Huawei Mate 10 & Mate 10 Pro Review - All About Promises

**The Huawei Mate 10 Series: A Comprehensive Review**

### Introduction: The Promise of Innovation

Huawei has long been following in the footsteps of Samsung, steadily increasing its global market share and gaining a foothold in Western markets. While some might argue that Samsung was once the premier innovator in the smartphone space, Huawei is now making significant strides toward challenging this notion. The Huawei Mate 10 series serves as a prime example of where the company is headed, offering a blend of innovation, performance, and features that promise to deliver a better long-term future for users.

### Display: A Key Differentiator

The display is one of the primary points of difference between the Huawei Mate 10 and its Pro variant. Both models feature a metal frame sandwiched between sheets of Gorilla Glass, with Huawei's new signature stripe highlighting the dual-wiper engineered cameras. While this design departs from some of the typical metal phone aesthetics seen in other brands, it aligns well with the current flagship trends of 2017.

The Mate 10 Pro boasts an 18:9 aspect ratio OLED display with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. In contrast, the standard Mate 10 comes equipped with a 16:9 IPS LCD display, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. Both models support HDR 10 displays, which are expected to benefit from increasing mobile HDR content over time.

The Pro version's OLED panel is noted for its vibrant colors and punchy whites, while the regular Mate 10 features a quad HD panel with higher pixel density. Despite the difference in resolution, most users are unlikely to notice a significant disparity unless quad HD is a critical requirement.

### Battery: Longevity and AI-Powered Efficiency

Both devices come with a 4,000 mAh battery, paired with Huawei's SuperCharge fast-charging technology. With the phone turned off, it can charge up to a third of its capacity in just 15 minutes, over half in 30 minutes, and reach 85-90% in an hour. This setup is complemented by AI-powered battery management, which learns user habits over time to optimize resource allocation for extended battery life.

The Pro version's combination of a 10-nanometer chipset, OLED display, and black theme further enhances its battery performance, with reviewers achieving around 6 hours of screen-on time under optimal conditions. While actual results may vary based on usage and brightness levels, the Mate 10 series is poised to be among the best battery performers of the year.

### AI Performance: The Kirin 970 Chipset

At the heart of the Mate 10 series lies the Kirin 970 chipset, which features a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for handling complex tasks on-device. While AI's role is prominent, it currently has limited applications beyond speeding up certain processes and learning user habits to improve efficiency.

The NPU's capabilities are showcased in features like Google Translate integration, MP4-based photo translation, and scene recognition for dynamic settings adjustment. Over time, Huawei promises more updates, including support for Google AR Core and neural network apps, positioning the Mate 10 series as an open AI platform for developers.

### Camera: A Standout Feature

The camera system in the Mate 10 series is undeniably impressive, featuring a dual-lens setup with a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12-megapixel RGB sensor. The autofocus mechanism is reliable, and the RGB lens excels in image stabilization, particularly in low-light conditions.

Low-light photography is notably strong, producing shots with minimal noise and visible detail. However, the AI scene recognition sometimes leads to over-processing, resulting in crushed blacks that may not appeal to all users. Despite this, the camera's ability to capture action shots without blur and its reliable HDR mode make it a standout feature for enthusiasts.

The monochrome sensor provides excellent detail, but some may wish for additional features like wide-angle or 2x zoom lenses for even more versatility. The inclusion of a 2x hybrid zoom does provide better detail than standard cropped shots, though it introduces more noise.

### Software Features: A Rich Ecosystem

Running on Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0, the Mate 10 series offers a range of software features that set it apart from competitors. Highlights include notification dots, app shortcuts, smart text selection, and picture-in-picture mode. While not all Google features are faithfully implemented, Project Treble ensures faster future updates.

Huawei's commitment to innovation is evident in its Doppler desktop mode, which transforms the phone into a desktop experience using a USB-C to HDMI cable. This feature allows users to connect peripherals like Bluetooth mice and keyboards, though it may feel sluggish at times. Other notable features include smart split-screen functionality, fingerprint-locked profiles for privacy, and floating navigation gestures that free up screen space.

