It’s been teased quite a bit over the past few weeks, and now it’s finally revealed. The Huawei Mate 10. Huawei’s flagship, the most powerful, most beautiful and the smartest yet. The Mate 10 lineup, as expected comprises the standard Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro and Mate 10 Porsche Design. What didn’t make the cut was the rumoured Mate 10 Lite.
Huawei Mate 10
The standard Mate 10 offers a super high resolution 5.9-inch Quad HD display, although it runs Full HD+ by default. It uses a conventional 16:9 screen aspect ratio that makes it possible to retain a front-mounted fingerprint display.
The display rocks 730 nits and supports HDR10 for ultimate dynamic range.
The new flagship rocks a brand new design—a multi-axis curved design with a glass back. Huawei’s added a signature stripe, which they say makes it stand out, but ultimately serves no functional purpose aside from cosmetics.
The body is IP53-rated, meaning it’s spill and dust resistant.
Huawei has been touting its latest 10nm octa-core Kirin 970 chip, which it claims to be “the first with a neural processing unit.” The dedicated Neural Processing Unit makes it possible for advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities.
It packs 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, upgradable via microSD using a hybrid SIM slot.
Huawei with its background in networking and network infrastructure, naturally has the capability to put the best radio in its devices. The Mate 10 supports 4.5G with Cat.18 LTE, boasting 4×4 MIMO, 256QAM and 5CC CA.
You’ll be chuffed to know that it’s a dual-SIM device that supports dual 4G connectivity. Both SIMs can make use of 4G with VoLTE simultaneously.
The Mate 10 rocks a brand new Leica Dual Camera setup, which consists of 12MP RGB + 20MP monochrome sensors. Both cameras feature the f/1.6 SUMMILUX-H superfast lens.
The cameras feature 4-in-1 hybrid focus (depth, laser, contrast and PDAF) and supports Huawei Hybrid Zoom. They also boast optical image stabilisation (OIS).
On the front, the Mate 10 comes with a commendable 8MP f/2.0 front-facing unit with a fixed focus lens.
With AI integration thanks to its new NPU, it makes possible improved real-time object recognition, and scene detection. The camera will apply the best settings based on environment and purpose—whether portrait, scenery, night shot, action, pet, or food. I got to test this recently, and it’s fast.
Keeping the device juiced the whole day is a 4,000mAh battery that supports Huawei SuperCharge via USB Type-C. Huawei says its charging technology is the world’s first end-to-end fast charging feature to be certified by TUV Rheinland.
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
The Mate 10 Pro shares much of its underpinnings with the standard Mate 10. However, it comes with a 6-inch 18:9 FullView AMOLED display. It’s a FullHD+ display and because it’s a edge-to-edge screen, the fingerprint sensor is moved to the back.
Everything else is pretty much the same under the hood except it gets more memory and storage. The Pro rocks 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage sans any expandable storage.
Dimension-wise, the Mate 10 Pro is slightly thinner than the Mate 10—7.9mm compared to 8.2mm.
On the Mate 10 Pro, Huawei ditches the 3.5mm headphone jack to provide high-res audio support out-of-the-box. There’s a pair of USB Type-C headphones in the retail packaging, by the way.
For the first time ever, the Mate 10 Pro gets IP67 dust- and water-resistance.
The Huawei Mate 10 Pro comes in Titanium Grey, Midnight Blue, Mocha Brown and Pink Gold colour options.
Huawei Mate 10 Porsche Design
Huawei continues its partnership with Porsche Design to release yet another limited edition device. The Mate 10 Porsche Design is undeniably beautiful, inspired by the Porsche 911.
It comes in a single colour: Diamond Black and comes with a uniquely designed case back.
It comes with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
The Mate 10 series runs EMUI 8 based on Android Oreo out of the box.
EMUI 8 brings plenty of new features out of the box, including Smart Split Screen mode, one of the slickest implementations of split screens I’ve seen on a mobile.
Pricing and availability
The Huawei Mate 10 is available in Mocha Brown, Champagne Gold, Pink Gold and Black, at a retail price of EUR699. It’s expected to go for MYR2,699 when it hits Malaysia at the end of the month.
The Mate 10 Pro, on the other hand carries a EUR799 price tag, and is expected to retail at MYR3,199-3,299 in Malaysia.
The Porsche Design costs a whopping EUR1,395 (MYR6,943) and will be available in selected markets starting next month. No word on local availability.
Source: Soyacincau | Photos: Alexander Wong
