The Huawei Mate 10 is the company’s latest flagship, bearing dual Leica lens, an AI-powered processor, and a 5.9-inch display.
Huawei Mate 10 Philippines
Huawei lent us a test unit and I’ve been using it for a few weeks now. So far, I like what I’m seeing. Before I give my initial impressions, let’s quickly go through the retail package and spec sheet.
Unboxing
The Huawei Mate 10 comes in a black square box with gold branding and Leica’s logo proudly displayed in front.
Inside the retail package you’ll find a travel charger, a USB Type-C cable, a headset, the SIM eject tool, and a good quality TPU jelly case. The Mate 10 also has a pre-installed screen protector. I’m not a fan of screen protectors, but I’m glad it’s there. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m happy that Huawei includes bonuses like protective cases with their phones. It’s one less thing to worry about.
The first words that came to mind when I first held the Mate 10 was “wow” and “premium.” The handset is beautiful with its metal and glass build. The front is mostly display, thanks to tiny bezels. My review unit is in Mocha Brown, which looks stunning.
Right away, I noticed that the phone easily attracts fingerprints. No biggie because it’s easy to clean. A quick wipe and it’s gone. I guess that’s the tradeoff of having front and back glass panels.
Another thing I also noticed is the phone’s 16:9 aspect ratio. This, together with the small top and bottom bezels, gave it a wider appearance in my eyes. It’s not wide, but only looks like it. It doesn’t have the elongated body that made 18:9 phones look sleeker. It’s still a sexy device, though, but I feel that the design would have benefited from that extra length.
The handset comes with a 5.9-inch quad HD IPS display. It dominates the face of the phone. The earpiece is flanked by the front camera on its right, and the light sensor and a discrete pulse notification light.
The glass back has the dual cameras with a dual LED flash and the laser autofocus. The camera lens is protruding from the panel. It would have looked better if it was flushed flat on the back. It has a metallic band or stripe that runs across the phone, highlighting the camera area, giving it a unique design.
You’ll find the USB Type-C port, the mic, and a single speaker grill at the bottom. The top has the headphone jack, an IR blaster, and another mic. The volume rockers and power button is on the left, and the SIM tray on the right.
Cameras
The Huawei Mate 10 features a dual 20MP + 12MP rear camera setup with Leica optics, an f/1.6 lens, OIS, PDAF, and laser AF. The two sensor allows for 2x lossless zoom, as well as creating bokeh. This also lets you refocus a shot after it was taken. The front camera uses an 8MP sensor with f/2.0 lens.
Also Read:
- Huawei Mate 10 Unboxing and First Impressions
- Specs Comparison: Huawei Mate 10 and Samsung Galaxy S8
Internals and AnTuTu Benchmark
The Mate 10 is powered by an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 970 processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI v8.0 on top.
The processor is the company’s first AI-enhanced SoC, and features a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) designed to drastically reduce the phone’s performance degradation over time. Basically, it learns a user’s behavior and adjusts resources accordingly. We’ll find out more about this as I continue to use the device for the review.
I ran AnTuTu to see where it is in benchmark performance. The device got a score of 175,193 points, and sits firmly on AnTuTu’s top ten ranking.
Initial Impressions
So far, my initial impressions are all positive. I am impressed with what Huawei has done with the phone. It is a beautiful device, matched by an exceptional build quality. It also has impressive size (or lack thereof) despite the large 5.9-inch display. And as a bonus, you also get a TPU case and a pre-installed screen protector.
That’s about it for my initial impressions. If you’re convinced that this is for you, Huawei has an ongoing trade-in promo for the flagship. If you need more convincing, stay tuned for our full review.
Price and Availability
The Huawei Mate 10 has a retail price of PHP32,990. It is now available in stores nationwide.
Huawei Mate 10 specs:
- 5.9-inch FullView IPS Display (2560 x 1440, 499 ppi)
- 16:9 Aspect Ratio, Gorilla Glass
- Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 970 Processor
- Mali-G72 MP12 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB Storage +microSD up to 256GB via SIM Slot
- Dual 20MP + 12MP Rear Camera, Leica Optics, f/1.6, OIS, 2x Lossless Zoom, PDAF, Laser AF, Dual LED Flash
- 8MP Front Camera, f/2.0
- 4G LTE
- Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Dual Band
- Bluetooth v4.2, aptX HD
- GPS
- NFC, Audio Jack
- USB Type-C
- Fingerprint Scanner (Front Mounted)
- EMUI 8.0, Android 8.0 Oreo
- 4,000 mAh Battery, SuperCharge
- Colors: Mocha Brown, Champagne Gold, Pink Gold
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