Huawei’s new Mate 10 smartphone will delight photo enthusiasts, writes Razz Rozzfaisal
THE Mate series phones are popular among photographers and photo enthusiasts for their ability to take dSLR-like quality photos.
The Mate 10, which features Leica dual camera with Summilux-H lenses with an aperture of f/1.6 for both cameras, is undoubtedly made for low-light photography.
With some expectations in mind, I tested the Mate 10 for a few days in both lighted and low-light conditions.
CAMERAS
As the Mate 10 is designed for those who love to take photos with their cameras, let’s delve straight into what this phone has in store for us.
Its Leica dual camera with Summilux-H lenses with an aperture of f/1.6 for both cameras should open the eyes of photo enthusiasts with just the lens type and aperture opening.
The f/1.6 should give a nice bokeh for photos such as portraits or any single subject shots. Its photography engine comes with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered real-time scene and object recognition and for the AI-powered bokeh effect.
The phone has two sensors — 20MP monochrome sensor and 12MP RGB sensor. It takes two pictures simultaneously and combines them, which result in high-detailed and rich-in-colour photos.
When using the camera in low-light, the on-board optical image stabilisation helps to ensure the photos stay sharp all the time.
As mentioned earlier, the Mate 10 is the first phone by Huawei to have an AI engine.
So what does this mean? I think it’s like having a “brain” that can think for itself when doing certain functions.
For example, the phone can recognise the scene when you point it to the subject. When you point the camera to take a portrait scene, the camera instantly recognises the scene as portrait mode. The moment you point the camera to your lunch plate, it will recognise a food scene.
The camera will automatically adjust its settings, for example, contrast, saturation or brightness, to suit the scene.
Having a smartphone camera with such an intelligent “mind” makes taking pictures easier, even for those who have little or zero knowledge about photography.
PICTURE QUALITY
I used the phone to take some shots during the Nine Emperor Gods festival in Kuala Lumpur and was impressed with the picture quality in low-light scenes.
The shots were sharp and the phone managed to handle the dynamic range of the scene. The combination of large aperture lens and optical stabilisation makes it possible to take hand-held night shots.
If you love taking black and white photos, then this is the smartphone for you. Huawei has harnessed the technology from Leica, which is famous for producing fantastic black and white photos. The smartphone camera is able to retain the tones in black and white, which are usually produced by high-end cameras.
Besides that, capturing fast moving objects is easy with the “moving picture mode” and you can see in the photo that it can easily freeze fast-moving objects.
FEEL
The Huawei Mate 10 has aluminium frame with dual glass body, which gives it a classy look. The 5.9-inch screen is a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio full HD IPS LCD. It is very comfortable to hold in the hand.
The phone, however, only has an IP53 rating for dust and waterproof, which means it can only handle some water spraying on it. Just make sure you don’t drop it in a sink full of water.
BATTERY LIFE
The Mate 10 packs 4000mAh battery power, and the battery did not drain throughout my entire outing with the phone.
It has super-fast charging capability, with 58 per cent battery power for 30 minutes charging. The phone will last a day on normal use, which is very good.
The Huawei Mate 10 is the phone for you if you love taking photos and want professional-looking results. It is available at RM2,699.
Rating: 4/5