Review of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone in Russian, its characteristics and price in Russia

Review of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone and its characteristics

Nowadays, a powerful processor, frameless design and a huge amount of built-in memory will no longer surprise anyone; not only every flagship, but even mid-price devices can boast of this.
A modern smartphone has a performance reserve for at least several years ahead and can easily cope with any tasks, but where to go next? After all, we need to somehow develop the industry, and every year it becomes more and more difficult to offer something new. The hero of our review is Huawei Mate 10 Pro, in which the manufacturer offered something truly new that we have never seen anywhere else - a smartphone that will only get better every year, self-learning and adapting to the user’s needs. Let's review the Mate 10 Pro and see what such an unusual solution is really capable of.

operating system

The new products operate under the proprietary EMUI 8.0 add-on, which is based on Android 8.0 Oreo. When developing this version of the shell, Huawei did not forget that it had implemented a machine learning unit, which also affected the software part. Thanks to the NPU and intelligent power distribution, Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro experience a smooth experience and launch apps faster. The system remembers which applications you use most often, keeps them in the background, and offers to activate the night mode (reduce the intensity of blue light) when evening comes. In general, artificial intelligence tries its best to adapt to the user, making our lives easier.

EMUI itself looks quite beautiful and user-friendly. Those who have already worked with Huawei smartphones will especially like it. Android 8.0 Oreo brings a lot of innovations, including picture-in-picture mode, notification channels, and so on. Several proprietary applications from Huawei are installed, which allow you to monitor energy consumption and the use of other resources.

You can monitor the release of updates and firmware for Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro on the w3bsit3-dns.com forum. Here you can also read user reviews about Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro.

Technical characteristics of Huawei Mate 10 Pro:

Screen: OLED, 6″, 2160×1080 (402 ppi), HDR10
Processor: eight-core HiSilicon Kirin 970, (4 x 2.36 GHz + 4 x 1.8 GHz), integrated neuroprocessor module
Graphics accelerator: Mali-G72 MP12
Operating system: Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 firmware
RAM: 6 GB
Built-in memory: 128 GB
Memory card support: no
Communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz || UMTS 800/850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz || LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40
SIM: 2x nano-SIM, Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS)
Wireless interfaces: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, infrared sensor, NFC
Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Main camera: main - 20 MP (monochrome) + 12 MP (RGB), f/1.6, optical stabilization, flash, phase detection and laser autofocus, continuous autofocus during video shooting (CAF)
Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0
Sensors: light, motion, microgyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, barometer, fingerprint sensor
Water and dust protection: IP67
Battery: 4000 mAh, non-removable, Huawei SuperCharge fast charging
Dimensions: 154.2x74.5x7.2 mm
Weight: 178 grams

CPU

The third feature is the latest chipset of its own production, Kirin 970. The “Stone” received 8 cores, a maximum frequency of 2.36 GHz, and a Mali G72 MP12 graphics accelerator, but all this is not so interesting.

The key feature of the new SoC is a neuro-computing unit with machine learning function - NPU or Neural-network Processing Unit.

It, along with the CPU and GPU, can perform complex and extraordinary calculations, for example, process thousands of photographs in a very short time - 2,000 pieces in 1 minute. What is meant by “process” is not explained. However, as well as why this NPU is needed at all. It seems to me that it was important for Huawei to be the first to create a development, and it was decided to postpone understanding why it was needed until later. As was once the case with the Force Touch function in Huawei Mate S (2015).

At the moment, NPU manifests itself in the following. The Gallery has a special “Browse” tab, where photos are sorted into categories: people, places, food, and so on. However, at what point the photo processing occurs, I still don’t understand. I walked around the center of Moscow, took several dozen photos with friends, three hours later I went to the “Review” tab, and no new photos appeared there. You cannot manually start the processing process.

I went to the Gallery the very next day - all the latest photos were sorted into categories. It’s hard to say how it all works.

As a result, we have that at the moment there is no really useful use of NPU.

Oh yes! Another cool feature of the proprietary chipset is LTE Cat. 18. In other words, the smartphone is capable of downloading data at a speed of 1.2 Gb/s. If you find networks with such speeds, please chime in the comments.

Innovative features of Huawei Mate 10 Pro

Huawei Mate 10 Pro became the world's first phone to have a neural computing module built into its processor. It is involved in processing requests related to neural networks, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. In this way, the processor adapts to the user’s needs and over time will cope even better with the tasks assigned, which opens up great prospects for the future.

Neural networks are needed primarily for photographs, where they have been used for quite some time to determine the face in front of the camera lens. Few people know, but they are the ones responsible for this function, which we use every day when photographing ourselves and loved ones. Thanks to the dedicated NPU, Huawei was able to obtain a significant increase in the speed of the neural network and expand the possibilities of its use.

Now the “Camera” application is able to automatically determine the scenario or object in the frame: pet, person, plant, porter, low light conditions and much more, depending on which exposure and white balance are adjusted. During our review of the Mate 10 Pro, we thoroughly tested the new algorithms and can say with confidence that they work correctly.

The review of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone informs you that when the neural network sets the optimal shooting scenario, a special icon in the lower left corner warns you about this. It takes a split second to process the image and select the ideal parameters for shooting. Before you know it, you can start shooting. In advanced mode, you can quickly receive information about changing settings. They are ideal for capturing whatever is currently in the frame. In addition, neural networks are involved in creating photographs with the Bokeh effect, which has a positive effect on their quality.

