Huawei really knows what Premium Design is
It’s not a secret that Huawei has built some of the best Smartphones in the market. In 2015, there was the Huawei Mate S, Mate 7 and now 2016 has brought the Huawei Mate 8, which continues excellent build quality and premium design. It’s the little details that counts. The Huawei Mate 8 is not just great to look at, but is balance overall, weight distribution is symmetric and the design assets although not that different from the Mate 7, still makes the device polish and premium. The bezels are thin and even though the device is 6.0 inch, it is easy to hold and handle, and clearly one of the smaller Phablet devices in the market.
More in depth in terms of design, the rear shell is curved and houses both the 16 MP camera and the rounded Fingerprint Scanner. The design has changed little from the Mate 7, but still a welcome site in 2016. The Fingerprint Scanner or reader is accurate and works 99% of the time, in fact, Huawei has been keen on making it the best Fingerprint Scanner in the market, so no comment on that. More so, at 7.9mm the Mate 8 is clearly not the thinnest Flagship in the market, but Huawei has been known of putting the most powerful hardware in the market at a small form factor.
No Quad HD but I personally think it’s a great choice
As a Flagship device, we would have been expecting at least a Quad HD or 2K display to host the Mate 8, but the company opted for the standard 1080p. On another note, the Huawei Nexus 6P did offer a Quad HD display, making it the first Huawei handset to offer it. The Nexus 6P was considered a popular Flagship of 2015 and was hailed as one of the best.
More on the display, it uses a JDI NEO Technology screen, which somewhat compensates the shortcomings of the 1080p display. Compared to a Quad HD display which has a bit more screen room but text’s are also smaller, on a standard 1080p display, these text’s are bigger and thus can be read easily. Also I think an advantage of the 1080p over the Quad HD is battery life. I know Quad HD’s look good but It is also a well known fact that they eat power, and I mean, most Phones have abysmal battery life’s because of that.
Despite the Powerful hardware, the OS needs more work
Huawei is perhaps one of the Smartphone companies that actually makes its own chipset to power their devices. And thus they also have their owned skinned version of Android, the EMUI 4.0 is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and provides significant upgrade from the later EMUI 3.1. You might think that having their own Chipset (Kirin) will most likely result in very well optimized Software, but it does have weaknesses.
Some of the features added makes no sense, just like the Knuckle sense experience, a feature that is better left out. Also there is no App-Draw, which is not only true on EMUI but on most Chinese made phones. The notification window, the notifications are of different colour’s making it difficult to read.
I think a better feature is “One Hand Mode”, which is one of the features offered by MIUI 7 from Xiaomi. It would give it a plus on user experience especially that it is a big phone (Phablet). But there are also great features built-in, one of which is the built-in screen recording feature and the addition of more customization on the UI (User Interface).
Overall, the user experience is great despite the minor bugs. Transitions is smooth with little to no noticeable lag, and you will likely enjoy the experience. For experienced users of EMUI, adjusting to the new 4.0 version is quick, while new to the feature will likely take time to learn.
Great sounding Camera on Paper but still lacks the ump to get ahead of the competition
The Huawei P8 and the Nexus 6P were considered one of the best Smartphones of 2015. Does the Huawei Mate 8 continue this trend? To start, the camera hardware certainly looks appealing, equipped with a Sony IMX Sensor and offers advance features like Professional Mode, Light Painting etc… Basically, the UI offers much customization you want out of a Camera Phone. The Professional mode would certainly be the interest for Photographer’s alike. On paper, it has a 16 MP Sony IMX sensor with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) with a F/2.0 Aperture lens. The sensor and lens is said to provide extra boost in low light shots. At front, is a 8.0 MP with a F/2.4 Aperture lens.
In reality, the hardware doesn’t really offer that much in terms of the actual image. The problem I think is the processing of the pictures. Some pictures don’t really look that good after processing, blurring and smoothing is still noticeable. The Auto mode feature also doesn’t offer much relief, and thus, the professional mode I think is the better choice. The HDR feature also whether on/off don’t offer any changes. The pictures quality tend to dip especially on low light situations but I do commend the Light Painting feature which captures light trails for low light shots, but only for those who have the time to be creative.
In terms of video, unfortunately, video recordings is only limited to 1080p HD at 60 fps. The lack of 4K recording is somewhat questionable. Considering that this is a flagship.
Kirin for the Win, raw performance at its finest
Huawei’s very own Chipset offers the best RAW performance possible and possible competes directly with the likes of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 and the Samsung Exynos 8890. What makes the new Hisilicon Kirin 950 stand out is the real world performance, barely no lag is noticed and the overall performance very much noticeable. The Chipset easily handles multitasking and also I need to mention the Power Management of the system, which is one of the best currently available. It immediately adapts to situations and conserves power when it needs to, adding to a more than welcome much longer battery life.
In terms of gaming, the Mali-T880 Graphics chipset performance is probably on par with the Adreno GPU. Most intensive 3D games ran without any issues, probably also due to the 1080p display, the performance is much better than expected.
Other Hardware Secrets you need to know
Hybrid Dual SIM. Most Flagships only feature Single SIM Support, the Huawei Mate 8 gives it an edge by offering Dual SIM Support, with SIM 1 for MicroSIM and SIM 2 slot supporting either another SIM or a MicroSD Card.
Supports T&T and T Mobile (Western Carrier Frequencies Supported). Even though no carrier carries the Mate 8, users have reported it that it really supports both T&T and T Mobile Carrier Frequencies. I cannot attests to this because I don’t personally live in these regions but it is a known comment of users.
Average Loudspeaker Performance. It clearly is not one of its best asset. The Loudspeaker is loud but the overall Audio Quality lacks at least compared to other Flagships. If you are an Audiophile, you will probably hear the difference.
Outstanding Battery Life
The 4000mAh battery built-in coupled with a highly optimized Kirin 950 chipset, I was surprise with how well the Huawei Mate 8 performs. At Full Charge, you are expected to have at least 2 days of continued use. On real world usage, on Smart mode, I was able to 7 hours plus of Screen on time, while on Performance or gaming mode, I only get 4 hours. Which are numbers you normally don’t see on a Flagship, especially a very powerful one. The Battery Life is certainly one of its best merits. Also the Standard 1080p Display more likely improved the battery life of the handset. As Quad HD display’s have been known to be battery drainers and thus I respect Huawei’s decision to use 1080p.
Final Thoughts: Overall a Great Flagship but hampered by software bumps and camera issues.
The Huawei Mate 8 overall is a great Flagship, Outstanding build quality, Extreme Performance and Great Battery life, all can be said of the handset. But we can’t help ourselves also delve deep on things that make it not great also. For starter’s the camera performance is not that especially if you compare it to the Nexus 6P or the Huawei P8. And secondly, UI or Software issues seems to be still there.
Huawei has been pricing their phones close to other big named brands, the Xiaomi Mi5 does offer much a headway in terms of Performance to Price ratio. But for fans of Huawei, the Mate 8 is still a great Phablet, offering you everything you want on a Flagship.
Attention: there are multiple versions of the Huawei Mate 8, and these versions differ slightly in terms of Frequencies supported.
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