The Huawei Mate 10 was released in the Philippines around November last year, and even though it came in the later part of 2017, it became an instant hit and one of Huawei's best-selling smartphones.
It is the upgraded version of its predecessor, the Mate 9, it has the same screen size, but with Quad HD resolution and narrower bezels. At a price of Php32,990, in actual fact, it is considered as one of the "cheapest" high-end phones in the market today, as some of its competitors are priced higher than this one. A.l. Brings an instant ultimate powerhouse to deliver a seamless experience to the users. It is backed up by the 64GB storage and 4GB RAM, an adequate amount for users' intuitive operation.
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| Huawei Mate 10 Review: Camera Smartphone At Its Best |
Will it left us a good impact? Take a look and let us find out in our review.
PHYSICAL:
The Huawei Mate 10 comes with a 5.9-inch QHD screen, that is 2560 x 1440 pixels. The 16:9 body-to-screen ratio is not a problem here as the display is looking awesome and premium, not to mention the bezels are reduced dramatically. Even though it has a massive panel, the details are still sharp thanks to the high pixel density. The craftsmanship is tremendously a top-notch among other premium handsets.
One of the most noticeable upgrades on the Mate 10 is that Huawei now uses a glass type of panel, instead of the usual metal-clad aesthetics that are found in the previous versions of Mate devices. The fingerprint scanner has been moved to the front from a more comfortable placement on the back of the Mate 9. The aforementioned fingerprint sensor is pretty fast, and most of the time, it unlocks very speedily. It also supports gestures - touch to back one step, touch and hold to back to home, slide left or right for recent tasks, and slide up for Google app.
Holding the Mate 10 feels very appealing in the hand. Sadly, the IP67 water and dust resistant are not implemented in the device, as it found only in the Pro version. This has only IP53 - which means, it's just a splash and dust resistant, so you won't need to worry when you accidentally spill water on it.
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| Front |
The screen performs well outdoor, and the viewing angles are also great with the output visible at all times. Above the display, you'll find the earpiece, the 8MP selfie camera and an array of sensors.
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| Top |
At the top, the microphone, infrared sensor and the 3.5 mm jack are located.
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| Bottom |
Down to the bottom side, we find the mouthpiece, USB Type-C port, and the single speaker. The loudspeaker is nice and really loud with no distortion at the highest volume. Audio quality via earphones are really good too, with solid bass and there's no static at any range.
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| Left |
On the left lies the hybrid dual-SIM and micro-SD card slots.
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| Right |
While on the right side are the volume rockers and the power button.
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| Back |
Lastly, switching at the back, we can find the dual 12MP + 20MP cameras with German-made Leica optics, auto focus system, dual-LED flash, and infrared sensor.
Also Read: Huawei Mate 10 Pro Now Available at Smart GigaX Plan 2399
SOFTWARE:
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| Software |
The operating system used in the Huawei Mate 10 is the latest Android 8.0 "Oreo" with the company's user proprietary interface on top, the EMUI 8.0. There's an option for enabling the app drawer in the settings. If not, all the applications installed in the phone can be found in the home screens. To group, some of them, in terms of functionality, just drag an app to another app to create a folder.
Themes are obtainable thru the Themes app, wherein, we can download many colorful icons with different designs to choose from. It'll change the entire user interface, the lock screen, app icons, and color. We can also adjust the home screen via transition effects.
Huawei also removed inessential bloatware, leaving some tools besides the usual Google applications. It includes the Phone Manager to optimize the performance of the phone, and the pre-loaded "Translator". Other stock apps, includes the Calculator, Torch, Contacts, Messages, Phone (Calls), Gallery, Music and other useful tools, such as the compass for location and smart controller, allowing the Mate 10 as a remote control via infrared to control some of our electronic devices like television, and CD or DVD players.
PERFORMANCE:
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| Benchmark Results |
The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is a powerhouse chipset, built in 10nm ARM-based 8-core SoC with two CPU clusters. One cluster is comprised of four Cortex-A73 cores that clock up to 2.4GHz, and the other of four Cortex-A53 cores that can attain up to 1.8GHz via big.LITTLE architecture.
Below are the benchmark scores:
- AnTuTu v7 - 211,776
- 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme - Max
- 3DMark Ice Storm - 30,572
- 3DMark OpenGL ES 3.1 - 1,521
- 3DMark Vulkan - 1,300
- 3DMark Sling Shot - 3,282
- API OpenGL ES 3.1 - 101,505
- API Vulkan - 117,858
- Work 2.0 - 6,953
- Geekbench Single-Core - 1,879
- Geekbench Multi-Core - 6,525
- Geekbench Renderscript - 8,218
The integrated 12-core graphics solution, the Mali-G72 is strong enough and is more than capable to handle high-graphics and challenging 3D games smoothly, without encountering any problems. Generally speaking, the GPU can almost compete with the Adreno 540 of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.
