 Under the company's current hardware release cadence, P series phones are typically directed towards mainstream consumers as the company's flagship smartphones, refining and expanding upon technologies introduced in Mate series devices (which are typically positioned towards early adopters).The P series has featured a strong emphasis on camera functionality; since 2016, and beginning with the Huawei P9, Huawei has been in a co-engineering partnership with the German manufacturer Leica.The Huawei P1 was released on July 19, 2012 in Canada, named as the Ascend P20 lite.