A magnificently built phone from Huawei with premium features and solid battery. Though aesthetics could have been much better
Pros:
· Dual-lens Leica rear camera
· Powerful Chipset
· Solid battery
Cons:
· Relatively low screen resolution (1080p)
· Doozy interface
Huawei Mate 9 is yet another brilliant effort from the Chinese tech giant to take-on premium flagship smartphones in industry especially iPhone 7 and Samsung Note 7 (later one obviously not in race anymore). The phone is well built with its own characteristic sensibilities.
Effectively, Mate 9 is a note, provided its large screen and powerful or we can call it most powerful Huawei’s own chipset – pushing it up into enterprise level. However, the company also seems to be interested in getting it more customer-friendly with brilliant cameras, massive battery and powerful sensors.
It is interesting to note that smartphones which Huawei Mate 9 rivals are from the only two companies which are ahead of Huawei in terms of sales volume (APPLE and Samsung). Huawei is currently placed at number three spot as the most sold smartphone brand in the world and the company seems to be determined to climb up that ladder.
Overall, Mate 9 is an intelligently butyl smartphone that comprise of powerful features and top of the notch specifications. However, getting head-on with Samsung Galaxy S7 or iPhone 7 would be a difficult ask to comprehend.
Design
Huawei has come a long way when it comes to its smartphones aesthetics. Gone are the days when it seems to be stuck with a bald, unattractive designs and now the company has been designing some sensationally well-built and aesthetically beautiful smartphones.
To start if off, Mate 9 metal frame is interestingly smaller than iPhone 7 Plus metal frame (standing at 79mm x 156.9mm), still it is able to boosts a larger screen of 5.9 inch. Time to say thanks to all engineers and designers in Huawei who managed to pack all those components a little tighter and closer.
The fingerprint sensor is masterly places at the back of the phone (as is the case with its predecessors). The balanced combination of metal and glass gives Mate 9 a real elegant and exquisite in –hand look. Though we are quite impressed with the looks and elegance on Mate 9, still we feel that there was some room for subtle touches and unique in design like LG V20.
Moreover, another shortcoming that we strongly feel about is that Mate 9 isn’t waterproof. Though the company has explained their position that adding water proofing would have consumed much space that would have led to thicker design, still other companies have managed to adjust their designs and it’s time Huawei start exploring their own.
Screen
Well, screen is a definite disappointment for Huawei Mate 9. We aren’t saying that it’s a totally crap screen but looking at some of the other specifications of phone, one would truly be disappointed with its rather standard screen resolution (1080p). Moreover, for some weird unknown reasons, the company god knows why decided to go for a LCD screen rather than a Super AMOLED
Overall, the color reproduction seems to be muted with colors seemingly not popping out while watching videos.
As per the screen size, we have already mentioned that Huawei Mate 9 boosts an intelligently designed 5.9 incher large screen which is fitted in rather small metal frame - a face saving hack for the phone.
User Experience
Well, our use of Huawei Mate 9 turns out to be pretty smooth and pleasurable experience. Thanks to its powerful specifications which included 4GB RAM and company’s fastest and most powerful Kirin 960 processor is seems hard that any workload can slowdown this machine.
In fact, Huawei has been investing a lot in developing machine learning in its smartphones that helps phones run smoother in long-term. Huawei Mate 9 has used the machine learning technology that ensure its smooth and seamless user experience for a long time.
According to Huawei, there’s a fundamental problem with Android OS, where all installed apps want highest priority of access. The situation gets worsened over time with too many installed apps looking for the highest priority access within limited resources. This is the primary case of smartphone slow down over time. As per the company’s statement, the Artificial Intelligence used in Huawei Mate 9 is able to segregate apps with respect to their usage and assign them their position. This means that only most-used apps will have the highest priority access and subsequently a lower chance of dropdown in performance level.
.Operating System:
Mate 9 effectively runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), underneath Huawei’s own UI. Though the EMUI has been upgraded for Mate 9, it still lags far behind a sensual appeal and can be related to as we call it “doozy”.
Battery
Huawei has always been great in terms of battery. The company has previously launched some high capacity batteries that do last longer than average.
This time around again, Huawei has induced a powerful 4000mAh battery in Mate 9. Though the company hasn’t given any figures for stand-by battery timing, still we feel it to be pretty higher and on user comfort level.
Huawei has also incorporated a new charging technology that the company refers to as “super charge”. This is basically a concept pf low voltage with a higher current (4.5V, 5A) which gives insanely fast charging. This means that with mere 10minutes of charging, you can enjoy over three hours of video playing.
Camera
Huawei has been experimenting lately with its camera technology and in fact has undergone a strategic partnership with legendary Leica to boost some great cameras for its devices.
This time around the company has offered dual-lens rear camera with a 20MP and another 12MP sitting alongside. The former is a monochrome lens and is merely responsible to take grey color images, while the later one is a RGB lens which we normally see in all smartphones. The monochrome lens helps to add sharpness and brightness in pictures taken from RGB lens.
Overall, Mate 9 cameras are well made to take some crisp and detail photos. The results are above average and surely live up to its expectations.
Verdict
Huawei mate 9 was launched to take-on the industry leading smartphones with loads of bold claims including fast charging, long batter life and magnificent camera.
What we have conceiveduntil now that though Mate 9 is a truly intelligently designed phone with premium specifications, it doesn’t have any innovative or exemplary feature that it needs to challenge the authority of industry leaders today!