The Chinese company Huawei is rushing forward to compete with brands such as Apple and Samsung, and eventually become a trendsetter in the smartphone market. Until recently, it was impossible to even hint at this, and today we are holding in our hands the premium metal phablet Huawei Mate 8, which is practically not inferior in price to the sacred iPhone 6s Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.
Huawei does not skimp on epithets, describing the merits of the Mate 8 exterior. Here, the all-metal body, the 2.5D diamond-cut screen, and the sandblasted surface treatment are, in general, all first class. One cannot but agree with this - the device is really of very high quality, strictly beautiful, technologically advanced, exudes the aura of an expensive business thing. But let's be honest: its design is ordinary, it has no zest, no corporate character.
It is too similar to last year's Huawei Ascend Mate7. Moreover, since Huawei is still a successful company, many other Chinese manufacturers boldly borrow its ideas, and therefore there are a lot of smartphones similar to our hero today. They will even have the same fingerprint scanners on the back. By the way, compared to last year's model, the depth of the scanner has been reduced by 0.45 mm, Huawei notes in the hope that we all immediately take crispy bills out of our pockets.
Huawei Mate 8 is a classic phablet with a classic large 6-inch IPS screen. A little more and there would be a tablet! At the same time, the device itself is by no means gigantic - the screen occupies 85% of the front panel area, there are practically no frames.
The resolution is 1920x1080, the density is 368 ppi, and this is not as much as we would like, because we are dealing with a flagship phablet, and we would like Quad HD. Moreover, if you use Huawei Mate 8 with virtual reality glasses, you will see pixels. In fairness, let's say that the pixels are visible at a higher resolution, but we repeat - we have a flagship phablet in our hands, and naturally you expect the highest possible numbers from it.
There are no comments on the quality of the picture. The color rendition is true, the brightness is enough so that even in sunny weather you can watch videos, and even more so surf the sites, chat with WhatsApp, walk on Google Maps and “swipe” girls on Tinder during a lunch break on a bench.
Performance
Huawei Mate 8 is built on the proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 950 processor. And this is complete stuffing! An octa-core chipset based on ARM Cortex-A72 based on a 16nm FinFET Plus process based on 3D transistors, flavored with a Mali-T880 GPU - sounds serious, doesn't it?
When Huawei Mate 8 with 3 GB of RAM was just released, it received the laurels of the most powerful smartphone in the world, leaving behind all competitors on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and Samsung Exynos 7420. Now, when 2016 processors rule the ball, Huawei Mate 8 already sags a little in the ranking, but still gets into the top 10 most productive AnTuTu smartphones, taking the last tenth place.
Let's see. With 91665 points in AnTuTu, our hero is ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, iPhone 6, Meizu Pro 5, Samsung Galaxy S6, i.e. the deadliest devices of 2015! However, today it is inferior to Meizu Pro 6, LG G5, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s and, of course, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. Does this mean anything to the average user like you and me?
Absolutely nothing! The device just flies and will fly for a very, very long time. Absolutely all games run at maximum graphics settings - at least the same Modern Combat 5: Eclipse. What more could you want?
But let's look at the camera. The Huawei Mate 8 is the first smartphone to feature a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus and 4-axis image stabilization. Matrix area 1/2.8 inch, pixel size 1.2 microns.
The performance is worse than the iPhone 6s Plus! Yes, the pixel size is about the same, but the aperture is 0.2 larger. However, let's see how Huawei Mate 8 shoots.
In sunny weather, the pictures are sharp, with a wide dynamic range and perfect exposure - no dips in the shadows and white spots in the highlights.
In the dark, of course, there are noises. It cannot be said that the camera produces some extraordinary result.
Macro shooting demonstrates all the delights of fast optics - Huawei Mate 8 can make beautiful bokeh. True, sharpness when shooting a moving object, whether it be a bee or a flower swaying in the wind, is not so easy.
An attempt to film kittens playing in the room was unsuccessful. The miracle did not happen - the kittens were lubricated, and nothing could be done about it.
