GB internal storage, expandable via MicroSD (up to 128 GB additional)

Rear-case-mounted fingerprint sensor

Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Huawei beat Apple to the smooth-rear-case-punch, offering a slim phone, without the infamous camera bump.

Antenna bands, chamfered edges, brushed aluminum and—Pentalobes? The P9 seems to have taken the iPhone design as law, down to the nasty proprietary five-lobed screws.

Following our iPhone design hunch, we break out the iSclack, just in case there's a sneaky fingerprint sensor cable trap.

Turns out Huawei fixed that too! A long accordion-like cable allows the rear case to be almost entirely separated from the rest of the phone, making disconnection easy.

A little heat and some prying earns us a somewhat familiar-looking fingerprint sensor.

Brackets and screws start flying as we dig right in, disconnecting the battery for starters.

First to fall: the 8 MP, ƒ/2.4, selfie cam, its connector secured by some simple tape.

The front-facing camera is cute (and packs a pixel-dense punch), but we're really after its big brother(s).

The fancy dual-rear-facing camera is on a single ribbon cable, making it easy to pluck free.

The dual-camera assembly is noticeably shorter than the bump-inducing iPhone 6s camera, but not by much.

Who left their gum in here? Peeling up the motherboard reveals more thermal paste in a phone than we've seen in awhile.

Here are the front-side chips:

HiSilicon Kirin 955 (likely a HiSilicon Hi3650) octa-core processor layered underneath 3 GB of SK Hynix H9CKNNNDATMUQRN-UH LPDDR3 RAM

Samsung KLMBG2JENB-B041 32 GB eMMC NAND flash memory

Texas Instruments BQ25892 fast charging IC

HiSilicon Hi6402 audio codec

Maxim Integrated MAX98925 audio amplifier

Altek AL6610-72M1 AI camera processor (likely)

And bringing up the rear:

Broadcom BCM4345 5G Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 controller

Broadcom BCM47531A1—likely similar to the BCM4752 GNSS controller

NXP Semiconductor 54802 (PN548) NFC controller

Skyworks SKY78117, SKY78114, and SKY78113 SkyOne front-end modules for WCDMA/LTE and FDD/TDD LTE

HiSilicon Hi6421 power management IC

HiSilicon Hi6422 power management IC

Skyworks SKY87020-13 power management IC

IC Identification, pt. 2:

HiSilicon Hi6362 RF tranceiver

Skyworks SKY77360-12 quad-band GSM power amplifier module

Skyworks SKY13552-669LF DP12T antenna switch

Skyworks SKY13351-378LF switch

Skyworks SKY13598-683LF RF switch

Skyworks SKY19225-001 antenna tuning switch

Skyworks SKY19003-001 shunt switch

IC Identification, pt. 3:

NXP Semiconductor BGU8009 GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou low-noise amplifier (LNA)

NXP Semiconductor BGU8M1 LTE LNA

NXP Semiconductor BGU8H1 LTE LNA

Murata 324 Ln RF switch (likely)

Texas Instruments LP8758-E0 4-ch. step-down DC-DC converter

Texas Instruments TPS65132 display power supply

Texas Instruments DRV2605 haptic driver

IC Identification, pt. 4:

ON Semiconductor battery fuel gauge (likely)

Monolithic Power Systems MP3312GC LED driver

Texas Instruments flash controller (likely)

ON Semiconductor FUSB301A USB-C controller

ANGSemi Microelectronics AS3646B analog switch

Maxim Integrated MAX13042E 4-ch. bidirectional level translator

Renesas (formerly Intersil) ISL91110IIAZ adjustable buck-boost regulator

IC Identification, pt. 5 (sensors):

STMicroelectronics VL53L0X time-of-flight sensor (likely)

STMicroelectronics LSM6DS3 3-axis accelerometer/gyroscope

AKM Semiconductor AK09911 3-axis compass

Huawei is making it rain modular parts!

Despite rumors of a headphone jack free iPhone, the P9 features a standard 3.5 mm audio jack, compatible with your existing headphones.

The USB-C daughterboard also comes free with minimal hangers-on.

The itty bitty spring-contact-connected earpiece speaker pops right out of the display assembly.

The loudspeaker (complete with foam plug) takes a little encouragement from a plastic opening tool, but is shortly freed as well.

Pulling at some familiar black tabs we are elated to find adhesive pull tabs under the P9's battery.

And a good thing, too—with those two orange interconnect cables under the battery, prying through thick adhesive easily could have been dangerous for Mr. P9's health.

Huawei lists a couple specs for their battery: A "rated capacity" of 11.08 Wh and a "typical capacity" a bit higher at 11.46 Wh.

That puts the P9 battery ahead of the iPhone 6s Plus's 10.45 Wh and just under the Samsung Galaxy S7's 11.55 Wh battery.

Huawei P9 repairability score: 7 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair):

Modular components with spring contacts, thoughtful cabling, and minimal adhesive all make repair cheaper and easier.

The battery is straightforward to access. Removing it requires knowledge of the adhesive removal technique, but is not difficult.

The display assembly is a fused unit, and replacement requires near complete disassembly of the phone.

The P9 inexplicably uses Pentalobe security screws on the exterior, requiring a specialty screwdriver to open the phone.