Huawei unveils the faster and smarter Mate 10 smartphone (UPDATE: Prices are out!)

After a series of rumors and much hype about the Kirin 970 processor, Huawei has finally unveiled the Mate 10 over at its press conference event in Munich, Germany. Similar to last year’s Mate 9, the Mate 10 comes in three models – the Standard, Pro and Porsche Edition model, all of them sports the company’s Kirin 970 system on chip with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) and an all new powerful LEICA Summilux 20MP monochrome + 12MP RGB f/1.6 dual camera system.

Just like what we have seen in previous leaks, the Huawei Mate 10 is confirmed to have a 5.9-inch FullView IPS display with a QHD (2560×1440) resolution and support for HDR10, it has 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage with MicroSD expansion. In terms of design, the Mate 10 uses a glass back and despite the 16:9 screen aspect ratio, it still features a pretty compact design all thanks to the reduced bezels, there’s a stripe on the camera system for cosmetic purposes. Apart from having the new Leica dual camera system, it has a front facing 8-megapixel camera, battery  4000mAh battery onboard with support for Huawei’s SuperCharge technology.The Mate 10 Pro on the other hand sports an entirely design language from the standard Mate 10, it sports a 6-inch AMOLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and HDR10 support, screen resolution is however lower than the Mate 10 at 2160×1080, which Huawei claims sufficient and has prioritized power efficiency on the Mate 10 Pro. Although the Mate 10 Pro is a more powerful device with 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage, you will not be able to expand the storage and it doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack due to its IP67 water resistant design. For those who prefers a more premium design and more firepower, the Mate 10 Porsche Edition is also available with 6GB RAM and 256GB of storage capacity.

Apart from the upgraded specs sheet, the Huawei Mate 10 series is really all about the company’s hard work on machine learning. With the NPU, the Kirin 970 is able to deliver up to 50X efficiency than its predecessor and it is able process images at a staggering 2005 images per minute, the Kirin 970 also has 20% faster CPU and 50% faster GPU performance when compared to its predecessor.

As Huawei puts it, the NPU is always learning the usage behaviour of the user, and that includes pictures taken with the phone, the phone’s camera system will be able to identify intelligently the image settings required for the perfect shot, as more photos are taken, the smarter the camera is in identifying subjects as well. Another AI feature that Huawei has demonstrated would be its AI Accelerated Translator app developed together with Microsoft, the NPU is able to quickly translate text into more than 60 languages as soon as the camera recognizes it.

The Huawei Mate 10 series is the company’s first smartphone to come preloaded with EMUI 8.0 based on Android 8.0, it introduces new features such as a Easy Projection mode that turns your phone into a PC like Samsung’s DeX by using a standard USB-C to HDMI dongle. Additionally, EMUI 8.0 is also optimized for the FullView display, which automatically scales apps to fit the screen properly without any cropping, while there’s also an auto-split feature that With the Kirin 970’s cellular radio, the Mate 10 will also support dual SIM 4G standby and users can expect greater call clarity with the Easy Talk technology, Huawei claims that callers will also be able to hear you properly even if you whisper into the phone softly.

The Huawei Mate 10 is available in colors of Mocha Brown, Champagne Gold, Pink Gold and Black, while the Mate 10 Pro is available in colors of Midnight Blue, Titanium Grey, Pink Gold and Mocha Brown. For pricing and availability in Malaysia, all the Mate 10 family will arrive after November 2017, no local pricing has been mentioned yet but prices in Euros are listed below:

• Huawei Mate 10 – 699 Euros (RM3480)
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro – 799 Euros  (RM3977)
• Huawei Mate 10 Porsche Edition – 1395 Euros (RM6945)