Another area of application of neural networks is communication. The Huawei Mate 10 Pro phone received VoLTE support for each SIM card. The neural network analyzes the conversation and immediately removes extraneous noise, which improves audibility for both interlocutors.

Another interesting feature that the Huawei Mate 10 Pro Porsche Design review revealed is the translation. The manufacturer joined forces with Microsoft, resulting in the Translate application, which, with the help of neural networks, produces high-quality text translation in dialogue mode, by voice typing or from the keyboard. So far, the quality of this function leaves much to be desired, but thanks to self-learning, over time the system will begin to better understand the text. But now we can already note the lightning speed of translation, which is especially convenient in conversation.

As the Huawei Mate 10 pro 6 review showed, in addition to the above, neural networks take an active part in optimizing the consumption of system resources, including RAM and power consumption. They customize the smartphone so that it best suits the user's needs. During our review, we were able to find out that at the moment NPU is not using its full potential, but this is a good foundation for the future, which will still receive active development and a lot of new opportunities. The manufacturer is not going to stop there. In the future, the efficiency of the hardware of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro 64 GB phone will increase significantly due to the invention of new algorithms, self-learning neural networks and other solutions from other manufacturers, because the platform is open to third-party developers.

Photo capabilities

The reputable portal DxOMark placed our hero in third place in terms of camera capabilities. Only two smartphones beat it: the inaccessible Google Pixel 2 and the iPhone X. Let's see if the Mate 10 Pro is worthy of the bronze it received?..

Front-camera

8 megapixel, fixed focus, f/2.0 aperture - everything is in order here. But shooting with the front camera still cannot be called a breakthrough. Selfies turn out to be of high quality, solid, but not better.

Despite one front module, the camera can blur the background. She does this programmatically and not very well.

And yes, there is no wide-angle shooting function like in the P10.

Main cameras

The Mate 10 Pro has one of the best on the market. However, during testing, a whole bunch of nuances were found.

Personally, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro camera surprised me next.

I liked the way the Mate 10 Pro shoots at night much more than during the day.

In the latter case, the algorithms tightly suppress all the detail of the image, accordingly, it is better not to zoom in on it.

Pay attention to the comparison shots below, in which the OnePlus 5T camera (always on the right) beats our hero.

But at night, ten take simply excellent pictures. It's hard to believe that these shots were taken with a smartphone.

We immediately compare our hero with OnePlus 5T and get a complete fiasco of the latter.

However, as soon as we switch smartphones to special shooting modes (Mate 10 Pro in night mode, and 1+5T in Pro, because it does not have a night mode), we get a completely different picture.

Modern smartphones have such a wonderful thing - automatic HDR. It is useful when the user does not understand whether HDR should be enabled for a particular scene or not. Unfortunately, Auto HDR is still not implemented in Huawei smartphones. There are only ON and OFF, and the switch is not at hand - you need to go into the camera menu.

In any case, the HDR mode is quite good. However, it is far from Google's HDR+.

No HDR

With HDR

bokeh

Of course, the smartphone can blur the background. However, he does not always do this efficiently. About 1 picture out of 5 turns out beautiful. On the rest, errors occur: sometimes the automation will cut off part of the hair, sometimes it won’t recognize a piece of the background and will move it to the foreground.

In general, algorithms still have a lot to learn.

Hybrid zoom

It’s great that Huawei didn’t lie and call this option “optical zoom.” The fact is that here both modules received the same lenses - 27 mm with f/1.6 aperture. There is no telephoto lens here, so any approach to the object is accompanied by a serious loss in quality. You should forget about this function once and for all.

Monochrome

The second camera of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro has a resolution of 20 megapixels versus 12 megapixels in the main one. In addition, the sensor only captures black and white images.

Why this is not necessary, I find it difficult to answer, because there is no special advantage here. Below are a couple of 100% crops from two photos: on the left, a frame was taken at a resolution of 12 megapixels on an RGB module, and on the right, a 20 megapixel photo taken on a monochrome sensor.

And as for me, the main camera takes pictures with much more detail.

By the way, we take all the photo examples in one archive from here.

Video recording

The clear king of video shooting is the iPhone 8 and X. Still, it’s very difficult to compete with 4K at 60 frames per second and such quality of content (over 100 Mbit/s).

Against this background, all Android smartphones are outsiders, but Huawei Mate 10 Pro can still do something. 4K video turns out to be quite pleasant: there is good sharpness, smoothness of the picture, and the quality of the content in general is pleasing.

Optical stabilization only works when shooting Full HD videos, and even then, it does not stabilize the image very well - when you shoot on the go, a terrible “jelly” catches your eye.

Few smartphones on Android are capable of stabilizing the picture more or less tolerably. The exception is LG V30+ or Asus Zenfone 4.

Equipment

The Huawei Mate 10 smartphone comes in a package with a minimalist design: the cover design is complemented by ribbed stripes, and a line with the model name runs down the center. Below it we see a bright spot with the Leica logo. We placed the device on top of the box, it lies in a removable container. Underneath we find two boxes. On the left there is documentation, a silicone bumper and a paper clip, and on the right there is a USB Type-C cable, a charger and a headset. Already from the factory, a protective film is glued to the display. The manufacturer abandoned the standard 3.5 mm jack, and therefore an adapter is included in the kit.

