Preview of Huawei Mate 20 - interesting phablet with flagship processor

Self-contained

Huawei Mate 9 is equipped with a 4000 mAh battery. In combination with energy-efficient hardware, this gives a full two days of light and about 8 hours of active screen in intensive use mode without games with constant connection to the network (mail, social networks, browser, reading, music, photos).

I also tested Huawei’s fast charger and got the following results:

Start charging — 10% of battery
20 minutes — 47%
40 minutes — 76%
60 minutes — 90%
80 minutes — 100%

Communication, sound and competitors

The quality of Huawei Mate 9 network reception is on a decent level, despite the all-metal casing. Audibility and speech quality during calls is not questionable, which is not surprising for Huawei flagships in recent years.

The Huawei Mate 9’s stereo speakers are worth a special mention. It is unusual to hear such cool sound in a phone that is not promoted as a musically outstanding device. The sound quality from the speakers is really top-notch. This is achieved through an interesting speaker layout — on the front side on top there is a HF speaker, and on the end end on the bottom there is a loud CB speaker with a hint of low frequencies.

I’ve only heard this kind of sound on HTC flagships, and not all of them.

Competitors

As such, there are no equivalent counterparts to the Huawei Mate 9 at the moment (early 2020). In the class of smartphones with large screens (5.7 inches and larger), it is difficult to find an adequate replacement for the Mate 9. Here are a few more or less sane options:

Xiaomi Mi Mix. The average price is 49,990 rubles. Except for a curious appearance, the Mi Mix has nothing interesting to offer.
MEIZU Pro 6 Plus. The average price of 33,500 rubles. Quite a balanced option, but with a more modest battery life, an outdated processor, and an even more controversial shell.
LG V20. Average price of 34,000 rubles. Strange, but interesting device, it is possible to consider if you are not afraid of LG and the absence of normal support for updates.
HTC U Ultra. The average price of 45 500 rubles. Strictly for fans of the Taiwanese company.

The average price in Yandex.Market for the Huawei Mate 9 is 36,990 rubles.

It is sad that Huawei has not yet decided to start official shipments of this smartphone in Russia. This is strange, because the Mate 9 is successfully sold in many European countries. Let’s hope that with the appearance of Huawei P10 on the Russian market, the Mate 9 will also break through.

Prices in online stores

It is possible to display similar models if this model is not in the catalog for your region.

[socialmart-widget id=”IWiijFTY” search=”Huawei Mate 9″][freemarket model=”Huawei Mate 9″][ava model=”Huawei Mate 9″]

⇡#conclusion

According to Huawei’s idea, the Mate 8 is a serious smartphone for serious people, who are not ready to tolerate compromises in any area. And formally, this claim is confirmed. Finally, Huawei’s flagship uses a really powerful hardware platform — if Kirin 925 and Kirin 935 were weaker than competitive solutions, then Kirin 950 surpasses them in many ways, except for graphics.

Except for the display, there is some slip-up — we agree with Huawei that Full HD is enough for six inches, but the matrix type is a little disappointing. We would like to see AMOLED, not LCD — we are already getting used to the deepest black color on the top smartphones. The slot for microSD combined with the second SIM-card is traditionally sad.

The main catch is in the price. The Huawei Mate 8 is priced between 600 and 700 euros — at the current exchange rate, that’s between 48,000 and 56,000 rubles at least. To pay that kind of money for a smartphone, there have to be very good reasons — more good reasons than just «a great device». Especially if we are talking about a Chinese smartphone, to which, despite all their merits, many people still have a slightly prejudiced attitude.

But in any case, Huawei has finally established itself in the elite of smartphone manufacturers, first with the beautiful Nexus 6P, and now with the Mate 8, which is not inferior to it. Bravo!

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