The Chinese brand is now a real contender at the high end, with some great handsets to its name.
The smartphone space is an increasingly overpopulated — crowded, really — place to be. And it's getting more so as manufacturers such as Huawei start to pump out more, and better, phones, and push to expand its availability into more western markets. The past year was a pretty good one for Huawei with some excellent devices launched, and more sure to be on the way.
As new phones come and go, though, it's tough to keep up with things. So we're breaking it down into a continuously updated list to highlight the best devices that Huawei has to offer. These are the devices we'll be writing about, and they'll also be the ones you'll likely want to consider.
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
Available November 2017: The Mate 10 Pro is Huawei's late-2017 flagship, and one of the first Android flagships to ship with the new Android 8.0 Oreo. It's also the first Android phone with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit, or NPU, meaning it's future-proofed for the coming wave of AI-powered Android apps in 2018 and beyond. Other highlights in Huawei's best phone to date include a 6-inch, 18:9 display in a slim body, with a shiny new glass-backed chassis that's also water-resistant. And Huawei includes the same 4,000mAh battery capacity we've come to expect from the Mate line, delivering some of the best longevity we've seen in a high-end phone — backed up by super-quick charging technology.
And to top it off, the Mate 10's camera can go toe-to-toe with Google's Pixel 2 phones, with f/1.6 lenses, optical stabilization, and improved image processing. At €799, Mate 10 Pro isn't cheap, but it is one of the most technologically advanced phones of late 2017.
More: Huawei Mate 10 Pro hands-on
Huawei P10 / P10 Plus
Launched April 2017: Huawei's smaller flagship for early 2017 takes everything that was great about the Mate 9, and shrinks it down into a more pocketable handset. In the regular P10 you get a 5.2-inch 1080p panel — bumped up to 5.5-inch 1440p in the Plus — along with the same proven Kirin 960-based internals, and 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The same capable dual camera setup from the Mate 9 makes the transition to a smaller handset, with f/2.2 lenses in the P10, and f/1.8 in the P10 Plus.
The P10 and P10 Plus also feature one of the most unique back panel designs of the year, with a "hyper diamond cut" pattern (in some color options) allowing for extra grip and a unmistakeable in-hand feel. The P10 is more than six months old, but still a decent buy if you can pick it up at a discount.
Huawei Mate 9
Launched December 2016: Huawei's late 2016 flagship represents a coming of age for the company, with top-notch internals, a solid camera and completely overhauled software based on Android 7.0 Nougat. And it's soon due for an update to Android 8.0 Oreo.
If you pick up a Mate 9, you'll be getting a big, speedy phone with fantastic battery life. It boasts an enormous 5.9-inch 1080p display in a body the size of many 5.7-inchers. And you'll benefit from Huawei's still capable Kirin 960 processor, along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, plus micro-SD, plus a dual-SIM option. It's a beast of a phone, and currently the best big-screened Android you can buy — assuming it's on sale in your region.
More: Read our Huawei Mate 9 review
Update, October 2017: This article was last updated with the Mate 10 and P10 series.
Post a Comment