Performance

The Mali G72 MP12 is responsible for the graphic power. Unfortunately, in “Tanks” at the peak settings there are drops of up to 50 FPS, which has never happened with the Adreno 540. There is a clear loss to its main competitor from Qualcomm.

In the same NotebookCheck rating, the graphics lag behind the Adreno 540 and even its multi-core brother, the Mali G71 MP20 (installed in all Galaxy flagships from Samsung).

Another unpleasant thing is that the processor itself is very throttled.

During the fifth performance test in AnTuTu in a row, the results began to drop rapidly, and the smartphone seriously heated up to 50 degrees.

The conclusion is simple - Huawei Mate 10 Pro is not very suitable for advanced mobile gamers.

Design of Huawei Mate 10 Pro

Recently, the manufacturer has switched to producing devices with minimal frames around the display. But in 2k17, many are trying to abandon them altogether, and of course they did not forget about this when developing the Mate 10. We are offered a smartphone with the largest possible display in a compact case made of premium materials. As a result, with a 6-inch diagonal, the dimensions are comparable to the 5.5-inch P10.

The Huawei Mate 10 review showed that when developing this model, the manufacturer used the design concepts of its predecessors; no one began to completely revise the design style. But there are certain changes in terms of design; it has become more vibrant and expressive.

This primarily concerns the back, on which two main cameras are located one above the other, flanked by an LED flash and laser autofocus.

Between them and the fingerprint scanner there is a strip that changes color depending on the angle at which you look at it. This makes the smartphone more impressive and recognizable.

There is no need to worry about the safety of the back side; it is covered with protective glass Gorilla Glass, under which there are 4 layers of film, which is responsible for the formation of color. Thanks to this feature, the color of the backdrop changes depending on how the light falls on it. Buyers can choose from four color options for the Mate 10 case: blue, grey, brown and rose gold.

The front panel almost completely copies the design of last year’s flagship Mate 9. The manufacturer didn’t bother making glass that curved at the edges and in vain, in our opinion, the device would have looked better that way. The display is flat, but despite this it has an aspect ratio of 18:9, which distinguishes it from its competitors. Overall, the device looks beautiful and symmetrical. All the basic elements of the body are located on the same line; small frames of equal size are left above and below the display.

The case received IP67 protection against moisture and dust, which allows it to withstand immersion to a depth of up to a meter below the surface of the water without the slightest damage.

On the left there is a tray for a pair of SIM cards.

The right side is occupied by a volume rocker and a power button.

At the top is an IR port for controlling household appliances, as well as a main noise-canceling microphone.

At the bottom is a USB Type-C port, flanked by a microphone and speaker.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro review informs you that a fingerprint scanner is installed on the back side. It works quickly - the screen unlocks as soon as you put your finger on it. In the settings you can enter up to 5 different fingerprints.

⇡#Design, ergonomics and software

Huawei has long had no serious problems with the design of its gadgets - these are not always outstanding in terms of originality, but at least neat smartphones. The Mate 10 Pro fits well into this range. Huawei again did not come up with anything special, but simply followed in the footsteps of all the main modern trends.

The display has an 18:9 format and, accordingly, occupies almost the entire area of the front panel. Moreover, there was no place on it for a physical Home button with a fingerprint sensor, like on the Huawei P10 or Honor 9 and even on the “regular” Mate 10 - the scanner is located on the rear panel, as in previous Mates. There is a strip above the screen in which the front camera, sensors and earpiece are included - there was no need to “carve out” a place for this goodness on the screen. Although soon, apparently, many will be doing this - Apple’s experiments will not be in vain for the market.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, body colors

Due to the fact that the screen has almost no frames, it was possible to greatly reduce the body size. As I wrote earlier, with some skill (and long fingers) you can use a smartphone with one hand. Although doing this in the case of a six-inch display is still a bit scary - it’s not the lightest (178 grams) device that you have to hold on your fingertips. It’s better to use a special “one-handed” mode, in which the working screen does not occupy the entire display area, but is shifted to a corner. A classic for large smartphones.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, front panel: above the display – earpiece, light sensor, status indicator and front camera

The navigation keys here are virtual, located on the screen - the smartphone has become smaller due to this, but the precious workspace is slightly hidden.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, rear panel: dual camera, dual LED flash, autofocus laser and fingerprint scanner

The back cover is made of glass - this solution has already become typical for Huawei. True, the colors are more modest and respectable than those of Honor devices, which set this trend - status obliges. On the other hand, along with the relatively standard grey, brown and gold, a dark blue version is also presented. And it looks really original. You can’t deny beauty to any of the Mate 10 Pros. The camera lenses protrude slightly above the body - but compared to how much they stick out in the iPhone, this is really a mere trifle. The fingerprint scanner, on the contrary, is recessed into the body - you can, of course, confuse it with the camera unit with your finger and stain one of the lenses, but this does not happen often.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, left side: SIM card slot

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, right side: power and volume/camera release keys

The edges are made of metal, and the back panel is slightly curved to make the smartphone appear even thinner than it actually is. Unfortunately, even an effective oleophobic coating does not help save the smartphone from getting dirty very quickly - it is really easy to wipe it, but you will have to do this very often. Well, or you can hide it in the included silicone case.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, top edge: IR sensor and microphone

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, bottom: USB Type-C port, speaker and microphone

The case is protected from dust and moisture according to the IP67 standard - in this case, this means the ability to keep the smartphone at a depth of up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. Of course, we did not check this. In the manner of Apple, developers sacrificed moisture protection in the manner of Apple - every time someone does this, the world is sad for one Samsung smartphone with a completely working analog connector and moisture protection to an even more severe standard. Previously, Sony Xperia would also have been depressed, but lately the Japanese have not spoiled us with secure smartphones.