### Audio and Connectivity: High-Quality Features

Both models deliver stereo sound through bottom-firing grills and earpiece speakers, with support for lossless 32-bit audio at 384 kHz. While the audio experience is generally good, maximum volume can lead to a tinny sound from the earpiece.

Connectivity features include dual 4G VoLTE, Cat 18 LTE, AI voice recognition, and noise cancellation. The Mate 10 Pro also offers water resistance, headphone ports, and microSD expansion, making it a versatile choice for various users.

### Conclusion: A Promising Step Forward

The Huawei Mate 10 series represents a significant step forward in the company's quest to challenge Samsung and other leading smartphone manufacturers. While there are areas where improvements could be made—such as inconsistent Google app integration and certain hardware limitations—the overall package is impressive.

With its cutting-edge AI capabilities, top-tier camera performance, robust battery life, and rich software ecosystem, the Mate 10 series is a strong contender in the crowded flagship market. As Huawei continues to兑现 its promises, the future looks bright for this rising star in the industry.

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For more detailed insights, check out the full video review linked below. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and enable notifications to stay updated with the latest Android news and reviews!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe huawei mate ten series is all about promises the promise of AI in your smartphone the promise of a rising star in the industry and the promise of a better long-term future for your device well where's being hot on the heels of Samsung for many years now slowly increasing its global market and its Western mind share in fact it's no stretch to say that while way rather than Samsung is now the premier innovator in the smartphone space and the huawei mate ten series a very promising example of where Huawei is headed while way is essentially marketing these phones around four main selling points the display the camera battery and AI base performance the display is the first point of difference between the two phones both comprised metal frame sandwiched between sheets of Gorilla Glass with Huawei's new signature stripe highlighting the dual wiper engineered cameras there are departure from wild ways typical metal phones but they fall in line with the current 2017 flagship trend will be it without the addition of wireless charging on the upside you now have a place to store your fingerprint collection the mate zone pro is the more expensive version with an eighteen to nine aspect ratio OLED display and up to six gig of ram in 128 gig of storage the mate 10 sticks with an IPS LCD at 16 to 9 resolution with 4 gig of ram and 64 gig of storage while the mate tens dual SIM slot can be used for microSD expansion the pro version only supports dual SIM both models have HDR 10 displays and while there's still not too much mobile HDR content around right now there will be over the lifetime of these phones both panels hit 713 it's in brightness but the make 10 pros OLED panel producers punchy of colors and white of whites for some reason why we chose to put a full HD plus resolution panel on the pro version while the regular may 10 gets a quad HD panel meaning the regular May 10 has higher pixel density but unless quad HD is really important to you you won't be disappointed by the Pro versions panel plus the combination of the brand new 10 nanometer chipset Aoi battery management and OLED display with a black theme and lower resolution means if you're all about battery life you can squeeze even more battery out of the pro version on my best day I managed to hit around 6 hours of screen on time while I was inside and had the brightness set to around 40% obviously your mileage may vary depending on how you use your phone and how bright you have your screen but that number generally hovers around 4 to 5 hours speaking of the battery both units come with a four thousand milliamp hour cell with Huawei supercharged with the phone turned off you can charge a third of the battery in 15 minutes a little over half in half an hour and around 85 to 90 percent in a full 60 minutes Huawei is taking Samsung's misfortunes to heart and has stepped up its battery safety as well having its fast charging solution certified by TUV Rheinland the battery is also the first place we see a eye on the may 10 hey i power battery management promises the world much like while weighs born fast a fast mantra but like that performance over time promise you're going to have to wait until the huawei mate n learns all of your habits only then can it better allocate resources to eke out more battery life for your particular style of usage of course this will only happen or not long after you've dropped your cash on it but history has shown that while waste combination of a large battery great fast charging and solid battery management means that May 10 and May 10 Pro will likely be among the best battery performers of the year now as you may have guessed AI plays a pretty big part in the performance of the may 10 to the Kiran 917 chipset has a dedicated neural processing unit that handles complex processing tasks on device rather than in the cloud but it must be noted that AI has a prominent but limited place on the May 10 I wouldn't go so far as to say it's pure marketing but the benefits of AI and the NP you will only really be felt over time as there