Huawei Mate 10 Unboxing, Quick Review: 2017’s Affordable Flagship?

Huawei Mate 10 Unboxing, Quick Review: 2017’s Affordable Flagship?

We unbox that Mate 10!

We’ve already given you our take on Huawei’s top-tier flagship, the Mate 10 Pro a few weeks ago. We’ve been thoroughly impressed with what the manufacturer has been able to achieve with their current flagship, so much so that we’re wholeheartedly recommending it to anyone looking to buy a high-end phablet that’s not made by a Korean company. But before we forget, the Mate 10 Pro has a more affordable brother that eschews fancy aspect ratios for something more traditional. With a Php 32,990 price point and much of the same hardware that made the Mate 10 Pro great, the regular Mate 10 is on the road to become one of the most prolific flagships of the year.

Huawei Mate 10 specs

  • 2.4GHz Hi-Silicon Kirin 970 octa-core processor
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • 5.9-inch 2K RGBW HDR display; 16:9 screen ratio
  • 64 GB/128 GB of expandable storage (up to 256 GB via microSD card)
  • 4G, LTE
  • Dual SIM
  • 20-megapixel + 12-megapixel rear camera, Leica Summilux-H Lenses at f/1.6 aperture, OIS, 2x lossless zoom, PDAF, Laser AF, dual-LED flash
  • 8-megapixel front camera
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • Fingerprint scanner, IP67
  • USB Type-C
  • 4000mAh battery
  • Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8

Read Also: First Camera Shots Taken with the Huawei Mate 10

Packaging and contents:

Huaweis’ flagship series of phones have always had elegant, understated packaging when they ship to consumers, and the Mate 10 is no exception. The phablet ships in a black box that has its name in the middle with a tasteful gold coloration on the font, and the Leica branding on the bottom. The packaging also has the same trademark striped, two-tone look that adorns the rear of the phone.

Once you open the box, you’ll see the Mate 10 in the flesh, along with a few accessories including a USB Type-C cable that’s proprietary to Huawei for their fast charging tech, USB charger, a pair of headphones and a soft jelly case to protect the rear of the phone.

 

Initial impressions: The most premium Mate ever

Huawei’s moved away from the their signature all-metal build to aluminum and glass for their new crop of flagships. It’s the design trajectory that other companies have gravitated to, and Huawei’s new phones aren’t an exception to the rule. The phone has an aluminum frame and a high-gloss glass back, with the new two-stripe design that’s so apparent with the new flagships. Our review unit for the Mate 10 came in black so the two-tone stripe on the rear isn’t so obvious.

The rear of the phone is quite clean aside from the two rear cameras co-developed with Leica. Just like last year the cameras are composed of a monochrome and color sensor, with the monochrome shooter having a 20-megapixel sensor while the color camera has a 12-megapixel sensor.

Both lenses used on Mate 10’s rear camera sports an f/1.6 aperture, along with OIS, 2X lossless zoom, PDAF, laser AF and dual-LED flash.

The front of the camera has a 5.9-inch IPS display, which is slightly smaller than the 6-inch panel on the Mate 10 Pro. There are a few key differences between the display on the two phones though, aside from size: the Mate 10 retains a typical 16:9 aspect ratio compared to the 18:9 that the Mate 10 Pro adopts, making it squatter and shorter compared to the other flagship. The display tech used on the Mate 10 is also quite different from the Mate 10 Pro, sporting an IPS panel compared to the OLED one on the Mate 10 Pro.

Resolution-wise the Mate 10 is capable of hitting QHD resolutions if needed, though it defaults at full HD for better battery life. And while the phone doesn’t have an 18:9 aspect ratio, top and bottom bezels are comparably tiny compared to other phones, though Huawei has still found the space to put in a fingerprint scanner on the bottom right below the stellar display.

The volume/power buttons are on the side, while the 3.5mm jack – something that was omitted on the Mate 10 Pro – is on the top. The USB Type-C connector, USB Type-C port and speaker grille is located on the bottom of the phone.

Huawei’s new darlings are powered by the most advanced HiSilicon Kirin processor ever – the 970. The Kirin 970 not only sport the latest in wireless communication tech as well as a Mali-G72 MP12 GPU, it also has a dedicated NPU, or neural processing unit for its AI smarts. It’s the processor that drives the Mate 10’s AI prowess, though we haven’t had enough time with the phone to see if it really does make a difference. What we did see with the phone was that it was wickedly fast. The Mate 10 has 4GB of RAM paired with 64GB of internal storage that’s expandable via microSD.

That’s it for this unboxing. We’ll be taking the Mate 10 around with us in the next few days to see if it’s just as good as its pricier brother.

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