The fingerprint scanner works perfectly - it not only quickly responds to touches and instantly unlocks the device, but also does not experience the problems typical for capacitive sensors with being picky about cleanliness, dryness and preservation of the skin of the finger. During two weeks of testing, the percentage of false positives in a variety of conditions was minimal, and I did not have to rewrite the fingerprint. Using the scanner, you can not only unlock the device or confirm payments, but also control the camera, answer calls and turn off the alarm. It also responds to both a simple touch and swiping your finger over it - with this movement you can open the notification panel or scroll through photos.

Huawei was one of the first to introduce a smartphone running the latest Android 8.0 Oreo, which is covered with a fresh version of the proprietary EMUI shell, which also received an index of 8. Having jumped two steps, Huawei has now decided to keep up with Google. The same applies to the degree of system update - as in the case of Oreo, there are a minimum of noticeable changes. The general logic remained unchanged, but many pleasant little things appeared, such as the “picture-in-picture” mode (especially nice when watching videos), smart text selection (with the ability, for example, to call a phone number or contact in a letter with one click - without copying the number into phone book), improved OS protection.

This is about Oreo, and in EMUI 8 we got Projection mode, which allows you to use the Mate 10 Pro as a “desktop” when you connect your smartphone via an HDMI-USB Type-C cable to a monitor. The feature, invented at one time by Microsoft/Nokia for Lumia, is becoming increasingly popular for Android smartphones. Samsung has a similar thing. Also in the new EMUI, you can change the display resolution, there are more wallpapers for the screen and styles for the desktop, energy saving options have been added and the ability to change the desktop style to the original one for Android (with a separate application menu), but the general meaning of the shell has remained unchanged - it is very neat and, despite the serious external differences from pure Android, it does not look ridiculous or intrusive. One of the best “author’s” shells today.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro

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Key changes in EMUI, as in Android itself, affected internal processes. First of all, that same “artificial intelligence”. The smartphone really works very quickly - Huawei has kept its promise to make launching applications lightning fast. And the Mate 10 Pro from time to time takes the liberty of recommending something - most often I was “lucky” with the recommendation to turn on the “night” mode with a sharp decrease in color temperature shortly before bed. It also automatically turned on split-screen mode if an important notification came in and I was watching a video. There were actually quite a few such little things - and they were taken for granted. This is not to say that this dramatically changes the feeling of using a smartphone, but it does not seem intrusive - the boundaries are respected correctly, and this is very pleasant.

Display

Huawei Mate 10 Pro display review shows that it has a high-quality OLED matrix with a diagonal of 6 inches and support for HDR10 technology. With standard settings, it works at a resolution of 2160x1080, but to improve battery life you can set it to 1440x720 at any time.

While reviewing the Huawei Mate 10 lite 4 64gb, we learned that the system's capabilities allow you to minimize color saturation in order to minimize eye strain. If the factory calibration of the Mate 10 screen does not suit you in any way, then in the settings you can set your color temperature parameters. We haven’t forgotten about the now popular “Eye Protection” mode, which minimizes blue radiation from the screen, and, accordingly, eye strain.

The Huawei Mate 10 lite review revealed one unpleasant moment, although this was to be expected - not all applications are yet adapted to work with a screen with a 2:1 aspect ratio. But to solve this problem, there is a special software algorithm that adjusts the picture to the new format. Without this, there would be a black stripe on the sides. Due to this feature, it was possible to stretch the video from edge to edge of the display, slightly cropping it at the top and bottom, and in games we see a wider viewing angle.

The brightness reserve is sufficient for comfortable use of the phone under any conditions, and at minimum it is convenient to read books in a dark room. Automatic brightness adjustment works correctly and quickly responds to changing surroundings. In addition to this, there are excellent viewing angles and support for up to 10 simultaneous touches. You can immediately feel that the screen is a flagship one, and it’s a pleasure to work with it.

Iron

With amazing tenacity, Huawei is promoting its own mobile processor, and for good reason. The company practically does not depend on anyone.

The Kirin 970 processor is a technically powerful solution. The only caveat is that optimization of some applications for it will be done last. For example, even clients of regular social networks sometimes tend to crash. I can attribute this to a test sample of the device, but I also noticed similar things in commercial samples on the same Huawei P10.

In games, the smartphone behaves as it should, and if the optimization does not work in some places, then in general the power of this solution is enough for everything. Well, in general, writing about the speed of a flagship is strange; here you should rather look at the speed of the interface.

Performance of Huawei Mate 10 Pro

Our Huawei Mate 10 review in Russian moves on to the most interesting part - its characteristics. As expected, the smartphone received a self-produced processor - Kirin 970, designed using a 10-nm process technology. It received 4 cores of 2.36 GHz and the same number of 1.8 GHz. The Mali G72MP12 GPU is used for graphics processing. But that’s not all, because the Kirin 970 received an NPU coprocessor, which is a neural network that will learn all the time it works with the gadget. The question immediately arises: what is this on the phone for?

