A Swell Big Phone

With the Samsung Galaxy Note vii declining spectacularly, there's a big gap in the market for other big-screened Android handsets to smoothen. The Huawei Mate 9 is a great alternative for those who want high-end hardware and an excellent media consumption experience, peculiarly when you consider its affordable $599 toll tag.

The most impressive aspect to the Mate 9 is its performance. The Kirin 960 is faster in CPU workloads and competitive in GPU workloads compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, providing a meaning improvement over the Kirin 955. CPU operation in detail is very impressive, and at that place'due south enough headroom over current-gen designs to keep information technology competitive when the Snapdragon 835 arrives.

Aside from SoC performance, the Mate 9 packs 64GB of very fast NAND plus a microSD card slot. Category 12 LTE support greatly improves the wireless capabilities of Huawei's large-screened handset, and I'm glad Huawei has enabled 4K video recording, which wasn't possible in the P9.

Battery life from the 4,000 mAh battery is fantastic, beating most loftier-stop handsets on the market, including the Google Pixel XL and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It'south not removable, which is a feature of the LG V20, but who cares when the bombardment easily lasts an unabridged day of normal usage.

The Huawei Mate 9 (left) adjacent to the Huawei P9

Huawei has some of the best-designed handsets on the marketplace. The aluminum unibody chassis used here is solid and cute, while the drinking glass front panel includes slim bezels to provide maximum space for the display. A clicky power push button, a responsive fingerprint sensor, a notification LED, and stereo (but not front-facing) speakers round out a respectable collection of blueprint features.

The Mate nine's display is large at 5.9-inches, simply its 1080p resolution falls behind many competing large-screened smartphones that opt for 1440p instead. Brightness is splendid, however colour performance is mediocre and in that location is no way to correct it using Huawei'southward congenital-in color temperature tool. We're too not seeing Daydream support on this handset.

With a new 20-megapixel monochrome sensor, the camera in the Mate 9 has improved compared to the beginning-generation dual camera system in the P9. Image detail is superior, equally is the simulated aperture style that can, at times, produce excellent background blur. Image colors are generally accurate and the Mate 9 meters well, even so I was a bit disappointed with performance in low light, which is prone to undersaturation, poor dynamic range, and washed out colors. The Pixel 40 and Galaxy S7 are better cameras in general, though the Mate 9 is still a practiced pick for those who like strong accuracy.

Huawei still needs to work on their software offering. EMUI 5.0 atop Android seven.0 does accost some bug I had with previous iterations – the updated notification pane is much improve than before – simply the Mate 9's software still suffers from bloatware applications and less-than-ideal pattern choices. With that said, there are loads of customization options bachelor and settings to tinker with.

As for updates, if you really want to get security patches and new versions of Android in a timely fashion, Huawei's poor track record suggests the Mate 9 is non for you.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Huawei Mate 9 on Amazon
  • Huawei Mate ix on Newegg

The Mate 9 is currently retailing for $599 through Amazon, which is an bonny price for a large-screened smartphone, as they unremarkably come at a price premium. It's much cheaper than the Google Pixel XL or the iPhone 7 Plus, while the LG V20 comes in at a similar price point. Considering the solid range of hardware Huawei has included in the Mate ix, information technology'southward a great option for those later a large handset.

Pros: Excellent SoC and storage performance. Beautiful aluminum unibody pattern with slim bezels. Fantastic battery life. Improved dual photographic camera system tin can take good photos.

Cons: Display is beneath par. EMUI (software) is improving, but even so needs piece of work. Camera underperforms in weak lighting.