Huawei Mate 10: Here are 5 things to expect

The second half of the year will be an interesting one. Samsung will be unveiling its new Galaxy Note8 while Apple might be launching up to 3 iPhones in the following month. Meanwhile, Huawei is working on their upcoming new flagship that’s expected to be announced later this year.

Today we had the privilege to speak to Bruce Lee, the VP for Handset Business for Huawei Consumer Business Group, where we try to find out what the upcoming Mate 10 has to offer.

The Huawei Mate series has always been their flagship phablet lineup that offers a bigger screen and a mammoth sized battery. Apart from improving performance with every iteration, Huawei has also looked into improved craftsmanship, machine learning and photography in order to stand out from the rest. The next device isn’t just a bigger P-series, so here are the top 5 things we can look forward to with the Mate 10.

Improved Performance with better endurance

We can finally confirm that the Huawei Mate 10 will be running on their in-house developed Kirin 970 processor. Without going into specifics, Bruce shared that it not only offers better performance but also longer endurance with its efficient design. That means you should be getting significantly more hours of usage on a single charge.

From what was speculated earlier, the Kirin 970 processor would be based on a 10nm process and that would put it on par with the likes of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and Samsung’s Exynos 8895 processor. As a comparison, the current Mate 9 and P10 series are currently powered by a Kirin 960 processor which is still based on a 16nm process.

Better AI

Huawei had earlier introduced Machine Learning algorithm on board it’s Kirin 960 processor. Learning from your usage habits, this feature will automatically optimise its resources for quicker app loading while maintaining a buttery smooth experience. Users can expect better improvements on the next flagship and eventually will help to maintain efficiency in the long run.

As a digital assistant, the new AI will not only work with the cloud but also relies on your local data. According to Huawei, this would reduce transmission time and increase responsiveness while reducing power consumption. Similar to Samsung’s Bixby, it will also understand images on top of your typical text and voice commands.

However, like most killer features from China, Huawei’s AI digital assistant is only available in their home market. So that leaves us with Google Assistant for the rest of the world. On the software side of things, Bruce shared that a new UI will be introduced with the Mate 10. Could this be Huawei’s EMUI 6.0?

Bigger screen on a smaller footprint

The Huawei Mate 10 will give users a large screen without feeling too bulky in the hands. Bruce didn’t elaborate further on the type of display they would be using but he shared that it would be definitely better than its current smartphones.

With most smartphone makers going for an-all screen design, we expect Huawei to challenge the likes of Samsung and LG with a near bezel-less screen on the Mate 10. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Huawei CEO, Richard Yu had boasted of having a full-screen display on the Mate 10. Rumours suggest that Huawei would be using a 6″ display from JDI which will push a 18:9 resolution of 2160×1080.

Faster connectivity

When Huawei launched the Huawei P10/P10 Plus, they claim to have the world’s first 4.5G smartphone as it comes with Quad antennas with 4×4 MIMO for faster transmission. The next Mate 10 aims to raise the bar by offering “5G” connectivity. Of course, 5G has yet to be finalised but Huawei will be bringing some of its 5G expertise into the hands of their consumers. We are told that the key challenge is our existing networks and it is about how users can receive more data without burdening their phones.

Better photography

Huawei’s collaboration with Leica continues on with the Mate 10. On the previous Mate 9, they had introduced their Leica Dual-Camera 2.0 which uses a monochrome 20MP + RGB 12MP camera combo. Bruce remains tight-lipped on specific details but he shared that the Mate 10 will offer improvements on lens, portrait mode and image processing algorithm. When asked if Huawei would follow the trend of using optical zoom on their flagships, he shared that Huawei has no plans at the moment.

With their key competitors such as Samsung and Apple launching their flagships earlier, we asked Bruce why should consumers wait for a Huawei Mate 10? He told us that the Mate 10 would be better in terms of performance, endurance and also in photography.

Huawei seems to be very confident in their mobile business and they have the right to do so since they have shipped almost as many smartphones as Apple in the last quarter. According to IDC’s Q2 2017 report, Huawei has a smartphone market share of 11.3%, following closely behind Apple at 12.0%. Samsung is still at the top with a 23.3% market share. The Huawei Mate 10 launch date isn’t announced yet but word has it that it could be happening on 16 October 2017.

Are these features worth the wait? Let us know in the comments below.