Synthetics:

Already, the neural network can distinguish between images and adjust the camera settings in such a way as to get the best shot depending on the subject being photographed. But that's not all, because the NPU is open to other developers, which means you can create smarter applications with the Kirin 970.

The rest of the Huawei Mate 10 features are at the highest level, as befits a flagship. The interface works smoothly, applications launch quickly and without freezing. There is nothing surprising here, because in addition to a powerful processor, Mate 10 received 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of user memory. Huawei Mate 10 Pro lte technical specifications were developed with a large margin for the future, although the synthetic results are only slightly higher than in comparison with the P10 Plus.

They didn’t skimp on the amount of built-in memory, but there is no option to expand the volume with a microSD card. The manufacturer decided that 128 GB of internal memory would be enough for the user, and it would be better to install two nano-SIMs in the existing slots. In fact, this is the case, but space will have to be saved, because modern games and films take up a lot of space.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro characteristics include support for all communication frequencies, fast GPS operation and the presence of an infrared port, which makes it possible to control household appliances in your home. This is done using a pre-installed application

⇡#Hardware and performance

Huawei regularly introduces its latest platforms and smartphones based on them before its competitors - and for a while it finds itself at the head of the peloton in the performance race. This year is no exception, but with a few amendments. Firstly, the performance of the platform has not changed dramatically, just look at the architecture of the fresh Kirin 970: four ARM Cortex-A73 with a clock frequency of 2.4 GHz and four ARM Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.8 GHz. We saw the same thing in the Kirin 960.

But the graphics subsystem is new - a 12-core ARM Mali-G72 chip with a clock frequency of 850 MHz. It provides a noticeable increase in performance in graphics applications and solves many issues with photo and video processing, as well as gaming performance. The technological process used to make the Kirin 970 is 10 nm.

The key feature of the platform is not the usual cores and accelerator, but a special unit responsible for the “learning” of the system - the Neural Processing Unit, or NPU. It was named HiAI. This is a software engine that, with the help of a powerful graphics processor, should greatly accelerate all processes associated with deep learning (inference) of artificial intelligence. We have also developed our own Kirin AI API for creating applications using neural networks. But if Huawei had stopped there, then the initiative could have been buried in this place - specific APIs will not survive in the open world of Android, there is no point in developers creating applications only for Huawei smartphones. Therefore, HiAI also works with Android's Neural Network API. Accordingly, all programs that use deep learning algorithms should run faster on smartphones with Kirin 970 than their competitors.

In fact, this is a very subtle point in talking about the Mate 10 Pro - at the presentation, all the examples with recognition and sorting of photos naturally look impressive. In fact, it’s difficult to single out anything specific in the user experience when working with this smartphone. Yes, photographs are quite successfully sorted into folders and sections (landscapes, portraits, food), but, firstly, the smartphone does not notice any specific things in the pictures - for example, it has no task at all to distinguish between a car and a house. And secondly, the same folders and sorting by different persons were added with fresh updates to other Huawei smartphones that do not have HiAI on board.

The main application in which, according to Huawei, the work of the smartphone's artificial intelligence should be noticeable is Microsoft's offline translator. And yes, it works really fast, but it doesn’t have serious translation accuracy; and here we should blame Microsoft rather than Huawei. It is simply impossible to assess the “intelligence” of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro at the moment - it may have undeniable advantages over competitors in the rapidly developing segment of neural network applications, but it may not differ from them in any way. Empirical conclusions are not possible.

But in general, the performance of the Mate 10 Pro can be easily assessed - and, of course, it is rated “excellent”. This is the flagship level. Applications open instantly, no lags, very neat and precise work. And not the slightest tendency to overheat.

RAM on the standard version of Mate 10 Pro is 6 GB, non-volatile memory is 128 GB. There is also a version with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of flash memory. But I wouldn’t look in its direction - the smartphone does not have a slot for a memory card, and 64 GB is definitely not enough to work with a device of this level.

Sound

Huawei Mate 10 pro 6 128gb review revealed one unpleasant moment for many - it was decided to abandon the standard 3.5 mm jack, so you will have to buy a USB Type-C headset, or connect a regular one via an adapter, which is not so practical. This was done to ensure moisture protection of the case according to the IP67 standard. In addition, you can always get wireless headphones connected via Bluetooth. The smartphone has support for aptX/aptX HD and LDAC HD Audio, so the sound quality here is the best, the main thing is to choose suitable headphones.

Huawei Mate 10 porsche design review showed that the sound is reproduced simultaneously through two speakers - multimedia and conversational, which gives a stereo effect. The sound is loud, but lacks volume.

⇡#Display and sound

Huawei has been reluctant to use OLED displays - only as options for its most expensive gadgets like the Mate 9 Porsche Design. By the way, there is a similar version for the Mate 10 Pro, but it really only differs in design. Now the most important Mate has also received an AMOLED matrix (after all, there is no serious bet on the usual “top ten”). And this is great news - it’s high time for LCDs, if not to the dustbin of history, then at least to reduce their representation in the “highest circles” of smartphones. Organic LED screens surpass even the best IPS in contrast and perform much better in the sun, without compromising viewing angles and color reproduction - if they are configured correctly.