are precious few features using their full capabilities right now whywe assures me that more will be delivered over time not held off until the next device in the series Google Translate will soon join Microsoft's Translate app which uses the mp4 near-instant photo based translation and the 13 objects in scenes the camera can currently recognize to automatically adjust settings will increase as the NPU image database expands Google's AR core will arrive via an update later this year and the neural network ap eyes are coming next year the curé 970 is also being positioned as an open AI platform for developers meaning further applications to tap its full potential are sure to arrive in time but for now the NP you and AI kind of sit in the background speeding up some parts of the experience totally learning your habits suggesting smart tips based on context awareness and generally just promising more benefits in future I primarily use the May 10 Pro during this review and found the experience to be reliably fast if not light-years ahead as the a I promise might have you believe they experience the usual stutters and glitches coming into any phone and had a few issues with Google Apps playing nice with emui the main tends run android 8.0 oreo out of the box with emu i ate on top several oreo features are on board like notification dots launch app shortcuts smart text selection and picture-in-picture mode but while we can't exactly be relied upon for the most faithful implementation of google features and several others don't make it at all including adaptive icons and notification channels fortunately oreo brings with us the promise of project treble meaning that updates in the future shouldn't be a sluggish as they have been in Huawei's past while way is even said as much with two years of guaranteed updates and at least one major Android version bump as always huawei like the Samsung of old makes up for it by loading on more software features than you can poke a stick at perhaps the biggest ticket feature on the may 10 and a big middle finger to Samsung is a Doppler desktop mode you just need a USB type-c to HDMI cable with DisplayPort support and you can plug your phone directly into a monitor lore'l lets you attach various peripherals like a bluetooth mouse and keyboard where you can use the phone as a kind of trackpad to get you through a presentation it's a little sluggish but it works any calls or messages that come in while in desktop mode will still be handled by the phone and not show up on screen to maintain your privacy it's a little weird to get used to but a handy option to have and it'll be interesting to see where this kind of functionality goes in the future other software features include smart split screen so if you're watching a video or playing a game and a message comes in the main tone will let you jump into split screen mode so you can do two things at once now if snooping is an issue for you you can register a fingerprint which accesses a whole other version of your phone that way you can keep your dirty secret secret by unlocking your phone with your clean finger or pattern a floating navigation dope lets you open up all that screen real estate by using a floating bubble that works much like fingerprint scanner gestures to control navigation without the usual on-screen buttons now can go on endlessly about the specifics of huawei software features but if you want to read the full review head on down to the video description because now I want to move on to the camera which I firmly believe is the most impressive part of the May 10 series 2f 1.6 summer Lux HD lenses sit on the back of both mate a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12 megapixel RGB sensor four-way what I focus is very reliable and oh is on the RGB lens helps with image stabilization especially in low-light conditions I found the photos out of the may tend to be generally very good well you get some impressive shots out of the mate nine if you were using full manual controls the may tenant offers the same level of quality but in auto mode bringing Huawei's photography potential mainstream low-light photography especially was impressive with very little noise or visible brain it has to be noted though that the May 10th ends to crush blacks in its attempt to stamp out noise altogether making most nighttime photos look good but visibly darker than the actual scene depending on how you feel about noise versus overall lightness you'll either love or hate flyaways approach here other phones like the pixel to try really hard to lighten the scenes that tend to add much more noise than you'll find on the may 10 some of this no doubt has to do with the AI scene recognition which you can thankfully override but only by using the manual controls or choosing another preset like HDR which is not my ideal solution if you don't like the a I assisted results a simple toggle in the camera app for disabling AI scene recognition would be a much better idea but IIM the camera is not all bad though io motion detection means capturing moving subjects without blur is quite easy with the maintain able to capture action shots without any visible movement even in pretty poor lighting the scene recognition works very reliably to automatically adjusting settings to best capture the subject or scene it'll just depend on whether you agree with the AI or not on what constitutes the best settings the only real problem I had with the may 10 camera was over sharpening the sharpening in some shots tends to