Huawei Mate 10 Pro

The Mate 10 Pro is Huawei’s first real stab at a premium smartphone offering. Priced at Rs. 59,990, the phone is clearly marketed towards more discerning consumers willing to spend a good dime for a phone which is packed with flagship-grade specs and all the other bells and whistles expected from offerings by Samsung, HTC, LG, and Google.

At first glance, the Mate 10 Pro definitely at least feels at par with the competition it is going up against. It ticks most of the boxes in terms of the design and build quality expected from a flagship in 2017, sporting a slim industrial design with precision buttons, metal rails, and a glass back. It also has all the other staple premium necessities covered: a 6-inch AMOLED display flanked by low profile bezels, fingerprint reader, dual cameras, and IP67-rated water resistance. 

However, in stepping up to the premium category, Huawei has also adopted some of the more controversial flagship trends with the Mate 10 which might risk turning off their usually more value-oriented customers. This includes the lack of any expandable storage and more importantly the painfully absent headphone jack which is becoming increasingly common in the segment.

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro comes in three variants: Midnight Blue, Titanium Grey, and Mocha Brown. 

Huawei phones have a reputation for providing good hardware packages for the price point, and even as a premium product the Mate 10 cut from the same cloth. Its battery capacity is quite remarkable for a flagship-grade phone measuring in at only 7.99mm at its thickest. Coupled with an efficient AMOLED panel and 4.5V/5A fast charging means that you’ll never really have to worry about running out of juice. Additionally, it manages to include features like Dual Sim support, which is still hard to find in the premium echelons of consumer smartphone devices and makes it more compelling in the Indian market and makes it stand out from a convenience perspective.

The Mate 10 Pro has exceptional camera hardware, with a primary 12-megapixel sensor and f 1.6 aperture with optical image stabilization (OIS), and a secondary 20-megapixel sensor also with the same aperture and OIS. This allows it to capture wide-angle pictures, sharp pictures as well as use both lenses in tandem to enhance effects such as depth of field. Its dual LED flash allows for more naturally lit, less grainy low light performance. 

However the specs are only half the story, As alluded to before, the great hardware is bottlenecked by Huawei’s own image processing capabilities. While it has impressive smart features – such as the capability to parse and identify subjects being shot and alter camera settings for better image quality – it ultimately lacks the colour accuracy and the dynamic range that someone utilising a Galaxy or a Pixel phone might come to expect. While the images are quite decent for the everyday user, a serious photographer might want to consider other options despite the hardware quality on offer.

Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro provides an exquisitely designed package which can definitely be described as flagship class. However, despite its excellent hardware it often struggles to distinguish itself from the competition. The design decisions made in the step up to flagship class might make it less appealing to Huawei’s usual value-oriented customers, and the shortcomings in its software department might stop existing flagship consumers from switching loyalties from existing premium brands which provide more overall polish. However, its excellent battery life among other big and small value features which are rare in the premium smartphone space might provide it with a niche foothold in the segment and among Huawei loyalists.