The Mate 10 Pro's screen is, of course, no exception. But it is curious that Huawei again did not use Quad HD resolution in its flagship (the Mate 10, by the way, has a Quad HD screen). How to explain such modesty is not clear. The pixel density is normal - 402 ppi. The pixelation is not noticeable, but in general, a six-inch screen could have a higher resolution. Yes, the low resolution has a positive effect on the autonomy of the device, but in comparison with its competitors it’s still somehow undignified, you’ll agree.

The 18:9 format manifests itself in a standard way - in most ordinary applications you will not see significant differences, but in the video, stripes will almost certainly appear along the edges of the picture - most of the videos are framed in 16:9 format.

The touch panel (supports ten touches, works with gestures) can respond to the touch of a gloved hand when a special setting is activated.

It is useless to measure contrast - for OLED displays it is conditionally infinite, we see absolutely black color on the screen in high-contrast scenes. But the measured brightness numbers are sometimes not impressive when compared head-to-head with an LCD - due to the fact that each pixel individually lights up here, and common backlights are not used. For the Mate 10 Pro it is 412 cd/m2. The Mate 9, let me remind you, had as much as 662 cd/m2. At the same time, using the Mate 10 Pro in the sun is even more comfortable - precisely due to the contrast: the image fades slightly, but remains not only readable, but also in full color.


Huawei Mate 9, display settings

In terms of customization, the Mate 10 Pro's screen doesn't have any major issues. In the parameters you can select “bright” or “normal” display mode.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, bright mode, gamma. Yellow line – Mate 10 Pro performance, dotted line – reference range

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, bright mode, color temperature. Blue line – Mate 10 Pro performance, dotted line – reference temperature

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, bright mode, color gamut. Gray triangle – sRGB coverage, white triangle – Mate 10 Pro coverage

In the first case, an expanded color space is used - colors look noticeably more saturated, but accuracy suffers: the color temperature is too high (7500–8000 K), the average DeltaE deviation for the expanded Color Checker palette (grayscale + a wide range of color shades) is 5.43 - average. The gamma is quite acceptable - 2.23, the curves also behave stably. This mode is the default.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, normal mode, gamma. Yellow line – Mate 10 Pro performance, dotted line – reference range

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, normal mode, color temperature. Blue line – Mate 10 Pro performance, dotted line – reference temperature

Huawei Mate 10 Pro, normal mode, color gamut. Gray triangle – sRGB coverage, white triangle – Mate 10 Pro coverage

If you change it to “normal”, the color space will approach the sRGB standard, the picture will become warmer, and the indicators will improve - we will see more honest, but not so bright colors. Gamma is 2.08, temperature is around 6500 K (normal), the average deviation DeltaE on the Color Checker scale is 2.92 (also within normal limits and much better than most smartphones). Who likes what.

In terms of sound, the Mate 10 Pro doesn't show anything special. This is expected - there is no mini-jack, as a result of which you can use the smartphone with really good wired headphones only through the included adapter. It's either this (Huawei simply insists on using the included headphones with USB Type-C - quite mediocre, however), or it's still the hardware, but the Pro sounds ordinary - the sound is not too detailed, with too much emphasis at low frequencies, which makes the sound picture seem slightly compressed and muffled. Owners of good wireless headphones will be happy - the aptX standard is supported, but again you will have to do without being an audiophile.

But you can’t complain about the sound of external speakers. Fortunately, they work in pairs (one on the lower edge and the second above the screen), creating a stereophonic effect, albeit a peculiar one. The volume is enough for any situation; there is not much to talk about any serious “purity” of the sound, but for watching videos from the Internet this is quite enough. Making calls using the Mate 10 Pro is comfortable – you can hear your interlocutor perfectly, and no one complained from the other end of the “wire.”

Autonomy

The Mate series has always been famous for its capacious batteries and the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is no exception to the rule. The case contains a battery with a capacity of 4000 mAh. With active use, you can count on 1.5 days of battery life. When tested in PCMark at a brightness of 200 cd/m2 and intense load, the Mate 10 Pro smartphone lasted almost 9 hours.

Huawei Mate 10 lite 64gb black review revealed good results - in the mode of use with a constantly active Internet, web browsing, communicating on social networks, watching YouTube videos and a small number of conversations, after 24 hours there is still about 40% charge left with 5 hours of display activity. And this is not a record yet, because at any time you can activate the power saving mode and limit the background activity of applications.

A review of Huawei Mate 10 showed that it supports fast charging technology made according to its own SuperCharge standard. It will only work if the supplied charger and cable are connected to the phone. In just 30 minutes, the smartphone replenishes half the battery charge, which is enough for almost a day of active use.

Foreign guest

The first thing you need to know about the smartphone is that it is not sold in Russia and, most likely, will not be. Huawei / Honor, in my opinion, has the best pricing policy among all the vendors officially represented in Russia. The company even sells top-end devices at reasonable prices. Take, for example, the Huawei P10, which, even with its controversial design, was and remains one of the best acquisitions among the flagship devices here, with a guarantee and other goodies, because it costs 27 thousand rubles.

Huawei P10

However, any manufacturer earns the least on flagships and putting an affordable price tag on Huawei Mate 10 is not profitable. For this reason, the device did not arrive to us, and its place will be taken by the Honor V10 View on the same platform.