make the result look too fake take this dog photo where everything is a little too sharp and to look lifelike then there's this one where everything pans out perfectly this kind of variability is emblematic of the may 10 camera performance for me multiple shots taken one after the other can often produce very different results in HDR mode to the HDR version would occasionally lighten the shadows as you'd expect it to but in others that would produce darker shadows than the original shot you'll always get at least one photo that is fantastic but I definitely recommend always firing off a couple just to be sure in good lighting the may 10 shoots great shots like any other high-end smartphone the monochrome sensor doesn't always seem to provide that much extra detail though making me wonder how much more fun the may 10 camera could if it had a wide-angle lens like the LGP 30 or a 2x zoom lens like the note 8 hey I also helped provide a 2x hybrid zoom which produces results a lot more like those you'd find on the pixel with more noise but a lighter palette and more detail in the shadows it definitely produces better detail than a crop 10 standard shot what remote is very reliable if not perfect and wide aperture mode has improved since the Mait 9 to both understandably look a little fake but are perfectly good for a new profile pic or social share if while waist cameras put you off in the past for being too complicated the may 10 rectify that situation bringing very impressive results to a point-and-shoot audience there's a little bit of character to the may 10 camera that you'll have to learn to love but if that doesn't put you off then it's a very capable shooter there's a whole laundry list of other firsts and improvements on the mate 10m 810 Pro from dual 4G voice over LTE and cat 18 LTE to AI voice recognition and noise cancellation and calls both devices have stereo speakers courtesy of bottom firing grill and the earpiece speaker but at max volume which hits around 80 decibels the sound gets too tinny for my liking especially from the earpiece and the headphone experience is much better support for lossless 32 bit audio at 384 kilohertz is a nice touch of overkill but the presence of high-end codecs in norio will not be enough to satisfy potential mate 10 pro buyers who prefer wired headphones fortunately you can always use the included types of earbuds all live the dongle life and enjoy Huawei's audio tuning on your favorite set of cans water resistance qHD panels headphone ports and microSD expansion of the stalwarts of smartphone shopping but by mixing and matching features so randomly there's no obvious winner here at 699 euros the May 10 has all the regular bases covered but at 799 euros the mate 10 pro is in some ways superior well in other ways not as feature-rich it'll be the only version to make it to the US though with global pricing and availability coming soon despite a few questionable choices the maintainer May 10 Pro are really nice phones and while they may not yet be meeting Samsung head-to-head they're a positive step in that direction if while we manages to come through on any or even all of the promises that's made with the may 10 series then they're guaranteed to get better over time as always thank you so much for watching just hit that link in the video description if you want more details on either device and hit that like button subscribe to the channel and ring the bell for upload notifications because we are your source for all things Androidthe huawei mate ten series is all about promises the promise of AI in your smartphone the promise of a rising star in the industry and the promise of a better long-term future for your device well where's being hot on the heels of Samsung for many years now slowly increasing its global market and its Western mind share in fact it's no stretch to say that while way rather than Samsung is now the premier innovator in the smartphone space and the huawei mate ten series a very promising example of where Huawei is headed while way is essentially marketing these phones around four main selling points the display the camera battery and AI base performance the display is the first point of difference between the two phones both comprised metal frame sandwiched between sheets of Gorilla Glass with Huawei's new signature stripe highlighting the dual wiper engineered cameras there are departure from wild ways typical metal phones but they fall in line with the current 2017 flagship trend will be it without the addition of wireless charging on the upside you now have a place to store your fingerprint collection the mate zone pro is the more expensive version with an eighteen to nine aspect ratio OLED display and up to six gig of ram in 128 gig of storage the mate 10 sticks with an IPS LCD at 16 to 9 resolution with 4 gig of ram and 64 gig of storage while the mate tens dual SIM slot can be used for microSD expansion the pro version only supports dual SIM both models have HDR 10 displays and while there's still not too much mobile HDR content around right now there will be over the lifetime of these phones both panels hit 713 it's in brightness but the make 10 pros OLED panel producers punchy of colors and white of whites for some reason why we chose to put a full HD plus resolution panel on the pro version while the regular may 10 gets a quad HD panel meaning the regular May 10 has higher pixel density but unless quad HD is really important to you you won't be disappointed by the Pro versions panel plus the combination