In general, the Huawei Mate 8 camera left a good impression. It is pleasant to shoot on it, you get beautiful, sharp pictures. Macro photography is especially enjoyable, but only if there is a static object in the frame, otherwise you can get upset. A little frustrating is the lack of flagship chips: there is no laser autofocus and you can’t shoot 4K video.
Other chips
Experts are sure that today there is a crisis of expensive things in the yard. People are in no hurry to buy expensive flagships, because performance alone is not enough to make sure the purchase is rational. Understanding this, manufacturers are trying to endow their devices with interesting little things.
The fingerprint scanner. In Huawei Mate 8, it is located on the back side. It works with lightning speed, determines the owner in just 0.5 seconds, allows you to lock and unlock not only your smartphone, but also folders with personal content. If necessary, remember several fingerprints.
EMUI interface. Yes, Huawei Mate 8 runs on the Android platform, but the Chinese covered it up with a proprietary interface that made it as easy as possible to communicate with a smartphone. Plus, it has some cool stuff in it.
For example, control your smartphone with “knuckle movements”. They drew the letter "C" - they launched the camera. Draw a line across the screen with a knuckle to turn on the two-window mode. By the way, note that this mode only works with some applications. For example, you can watch videos and photos at the same time, but you won’t be able to watch videos and surf in the Chrome browser.
The control button is another feature of the EMUI interface. It hangs on top of most screens, you can drag it back and forth and use it to open a menu with buttons "Back", "Work Screen", "Recent", "Screen Lock", "Optimization".
Dual SIM support. It seems to be no longer a novelty today, but not many flagship smartphones provide such a luxury. Of the two SIM cards in Huawei Mate 8, only one can work in LTE Cat.6 networks, while the second can only work in 2G. It's sad that Huawei is sticking with the old tray design, which can hold either two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD memory card. But what if you need both a memory card and two SIM cards?
In general, there are a lot of such trifles in Huawei Mate 8. However, we will leave the joy of their discovery to you, because the more you find them yourself, the more pleasant your communication with the phablet will be.
Working hours
So, we have a large screen and a powerful processor, and then a reasonable question: how much can this miracle do without recharging? Don't worry, this is all very well. The battery capacity is decent - 4000 mAh. There are power saving modes. As a result, we have 2-2.5 days of battery life in mixed mode. At the same time, the smartphone takes only 45 minutes to charge 50%. Excellent performance!
Huawei has made a great phablet. Comfortable, powerful, with a decent camera and excellent battery life. It’s not so easy to find fault with him, because here everything seems to be in the mind. However, for that kind of money, you want something more interesting - either in design, or in functions, or everywhere at once. In the case of the iPhone 6s Plus, we understand what we give money for. After all, this is Apple. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, it is all the more clear - just look at the curved screen. But what about Huawei Mate 8? This is where you need to look at the root, because behind the strict design lies a powerful long-playing phablet, which may not be as interesting as competitors, but meanwhile is more practical.
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Smartphone Huawei Mate 8 - overview
The second desktop with applications. By default, several applications with a Chinese interface are installed here (search engine, browser, social networks, navigation), which, however, are easily removed. Instead of the Google Play store, the HiApp store is installed here, which is better not to be allowed to install and update any recommended applications, because they will all be in Chinese.
Regarding the installation of Google services. The Google Play Store is easily found by searching HiApp and installed. And then the services you need are installed from the Google Play Store.
The only service that for some reason I could not install from the Google Play Store is Google Contacts synchronization. But this application was easily installed through the GApps Installer (Google services installer). Quick switch icons.
They are easy to edit.
In the list of running tasks there is a button "Clear" (unload programs from memory).
The themes of the shell and icons, as usual with Huawei, can be changed within a very wide range. Here, for example, one of these topics - in a completely different style.
The shell supports a two-window mode of operation.
From the blocking window, you can immediately call the camera. Also, with a swipe gesture from the bottom up, a branded action and application bar appears.
View of the application bar on the lock window when the audio track is running.
Talk. There is a recording mode.
Testing the channel speed for 4G showed the expected speed. The same applies to the speed of Wi-Fi - it was at its maximum.
