At the moment when the iPhone 8, which we wrote about in our earlier special, and then the iPhone X and Google Pixel 2, hit the market, the famous Chinese brand Huawei does not give up and shows that it also “has a racehorse”. Just a few days ago, on October 16, the latest Huawei phones were presented in Munich – Huawei Mate 10, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, and Huawei Porsche Design. The Huawei Mate 10 caught our eye for a simple reason – this is a smartphone that I am learning.
Design and display of Huawei Mate 10 phones
If you have had the opportunity to play with the predecessors of this phone, then you will be familiar with the feeling. Namely, Huawei Mate 8 and Huawei Mate 9 are very similar to this phone, but there is one important difference – Huawei Mate 10 has a complete metal body with a glass background. It seems that Huawei has decided to present us with its classic, well-known design in this version of the phone and surprise us at the same time.
As for the display, it is a large screen, 5.9 inches. The screen is a Quad HD LCD, with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 and supports all content whose aspect ratio is 16: 9. Huawei Mate 10 also supports HDR10, which allows even greater enjoyment when watching YouTube or Netflix videos. As Huawei himself claims, there is serious progress compared to its “ten” predecessor, and that is the brightness of the screen, which has been increased by 30%. On the other hand, we would add that if you have slightly smaller hands, you may have trouble scrolling, but trust us, you will get used to it quickly. The headphone jack is on the top, while the USB type C charging cable slot is on the bottom.
Huawei Mate 10 comes in several colors – gold (Champagne Gold), pink (Pink), black (Black) and brown (Mocha Brown).
The final verdict on the design is that this phone needed a little more imagination in that domain. Keep in mind that Huawei always has one “ace up its sleeve”, and that is functionality, so the design has to suffer a bit.
What is the camera like on the Huawei Mate 10?
If there’s one thing Huawei is known for, it’s a collaboration with Leica, a famous brand of photo equipment. Cooperation was not lacking this time either, so there is a camera with double Leica lenses on the back. As on the Huawei P10 phone, on the back, you can find two f / 1.6 lenses – one of 12 MP, the other of 20 MP. The first lens is a lens that captures color when shooting, RGB (Red, Green, Blue) lens while the second is monochrome, more precisely black and white.
The way a camera like this works is to take photos with both lenses, then it turns two separate photos into one. An added benefit is the incredible autofocusing ability – just enough for the camera to notice any movement and focus on that subject. The most impressive part of the camera is that it is suitable for shooting at night, ie in a room that is not so bright. The camera is also connected in part to artificial intelligence, so there are 14 scenes and objects that the phone recognizes like certain types of food, dog, and the like.
Software support – Android + EMUI 8
Huawei phones are one of the few that combine 2 operating systems – Android and Emotion UI, so this is the case this time as well. The Huawei Mate 10 runs the latest Android Oreo, with the addition of the Emotion UI version 8. If you remember, the latest version of the Emotion OS was 5.1, but Huawei decided to keep up with Android and make using this phone as easy as possible.
With all the new phones coming out, Huawei knew there was no chance of it breaking through unless it added one feature – a split-screen. With one touch of the screen, you can already see two applications running at the same time.
Hardware and artificial intelligence
We are thrilled with the speed and ease with which we move through the phone. Namely, Huawei Mate 10 is powered by Kirin 970, an eight-core processor, which Huawei says is the best so far. This should come as no surprise, given that the processor has a Neural Process Unit (NPU), a unit that enables the operation of artificial intelligence. As for the memory, we didn’t expect anything less – it’s 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, with the possibility of an expansion via a microSD card, of 256 GB.
At the introduction of the Huawei Mate 10, it was said to be the first phone to have built-in artificial intelligence. What exactly this means we are not sure, because Huawei has not yet revealed this secret, but what we know is that the phone has the ability to learn – remember how you used the phone before, to improve its performance in the future. For example, if you charge the phone during the night while you sleep, the phone will remember that this is the time when it should recharge the battery. On the other hand, as Richard Yu, CEO of Consumer Business Group, explained, one of the ideas of artificial intelligence is to make the phone’s camera look like the human eye – to be able to see and recognize things. And right there, AI (Artificial Intelligence) appears on the scene.
A battery that will last forever
One specification in which the Huawei Mate 10 definitely wins is the battery and its life. It is a 4000 mAh battery, just like on the ninth version of this phone. Although tech critics complain that there is no wireless charging option, as with some competitors, we say you don’t even need it. Huawei comes with a SuperCharge option that charges the phone from 0% to 58% for half an hour. Huawei claims that this option is twice as fast and better than the one on the iPhone 8 Plus phone.
We do not complain, on the contrary, this is one of the best batteries on the market.
Lastly, what is our final word on the Huawei Mate 10 phone?
In the end, what to say? Our opinion is that the Huawei Mate 10 is a great phone for all those looking for performance, not a sleek and Samsung-like design. What we liked about the Huawei Mate 10 are:
- Battery life
- Camera (collaboration with Leica)
- Incredible performance.
We have to admit that we are a little skeptical about the whole situation with artificial intelligence because we are not even sure yet how it works and what its charms are. So we would put this item under the only flaw of this “elegant guy”.
So, if you are not chasing trends and you need a phone that will “do the job” and cost you a fortune, then the Huawei Mate 10 is the right choice for you.