Huawei’s Mate 9 was easily one of my favorite smartphones over the past year, and today Huawei has announced its successor — the Mate 10 series. Consisting of two primary models, these new phones bring a lot to the table, so let’s dig in.
Starting off with the standard Mate 10, we’re looking at a simple evolution of previous devices with a refined and refreshed design. Huawei has swapped out the aluminum rear with a glass back, but moved the fingerprint sensor to the front like on the P10 earlier this year.
The Mate 10 has a 5.9-inch QHD LCD display at 16:9 with “3D Glass.” Under the hood it packs Huawei’s own Kirin 970 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage with a microSD slot, and a huge 4,000 mAh battery with fast charging (note: no wireless charging). There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack with a 32-bit DAC included.
The Mate 10 Pro (and the Porsche Design Edition) also features these specifications, but with a few enhancements. First, the Kirin 970 is paired with up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. The phone also packs a slightly bigger 6-inch display, but this time it’s an OLED panel at 18:9, but only at 1080p. The Mate 10 Pro also includes IP67 dust and water resistance, but drops the headphone jack and microSD slot.
For both phones, you’re getting Android Oreo out of the box with all of the new features it brings, and also Huawei’s EMUI 8.0 skin over top. While it doesn’t appear there’s much changed from what we saw in EMUI on the Mate 9 and P10, the company has continued to refine its feature set and focus on keeping the phone fast over time using AI.
Huawei says that thanks to a special co-processor, this phone can handle more advanced AI tasks locally rather than relying on the cloud to take care of it. One example highlighted how Huawei is using that AI is in the camera app, where the phone automatically recognizes objects it’s shooting and adjusts certain settings for better shots.
Speaking of, both the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro feature dual-cameras around back, this time landing with a 12MP standard sensor and a 20MP monochrome sensor, both with an impressive f/1.6 aperture. Up front, there’s a pretty standard 8MP shooter.
Both phones also support the ability to dock to a display with a simple adapter which enables a full desktop environment powered by your phone, similar to Samsung’s DeX feature.
The Huawei Mate 10 will be arriving later this month in Spain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, Austrailia, and other countries with 15 in total. Pricing lands at €699 or about $825 USD when directly converted.
The Mate 10 Pro, on the other hand, will see a wider launch in over two dozen countries including Germany, France, Italy, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Availability starts in mid-November with pricing starting at €799 (roughly $943 USD) for the 128GB/6GB variant.
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