The quality of telephone communication is good, the subscriber was heard very well. The noise reduction system worked quite effectively. Audio The sound of the built-in speaker is surprisingly high-quality: quite spacious and even with some bass. Myst Nail2 armature earphones are good: surround and fairly clear sound, decent highs and some bass.
Plantronics BackBeat Pro full-size headphones in wired mode are not very good: the sound is more or less voluminous, but slightly muffled, good bass, which lacks fullness, not outstanding highs at all.
Tanks gave out 58 FPS. 
Settings The settings, as usual with Huawei, are very advanced and varied. 
Dual SIM settings. One of them is 2G / 3G / 4G, the second is just 2G. However, 4G/3G can be assigned to any card.
Switching mode between Wi-Fi and mobile connection. By the way, a useful thing: when it is turned on, the smartphone does not cling to the dying Wi-Fi to the last, but switches to mobile Internet.
The home screen can be switched to simple mode with large icons and simple settings.
Display settings. You can change the color temperature, viewing modes, typeface and font size.
Notification settings.
Notifications for each application.
Fingerprint management. With it, you can also take photos and videos, answer a call, turn off the alarm, open the notification panel. By the way, the scanner works well, recognizes normally. (But, as usual, there are problems with recognizing a wet hand.)
Setting the on-screen buttons.
Control.
Application Rights Manager.
Energy setting.
Memory.
The smartphone saw a 128 GB memory card in exFAT without any problems.
Memory cleaning functions.
As usual, a wide variety of movements are supported.
The knuckle gestures are pretty handy too.
shooting modes.
Settings.
Sample pictures. (All are clickable.) At home under normal lighting. 
Bright sunny day. 
In room. 
Sunny day. 
Mainly cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Night. 
Indoors with poor lighting. 
Evening. 
Selfie front camera. 
Well, here's a video example.
I must say that the camera has been noticeably improved. Now she shoots more or less at the level of other flagships. In terms of performance and quality, it is somewhat inferior, especially to the Galaxy S6 edge + and LG G4, but not too much. In general, the camera is quite decent, you can and should use it. Discomfort, as I had with Mate 7 (although the camera was not at all terrible there), is not observed here. The pictures are bright, saturated, the white balance almost does not mess up, the exposure is wrong within reason (and this is easily corrected). It focuses well, but sharpness is not too fast (compared to S6 and LG G4). By the way, here the camera can still be called (and immediately removed, if set) from sleep mode by double-clicking the volume rocker. System data and performance Data on CPU-Z.
AnTuTu test. The highest index. First place in the table.
Geekbench tests.
Well, the PCMark test. By the way, the Galaxy S6 edge+ has 5260.
It seems that this is really the fastest smartphone on the market right now. Well, it’s practically clear that the device is very fast: everything flips and starts smoothly and without jerks, there are practically no lags. Using a smartphone is very comfortable. Battery life I remember the Mate 7 showed a very good battery life. What happened here. Internet. The display brightness is set to a comfortable 50% without auto-tuning. All wireless communications are enabled, the page is updated in the browser every 30 seconds. Almost exactly 12 hours - almost the same as the Mate 7 (and that platform is not as productive). Video. The screen is set to a comfortable 10th brightness level of the player (maximum is 15th), the "Airplane" mode is turned on, a television series with hardware decoding is spinning in the MX Player in a cycle. 10 hours 10 minutes is good, but the Mate 7 lasted noticeably longer. Reading. The screen is set to a comfortable 30% brightness without auto-backlight, the page is automatically scrolled in AllReader, the "Airplane" mode is on. 18 hours 24 minutes. synthetic test. At a comfortable screen brightness and with wireless communications turned on, PCMark conducted a test of mixed modes: surfing, photo processing, video, reading, and so on, that is, emulating a good smartphone load with various standard actions. Here's what happened. In general, this is very cool, the Galaxy S6 edge + has 7 hours 41 minutes. This test means that the smartphone will last a full day with the most active load.