However, no one is stopping you from buying Huawei Mate 10 or its Pro version yourself. Fortunately, the price tags for both modifications are not too steep, and the devices are sold in all online stores known to us: Aliexpress, LightInTheBox, From.ae, and so on.

Huawei Mate 10 will cost an average of $650 (you can find it cheaper)
Huawei Mate 10 Pro costs about 800 euros, but again there are options

Content:

— Characteristics — Photo capabilities — Video recording — Display — Processor — Performance — Design — Autonomy — The rest — Summary

Huawei Mate 10 Pro camera review in Russian

Huawei Mate 10 Pro camera review reveals the enormous capabilities of the device, because for the first time a self-learning neural network is used for their operation. The main module is dual and consists of two sensors: 12 MP with an RGB filter, and a monochrome 20 MP.

Each of them is equipped with optical stabilization and an aspherical lens with f/1.6 aperture and a focal length of 27 mm. A monochrome camera lacks an RGB filter, but is more sensitive to light and has a wider dynamic range. During standard shooting, both modules are used, and the picture from the monochrome module has a positive effect on the overall quality of the photo. And if you wish, you can always switch to one of these modules.

Example photo:

Compared to the P10 Plus, photo quality has increased noticeably, which is largely due to the smaller aperture and optical stabilization of both modules. The quality of the pictures is a level higher than most of its competitors; the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone takes excellent pictures.

The only thing that causes indignation so far is the work of the portrait mode. The problem is in the operation of the algorithm itself. When the subject has clear boundaries, the background is blurred as expected. But this happens very aggressively, without determining depth, because some objects may be located closer to the foreground, while others are at a distance from it. In this regard, the portrait photo looks unnatural, as if the subject was added to an already blurred background. The manufacturer is aware of the problem and is working to fix it. Updates come frequently, so you can expect it to be resolved in the foreseeable future.

When reviewing the Huawei Mate 10 dual sim camera, we were pleased with video shooting - there is support for 4K, and optical stabilization eliminates hand shake when shooting on the go. But at the same time, digital processing and loss of focus remain noticeable when you shoot on the go. Sound recording occurs in stereo format, detailing also deserves the highest praise. There is a slow motion mode in FullHD with 120 fps.

Conclusion

Huawei Mate 10 price in Russia starts from 49,000 rubles. For this price we get a device in a beautiful frameless case, with a high-quality screen, a dual camera and top-end hardware. One of its key features is a neural network, which will fully realize its capabilities in the foreseeable future. Thanks to it, the smartphone will learn on its own and will only work better over time. Another plus that buyers will certainly appreciate is excellent battery life. All this makes it an ideal purchase at this price; it outperforms its competitors in almost every way.

Advantages:

Case design and materials;
IP67 protection;
High-quality screen and excellent performance;
Stereo sound;
Autonomy and fast charging;
Excellent photographic opportunities

Flaws:

Unfinished portrait mode.

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Cameras

Even before the announcement, many people named cameras from Leica as another interesting feature of smartphones. Both options use the same sensors, which were transferred from the company’s solutions last year. The main camera is represented by two modules of 12+20 MP. The second sensor is monochrome. A noticeable difference is faster optics with an f/1.6 aperture. Besides the guests of our review, only the LG V30 is now ready to boast of such an aperture. The camera has laser focusing, optical image stabilization, and an HDR mode.

And again we return to the NPU coprocessor. Thanks to the machine learning unit, the camera processes images faster and, together with high-aperture optics, makes photos brighter. Flexible shooting settings are announced, and algorithms recognize up to 14 different scenes, allowing you to obtain higher-quality footage. As already noted, Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro can recognize objects in photographs (cats, dogs, various weather phenomena, nature, etc.). In general, the characteristics and statements of Huawei representatives promise us one of the smartest cameras capable of taking excellent photos.

And all these promises, at least partially, have been fulfilled. Smartphones take pictures no worse than the latest flagship solutions from other companies, and in some cases even better. During the day, you get great photos with correct colors, lots of detail and minimal noise. Photos are brighter, but mostly too sharp, which is especially noticeable when zoomed in. This is most likely a software issue that, hopefully, Huawei will fix in future system updates.

Optics with a better aperture of f/1.6 had a particularly positive effect on night photography. Here you don’t even have to compare the new smartphones with the previous flagships of the Chinese company. Photos are much more detailed, with less noise and higher brightness. By using manual settings and a tripod, you can take gorgeous night photos.

Portrait mode is also well implemented, which is available for both the main sensor and monochrome. The camera produces a nice blurred background, and there is a beauty feature available that can be activated at will. Panoramic images are not far behind in quality. Video on the main camera can be recorded in 4K at 30 frames per second. There is optical stabilization, which ensures smooth images.

The best smartphones with good cameras

8 megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture. A good camera that is quite suitable for video calls and taking selfies. Huawei has also implemented digital bokeh capabilities for the front camera, which allows you to create portrait selfies. The capabilities of artificial intelligence were again used, which will identify the characters in the frame without covering up unnecessary things.

Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro did not revolutionize mobile photography, despite high-aperture optics and neural networks, but in terms of photo quality they are quite comparable to other 2021 flagships. It is likely that the quality of the resulting photos will only increase thanks to machine learning. In addition, no updates will be released that will make changes.

