Huawei Mate 10 Pro review: The performance and battery miracle with AI

In October, the Chinese manufacturer Huawei presented its latest flagship. Also shines with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro the upper class series in a new design for the first time. My test reveals whether AI, battery life and the camera can really score.

The Huawei Mate 10 is bundled with the Mate 10 Pro and Mate 10 Lite released in October. It has now been officially on the market for two weeks. Unfortunately, the former cannot be bought in Europe. I was able to take a closer look at the new top device from Huawei for a week. For the sake of clarity, I really only focused on the Mate 10 Pro, and not related to or compared to the Mate 10.

In the packaging there is the Quickcharger, along with a USB-C headphone and a transparent cover. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

Brand new: the design

The design of the Mate 10 is particularly striking this year Pro. For the first time, together with the other two versions, the Mate series shines in a new design. For the first time, the manufacturer uses slightly reflective glass on the back. The dual camera and flash are specially highlighted by a frame.

A bit sharp-edged: the Mate 10's camera hump Pro. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

For me it is impressive that Huawei with the Mate 10 Pro could install a 6 inch display in such a handy design. It feels good in the hand and is reasonably easy to use even with small hands. Although it is a bit slippery even without a case and easily falls out of your hands. In my opinion, however, it is easier to use than the predecessors Mate 8 and Mate 9.

The back of the Mate 10 Pro: a bit slippery, made of glass, without wireless charging, but waterproof. (Picture: TechnikNews.NET)

However, I noticed that the buttons on the side were a bit unclean. They slide back and forth easily and are a bit angular. But what bothered me more personally: the edge of the camera hump on the back is very sharp. But by no means annoying in everyday life.

Despite the glass back, the Mate 10 Pro no wireless charging on board. One of my biggest points of criticism: With this smartphone, Huawei has eliminated the 3,5mm jack on the underside for the first time. Why does that have to be? As a consolation, however, each copy comes with a USB-C adapter – but it really only works in the Mate 10 Pro. On the other hand, my adapter from another manufacturer does not work again. pure chaos.

Display: 6 inches, 18: 9 and crisp and sharp

There are also some innovations in the display this year. What is less noticeable: an OLED display is now used instead of an LC display. What is more noticeable, however, is the new borderless 6 inch display in 18: 9 format. There are new adjustments in the software to make full use of the space. For example, almost every app asks you whether you want to switch to full-screen view. However, this message only appears if the app has not yet been optimized by the developer.

Apropos crisp sharp: on the Mate 10 Pro The display has a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels, i.e. Full HD+. The hammer, even if it is quite on the battery.

The multiview mode with two apps running in parallel looks really good on such a large display. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

In order to improve the experience of the giant display even further, you can hide the navigation buttons in the settings. These then only appear by swiping upwards. It's not my taste, but it looked really very good review. On YouTube, however, most of the videos could still be seen in the classic 16: 9 with bars. Features such as multi-view with two apps also allow you to make further use of the display.

6GB RAM and faster Proprocessor

With the Mate 10 Pro the manufacturer installs a new one Processor, the Kirin 970, which comes with its own AI chip this year. But more on that below. Aside from this there is still 6GB of RAM. Multitasking worked very smoothly review, and apps also started very quickly. There were also no crashes or significant dropouts. There is also 128GB of internal storage for music, pictures and multimedia. However, this cannot be expanded.

In the Antutu benchmark, I came to a comparably poor value right after unpacking. With its score of 148 it was behind the Pixel 000 XL with 2 points and the HTC U168 together with the Galaxy Note 000 with 11 points. For the iPhone enthusiasts: the iPhone 8 Plus is still in first place with its 178 points.

But the Mate 10 made it through a software update shortly before the end of my test Pro to a score of 176 points and thus again at the top of the Android smartphones - but the performance in everyday life has not changed as a result.

Kirin 970 works with the AI

Let's look at the specs Proprocessor inside the flagship in more detail. The special feature this year: With the new Kirin 970 comes the first NPU, the Neural Processing unit. For this reason, Huawei has particularly recruited the integrated AI in the presentation. The AI ​​does not need an Internet connection for a cloud, but calculates and "thinks" directly in the smartphone itself.

