Huawei Mate 9 preview: The big-screen boss

The big phone market is in something of a spin: Samsung has crashed out with the Note 7, leaving Apple and Google to cruise along with the respective iPhone 7 Plus and Pixel XL phones.

But that would be a simple way of looking at it: Huawei also wants a piece of the pie, with its big-scale Mate 9 beast continuing to tow the line’s affordable tact, while also delivering on quality.

Which may come as a surprise that it’s not got a shout-about-it show-off specification – especially given all the talk there has been about a curved-screen flagship variation of the device – but the Mate 9 is all about undercutting the other two big competitors with a viable alternative that won’t blow-up your bank account.

Given our continued love of the Mate series, can the 5.9-inch Mate 9 once again work its way into our hearts? Or has it rested on laurels of old, leaving the door open for the pricier competition to capitalise?

Huawei Mate 9 preview: Design

At first glance the Mate 9 looks a whole lot like its Mate 8 predecessor from the front. It’s more or less the same, despite the smallest of nips and tucks here and there. Still, it’s an unavoidably big phone.

The screen is now 5.9-inches across diagonally, rather than the 6-inch of the Mate 8, which means the dimensions (79 x 156.9mm front-on) are the tiniest bit reduced – but only by a millimetre. And you really won’t notice that in the hand: the Mate line is all about being big. The screen resolution remains the same 1920 x 1080 Full HD LCD panel too.

It’s really when flipping the phone over to reveal its new dual camera make-up that the biggest differences can be seen, though. The twin cameras – one sensor 12MP colour, the other a 20MP Leica-sourced black and white – are stacked vertically in a single protruding unit, with flash and laser autofocus positioned alongside. Beneath is a fingerprint sensor that’s ultra-sensitive, just like other Huawei phones’ latest sensors have become.

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Just because it’s a big phone doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful, though. The Mate 9 has the familiar silver coat, with chamfered edges and curved corners to soften the overall look. Assuming the price is right – and historically it’s been around the £430 mark, which is approaching £300 less than its competitors – the 64GB base Mate 9 model ought to be a bargain, without looking too shabby at all.

Huawei Mate 9 preview: Born to last?

In addition to the new cameras, the Mate 9 houses the latest octa-core Kirin 960 chipset, which has been designed to function with a new intelligent algorithm to learn your usage over time and prioritise the importance of apps and avoid slowdown. Huawei calls it a very Apple-sounding iAware.

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In particular iAware is designed to get better over time for an improved life experience that doesn’t slow down after a matter of months. “Born Fast, Remain Fast” is the message that Huawei is running with – but how true it will ring remains to be seen.

Given how often the company’s EMUI software (a re-work over Android) flashes up various alerts and app-closing prompts, we’re not sure whether this will carry through into this new concept or not. And as its trio of pillars – smart memory allocation, CPU allocation and storage optimisation – are already baked into existing Huawei EMUI software as separate manual controls, it does make us wonder. Only time will tell.

Huawei Mate 9 preview: SuperCharged

Tucked beneath that big body is a 4,000mAh battery, which ought to last for a considerable period of time per charge. That’s the same capacity as the Mate 8 – so assuming the new Kirin processor is efficient, that’ll likely prove to last for two days at a time.

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A core difference to the battery is its fast charge capabilities, which Huawei calls SuperCharge. By lowering the voltage (to around 4.5V) and upping the current (to 5A) the battery can be charged in double-quick time – some 50 per cent quicker than the Mate 8 – meaning just 30-minutes at the plug could see the Mate 9 have almost 60 per cent charge. That’s Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 competitive.

But the potential problem here is safety given the increased voltage. We’ve all heard about Samsung Note 7 phones overheating and exploding into balls of fire. So Huawei has put in a dynamic charging mechanism, meaning the Mate 9 can adapt to the source charger and cable used as required – so a shoddy third-party charger will make the phone dynamically lower the current. A five-gate protection system also checks different points throughout the phone to ensure it’s not overheating.

Never once during our briefing did Huawei mention poor ole Samsung, but the company’s repetition of “safe” and “safety” was so apparent it was borderline amusing. Fair play, though: this is Huawei looking at the world around it and adapting to user concerns with heightened assurances.

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One of the potential issues with the SuperCharge system is that higher voltage recharging systems are more likely to run down the battery’s longevity – the exact thing the company said it was looking to avoid with its new iAware setup. Although Huawei denies this will be the case with the battery, it also confirmed the underlying source battery is the same as that in the last-generation Mate 8. Sounds like something is amiss here for all that to add up.