Purely, almost by the evening of the first day, with a normal load, the smartphone had somewhere around 70% of the charge. And, in general, from one charge, he lived up to three days - in the all-inclusive mode. If you do optimization (turn off wireless communications and coordinates, when it is not necessary, turn off automatic synchronization), then it can live up to five days. It also has well-optimized power consumption in standby mode: it ate only 2-3 percent of the charge per night. So with battery life, everything is very good here. The smartphone supports fast charging in 9V / 2A mode. At the same time, up to 50% of the smartphone is charged in just 50 minutes, and a full charge from scratch takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Observations at work and conclusions In the process of testing, I did not find serious glitches, although occasionally it happened that the Play Market for some reason was cut down at startup. Noticeable heating of the back cover did not appear even when using heavy applications. There was only one serious glitch. I was unable to install the Epic Citadel game: when I tried to download it from Google Play, Google Play crashed when the download started. And nothing helped here: neither an attempt to download via 4G, and not via Wi-Fi (it helped in some cases), nor even a complete reset of the system. I don’t know why this toy didn’t work out here. All other games and applications installed without any problems. What conclusions can I draw here? The device turned out to be very worthy. A powerful platform, excellent equipment, a very high-quality display, excellent battery life, the camera is not top-end, but quite high-quality. If this model is compared in price with the Galaxy S6 edge +, then in Russia Mate 8 starts at 35 thousand, and S6 edge + - somewhere then from 42 thousand, that is, S6 edge + is about 1.2 times more expensive. At the same time, compared to the S6 edge +, the Mate 8:
- there is support for a second SIM card or memory card; larger display (but we remember the on-screen buttons) with similar dimensions; more powerful platform; noticeably better battery life; slightly worse sound in headphones; slightly worse camera; less showy design.
Huawei Mate 8 is a phablet for the business segment. This is evidenced by the design, and capabilities, and even the display size of 6 inches. The model replaced the previous iteration of devices. The developers themselves claim that they did not seek to redraw the appearance of the gadget. It's more of a bug fix and an update to the extremely successful Mate 7.
What characteristics does the refreshed Mate 8 have and is it worth paying attention to it?
Appearance
The main work in relation to the hull was focused on the little things. Panel joints have become much more accurate, the design of the rear module and the scanner has been brought into proper condition. In an evaluative comparison, the effect of "polishing" is visible to the naked eye.
Additionally, the fingerprint sensor and the peephole of the main camera were “rounded”. In combination with a square, angular design, it looks very extravagant. The front module was shifted to the opposite side, and the speaker was sent down, where it belongs. Such imperceptible touches greatly refreshed Huawei 8.
The dimensions were left the same: 80.6 × 157.1 × 7.9. Only the mass rose slightly due to the battery - up to 185 g.
Display and sound
Huawei engineers were almost the only ones who intentionally put screens in Full HD models. No, there is an opportunity to "shove" Quad HD, or even 4K, but why? But the matrix was changed to the latest generation IPS instead of AMOLED. It would seem that OLED is much more economical, but experts know better.
It is impossible to find fault with the image quality - it is perfect. Almost 368 ppi at 6” diagonal is a fairy tale. The temperature is slightly too high, but this is regulated in the settings. The second drawback is that the color rendering profile is simply not configurable. But this flaw has been around for a long time. Although the flagship could have been eradicated.
But the speaker can sometimes make you twitch in surprise - very loud. And what is characteristic - high-quality. Yes, you won’t catch the difference between a banal MP3 and a heaped up WAV, but in headphones the situation changes dramatically.
Iron
Huawei Mate 8 is an ode to Chinese chip engineering. The company has made SoC, making competitors at the beginning of 2016. Previously, all Kirin CPUs could only somehow keep up with Qualcomm and Exynos. Kirin 950 has a set of 8 Cortex cores (4-2.3 GHz, 4 - 1.8 GHz) and a 16 nm manufacturing process. This indicates minimal consumption and heating. Yes, they left the archaic Mali-T880 MP4 here, but also for games with his head.
Memory is either 3/32 or 4/64. Different packages are available for certain markets. However, there is also a microSD slot. But it is inserted instead of the second SIM. Again we are forced to make a choice. The Mate 8 is characterized by support for all the latest 3G and LTE bands, GPS and more. Full stuffing.
The 4000 mAh battery takes autonomy to a whole new level.
Camera
The rear module has been completely changed. Here we have a 16 MP sensor from Sony (IMX298), an 8 MP front eye and instant focus, regardless of the time of day.