For example, the artificial intelligence should be able to automatically regulate battery consumption and be able to easily recognize motifs on the camera. The former really impressed me - almost 2 days of battery life. But an update was necessary for this. There is also a “Microsoft Translator” app, with which the AI ​​can translate sentences into other languages. But this was not really noticeable, so an internet connection was necessary. Then you can also rely on Google Translate.

For the camera, the results looked pretty much the same with and without AI. Huawei also thinks that in the future apps will also be powered by the AI prowill fit and work closely with Google. So far, however, there are no results from this cooperation.

Thus, the current state of the AI ​​is not really advanced and not necessarily worth mentioning. Still an exciting feature - let's see what the future will bring. Also, the AI ​​would not be a special reason to buy for me.

Camera: No longer the best

The camera of the Mate 9 successor still comes from and with Leica in the smartphone. A dual notch, which is typical for Huawei, is also installed here. The monochrome sensor comes with a resolution of 20 megapixels, while the color sensor shoots images with 12 megapixels. Together with the AI, they want to be the first choice for smartphone cameras again. However, I was rather disappointed with the camera this year - once you've seen the iPhone 8's camera, you'll notice that better smartphone cameras are now available.

A 12 megapixel camera is available on the front for selfies. There is also a portrait mode here, which is supposed to blur the background using software - but that didn't work so well in comparison. Otherwise sharp selfies, albeit without autofocus.

In my test, I got comparatively washed out colors and blurred images. Also had the camera more often ProDifficulty distinguishing between foreground and background. Maybe a simple update could fix this Prosolve problems. Comparing the images with the results of Huawei P10, one is from the images of the Mate 10 Pro rather disappointed.

Android 8.0 and EMUI 8.0: not mine

In terms of software, Huawei uses the latest Android 8.0 Oreo with its flagship. So this is the Mate 10 Pro one of the first smartphones to ship with Android Oreo. In addition, there are regular software updates and security patches, at least in the first 3 years. Unfortunately, Huawei still does not rely on pure Android, but on the now overloaded EMUI 8.0.

How do I come to this opinion? After the initial setup, I had to uninstall bloatware consisting of numerous advertising apps. In addition, Huawei's software becomes more overloaded with each version update and the settings in EMUI 8.0 now finally become chaotic. There is a search, but it only works if you know the exact name of the setting you are looking for. In addition, the many menus largely make no sense and are always strangely nested.

As a launcher, I am still convinced of the Nova Launcher with a pixel look - the Huawei Launcher has never impressed me. In addition, the app drawer is not displayed by default. In a guide we have shown using the Mate 9, how to activate the app drawer under EMUI.

4000 mAh battery and 2 days of battery life

As mentioned in the title, this is the Mate 10 Pro a real battery miracle. In my test, the smartphone lasted almost 2 days despite intensive use. Together with a SOT, the Screen On Time, of almost 9 hours, this is a really amazing achievement. The resolution was set to the default setting of FHD+ during this time.

Should the juice run out anyway, the battery can be charged back to just under 30 in 60 minutes using Huawei QuickCharge Procent charged. Fun fact: while loading, the current Procents with one decimal place. Clever solution – this is how loading looks even faster.

Conclusion: good innovations, but not perfect

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro offers a very good overall package for the RRP of 799 euros. It scores particularly well in the areas of performance and multitasking. The battery is also good in terms of high resolution and fast Prozessors, together with the software and the AI, achieved a top performance in terms of runtime. In addition, the new elegant design of the Mate series is very good. Despite the glass back, there is unfortunately no wireless charging, but the housing is waterproof and dustproof according to IP67. I'm really excited - if it weren't for the two critical points.

The biggest point of criticism for me is the omission of the 3,5mm jack plug. Why Huawei is now following suit with other manufacturers and making them disappear is incomprehensible to me. Probably because of the newly added waterproofness - but I didn't test it. I also don't like the mess with the USB-C to jack adapters.

And it's gone: the 3,5mm jack plug. (Image: TechnikNews.NET)

And the second point is the AI ​​together with the camera. In my test it was Proprocessor with NPU not noticeable and delivered worse results, especially with the camera, than without. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this idea definitely has potential. Even if Huawei does this with the Mate 10 Pro couldn't really exhaust it yet. The AI ​​should therefore not be a reason to buy it. But if you are looking for a cell phone with a good battery life and top performance, you should look at the Mate 10 Pro take a closer look.

Thanks to Huawei for providing the test device!

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