Aside from the impressive Mate 10 Pro, Huawei also unveiled the more affordable and “conventional” Huawei Mate 10. Featuring a standard 16:9 LCD display – in contrast to the Pro’s taller and narrower 18:9 display – the Mate 10 is quite an upgrade over its predecessor.
The most noticeable upgrade here lies in the display. The Mate 9 had a 1080p display with pretty minimal bezels, but the Mate 10 features even smaller bezels and a higher resolution display. The display size is maintained at 5.9 inches, but the resolution is bumped up to 2560 x 1440. In fact, the Mate 10 actually has a sharper display in comparison to its Pro counterpart, which has a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 display.
Display aside, the Mate 10’s fingerprint sensor has been moved to the front too; it’s actually pretty impressive how Huawei managed to fit a sensor on the tiny bottom bezel. Nonetheless, the fingerprint sensor also features the very same gesture-based navigation method found on the Mate 9 Pro and Huawei P10. Of course, Android’s signature on-screen buttons can be enabled instead if you don’t quite like Huawei’s one-button navigation.
Just like the Mate 10 Pro, the Mate 10 also features Huawei’s flagship Kirin 970 chipset, which allows the device to perform offline speech, text, and even image translation more efficiently, among other things. While these translations are done with the Microsoft Translator app, Huawei mentioned that the app works in tandem with the Kirin 970’s NPU, which should make it work faster on Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro.
In the camera department, the Mate 10 also comes with a similar Leica-certified dual-camera system as the Pro model. It consists of a 20MP monochrome sensor and a 12MP RGB sensor; both sensors also come with large f1/.6 lenses. To top it off, the Mate 10’s rear camera also comes with optical image stabilisation and Huawei’s new four-in-one hybrid focus system. The front-facing shooter, on the other hand, is an 8MP camera.
Other specifications of the Mate 10 include 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, a generous 4,000mAh battery, IP53 rating, as well as EMUI 8.0 based on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. Much like the Mate 10 Pro, the Mate 10 also features PC Mode – a dock-less desktop experience.
While the Huawei Mate 10 isn’t quite as impressive as the Mate 10 Pro, it does serve as a more affordable option. After all, both devices share quite a bit of hardware. The Mate 10 is expected to arrive in Malaysia very, very soon, and it will be launched alongside the Mate 10 Pro.
The Huawei Mate 10 will be available in four colours: Black, Mocha Brown, Champagne Gold, and Pink Gold, and will be priced at 699 Euro (about RM3,480). It will be available in Malaysia from November 2017.
