Huawei Mate 9 review

Positives

• Compact size for a large phone
• Porsche Design Mate 9 has a great display
• Excellent performance
• Feature-rich hardware
• Dual camera can take stunning photos
• Battery lasts for days
• EMUI 5 is a polished interface

Negatives

• Low-light camera could be better
• Porsche Design Mate 9 is expensive
• EMUI 5 still has a few quirks
• "Only" a Full HD screen on regular Mate 9

The Huawei Mate 9 sports a 5.9-inch 2.5D Full HD IPS display with a density of ~373ppi, while the Porsche Design brings Quad HD resolution in a smaller 5.5-inch AMOLED display with ~534ppi density.

As you might expect, the Mate 9 is packed with the latest internals from Huawei in the form of the Kirin 960 chipset, which is made up of ARM’s latest Cortex-A73 chipset (versus the A72 used in the Mate 8 and Huawei P9). The Kirin 960 comes equipped with four Cortex-A73 ‘performance’ cores clocked at 2.4GHz, paired with four Cortex-A53 lower power cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The Mate 9 is also the first handset to run the new 8-core Mali-G71 MP8 GPU, which is expected to power the Galaxy S8 and other flagship devices next year.

The regular Mate 9 comes equipped with 4GB of RAM and either 64GB of storage, while Porsche Design Mate 9 owners will get 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you do opt for the regular Mate 9, you do get expandable storage, while the Porsche Design Mate 9 is limited to 256GB of storage.

Like most flagship handsets, the Mate 9 comes equipped with the latest internals, including an array of sensor, a fingerprint sensor, and connectivity options. Huawei also demonstrates its network infrastructure prowess through the addition of smart WiFi features, excellent antennae and full control over dual SIM functionality.

The Mate 9 is no different and its 4,000mAh battery is one of the largest found on an Android flagship smartphone. Coupled with a Full HD display, you get excellent battery life as you might expect from such a large battery. By way of comparison however, the Porsche Design Mate 9 has a higher resolution (yet smaller) display and the same 4,000mAh battery capacity and there is a noticeable drop in battery life.

Huawei’s partnership with Leica continues with the Mate 9 sporting a new and improved second generation dual camera setup. Much like the one in the Huawei P9, the camera is centred around a Leica-branded dual camera, with a 12MP RGB sensor supplemented by a 20MP monochrome sensor. Both sensors are behind lenses with f/2.2 aperture and the RGB sensor also sports Optical Image Stabilisation for additional stability in photos and videos.

What will the Mate 9 cost? At the launch in Munich, Huawei confirmed the Mate 9 would cost €699 when it launches in Europe this month. Pricing for the US is yet to be confirmed but given the EU pricing, it’s likely to cost around $700 when it launches at CES in January. For those in the US that really want it right now though, you can find it online for around $750. This pricing puts the Mate 9 firmly in the flagship Android smartphone category, and while it’s not perfect, it can definitely hold its own against other devices.

Huawei Mate 9: Specifications

• 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)