of the brand new 10 nanometer chipset Aoi battery management and OLED display with a black theme and lower resolution means if you're all about battery life you can squeeze even more battery out of the pro version on my best day I managed to hit around 6 hours of screen on time while I was inside and had the brightness set to around 40% obviously your mileage may vary depending on how you use your phone and how bright you have your screen but that number generally hovers around 4 to 5 hours speaking of the battery both units come with a four thousand milliamp hour cell with Huawei supercharged with the phone turned off you can charge a third of the battery in 15 minutes a little over half in half an hour and around 85 to 90 percent in a full 60 minutes Huawei is taking Samsung's misfortunes to heart and has stepped up its battery safety as well having its fast charging solution certified by TUV Rheinland the battery is also the first place we see a eye on the may 10 hey i power battery management promises the world much like while weighs born fast a fast mantra but like that performance over time promise you're going to have to wait until the huawei mate n learns all of your habits only then can it better allocate resources to eke out more battery life for your particular style of usage of course this will only happen or not long after you've dropped your cash on it but history has shown that while waste combination of a large battery great fast charging and solid battery management means that May 10 and May 10 Pro will likely be among the best battery performers of the year now as you may have guessed AI plays a pretty big part in the performance of the may 10 to the Kiran 917 chipset has a dedicated neural processing unit that handles complex processing tasks on device rather than in the cloud but it must be noted that AI has a prominent but limited place on the May 10 I wouldn't go so far as to say it's pure marketing but the benefits of AI and the NP you will only really be felt over time as there are precious few features using their full capabilities right now whywe assures me that more will be delivered over time not held off until the next device in the series Google Translate will soon join Microsoft's Translate app which uses the mp4 near-instant photo based translation and the 13 objects in scenes the camera can currently recognize to automatically adjust settings will increase as the NPU image database expands Google's AR core will arrive via an update later this year and the neural network ap eyes are coming next year the curé 970 is also being positioned as an open AI platform for developers meaning further applications to tap its full potential are sure to arrive in time but for now the NP you and AI kind of sit in the background speeding up some parts of the experience totally learning your habits suggesting smart tips based on context awareness and generally just promising more benefits in future I primarily use the May 10 Pro during this review and found the experience to be reliably fast if not light-years ahead as the a I promise might have you believe they experience the usual stutters and glitches coming into any phone and had a few issues with Google Apps playing nice with emui the main tends run android 8.0 oreo out of the box with emu i ate on top several oreo features are on board like notification dots launch app shortcuts smart text selection and picture-in-picture mode but while we can't exactly be relied upon for the most faithful implementation of google features and several others don't make it at all including adaptive icons and notification channels fortunately oreo brings with us the promise of project treble meaning that updates in the future shouldn't be a sluggish as they have been in Huawei's past while way is even said as much with two years of guaranteed updates and at least one major Android version bump as always huawei like the Samsung of old makes up for it by loading on more software features than you can poke a stick at perhaps the biggest ticket feature on the may 10 and a big middle finger to Samsung is a Doppler desktop mode you just need a USB type-c to HDMI cable with DisplayPort support and you can plug your phone directly into a monitor lore'l lets you attach various peripherals like a bluetooth mouse and keyboard where you can use the phone as a kind of trackpad to get you through a presentation it's a little sluggish but it works any calls or messages that come in while in desktop mode will still be handled by the phone and not show up on screen to maintain your privacy it's a little weird to get used to but a handy option to have and it'll be interesting to see where this kind of functionality goes in the future other software features include smart split screen so if you're watching a video or playing a game and a message comes in the main tone will let you jump into split screen mode so you can do two things at once now if snooping is an issue for you you can register a fingerprint which accesses a whole other version of your phone that way you can keep your dirty secret secret by unlocking your phone with your clean finger or pattern a floating navigation dope lets you open up all that screen real estate by using a floating bubble that works much like fingerprint scanner gestures to control navigation without the usual on-screen buttons now can go on endlessly about the specifics of huawei software features but if you want to read the full review head on down to the video description because now I want to move on