Huawei Mate 9 preview: Brighter, whiter, cleaner

It might sound like a toothpaste ad, but Huawei is all about brighter, whiter, cleaner: its latest EMUI 5.0 software (a re-skin over Android 7.0) drops the complex colours and themes of earlier software versions and runs with blues and whites. It’s all inspired by nature, apparently.

However, the preview Mate 9 we saw (on two separate dates) was running EMUI 4.1 software, so we can’t comment on whether the software tweaks will boost the phone’s appeal.

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In a question and answer session Huawei confirmed that the phone won’t have Force Touch implemented – that’s the “deep touch” technology, where a stronger press on the touchscreen will action a different result, such as a secondary menu – citing lack of developer support for its absence. EMUI 5.0 does support Force Touch, however, suggesting that all hope isn’t lost on the tech just yet.

The knuckle-controlled “knock knock” does return, though, with knuckle-based quick commands such as screen grabs or audio recording being available. But you’ll more than likely never use them.

In addition to the general safety message of SuperCharge, this Mate is also targeting longevity. And we don’t just mean for a single charge’s use, but for years of use without slowing down. We get where the company is coming from here, but if things get that bad wouldn’t a hard reset solve things? Apparently defragmentation, memory compression and auto-cleaning will result in a smoother experience. Huawei also uses a different file system to stock Android for efficiency.

Huawei Mate 9 preview: Gaming powerhouse

Under the hood there’s a whole lot going on from the new Kirin 960 processor. We won’t get too bogged down with its reported 180 per cent increase in power over the previous generation chip (as found in the Mate 8), as it’s the new Mali G71 MP8 graphics processing unit that draws attention.

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This leverages AMD’s Vulkan API, which provides applications with direct control over graphics processing. It’s optimised for multi-core chipsets, such as the Kirin 960, less compute intensive than other graphics engines in similar devices and, as a result, should run applications and games with a level of smoothness at a truly flagship level. Faster loading, higher frame-rates and, hopefully, the end of any “stuttering” when beginning those more power-intensive apps.

Another notable push forward is the implementation of Cat 12 4G LTE for up to 600Mbps data rates in certain territories. This is all carrier, network and location dependent, of course, but with UK networks making progress it ought to be speedy indeedily when it comes to streaming when on-the-go.

Huawei Mate 9 preview: New dual cameras

When Huawei launched the P9 smartphone its headline feature was a dual camera setup (one colour, one black and white) with Leica endorsement. That relationship continues with the Mate 9, but the arrangement is different.

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How? The two sensors are different resolutions: the 12-megapixel full colour one is paired with a higher-resolution 20-megapixel black and white module. Both peer through 27mm equivalent, f/2.2 aperture lenses according to the rear body of the Mate 9 – a point which mirrors the P9’s setup.

The software is also slightly different, with a pinch-to-zoom feature that can digitally zoom into the frame. Huawei describes this as “optical zoom” – but that can’t be the case as it’s not using the lenses to resolve detail at an increased focal length, it’s merely cropping into the image. This is Huawei wanting to chase down Apple, but without utilising two different lens focal lengths we’re not sure it’s a particularly giant leap forward compared to the P9.

How you feel about the cameras is likely to be the same as it was with the P9: we think the monochrome sensor is fun, but a rare feature of genuine use. Most will just stick to the colour sensor. However, the data from both sensors can be used for depth effect software adjustment – making the background more blurred, for example – in much the same way as other brands are currently experimenting with.

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There’s also 4K video capture (H.265) and optical stabilisation for the colour camera – but no such stabilisation for the black and white camera.

First Impressions

Overall the Huawei Mate 9 is a big, bold and enticing prospect. It’s a phone that houses a huge battery for longevity, while progressing the lineage with amped-up power and a dual camera experience too.

It’s not the all-singing all-dancing flagship that we had expected, though, so the middling Full HD screen resolution at this 5.9-inch size might come as a disappointment. And how well the cleaner, brighter EMUI 5.0 software will stack up in its first outing is something that remains to be seen at launch.

Timing is another of the Mate 9’s inadvertent strengths: with the Samsung Note 7 dead and buried, and other large-screen flagship phones costing a pretty penny (yes Apple and Google, we’re looking at you), the likely mid-level price point of this big-scale powerhouse ought to sign, seal and deliver its success.