Huawei has emerged as a serious contender for supremacy in the mobile market. The Chinese giant already sold more than 100 million smartphones in 2016, and it's hoping to maintain momentum with a strong new release at the high-end of the spectrum, the Mate 9.
The latest incarnation of the Mate series needs to be a hit in China, but the real prize for Huawei is the lucrative West. That is why Huawei picked Munich, Germany for the introduction of the Mate 9.
Read more: Huawei Mate 9 – everything you need to know
Ahead of its official unveiling today, we spent time with the Huawei Mate 9 and we're here to bring you our initial impressions. Is this the new phablet to beat? Let's find out.
Sporting a design that's familiar from previous Mate devices, the Mate 9 brings a series of improvements, most of which aren't visible to the naked eye. The construction is as sturdy and luxurious as ever, with a metallic unibody and a black camera module as the sole design flourish. The margins of the device feature a nice chamfering, with the volume and power on the right and a USB Type-C port at the bottom. A nice addition is the IR blaster at the top.
Huawei Mate 9 specs
| Size | Height: 156.9mm; Width: 78.9mm; Depth: 7.9mm |
| Weight | About 190g |
| Colors | Space Gray, Moonlight Silver, Champagne Gold, Mocha Brown, Ceramic White |
| Display | 5.9" FHD display |
| 2.5D glass | |
| 1080p (1920 x 1080), 373ppi | |
| 16.7M colors, Color saturation (NTSC) 96% | |
| High contrast 1500:1 (Typical) | |
| CPU | HUAWEI Kirin 960; Octa-core (4 x 2.4 GHz A73 + 4 x 1.8 GHz A53) + i6 co-processor |
| GPU | Mali-G71 MP8 |
| Operating System | Android™ 7.0 (Nougat) |
| Emotion UI | EMUI 5.0 |
| Memory | 64GB ROM |
| 4GB RAM | |
| microSD card slot, support up to 256GB (uses SIM 2 slot) | |
| Dual SIM | Dual SIM |
| NFC | NFC-supported |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 2.4G/5G, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac with Wi-Fi Direct support |
| BT4.2, support BLE | |
| USB Type C (High Speed USB) | |
| Camera | Front: 8MP AF, F1.9 |
| Main: Dual, 20MP Monochrome + 12MP RGB, F2.2 | |
| OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) | |
| 4K video | |
| Battery | 4000 mAh (Typical Value) |
The model we're taking a look at here is the non-curved variant (we'll have a separate take on the curved companion), with Huawei instead opting for a flat 5.9-inch display of Full HD resolution, which meets 96% of the NTSC color standard and has a high contrast rate of 1500:1. Although Quad HD resolution would have helped, the display is still quite pleasant to use and offers deep blacks and vibrant colors. Like many other flagships out there, the handset comes with a blue light filter, designed to protect your eyes from the eye-straining blue light that's most apparent in dark conditions.
Under the hood, the Mate 9 is powered by Huawei's new Kirin 960 chipset which is made up of the latest Cortex A73 architecture, along with the Mali's latest G71 GPU and an i6 co-processor for better sensor management. Huawei says that the dedicated sensor hub chip allows you to play Pokemon Go – and other battery-hungry games – for longer. The Kirin 960 is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage in the regular version, and while we can't yet confirm Huawei's claims that the Kirin 960 is the fastest processor in a smartphone right now, the Mate 9 shows no signs of lag.
To ensure smooth performance even after several months of use, the Mate 9 uses a machine learning algorithm to analyze user behavior, optimize the user experience and allocate resources according to the way you use your phone. As a result, Huawei claims that the handset is up to 50% faster than previous devices and after 16 months of simulated usage, it is up to 80% faster than rival devices. Obviously, this claim is hard to proof or test without spending literally months with the Mate 9, so we'll reserve judgement for the time we revisit the Mate in 2017.
The entire Mate 9 package draws its power from a 4,000 mAh non-removable battery that comes equipped with Huawei SuperCharge. It also has an intelligent charger that, combined with constant battery monitoring on the device itself, is designed to avoid any unwanted… overheating situation. Although it's not compatible with Qualcomm's QuickCharge, the Mate 9 can be fully charged in 90 minutes and to 50% in just 30 minutes. While you get a car charger included in the box, there are no plans to launch a SuperCharge-compatible battery pack.
The camera picks up from where the Huawei P9 left off, with a second generation Leica dual camera array that's made up of a 12MP RGB sensor and a 20MP monochrome sensor. The camera features Optical Image Stabilization in the color sensor, f/2.0 aperture, hybrid autofocus and is able to output 50% smaller file sizes for 4K video. Like other dual camera devices, there's the ability to capture images with a pleasant bokeh effect, but the Mate 9 allows you to take a picture and then change the focus after you've taken the image, rather than the other way around.
The ability of the dual camera to capture depth information allows you to set the aperture to as little as f/0.95 or as high as f/13 and making these changes either before or after you've taken the show is really straight forward as well. The camera also comes with a series of other filters and options, including a Pro mode that offers enough manual controls to keep almost all users happy.
The Mate 9 is the first handset to run Huawei's new EMUI 5 interface and although it's visually similar to previous devices, Huawei says it is their biggest refresh ever. A lot of previous features such as Knuckle gestures, customizable home screens and fingerprint gestures also return, but there's a few differences as well. The first is that there's finally the option to add an app drawer in the settings, which is ideal for those who prefer the familiar Android experience as we know it.
The second is the ability to switch accounts by enrolling different fingerprints to each account and coupled with a new Privacy Space, it means your entire family could use the phone but data would remain secure. A new feature that aims to solve a long standing problem is App Twin, which duplicates one-account apps such as WhatApp, WeChat and Facebook so you can use them with two different accounts on the same device.
EMUI 5 is based on Android 7.0 Nougat and Google seems to have had a small influence in Huawei interface, with several core Nougat features still present. Multi-window is supported using Nougat's native feature, but you can also swipe your knuckle across the screen to access split-screen, although this doesn't always work. Recent app switching and Google Now on Tap are all still present and EMUI 5 seems to be a compromise where Huawei has tweaked the parts of Android it feels necessary, rather than aiming to overhaul everything like other OEMs. We'll bring you a closer look at what's new in EMUI in a separate feature.
Alongside the Mate 9, Huawei also announced the limited edition Porsche Design Mate 9 here in Munich and while we're bringing you a separate look at that, I can say it's the curved Quad HD handset with 6 GB of RAM we were all hoping the Mate 9 would be. And it packs a stylus!
Information about the price and availability of the Mate 9 is still unclear, but if previous Mate devices are any indication, the Mate 9 won't be too cheap. That said, the Porsche Edition Mate 9 is the true flagship in Huawei's fleet, so we're curious to see if Huawei will be tweaking its pricing model for the flat-screened version.
Read next: Huawei Fit hands-on
What do you think of the Mate 9 and EMUI 5 and do you plan to buy one? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to Android Authority for more coverage of Huawei's latest devices.
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