KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Huawei’s released so many phones this year it’s been a struggle to keep track. Still, the Huawei Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro have been highlights of the year and are rightly the brand’s true 2017 flagships.
Not that the earlier flagships Huawei P10 and P10 Pro were terrible phones, quite the opposite. But these are the best phones Huawei have put out this year and if you’ve been waiting for them, the question is: which will you choose?
Which is the looker?
When it comes to the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, the obvious difference is the size. The Mate 10 is, next to its bigger brother, rather squat looking and it weighs more at 186 gm to the Mate 10 Pro’s 178 gm.
Both share the same glass back, similarly curved sides and edge-to-edge displays and a curious horizontal stripe across the rear cameras. The fingerprint scanner is on the back, however, for the Pro while the Mate 10 has it in front.
They’re not bad-looking phones but if you were going for aesthetics alone, the Mate 10 Pro does look more polished what with its slimmer dimensions and the fingerprint scanner hidden at the back.
Compared to other phones however — the Mate 10 phones lack the “X” factor (and we’re not talking about the iPhone X here).
Besides the pretty back strip, the Mate 10’s design is boxy and uninspired. The Mate 10 Pro at least looks polished enough to justify its higher price. Huawei might want to think of refreshing its design ideas next year though because as looks go, Huawei could do a lot better.
As for displays, the Mate 10 Pro has a 6-inch OLED screen with a 1,080x2,160 pixel resolution with a 18:9 aspect ratio while the Mate 10 has a cheaper 5.9-inch LCD screen but with a higher resolution of 1,440x2,560 and the more usual 16:9 widescreen.
Both support HDR10 content so you could comfortably watch HDR video on them but will you want to?
The displays are decent but, unfortunately, in a field of smartphones with widescreen displays the screens were good but not particularly memorable.
Under the hood
Both phones use Huawei’s own Kirin 970 octa-core processor which features the company’s custom neutral processing unit that claims to give its AI an edge over the competition.
Of course the Pro is Pro for a reason — it has 6GB of RAM to the Mate 10’s 4GB and comes with 128GB of storage while the Mate 10 comes with 64GB instead.
The Pro also comes with IP67 dust and water resistance, which the Mate 10 leaves out which is a bit of a shame considering Samsung has budget models with the same dust and water resistance.
As far as performance goes, they both multi-task efficiently and don’t get too hot even when juggling various apps or playing high-end games.
The Mate 10 Pro, however, comes without a microSD card or a headphone jack — which is a trend in high-end phones including the latest iPhones, and the Pixel 2s.
Camera power
Interestingly, Huawei decided to use the same camera on both phones. So they both get dual rear cameras, one with a 12MP sensor (colour) and a 20MP sensor (monochrome). The 12MP camera comes with OIS to keep your shots sharp despite shaky hands.
What Huawei offers is AI magic with its cameras — the camera recognises not just people but pets as well.
It does very well in low light with a sharpness and colour accuracy that’s particularly good, and perhaps the best background blur on an Android camera so far.
Not that it’s perfect — if you want accurate skin tones, you will find it with the rear camera, with the front camera still defaulting towards lightening skin tones even with the beautification mode turned all the way to zero.
Still, the 8MP selfie camera provides dreamy, polished results so if you’re a regular Instagrammer, the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro produce shots good enough you can do without filters.
To buy or not to buy
For what you get for the price — RM2,699 and RM3,099 for the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, the phones offer a lot of value. The 4,000mAh battery on both are also a great reason to buy the phones, unlike most of the other Android phones I tested, the Mate 10 batteries could last days on standby and even on heavy usage, would still have 20 per cent left at the end of the day.
Still, there’s only fast charging and no wireless charging support for the phones. Only the Pro has water/dust-resistance and as far as looks go, the Mi Mix 2 is sexier for a lot less money.
But if you want cutting edge performance for a lot less money than the competition, then the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro are worth a look. Is the Pro worth the extra money? Only if you want a prettier phone, otherwise you can save yourself money and get the squat-looking but still great-performing Mate 10.