The colors are natural, not stretched, as in color reproduction. Special gourmets and just knowledgeable people are free to play with focus, sensitivity, balance, ISO and other aspects. Fortunately, the settings allow it.
Unfortunately, the phone can't shoot in 4K. And night shooting is clearly not the strong point of Huawei Mate 8. But with certain manipulations, you can improve the result.
The target audience
Who is this 6-inch phablet suitable for? Perhaps businessmen and busy people who appreciate powerful hardware, rich functionality and high autonomy. The design fully meets all the criteria of a successful person: strict, no frills, muted colors and devoid of gloss.
And the delivery set is far from the most stingy. Here and charging with micro USB, and a good headset and a bumper case. Everything is in separate boxes and neatly packed - no faults. It will be nice even to give such a phablet without blushing for your actions.
Specifications Huawei Mate 8
| General characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Model | Ascend Mate 8, Huawei Mate 8, NXT-L29, NXT-AL10, NXT-CL00, NXT-DL00, NXT-TL00, NXT-L09 |
| Date of announcement/start of sales | November 2015 / November 2015 |
| Dimensions | 157.1 x 80.6 x 7.9 mm. |
| Weight | 185 |
| Body colors | Champagne Gold, Moonlight Silver, Space Gray, Mocha Brown |
| Number and type of SIM cards | Nano-SIM - NXT-L09 Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) - NXT-L29 |
| Operating system | Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow) |
| Communication standard in 2G networks | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 CDMA 800 |
| Communication standard in 3G networks | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO / TD-SCDMA |
| Communication standard in 4G networks | LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) |
| Display | |
| Screen type | IPS-NEO LCD, 16 million colors |
| Screen size | 6.0 inches |
| Screen resolution | 1080 x 1920 @468ppi |
| Multitouch | yes, up to 10 simultaneous touches |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 |
| Sound | |
| 3.5mm jack | eat |
| FM radio | eat |
| Additionally | 24-bit/192kHz audio |
| Data transfer | |
| USB | microUSB v2.0, USB Host |
| satellite navigation | GPS (A-GPS), GLONASS/ BDS |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, WiFi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | v4.2, A2DP, EDR, LE |
| Internet connection | LTE, Cat4; HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, EDGE, GPRS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Platform | |
| CPU | HiSilicon Kirin 950 Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A72 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex A53) |
| GPU | Mali-T880 MP4 |
| RAM | 3 GB RAM - NXT-L09, NXT-L29 4 GB RAM - NXT-L29 |
| Inner memory | 32/64 GB |
| Supported memory cards | microSD up to 256GB |
| Camera | |
| Camera | 16 MP, f/2.0, 27mm, OIS, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash |
| Camera features | 1/2.8″ sensor size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR |
| Video recording | [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] |
| Front-camera | 8 MP, f/2.4, 26mm, 1080p |
| Battery | |
| Battery type and capacity | Li-Po 4000 mAh non-removable |
| Additionally | |
| Sensors | Light, proximity, gyroscope, compass, accelerometer, barometer |
| Browser | HTML5 |
| IMAP, POP3, SMTP | |
| Other | — Fast battery charging: 37% in 30 min - DivX/XviD/MP4/H.265/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV/Flac player — Document editor — Photo/video editor |
| Equipment | |
| Standard equipment | Huawei Mate 8: 1 USB cable: 1 User manual: 1 Warranty card: 1 Charger 5V/2A: 1 |
Prices
Video reviews
Huawei Mate 8 is a 6-inch top metal phablet. The smartphone received a stylish design, powerful and energy-efficient hardware, a high-capacity battery, top cameras and a fresh version of Android 6.0 with a proprietary interface from the manufacturer. For such a diagonal, the main disadvantage is obvious - these are the dimensions, the phone is simply huge, it may not fit in a miniature hand. Also, you may not like the screen resolution - "only" Full HD (1920 × 1080 pixels). In our opinion, this is enough for a clear picture, but many competitors "flaunt" with Quad HD displays (2560 × 1440 pixels). Interestingly, Huawei recently released a similar large Nexus 6P, and now, apparently, they decided to fix its shortcomings in Mate 8 by adding autonomy, a slot for a memory card, support for two SIM cards, and also giving the case a proprietary design.
