Huawei Mate 9 review
Huawei's Mate 9 is a phone that's equal parts Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (minus the fire) and iPhone 7, mixed in with the brand's own design sensibilities both inside and out.
It's a Note in that it's a large-screened device, which instantly pushes it into the realm of 'power user' and the enterprise space, a claim backed up by the fact that it features the newest, most powerful chipset, also from Huawei.
Huawei Mate 9 price and release date
- Out now in the US and UK
- It costs $599.99 (£579, about AU$800)
A GIANT SCREEN IN MODEST PACKAGE
Here’s a surprise: The Mate 9 isn’t a big smartphone. The screen may be massive, but Huawei has clearly used some form of magic to squeeze it into a small body. Is the Mate 9 related to Doctor Who’s Tardis? Very possibly. It’s shorter and the same width as the LG V20, which has a 5.7-inch screen, and just 2mm longer and 3mm wider than the 5.5-inch Pixel XL. Probably not coincidentally, it has a nearly identical footprint to the Apple iPhone 7 Plus.
It sits very comfortably in your hand. Yes, you still have to stretch your thumb from one side of the screen to the other, but it’s not an impossible task. It takes no more effort to do so than on “normal” phones like the iPhone 7 Plus or the Pixel XL. The use of on-screen Android menu keys only helps, too. Huawei smoothed the sides of the metal body, but left enough of an edge to give the phone some “bite,” lowering the chances of it slipping from your grip.
SOFTWARE TWEAKS ADD FEATURES
Huawei has always frustrated us with its software. It covers Android in its own Emotion user interface (EMUI), which in the past has been intrusive, sometimes buggy, and often awkwardly frustrating. No more so than many other third-party user interfaces, but it usually let the overall phone experience down in a way that seemed unnecessary.
LIGHTNING FAST PERFORMANCE
Huawei doesn’t use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, or any Qualcomm chip, in its flagship phones. The Mate 9 introduces the Kirin 960 octa-core processor, which is the first to use ARM’s new A73 design, bringing it right up to date. It’s a monster. Regardless of the task, game, or app, the Mate 9 sprinted along, never showing any signs of fatigue.
Put the phone through the usual benchmark tests, and it comes close to Snapdragon 821 devices, such as the OnePlus 3T, depending on the test. It’s worth remembering the Mate 9 has 4GB of RAM, rather than the OnePlus 3T’s 6GB. On AnTuTu, the Mate 9 scores 132,922, which is way below the OnePlus 3T’s average 166,000. Geekbench 4 is more interesting, as it records 5,893, considerably more than the OnePlus 3T’s 4,390. Gaming benchmark app 3D Mark returned a 2,389 score on Slingshot Extreme, from the experience it is realy fast and good and i think it will remain fast long time not like samsung devices.
HUAWEI MATE 9 – DISPLAY
n the same way that megapixels don’t make a great camera, having the highest-resolution possible display doesn’t always guarantee a superb screen.
I was a tad disappointed when I first heard the Mate 9 would feature only a 1080p screen, especially when so many cheaper phones are now including quad-HD panels. In reality, however, this is still a gorgeous display – and the lack of the tip-top resolution hasn’t bothered me in the slightest, but over all it still nice and bright.
HUAWEI MATE 9 – CAMERA
There was a lot of miscommunication about just how much input Leica had on the P9 cameras, and the story appears to be similar here, too.
With the Mate 9, the two sensors offer up different resolutions. The monochrome one – which helps improve contrast and low-light shooting – boasts 20 megapixels, while the colour RGB version is a lower 12 megapixels.
It is possible to use the black-and-white sensor separately, but most of the time they combine to create a hybrid zoom effect that’s supposed to mirror an optical zoom.
On countless occasions, Huawei referred to the zoom on the Mate 9 as "optical" – but it certainly isn’t that. There's simply some software trickery at play here, where the use of differing resolution sensors creates a zoom effect. It’s similar to the tech used by Sony phones, where the photo is taken at a higher resolution and then cropped.
It’s slightly odd that Huawei has made a big deal of the zoom, because it’s pretty much useless.
Other parts of the camera are more successful, though. Photos taken in good light are nice and detailed, with decent depth and accurate colours. The auto-HDR mode tends to be aggressive in strong sunlight, leaving you with over-exposed results, but it improves shots taken when the light isn’t quite so good. Vignetting is an issue too, and this appears to be a common problem when two lenses are at play.
The slightly narrow lens f/2.2 aperture means low-light photos aren’t the best, even though the sensor is optically stabilised, and I'm not convinced the brighter monochrome sensor makes much difference. Some low-light pictures come out nicely, but others lack detail and suffer a huge amount of noise.
It feels like there’s so much processing going on that the results aren’t overly reliable, and that’s a bit of a problem.
Like the iPhone 7 Plus, the Mate 9 has a mode that aims to create the silky bokeh effect you’d normally only be able to achieve with a DSLR. This "variable aperture" mode can produce some decent results, but it often blurs the wrong area of the photo and looks odd and fake,and for that i did not like the camera a lot.
HUAWEI MATE 9 – BATTERY LIFE
I've never been completely won over by large phones, but their more sizeable batteries keep tempting me back. Having a phone that more times than not lasts two straight days without needing a charge is something that’s hard to ignore.The 4,000mAh battery in the Mate 9 – still non-removable – is a strong performer, with tremendous standby times and an impressive ability to sip power when you’re streaming music or films. An hour of HD video streaming on Netflix consumed only 7% – the best I've seen on a phone this year – and listening to Spotify on my hour-long commute took 4%.
I've easily been able to get through the day with 50% remaining before bed, waking up to 45% the following day.
Huawei has also finally added quick charging, but it’s another proprietary format like OnePlus' Dash Charge. Using the supplied power brick, the Huawei Mate 9 can be powered from 0% to 100% in about 1hr 10mins.
While this is impressive for a battery of this size, it’s a different story if you’re using just any old charger. It took 4 hours to charge with a Samsung Galaxy S7 charger, and about 3 hours with the block that came with the Pixel XL.
Incidentally, there seems to be three messages that come up when you’re charging; Charging, Fast Charging and Super Charging. The first is when you’re using a low-powered plug, while Fast Charging popped up when I used a 2A plug. Super Charging seems to be reserved for the included Huawei power supply.
SHOULD I BUT THE HUAWEI MATE 9?
Not only is the Huawei Mate 9 a fantastically well-rounded device, it also seems to be one of the few true phablets actually available. If you’re after a big Android phone, this is easily the best choice.
The battery life is excellent, the screen is gorgeous and the software is a huge step up from Huawei’s previous efforts; while it's one of the least appealing Android skins due to clunky features, it’s a huge improvement overall.
I’m not completely sold on the camera, however; it can’t compete with the PIXEL XL and IPhone 7 due to some odd software quirks and slightly artificial photo effects. The handset isn't water-resistant either, something that I’ve come to expect at this price, over all it is a nice device and a huge step for huawei and i recomend it for people that want a nice price phone with a lot of good things added to it.
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