Huawei Mate 10, 10 Pro and 10 Porsche Design hands-on review

Huawei Mate 10 Pro hands-on

Huawei Mate 10 Pro is arguably the prettiest of the Mate 10 trio. That is not only because of the AMOLED panel, but also due to the fact that Huawei also placed a bet in the tall-screen game.

The Pro model packs a bigger screen into a narrower body by trimming 40% of the bezels and retaining the fingerprint sensor on the back. Huawei named the screen FullView and stopped there. No claims for all-screen or similar achievements, even even though the presentation contained a slide comparing the two Mate 10 versions to the iPhone X and the Apple handset actually had worse screen-to-body ratio if only marginally.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro in Titanium Gray

The Mate 10 Pro features a 6" FullView AMOLED display of 1080 x 2160 px resolution and HDR10 support. The resolution is inferior to the Mate 10's, but the 402ppi density isn't bad by any means. Just like on the Mate 10, the screen on the Pro model is covered with a protective glass ending on a 2.5D curved edge.

The Mate 10 Pro will be available in Titanium Gray, Mocha Brown, Pink Gold, and Midnight Blue. All EU markets will get the brown and gray versions, the pink will be available globally, too, and the blue will be launched later on as an exclusive version for different regions and carriers.

The metal frame running around the sides of the Mate 10 Pro comes with matte, close to sand-blasted, grippy finish and it provides for a rather secure grip between all these slippery glass panels.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro in Mocha Brown

Flipping the Mate 10 Pro over reveals more beautiful scenery. The 4-way curved glass looks stunning, while the fingerprint scanner and its polished rim fits very well with the dual camera. We got somewhat used to having the fingerprint reader on the back since the Mate 9, so we like its placement on the Pro better.

You can clearly see how much the bezels have trimmed since the Mate 9.

The so-called reflective band serves as an accent on the new Leica Dual Camera as it is a shade darker than the base color. It successfully highlights what's important here - the two camera sensors, sitting behind bright f/1.6 lenses and bulging just a tiny bit. The two metal rims mask those small humps very well though, and this is one of the cleanest dual-camera setups we've seen.

A closer look to the sides of the Mate 10 Pro reveals that it's also lacking an analog audio jack. Huawei has joined the club and has abandoned the 3.5mm plug here, while retaining it on the vanilla Mate 10. We sure don't endorse this departure, but it seems the makers have already made their minds and are going with Apple on this.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro

Finally, the Mate 10 Pro is IP67-certified for dust and water resistance. Unless we count the old Ascend G350, the Mate 10 Pro is the first modern Huawei smartphone to get water-proofing. We are very happy Huawei has finally joined the club, but we just can't see why the regular Mate 10 didn't get the same treatment.

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro, just like the Mate 10, has a clean and stylish design. It has no antenna lines and the slimbezels make the AMOLED screen look even more impressive. Handling this Pro model is a pleasure - it's about as big as the Galaxy S8+, feels nice in hand, and is easy to operate in spite of the 6" display.

The next set of photos will show you the Mate 10 Pro sized up next to the Galaxy S8+. It does feel remarkably similar to the Samsung when held in hand, too, since the rear glass surfaces on the two phones are quite alike. The Mate 10 Pro is a tad lighter, though you wouldn't notice this without a direct comparison.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro next to the Galaxy S8+

The Mate 10 Pro has the same 4,000 mAh battery as the Mate 10. It should also be enough for 2 full days of power autonomy. Huawei gives some specific numbers in case you are interested - 30h call time or 20h video playback or 20h 4G browsing on a single charge. Plus you get Huawei Super Charge support for top-ups of up to 58% of the battery in half an hour.

While last year the Mate 9 Pro looked like a solid upgrade over the Mate 9, this time around the choice between the two is much harder. The Pro adds water resistance, and a trendy 18:9 screen of the AMOLED variety, but also loses the 3.5mm audio jack and has lower resolution. And if you do the math (or, you know, look at our specs pages) you'll find out that the 5.9" 16:9 screen on the Mate 10 is actually a bit larger than the 6" taller display on the Pro.