In general, almost if not all of the applications are running quickly and we didn't experience any heat problems on using the phone in a long run time straightly.
CAMERA:
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| Camera Interface |
The dual cameras at the back are optics made by Leica, consisting of a 12MP primary sensor and a 20MP secondary sensor, both of which has a f/1.6 aperture, accompanied by phase and laser autofocus, 10x optical and 2x lossless zoom and dual-LED flash. The latter secondary lens allows the user to capture images in a black-and-white scenario. The company claims that the combination of the captured photos from both lenses may result in a finer dynamic range and little amount of noise levels.
Modes are quite many that can be found in the user interface of the camera, including the "light painting" that enables you to take pictures without using the pro mode and unaccompanied by adjusting the aperture and exposure value.
Main Camera Sample Photos:
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| Daylight (Auto) |
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| No Zoom |
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| Max Zoom |
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| Indoor |
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| Portrait Mode |
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| Foodie (Mediterranean style Grilled Octopus on Santorini Fava Bean Puree) |
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| Low Light |
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| Night Mode |
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| Pro Mode (ISO: 50, ET: 25 seconds) |
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| Monochrome |
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| Light Trail |
The resulting images are very impressive, far more than what we expect from it, and comparable, if not better than other high-end devices in the market today. There are lots of details, even in low-light situations, and the dynamic range is absolutely incredible. The autofocus is fast, the sharpness and the richness are great too. The noise level is kept at a minimum, even in extremely dim light surroundings. Zooming 100% view, the details are still there, but it may look over-processed for some.
See Also: Huawei Mate 9 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 Update Now Available in the Philippines
Front Camera Sample Photos:
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| Selfie |
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| Selfie with Beautification |
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| Group Selfie |
Selfies can be taken using the 8MP front camera with f/2.0 sensor. It shoots decent photos as long as there's an ample light source.
CONNECTIVITY:
The Huawei Mate 10 is certainly a global smartphone, as it supports four GSM, four 3G and, 16 LTE bands. The signal quality is fast with no issue or problem encountered when connecting to both mobile data or with Wi-Fi routers. Speaking of the latter, the Wi-Fi module can support the IEEE 802.11ac standard with a theoretical speed of around 7Gbps, moreover, it works on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Other on-board connectivity features are the Bluetooth v4.2, NFC, and GPS that has A-GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou modules for fast navigation.
BATTERY:
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| Battery Life |
Huawei still hasn't changed the battery capacity of the Mate 10, but we still achieved 9 hours and 31 minutes on the PC Mark test. That score is already impressive considering the QHD display and more powerful chip, however, it fell short when compared to 12 hours and 13 minutes of the Mate 9. In real life usage, we scored a screen-on time of 6 hours and 1 minute, that includes data connection, Wi-Fi connectivity, watching videos and listening to some streaming applications.
To extend the battery life, there are some power-saving modes to help in. Charging time is really fast, as it fully refilled the device in just 90 minutes.
CONCLUSION:
The Mate 10 leaves us an outstanding impression in our review. It is truly a good upgrade from its predecessor, not just on the display quality and camera aspects, but in overall performance, leaving a true "flagship" impression for both newbie and seasoned Android users.
If you're looking for a powerful smartphone with a big screen and high-end features in a sub-33k price range, then we highly recommend the Huawei Mate 10.
Huawei Mate 10 Specs:
- Dual Nano-SIM, dual standby, supports LTE (Category 18) connectivity
- 5.9-inch 16:9 IPS capacitive QHD (2560 x 1440) touchscreen display, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
- Dimensions: 150.5mm x 77.8mm x 8.2mm
- Weight: 186 grams
- Android 8.0 Oreo, EMUI 8.0
- 64-bit 2.4GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset, Mali-G72 MP12 GPU
- 4GB of RAM
- 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB (microSD)
- 12MP f/1.6 + 20MP f/1.6 main cameras, phase detection and laser auto-focus with dual-LED flash, 2160p video recording
- 8MP f/2.0 secondary camera
- Multimedia player
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, and BDS
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- USB 3.1 Type-C 1.0 with OTG capable
- Bluetooth v4.2
- Sensors: fingerprint (rear), accelerometer, proximity, barometer, compass, gyroscope
- Battery: 4,000 mAh lithium-polymer, non-removable, fast charging support
- Price: PHP32,990
- Color: Mocha Brown, Pink Gold, Black, Champagne Gold