Release date and price

Huawei Mate 10 went on sale on November 2 last year in countries such as China, Australia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain and the Philippines. Although the smartphone is not officially available in the US market, it can be purchased from unofficial Amazon sellers for $699. In Russia, Mate 10 also became available for purchase in November 2021. Today the price of this phone varies between 35-40 thousand rubles, and the buyer can choose from 4 colors: Mocha brown (brown), Black (black), Champagne gold (golden), Pink gold (pink gold).

Design

The design of the phone is very beautiful, but not very practical. Let's start with the fact that it is very similar to flagship devices from Samsung. Therefore, this model has the same problem as the Galaxy S8 - poor placement of the fingerprint scanner. It can be confused with a camera - you can miss the scanner and smudge the lens.

In addition, the device has large dimensions (154×75×7.9 mm) and heavy weight (178 grams). If you use your smartphone for several hours in a row, you will clearly feel this drawback.

I would like to say a few words about the lack of a 3.5 mm jack. This is a huge disadvantage of almost all modern phones, which neglect the presence of a completely standard and familiar hole for connecting a wired headset. This is due to the fact that the audio jack does not allow smartphones to be made very thin. But some users note that it would be better if the device were thicker and had a 3.5 mm input - it’s bad without it. Its absence, firstly, does not allow you to charge the device and listen to music on headphones at the same time. Secondly, in order to use a regular headset with a 3.5 mm plug, you have to purchase an adapter and carry it with you, which is not very convenient.

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro has a glossy body with a glass back, so it quickly becomes covered with fingerprints. This is also a disadvantage of most modern phones, because now all developers are chasing a beautiful appearance, forgetting that this affects the practical side of using the device. But there are many protective accessories that can solve this problem. Even the manufacturer himself immediately includes a case with the smartphone.

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone is made according to the IP67 standard. In theory, the device should withstand immersion under water. But unfortunately, the test showed that it is better not to swim with the phone. The cameras immediately fog up from the inside, which indicates that water has gotten inside.

Memory and memory card

Often users do not pay due attention to the amount of memory in their smartphone. But this is an important aspect, because it affects how comfortable you will be using applications, surfing the Internet, and playing games.

A few words about memory standards at the moment. Now for normal use you need at least 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. This is the amount that is enough not to think about the number of downloaded and launched programs.

Honor Mate 10 Pro has plenty of memory - 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of ROM. Honestly, it's a lot. To make use of all that memory, you need applications a little larger than what we have now. This suggests that the smartphone will be relevant for at least a couple of years. In terms of permanent memory, everything is also good; you won’t have to expand it with a memory card, since this will be enough. 128 GB of storage is enough to download everything you need: games, applications, music and even several dozen movies. But if this is not enough for you, then you can always expand the memory using a memory card.

In terms of memory, the phone is very good, and there are no complaints about it.

Audio

To the delight of many users, the Mate 10 retained the mini-jack for headphones, which the Mate 10 Pro, alas, parted with. More and more people are switching to wireless audio every day, but for those who are nostalgic for the analog days like us, this is a big plus for this phone. The smartphone only offers Bluetooth 4.2 for wireless audio, and in this regard we expected more from a Huawei flagship.

Devices manufactured by Huawei are always characterized by high-quality sound from the earpiece speaker. For Mate 10, both the emitted and received waves are modulated thanks to an artificial intelligence processor.

Like the Mate 9, the external speaker is also of very good quality and doesn't produce sounds with a metallic tone, as you might expect from a smartphone like this.

Special abilities

Easy Projection turns Mate 10 into a PC

This is the newest feature of Mate 10 that allows you to use your smartphone as a desktop computer. Among previous experiments in bringing the smartphone and PC closer together, I think this option is the most convincing, since the BQ Aquaris M10 tablet was paired with Ubuntu Touch.

Huawei's Easy Projection is much more practical than Samsung's DeX.

Unlike Samsung DeX, you don't need an expensive accessory with the Mate 10. All you need is a USB-C adapter and a wireless mouse and keyboard. There are also some HDMI and USB adapters for using a keyboard and mouse combination. Just connect your device to your screen and you're ready to go. You can also use your smartphone display as a trackpad to move the cursor around the big screen and use the virtual keyboard to enter characters. All this is easy, simple and fast. The best part is that you can use your phone as normal, even if you are in a desktop session.

There are just two things to keep in mind: the HDMI port can't send audio, and information that isn't saved during your desktop session will be lost if you unplug the on-screen cable. The desktop doesn't run quite as smoothly if you're using a phone, plus there are a number of aspects that need improvement, but it's one of the best efforts we've seen with technology like this to date.

BY

Mate 10 Lite runs on Android 7.1 with the proprietary EMUI 5.1 shell. This is not the latest version of Android, but the manufacturer has promised to update to the new Android 8.0 and EMUI 8.

The first acquaintance with the EMUI shell does not raise any questions: everything is familiar and in its place, all the icons are recognizable. The design itself is not far removed from regular Android. Only minor functions have been changed, and a couple of icons have been redrawn. However, rich settings have been added in which you can change a lot to suit yourself. Everything works as smoothly and quickly as possible, there are no complaints here.

Overall, I have good impressions of the system. But, as usual, it may not be to everyone's taste. Some users prefer pure Android, some install launchers.