Huawei Mate 10 Hands On
Huawei’s new phabet, the Mate 10, will go on sale in Singapore for S$888, starting 28th Oct. Considering that most of this year’s flagship devices are priced above S$1000, with some close to S$2000, the Mate 10 sounds like a really good deal.
Should you get one? Here are some things you should know before purchasing one.
Huawei ditched the metal back on the Mate 9 for a glass back on the Mate 10 and it feels really grippy in the hand. The accent stripe at back, tiny bezels and two bold colors options makes the Mate 10's design really classy. James Bond needs this phone!
Compared to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, the Mate 10 is slightly wider. The absence of an edge display makes this even more apparent. However, Mate 10 is not as tall as the Note 8 so its feel more manageable in the hand. This is no one-handed device though.
One thing that bothered me is the lack of capacitive buttons just like on the P10. If you are going to have a chin for the fingerprint sensor on the front, why not include capacitive buttons?
Many of 2017’s flagship devices dropped the headphone jack but the Mate 10 isn’t one of them, at least for the non-pro version. Thanks Huawei! An IR blaster can be found to the right, which is super handy for controlling the television and turning on the air con.
The Mate 10 features dual rear cameras which uses AI to improve images. Unfortunately, I was unable to transfer any shots to my phone to show here but the images looked pretty good. The camera interface is cluttered with tons of features; whether that is a good thing, you decide.
The Mate 10 runs EMUI 8.0.0, which looks a lot like older versions of EMUI, but it has some neat tricks up its sleeves. With the Mate 10's powerful processor, you can plug it into a monitor with a cable and use it like a desktop, without the need for a dock.
I really like the form factor of the Mate 10. While everyone hops on the 18:9 bandwagon, Huawei stuck to 16:9 for the Mate 10's display, so it does not feel elongated and unwieldy. However, EMUI is not suitable for everyone as it is overly complex and unorganized.
Just from the short time I had with the Mate 10, there are a lot of things I could not test properly, like the camera and battery life. But from previous Huawei flagships, these are two areas that Huawei excels in, and I am sure they will not let us down with the Mate 10.
