Huawei Mate 9 Pro review: The Magician

The Magician

GSMArena team, 12 February 2017.

Gallery

The Mate 9 Pro comes with a no-frills gallery app. It defaults to a timeline, which sorts your images by the date you've taken them. The pinch gesture is available for setting thumbnail size. You can opt for the standard Album view with all of your images sorted in different albums, and you can also have hidden albums, though that's more of an organizational tool than a privacy one - they are there when you hit hidden albums.

Gallery views - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Gallery views - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Gallery views - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Gallery views - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Gallery views - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review
Gallery views

Opening a single image lets you quickly delete or rotate it, as well as gives you a host of sharing options. The info icon up top gives some pretty detailed information about the image, including a histogram.

Viewing a single image - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Viewing a single image - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Viewing a single image - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review
Viewing a single image

You can also go into a very capable editor with options for light and exposure adjustments (so you can bring out the shadows or the highlights), levels, filters (more than Instagram and Prisma combined) and beauty enhancements.

The image editor is quite capable - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The image editor is quite capable - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The image editor is quite capable - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The image editor is quite capable - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review
The image editor is quite capable

Video player

The Mate 9 Pro's video player is pretty basic, much like the one on the Mate 8 - its sole option is playback speed. What Huawei has added on this model is floating window video playback.

Simplistic video player with few options - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Simplistic video player with few options - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review Simplistic video player with few options - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review
Simplistic video player with few options

Music player

The Mate 9 Pro has quite stylish Music app pre-installed. It offers four default playlists - songs, artists, albums, folders. You can create your playlists, too. The background of the app changes dynamically to match the album art, which is a nice little touch.

The music player - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The music player - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The music player - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The music player - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review The music player - Huawei Mate 9 Pro review
The music player

The Now Playing screen is pretty standard, it offers album art and lyrics. If you're especially into lyrics, you can have them overlayed on top the homescreen.

Audio output is solid

Despite sharing most of its other internals with the regular Huawei Mate 9, the Pro seems to have a different DAC as shown by its results in our test. When plugged into an active external amplifier, the Huawei Mate 9 Pro had perfectly accurate audio reproduction just like its sibling, but its loudness was even higher.

Volume remained great even when we plugged in our standard headphones set, but quality degradation was far more pronounced this time. Moderate amounts of both types of distortions crept in, while stereo crosstalk also suffered a bit. It’s still a decent showing, but not as clear as the vanilla Mate 9.

And now here go the results so you can make your comparison.

TestFrequency responseNoise levelDynamic rangeTHDIMD + NoiseStereo crosstalk
Huawei Mate 9 Pro+0.03, -0.03-94.195.40.00210.0070-94.0
Huawei Mate 9 Pro (headphones attached)+0.19, -0.06-93.194.20.3820.445-62.8
Huawei Mate 9+0.03, -0.01-92.293.00.00260.0093-93.3
Huawei Mate 9 (headphones attached)+0.06, -0.05-91.191.80.0160.056-63.5
Huawei Mate 8+0.01, -0.03-97.899.10.00540.0087-97.3
Huawei Mate 8 (headphones attached)+0.02, -0.09-97.397.90.0150.078-81.3
Google Pixel XL+0.01, -0.03-94.094.00.00330.0066-92.9
Google Pixel XL (headphones attached)+0.17, -0.04-92.092.70.00670.125-62.0
Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus+0.06, -0.02-83.983.00.00330.047-84.9
Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus (headphones attached)+0.95, -0.10-82.083.30.2450.564-48.0
Apple iPhone 7 Plus+0.10, -0.04-93.193.10.00150.0098-80.5
Apple iPhone 7 Plus (headphones attached)+0.10, -0.03-93.193.00.00130.015-76.8
LG V20+0.01, -0.03-93.093.10.0036 0.0075-93.7
LG V20 (headphones attached)+0.04, -0.09-92.492.40.051 0.105-57.5

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

Reader comments

  • phi11yphan
  • 17 May 2021
  • 4cH

agreed. I need my IR blaster. I've been seeking for about a year now, but has been hard to justify yet. could use expandable storage, a better camera, faster CPU, 5g, fresh UI, updated BT, wireless charging, and oh yeah maybe not a vendor on the...

  • Anonymous
  • 28 Nov 2020
  • LdI

huawei mate 9 pro front camera is not so good, does not autofocus and pictures are blurred effect. anyone find it same ? the contrast of pic is pale too, pls give solution guys.

  • Grant1080
  • 17 Apr 2020
  • ii6

Most phones nowadays don't have those things. If you're looking for removable batteries, expandable storage and FM radio, you'll have to go for a feature phone. Phones don't have removable batteries anymore because making them non-removable will make...