Huawei Mate 10 review

GSMArena team, 28 October 2017.

Telephony

The Mate 10 dialer has a shared interface with the contacts app. There are no groundbreaking features here, but there is nothing missing either.

Smart dialing - Huawei Mate 10 review contacts - Huawei Mate 10 review a contact - Huawei Mate 10 review
Smart dialing • contacts • a contact

The dual-SIM settings menu (where available) lets you rename the SIM cards, disable them, and select which one does calls or data by default. Both cards can connect simultaneously to LTE networks thanks to Kirin 970's flagship modem.

Loudspeaker

The stereo speakers of the Mate delivered an excellent loudness just like the Mate 9. The audio quality is excellent with crisp and rich sound.

The speaker loudness isn't balanced though. The top speaker is used mostly for high-frequency sounds and it's very quiet, but you'll notice this only if you mute the very impressive bottom one. Somehow Huawei managed to use this feeble earpiece to create some very good stereo effect, which is nice.

Speakerphone testVoice, dB Pink noise/ Music, dB Ringing phone, dB Overall score
Sony Xperia XZ Premium 62.9 65.2 71.6 Below Average
Sony Xperia XZ1 65.4 68.0 69.1 Average
Samsung Galaxy Note8 67.8 69.5 71.5 Good
Samsung Galaxy S8+ 68.5 69.4 71.6 Good
Huawei P10 Plus 64.8 69.8 82.5 Good
LG V30 66.9 72.3 84.5 Very Good
Apple iPhone 8 Plus 76.0 74.6 79.0 Excellent
Huawei Mate 9 83.1 74.5 85.0 Excellent
Nokia 8 88.0 77.1 81.4 Excellent
Huawei Mate 10 90.6 73.7 84.0 Excellent

Pre-installed apps

There are a few apps pre-installed on the Mate 10. Among the more notable ones is the Health app, which tracks steps and calculates calories, but can also supposedly count the number of floors you've climbed.

Health app - Huawei Mate 10 review Health app - Huawei Mate 10 review Health app - Huawei Mate 10 review Health app - Huawei Mate 10 review
Health app

You also have a ton of basic tools preloaded, including a proper file manager, IR remote control, calendar app, notes, weather, compass, sound recorder, and flashlight.

Very good file manager - Huawei Mate 10 review Files - Huawei Mate 10 review Remote control - Huawei Mate 10 review voice recorder - Huawei Mate 10 review calendar - Huawei Mate 10 review
Very good file manager • Files • Remote control • voice recorder • calendar

Pictures, video, and music

The Huawei Mate 10 comes with the familiar EMUI gallery on board. In addition to your camera roll, it offers sorting by albums, or smart sorting by subject, places, events, among others.

The EMUI gallery has its own image editor, if needed, and it also works with variable aperture shots for adjusting the bokeh effects post factum.

The EMUI gallery - Huawei Mate 10 review The EMUI gallery - Huawei Mate 10 review The EMUI gallery - Huawei Mate 10 review The EMUI gallery - Huawei Mate 10 review The EMUI gallery - Huawei Mate 10 review
The EMUI gallery

The Mate 10 also comes with a pre-installed Video app, which offers basic controls but supports pop-up play.

Video app - Huawei Mate 10 review Video app - Huawei Mate 10 review
Video app

The EMUI's Music app is very nice. Its background changes dynamically to match the album art, which is a nice little touch. Lyrics are available and downloaded automatically. Finally, Huawei's Histen sound effects are available on the Mate 10 and include equalizers and simulated 3D audio.

Music app - Huawei Mate 10 review Now Playing - Huawei Mate 10 review Lyrics - Huawei Mate 10 review Sound settings - Huawei Mate 10 review Equalizer - Huawei Mate 10 review
Music app • Now Playing • Lyrics • Sound settings • Equalizer

Flagship-worthy audio output

The Huawei Mate 10 was nicely loud in both parts of our audio quality test. It’s not the loudest out there, but it’s well above average and enough to drive even high-impedance headphones to sufficient loudness.

Accuracy of the audio reproduction was great too - flawless with an active external amplifier and almost as good when headphones come into play. In fact the only affected reading was stereo crosstalk and that suffered so very marginally that you’d barely notice. An impressive showing indeed.

TestFrequency responseNoise levelDynamic rangeTHDIMD + NoiseStereo crosstalk
Huawei Mate 10+0.02, -0.03-93.493.50.00270.0071-94.3
Huawei Mate 10 (headphones)+0.05, -0.04-93.193.10.00360.063-71.6
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2+0.02, -0.02-94.394.30.00380.0072-93.5
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 (headphones)+0.31, -0.01-93.393.30.0160.243-63.8
Samsung Galaxy S8++0.01, -0.03-92.192.10.00200.0086-92.5
Samsung Galaxy S8+ (headphones)+0.03, -0.03-92.592.50.00240.046-77.3
LG V30+0.02, -0.01-93.293.10.00080.0069-94.2
LG V30 (headphones)+0.03, -0.02-92.992.90.00570.051-68.1
OnePlus 5+0.03, -0.01-94.194.10.00100.0070-94.2
OnePlus 5 (headphones)+0.15, -0.08-94.094.00.00330.139-59.9
HTC U11+0.05, -0.11-94.194.10.00170.0067-94.5
HTC U11 (headphones)+0.05, -0.02-93.793.80.00180.105-53.7
Sony Xperia XZ Premium+0.01, -0.03-90.690.40.0180.027-92.6
Sony Xperia XZ Premium (headphones)+0.30, -0.20-90.590.00.00180.145-65.7

Huawei Mate 10 frequency response
Huawei Mate 10 frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.

Reader comments

  • Anonymous
  • 05 Jun 2023
  • Q{M

Excellent phone. Still works perfectly after 5 years of use. So proud of Huawei to make the wonderful hardware and the Harmony OS.

  • Reese
  • 29 Dec 2022
  • fss

Just purchased this phone for only 900-00 Namibian Dollars :) what a great phone!!!

  • Fari
  • 16 Jun 2022
  • 6PD

Is it 4G sported