USB Type-C based Huawei P10 Supports Huawei SuperCharge Fast Charging

With its latest flagship, the P10, Huawei continues what it started with the P8 and P9 where it uses its own brand name rather than a sub-brand like Ascend or Honor. Like the Huawei P9, the Huawei P10 has co-branded its camera technology with Leica and uses a USB Type-C connector.

While the Huawei P9 doesn't make full use of fast charging capabilities through its USB Type-C connector, the Huawei P10 now comes with its own proprietary SuperCharge technology over USB Type-C. Huawei's SuperCharge enables quick charging for the Huawei P10 by providing higher current levels at lower voltages.       

The Huawei P10 is embedded with the newer and faster Huawei owned HiSilicon Kirin 960 chipset and runs on Android 7.0. It offers up to 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM depending on the supported model. 

The Huawei P10 brand is mostly strongly promoted in China where you can find it easily in Huawei flagship stores placed in popular shopping areas around in China like this one in Xian.

Unfortunately, Huawei stores in China are not targeting international visitors despite the large number of tourists that visit their stores since they don't accept foreign credit cards.

Ironically, we then had to travel all the way to Japan to purchase the Chinese made Huawei P10 which we got in Bic Camera store in Shin-Yokohama. Unlike many retail stores in China which don't accept foreign credit cards, many of the large electronics stores in Japan welcome all forms of payment including those popular in China and offer GST tax avoidance if you purchase with a foreign passport.

The Huawei P10 came in almost similar packaging as the Huawei P9 that also shows off its partnership with high end German camera maker Leica.

The Huawei P10 has almost the same accessories as the Huawei P9, which also consist of earbuds, power charger, plastic phone cover, and USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable.

The power charger that comes with the Huawei P10 is the Huawei SuperCharger that claims to provide either 22.5 watts (4.5 volts @ 5 amps or 5 volts @ 4.5 amps) to the phone when connected using the USB Type-A to Type-C cable.

The plastic covering on the back conveniently shows you the functions of the external buttons and how to insert the main and secondary SIM cards and a micro SD card into the Huawei P10.

The IMEI identification number is printed on a sticker in the back that is not as easy to remove.

The Huawei P10 closely resembles the Huawei P9 by also having two Leica SUMMARIT-H branded camera lenses (f/2.2 aperture) but with better 20MP+12MP sensors and 4K video capture capability. Huawei's partnership with Leica has helped to position its camera features as high-end and differentiate it from its competitors.

While the Huawei P9 had followed Android's direction in keeping the fingerprint scanner in the back, the Huawei P10 now has it in the bottom front making it more like the Apple iPhone which is its main competitor in the premium phone category.

The LCD screen of the Huawei P10 comes with added Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection for scratch resistance. The overall feel of the phone in your hand is great and much improved over the P8 which had sharp edges.

Despite the premium positioning of the Huawei P10, the USB Type-C connector of the Huawei P10 has features closer to those of lower end phones by only supporting USB 2.0 speeds lacking any DisplayPort support. For fast charging, the Huawei P10 uses its own SuperCharge  technology.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we can see that the Huawei P10 supports charging in using 10 watts (5 volts @ 2 amps) and 18 watts (9 volts @ 2 amps) as well as 5 watts (5 volts @ 1 amps) output. Note some compliance failures were observed.

DUT Information

Manufacturer	Huawei
Model Number	P10
Serial Number	Comm

Test Information

Date and Time:

20180226_040903

Controller and Instrument Information

Parameter	Value
GRL USB-PD_C2 Serial No.	039.019.039.027.062.
GRL USB-PD Software Version	1.3.3.8
GRL USB-PD Firmware Version	1.3.3.0.7
Board Calibration	Calibration Success.
App Mode	COMMUNICATION_ENGINE_TESTS
Tx Mask	true
Rx Mask	false
RX mask Power selection	Neutral Power
Device Type	DRP
Cable IR drop Imp(R)	0

Product Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
UUT_Device_Type
Vendor_Name	Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Product_Name
Version_Info
TID	0x0
Type_C	NONE
SOP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Debug_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Debug_Capable	NONE
Manufacturer_Info_Supported_Port
Manufacturer_Info_VID_Port
Manufacturer_Info_PID_Port
USB_Comms_Capable	YES
DR_Swap_To_DFP_Supported	YES
DR_Swap_To_UFP_Supported	YES
Externally_Powered	NO
VCONN_Swap_To_On_Supported	NONE
VCONN_Swap_To_Off_Supported	NONE
Responds_To_Discov	NONE
Attempts_Discov	NONE
Chunking_Implemented_SOP	NO
Unchunked_Extended_Messages_Supported	NO
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Src	YES
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Snk	YES
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Src	NONE
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Snk	NONE
XID
Structured_VDM_Version	V1.0
Data_Capable_as_USB_Host	YES
Data_Capable_as_USB_Device	YES
Product_Type_UFP_SOP
Product_Type_DFP_SOP	Peripheral
Modal_Operation_Supported	NO
Security_Msgs_Supported_SOP	NO
USB_VID	0x12D1
PID	0x107E
bcdDevice	0x0
SVIDs Min	0
SVIDs Max	0
SVID Fixed	NONE

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_Power_as_Sink
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	YES
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NO
Higher_Capability_Set	NO
Num_Snk_PDOs
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0xC8(2A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0xC8(2A)
PD_Power_as_Source
Rp Value
USB Suspend may be cleared	NO
Send Ping	NONE
No of Source PDOs
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Peak Current #1	0x0(A)
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
Max Current #1	0x64(1A)
Supply Type #2	-
Min Voltage #2	-
Max Voltage #2	-
Supply Type #3	-
Min Voltage #3	-
Max Voltage #3	-
Supply Type #4	-
Min Voltage #4	-
Max Voltage #4	-
Supply Type #5	-
Min Voltage #5	-
Max Voltage #5	-
PD_Power_as_Sink
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	YES
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NO
Higher_Capability_Set	NO
Num_Snk_PDOs
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0xC8(2A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0xC8(2A)

Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	BMC-PHY-TX-EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	BMC-PHY-TX-BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	BMC-PHY-RX-INT-REJ	PASS
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	BMC-PHY-RX-BUSIDL	FAIL
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	BMC-PHY-TERM	PASS
7	TDA.2.2.1	BMC-PROT-SEQ-GETCAPS	PASS
10	TDA.2.2.5	BMC-PROT-DISCOV	PASS
12	TDA.2.2.7	BMC-PROT-BIST-NOT-5V-SRC	PASS
14	TDA.2.3.1.1	POW-SRC-LOAD-P-PC	PASS
15	TDA.2.3.1.2	POW-SRC-LOAD-CP-ACC	PASS
19	TDB.2.2.9	BMC-PROT-GSC-REC	FAIL

BMC Eye Diagram

We'll find out in the coming reviews on how the phone performs with Huawei SuperCharge, Qualcomm Quick Charge, and USB Power Delivery based chargers.