The Huawei Mate 10 is a pretty interesting phablet. It severely undercuts the competition in pricing while offering great features with a mix of modern and traditional design choices.
I’m also excited to try out the capabilities of the Neural Processing Unit or NPU tucked inside its Kirin 970 chipset. Is built-in artificial intelligence a good thing for smartphones? Let’s find out.
Unboxing the Huawei Mate 10.
The Huawei Mate 10 comes in a premium looking box that highlights the ‘band’ design of the device, Leica lens and TÜV Rheinland safety certification.
Its inner compartments are marked with icons signifying the accessories like the power brick, USB Type-C cord, earphones, SIM ejector pin and guides. There’s a free phone case too!
It’s a glossy smartphone!
Picking up the Huawei Mate 10 gave me mixed feelings. I was worried that sticking with the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio for its 5.9 inch display would make it too unwieldy.
Imagine my delight when I was able to hold the device comfortably with one hand! No doubt, it was because the bezels are crazy thin. The company wasn’t kidding when they claimed that the bezels are ‘barely there’.
Yes, the glass design looks gorgeous but collects its fair amount of smudges. I still prefer the full metal designs in the Mate 9 and P10. I guess I’m in the minority since more brands are switching to glass.
Your multimedia phablet…
One of the first apps I used in the Huawei Mate 10 is YouTube. I watched Morissette’s cover of Secret Lovesong on Wish 107.5 and I was hooked that I found it difficult to stop watching even after the sixth video.
The Huawei Mate 10 is a great phablet for multimedia consumption! Unlike in 18:9 displays, videos occupy the entire display and the audio quality is superb – that’s from the loudspeaker, I wasn’t using earphones.
In addition to the bottom firing loudspeaker, the front facing earpiece also produce audio creating a stereo effect. Hence, vocals and highs are clear while a surprising bass comes from the main loudspeaker.
While my review unit isn’t the final consumer version yet, I can’t resist taking several photos using the dual rear camera with the new LEICA SUMMILUX-H lens and f/1.9 aperture.
Here are some sample pictures (click for the original file):
Flower
Dog
Night
All pictures were identified by the Huawei Mate 10. I’ll test the phone’s camera features further in the full review.
