The Huawei Mate 10 is a pretty interesting phablet. It severely undercuts the competition in pricing while offering great features with a mix of modern and traditional design choices.

I’m also excited to try out the capabilities of the Neural Processing Unit or NPU tucked inside its Kirin 970 chipset. Is built-in artificial intelligence a good thing for smartphones? Let’s find out.

 

What’s inside the box?

Unboxing the Huawei Mate 10.

Unboxing the Huawei Mate 10.

The Huawei Mate 10 comes in a premium looking box that highlights the ‘band’ design of the device, Leica lens and TÜV Rheinland safety certification.

Its inner compartments are marked with icons signifying the accessories like the power brick, USB Type-C cord, earphones, SIM ejector pin and guides. There’s a free phone case too!

 

First Impressions of the Huawei Mate 10

It's a glossy smartphone!

It’s a glossy smartphone!

Picking up the Huawei Mate 10 gave me mixed feelings. I was worried that sticking with the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio for its 5.9 inch display would make it too unwieldy.

Imagine my delight when I was able to hold the device comfortably with one hand! No doubt, it was because the bezels are crazy thin. The company wasn’t kidding when they claimed that the bezels are ‘barely there’.

Yes, the glass design looks gorgeous but collects its fair amount of smudges. I still prefer the full metal designs in the Mate 9 and P10. I guess I’m in the minority since more brands are switching to glass.

 

Multimedia Consumption

Your multimedia phablet...

Your multimedia phablet…

One of the first apps I used in the Huawei Mate 10 is YouTube. I watched Morissette’s cover of Secret Lovesong on Wish 107.5 and I was hooked that I found it difficult to stop watching even after the sixth video.

The Huawei Mate 10 is a great phablet for multimedia consumption! Unlike in 18:9 displays, videos occupy the entire display and the audio quality is superb – that’s from the loudspeaker, I wasn’t using earphones.

In addition to the bottom firing loudspeaker, the front facing earpiece also produce audio creating a stereo effect. Hence, vocals and highs are clear while a surprising bass comes from the main loudspeaker.

 

Huawei Mate 10 Sample Pictures

While my review unit isn’t the final consumer version yet, I can’t resist taking several photos using the dual rear camera with the new LEICA SUMMILUX-H lens and f/1.9 aperture.

Here are some sample pictures (click for the original file):

Huawei Mate 10 sample picture.

Flower

Huawei Mate 10 sample picture.

Dog

Huawei Mate 10 sample picture.

Night

All pictures were identified by the Huawei Mate 10. I’ll test the phone’s camera features further in the full review.


UP NEXT: Huawei Mate 10 Full Review!



Huawei Mate 10 specs:

Average rating of 3.3 stars from 21 users.
  • 5.9-inch QHD IPS LCD Display (1440 x 2560 Pixels), 499 ppi
  • Android 8.0 Oreo Operating System
  • HiSilicon Kirin 970 Chipset
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • 20.0 + 12.0 Megapixel Rear Camera with Dual LED Flash
  • 8.0 Megapixel Front Camera with Screen Flash
  • Dual SIM (Nano-SIM)
  • 64GB Internal Storage
  • Expandable Up to 256 via microSD
  • 4G LTE (700MHz), 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE & GPRS Networks
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (Dual Band)
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • USB Type-C
  • 3.5mm Audio Jack
  • Fingerprint Sensor
  • 4000mAh Battery
  • Fast Charging (Huawei SuperCharge)
  • 150.5 x 77.8 x 8.2 mm @ 186 g
  • 32,990.00 Official Price in the Philippines