to the camera which I firmly believe is the most impressive part of the May 10 series 2f 1.6 summer Lux HD lenses sit on the back of both mate a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12 megapixel RGB sensor four-way what I focus is very reliable and oh is on the RGB lens helps with image stabilization especially in low-light conditions I found the photos out of the may tend to be generally very good well you get some impressive shots out of the mate nine if you were using full manual controls the may tenant offers the same level of quality but in auto mode bringing Huawei's photography potential mainstream low-light photography especially was impressive with very little noise or visible brain it has to be noted though that the May 10th ends to crush blacks in its attempt to stamp out noise altogether making most nighttime photos look good but visibly darker than the actual scene depending on how you feel about noise versus overall lightness you'll either love or hate flyaways approach here other phones like the pixel to try really hard to lighten the scenes that tend to add much more noise than you'll find on the may 10 some of this no doubt has to do with the AI scene recognition which you can thankfully override but only by using the manual controls or choosing another preset like HDR which is not my ideal solution if you don't like the a I assisted results a simple toggle in the camera app for disabling AI scene recognition would be a much better idea but IIM the camera is not all bad though io motion detection means capturing moving subjects without blur is quite easy with the maintain able to capture action shots without any visible movement even in pretty poor lighting the scene recognition works very reliably to automatically adjusting settings to best capture the subject or scene it'll just depend on whether you agree with the AI or not on what constitutes the best settings the only real problem I had with the may 10 camera was over sharpening the sharpening in some shots tends to make the result look too fake take this dog photo where everything is a little too sharp and to look lifelike then there's this one where everything pans out perfectly this kind of variability is emblematic of the may 10 camera performance for me multiple shots taken one after the other can often produce very different results in HDR mode to the HDR version would occasionally lighten the shadows as you'd expect it to but in others that would produce darker shadows than the original shot you'll always get at least one photo that is fantastic but I definitely recommend always firing off a couple just to be sure in good lighting the may 10 shoots great shots like any other high-end smartphone the monochrome sensor doesn't always seem to provide that much extra detail though making me wonder how much more fun the may 10 camera could if it had a wide-angle lens like the LGP 30 or a 2x zoom lens like the note 8 hey I also helped provide a 2x hybrid zoom which produces results a lot more like those you'd find on the pixel with more noise but a lighter palette and more detail in the shadows it definitely produces better detail than a crop 10 standard shot what remote is very reliable if not perfect and wide aperture mode has improved since the Mait 9 to both understandably look a little fake but are perfectly good for a new profile pic or social share if while waist cameras put you off in the past for being too complicated the may 10 rectify that situation bringing very impressive results to a point-and-shoot audience there's a little bit of character to the may 10 camera that you'll have to learn to love but if that doesn't put you off then it's a very capable shooter there's a whole laundry list of other firsts and improvements on the mate 10m 810 Pro from dual 4G voice over LTE and cat 18 LTE to AI voice recognition and noise cancellation and calls both devices have stereo speakers courtesy of bottom firing grill and the earpiece speaker but at max volume which hits around 80 decibels the sound gets too tinny for my liking especially from the earpiece and the headphone experience is much better support for lossless 32 bit audio at 384 kilohertz is a nice touch of overkill but the presence of high-end codecs in norio will not be enough to satisfy potential mate 10 pro buyers who prefer wired headphones fortunately you can always use the included types of earbuds all live the dongle life and enjoy Huawei's audio tuning on your favorite set of cans water resistance qHD panels headphone ports and microSD expansion of the stalwarts of smartphone shopping but by mixing and matching features so randomly there's no obvious winner here at 699 euros the May 10 has all the regular bases covered but at 799 euros the mate 10 pro is in some ways superior well in other ways not as feature-rich it'll be the only version to make it to the US though with global pricing and availability coming soon despite a few questionable choices the maintainer May 10 Pro are really nice phones and while they may not yet be meeting Samsung head-to-head they're a positive step in that direction if while we manages to come through on any or even all of the promises that's made with the may 10 series then they're guaranteed to get better over time as always thank you so much for watching just hit that link in the video description if you want more details on either device and hit that like button subscribe to the channel and ring the bell for upload notifications because we are your source for all things Android\n"