Huawei Mate 9 review: Mighty Mate

14 November 2016
With Huawei announcing the Mate 9, the manufacturer has been following the well-established game plan of releasing a 'mainstream' pocketable flagship in the spring, only to slap us with the phablet come fall time, thus staying relevant throughout the year. In this case, the Huawei Mate 9 we now have in our hands, comes 7 months after the P9.

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  • Why, how!
  • Sf{
  • 15 Nov 2016

Short and quick conclusions:
-Audio quality & battery life is worse but camera is better than Mate 8.
-Camera is better than iPhone 7 but worse than V20 (which has the same camera as LG G5)
If this model shares the same camera with P9+, P9+also has AMOLED and has an advantage.
SO, decision comes to the price of Mate 9. But it has many competitors at that price. It is difficult to directly upgrade to Mate 9. It is not such an ultra spec smartphone. I am dissappointed.

    So battery life is worse than a S7 Edge which has a smaller battery and a higher resolution screen? Im guessing on the Mate 9 Porsche and Pro versions it be even worse with thier QHD screens? Plus soon with Samsungs new UI coming out with Android N for S7 edge you can drop the resolution to 1080p and get even better results.

      I'm no huawei fan. Never was and probably never will be. But the best phone they've objectively ever put out is the nexus 6p followed by the mate 8. I'd take the mate 8 over this one easily. I don't know what they did to make its battery life significantly inferior to the mate 8.

        Camera is dissapointing ? I will go buy the P9 or Oneplus 3T and save 200$

          • J
          • Jose
          • Sp1
          • 15 Nov 2016

          Hello there, I was just wondering when you changed the battery testing procedure to use the phones at 200 nit vs the former 50% brightness.

          I've got a Huawei Ascend Mate 2 4g with an excellent 106 hours of endurance rating at 50% brightness. Now I wanted to upgrade my phone to a Huawei Mate 9 but since you changed the procedure it gives out a poor battery life. How can I know the battery life it would have had with the same procedure as before?

          Thanks for your review!

            Xiph, 15 Nov 2016I agree with softness in photos. I hate that. Worst flaw wi... moreGet Mate 9 pro-http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_mate_9_pro_goes_official__its_the_same_as_porsche_design-news-21620.php

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • iFd
              • 15 Nov 2016

              Wow the loudspeaker is excellent.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • Xj$
                • 15 Nov 2016

                Best looking phone this year.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • p%p
                  • 15 Nov 2016

                  I will stick with Mate 8 for now. Not convinced to upgrade.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • MgH
                    • 15 Nov 2016

                    Lovely phone. I have always wondered why the app drawer is not added as an option for people that like it. Great that Huawei did. I guess, now all the others will copy them. If it is good, then I can stop using Nova launcher on my Honor 8.

                      • Z
                      • Z
                      • g3h
                      • 15 Nov 2016

                      Battery life looks very appealing to me .
                      A phone with 600+ brightness it can be easily used indoors at 10% brightness. It will boost the battery life even further.
                      I mostly use phone indoors at Home or Office.
                      Rarely outdoors for multimedia, only for important tasks.
                      So, I will surely get 2 days out of it .

                        • R
                        • Regal
                        • g3h
                        • 15 Nov 2016

                        AnonD-587428, 15 Nov 2016Yeah, they copied MIUI, "again".Before that MIUI copied them .
                        Opening the MIUI theme store you'll find copied themes of Samsung, Apple , LG, Sony, Huawei, HTC and so on .

                          • D
                          • AnonD-587428
                          • XpT
                          • 15 Nov 2016

                          303tk4, 15 Nov 2016Well, Huawei finally dropped their kitkut-ish/iOS-ish multi... moreYeah, they copied MIUI, "again".

                            Well, Huawei finally dropped their kitkut-ish/iOS-ish multi-tasking screen and crummy notification area!
                            Good move, wanna see the one

                              • X
                              • Xiph
                              • Dtx
                              • 15 Nov 2016

                              I agree with softness in photos. I hate that. Worst flaw with this phone.

                              Lack of amoled and needs better screen resolution. Gpu can't compete with Adreno 530. I also like front fingerprint readers, so you don't have to lift phone from the table for unlock.
                              Porsche model is much better, but price is too crazy.

                                • D
                                • AnonD-470557
                                • SkG
                                • 15 Nov 2016

                                I have received my Mate 9 yesterday in UAE. The camera on Night Mode shoots much better than Auto, although you need to hold the phone still for few seconds.

                                I confirm some gaming stutters, but that's due to software update hopefully.

                                  • D
                                  • AnonD-587428
                                  • XpT
                                  • 15 Nov 2016

                                  AnonD-588766, 15 Nov 2016The camera beats all the competitors in both daylight and l... moreGSMArena do a great job of taking at least some comparable real world photo samples at similar times of the day. You can download & view them side by side in your image viewer. One of the best is the snail because of the many objects right throughout the whole field of view:

                                  You mentioned Pixel which is the same sensor as the Mi5s which is only $320:
                                  http://cdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/16/xiaomi-mi-5s/camera/gsmarena_002.jpg

                                  Mate 9:
                                  http://cdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/16/huawei-mate-9/camera/gsmarena_004.jpg

                                  Mi5s has some barrel distortion on the bottom corners and the brown panels are a bit washed out. But everything else is so much sharper and defined it's not funny. In other words the Google Pixel cam is far superior.

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-588766
                                    • IAp
                                    • 15 Nov 2016

                                    The camera beats all the competitors in both daylight and low light. This is the best phone so far. I don't understand why people like google phones. The pixle? maybe I have seen such a thick phone and toy like phone for quite a while. You probably want to redo the battery life test. I don't think the result could be reasonable enough to reflect the reality.

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-442781
                                      • H5W
                                      • 15 Nov 2016

                                      The camera was up there with the best of them in daylight, but the low light shots were noisy. But the main issue I have with this is the price hike from the mate 8, I would've got it otherwise. Think I'll wait for the galaxy s8 or oneplus 4/zte axon 8 if Samsung doesn't put out anything compelling to make up for the premium.

                                        • m
                                        • mir
                                        • t7X
                                        • 15 Nov 2016

                                        AnonD-587428, 15 Nov 2016Photos are disappointingly soft. Battery is also disappoint... moreExcept for the fact that it had performance issues as well.

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