Hot off the heels of its Nova 2i reveal, Huawei has unveiled two more smartphones: the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. Much like past Mate series devices, the pair tout large displays (starting at 5.9-inches) and equally large batteries said to last up to two days.
As per modern flagship smartphone trends, Huawei's trimmed bezels and moved from aluminium to glass. But while the two new devices are similar in design, there's major differences between them. These start with the screen; the Mate 10 has a traditional 16:9 display, while the Mate 10 Pro has an extra-tall 18:9 display as found in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6. The extra-tall screen means the Mate 10 Pro's fingerprint reader is on the back, while the Mate 10 has it on the front, under the screen.
The Mate 10 Pro is also Huawei's first water-resistance flagship smartphone, with a rating of IP67. This means it will survive depths of up to one metre for as long as a half an hour. The regular Mate 10 has no IP rating.
While the Mate 10 has a headphone jack, Huawei's followed Apple and Google's lead in axing the classic 3.5mm connector when it comes to the Mate 10 Pro. You'll get USB Type-C headphones in the box, but there's no converter dongle included.
Locally, the Mate 10 will be available with 64GB of expandable storage, while the Mate 10 Pro will ship in a 128GB configuration that isn't expandable.
Both phones do however share the same Leica-branded camera configuration. This is made up a 12MP primary camera and a 20MP secondary monochrome camera used to capture extra detail and simulate DSLR-like bokeh. Both lenses have an aperture of f/1.6, which Huawei says lets in 90% more light than the Mate 9.
Thanks to the dedicated Neural Processing Unit found in the Mate 10's Kirin 970 processor, the camera is able to recognise 13 different scene types and adjust settings accordingly. These include night, day, plants, food, flowers, cats, dogs, portraits, the beach, and sunsets.
Huawei says the NPU offers up to 25 times better performance and up to 50 times greater energy efficiency for AI-related tasks.
Key specifications for the Mate 10 include a 16:9 5.9-inch 2K screen, a Huawei-made Kirin 970 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of expandable storage, and a 4000mAH battery
Key specifications for the Mate 10 Pro include a 6-inch 18:9 1080p display, a Huawei-made Kirin 970 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of non-expandable storage, IP67 water-resistance, and a 4000mAH battery. The Mate 10 Pro is the world's first smartphone to feature a "category 18" modem. This means it could theoretically achieve download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps over 4G networks.
Both phones run a new version of EMUI - Huawei's customised version of Android - based on Oreo.
The Mate 10 will be go on sale on November 15 for $899 outright, and be available through JB Hi-Fi and Vodafone. JB Hi-Fi will sell a dual SIM variant of the Mate 10, while the Vodafone model will be single SIM only. The Mate 10 Pro will follow on December 4 at a suggested retail price of $1,099 through Optus. The Mate 10 will be available in black, and the Mate 10 Pro will launch in blue.
If you buy either Mate 10 before the end of the year, you'll get a free CV360. The CV360 is a Huawei-made 360-degree camera that's entirely powered by a smartphone, rather than an internal battery. It will work with any Android smartphone that has a USB Type-C port, you'll just need to download the companion app from the Google Play Store. Pricing has yet to be confirmed, but Huawei says it will retail for somewhere $180 if you want it for use with a different phone.
Alex Choros
Related Articles
