Huawei P10 review: The Mini-Mate

Performance

The Huawei P10 is powered by the same Kirin 960 SoC we first met in the Mate 9. It is developed in-house by Huawei's chipmaker HiSilicon. Kirin chipsets have been around for a while now, but there are a lot of firsts that come along with this particular chipset - most notably, new ARM CPU cores and a new GPU.

The main processor within the chipset consists of a quad-core Cortex-A73 cluster clocked at 2.4GHz, plus a quad-core array of the familiar Cortex-A53 cores ticking at 1.8GHz. The Cortex-A73s boast a 30% power efficiency compared to the previous A72 design, while also promising improved performance.

The P10's processor is the first focus of our benchmark tour, and this means some Geekbench-ing. Indeed, a single A73 core is better than any other available processor we've tested so far under Android, but Apple's Hurricane cores are still above anything else.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  3488
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  1939
• Huawei P10
  1927
• Huawei Mate 9
  1898
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  1854
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  1815
• LG G6
  1733
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  1682
• Sony Xperia XZ
  1578

Put four of those A73 to work though, and you get the best performing processor today on the mobile market.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  6112
• Huawei P10
  6069
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  5845
• Apple iPhone 7
  5654
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  5245
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  4333
• LG G6
  4209
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  3987
• Sony Xperia XZ
  3868

The Kirin 960 choice of graphics - the Mali-G71MP8 is an enormous improvement over the previous generations of HiSilicon chips and is finally flagship worthy. And from what we saw so far, it does admirably when running 1080p content, so the P10 should be perfectly fine.

The BaseMark X app is a perfect demonstration of the GPU performance at 1080p resolution, and the Huawei P10 aced this test.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Huawei P10
  39433
• Huawei Mate 9
  36519
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  36240
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  36062
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  32345
• LG G6
  30507
• Sony Xperia XZ
  29548
• LG G5
  29456
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  27600
• Huawei P9
  16942

Moving on to GFXBench and the framerates, the P10's GPU raw performance didn't quite leave us raving, posting only average scores at the offscreen tests. It trails behind the current crop of flagships, but not by a large margin (unless we count the iPhone 7).

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  43
• Sony Xperia XZ
  31
• LG G5
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  28
• LG G6
  26
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  26
• Huawei Mate 9
  22
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  22
• Huawei P10
  22
• Huawei P9
  10

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ
  20
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  18
• LG G6
  16
• LG G5
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  15
• Huawei P10
  14
• Huawei Mate 9
  13
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  12
• Huawei P9
  6.5

But some of those flagships are using 1440p screens, and they need the better performing GPU to handle the pressure from the higher resolution. When putting the Huawei P10 next to these devices, with all running in native resolution, it takes a nice spot on the ladder among these beasts.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  60
• Sony Xperia XZ
  32
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  32
• Huawei P10
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  26
• Huawei Mate 9
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  15
• LG G5
  15
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  12
• LG G6
  12
• Huawei P9
  11

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  19
• Sony Xperia XZ
  19
• Huawei P10
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  16
• Huawei Mate 9
  14
• LG G5
  8.8
• LG G6
  8.5
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  8.2
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  7.9
• Huawei P9
  7.1

The final GPU test we did is the BaseMark ES 3.1, and the P10 scored an excellent mark - very close to the Galaxy S7 and the leading Android smartphone - the Mate 9.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  1547
• Huawei Mate 9
  794
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  732
• Huawei P10
  716
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  616
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  588
• LG G5
  587
• Sony Xperia XZ
  577
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  538
• Huawei P9
  341

Let's move to the compound benchmarks, which give a better understanding of a smartphone's overall capabilities. The Huawei P10, thanks to its superb processor and excellent graphic skills, topped the BaseMark OS charts beating all other Android smartphones. In Antutu it's just on par with the competition.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Huawei P10
  3393
• Huawei Mate 9
  3280
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  2843
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  2677
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  2507
• LG G5
  2425
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2273
• Huawei P9
  2190
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  2004

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  3416
• Huawei P10
  2910
• Huawei Mate 9
  2637
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  2496
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  2434
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  2378
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2151
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  2128
• Huawei P9
  2068
• LG G5
  2065

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  174532
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  155185
• LG G6
  143639
• LG G5
  134541
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  132084
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  131666
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
  128719
• Huawei P10
  126629
• Sony Xperia XZ
  124266
• Huawei Mate 9
  122826
• Huawei P9
  98069

Huawei P9 used to struggle in the graphics department, but the Huawei P10 reigned almost all tests we threw it in. The Kirin 960 has the most powerful processor currently available, and the P10 has harnessed all this power. Its graphics skills are equally impressive, scoring excellent marks across the benchmarks. Indeed, Huawei P10 is more than adequately equipped for its flagship status, and will age well without a doubt.

There are some issues we just can't ignore, though. The P10 never gets unpleasantly warm under maximum load, and there is a reason for that - performance throttling. We noticed that the P10 suffered from a 30% drop in performance once its starts getting hot under the collar. You'll probably never spot this under normal circumstances, but it's a fact worth noting nonetheless.