While it is unclear when the Huawei Mate 8 will go on sale, it is expected to start at €600 for the 32GB version. We will test the smartphone as soon as it appears in Russia, and now we present the opinion of GSMArena and Cnet experts, who had the opportunity to briefly get acquainted with the device.
Dimensions and design
Smartphone dimensions - 157 × 80.6 × 7.9 mm, weight - 185 grams. It may sound strange, but it's pretty compact for a 6-inch screen. GSMArena experts noticed that if you compare the Huawei Mate 8 with the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P or 5.5-inch, it turns out that it is only slightly wider than them. This was achieved due to very thin frames around the screen. Huawei Mate 8 is even a few grams lighter than Apple's phablet. In the hands of the smartphone feels the same as the Nexus 6P, only with a larger screen. The whole body of the device (except for the screen) is “wrapped” in metal. Moreover, the coating has a different texture on top and bottom (just like on Huawei Honor 7). On the back of the smartphone, you can find a fingerprint scanner, which, according to Cnet experts, works quickly and accurately.
The battery and cover of the smartphone are non-removable. Huawei Mate 8 will be available in gold, grey, silver and brown.
Display
The smartphone is equipped with a 6-inch IPS screen with Full HD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels) and Gorilal Glass 4 protective glass. In terms of pixel density (368 per inch), it is inferior to top Android flagships, but this is enough for a clear image. Cnet found the screen relatively dim when watching videos, citing a lower resolution than competitors with Quad HD displays.
Performance
Huawei Mate 8 is a device with top-level performance. The company claims that the smartphone's chipset is fast, cool and energy efficient. The first item is responsible for 3 or 4 GB of RAM (depending on the modification) and a powerful Kirin 950 processor (4 cores at 2.3 GHz and 4 at 1.8 GHz). For the second - a 6-layer cooling system. When we get the smartphone for tests, we can check how it copes with its task. The 16 nm manufacturing technology and economical architecture (Cortex-A72) of more powerful processor cores are responsible for energy efficiency.
Camera
Huawei Mate 8 is equipped with top-end 16 and 8 MP cameras. True, their characteristics are not the coolest on the market. Sony IMX298 is used as the main camera sensor, its size is 1/2.8″ (smaller than that of or Microsoft Lumia 950). The lens aperture is quite wide - f / 2.0 and lets in a lot of light, but still it at same as, for example, Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Among the features are an optical stabilization system and phase focusing. Some may not like the lack of video shooting in 4K resolution, apparently, this is due to the Full HD display of the smartphone. How the camera will behave in practice is not yet clear, but Cnet experts were pleased with its performance in any lighting conditions, calling it really top-end.
Communications
Huawei Mate 8 has a flagship set of communications, the smartphone received:
- high-speed and dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac
- economical Bluetooth 4.2 with A2DP profile support
- LTE support
- A-GPS with GLONASS support
- NFC chip
- FM radio.
The smartphone has two slots for NanoSIM-cards, one of which is combined with a slot for a memory card. Micro-USB 2.0 is used for charging and connecting to various devices.
Battery
The battery capacity of Huawei Mate 8 is 4000 mAh, the manufacturer promises more than two days of battery life thanks to the energy-efficient filling of the device. It is also claimed that the charger in just half an hour will give the battery enough energy to work throughout the day. By the way, Cnet experts discharged the battery in 15.5 hours of the video marathon - this is an excellent indicator.
Memory
Peculiarities
Huawei Mate 8 is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and proprietary interface Emotion UI 4.0. The latter has a bunch of control chips - gestures, tapping on the screen, drawing letters on the screen off to launch applications, and so on. Also, we will call a fingerprint scanner, a huge screen and a metal body of the device as features.
The Ascend sub-brand no longer exists - the predecessor of Mate 8, we recall, was called Ascend Mate 7 - now Huawei has got rid of the additional word in the name as unnecessary. And this is for the best - why produce entities. Mate 7, we recall, was a very successful model - it was from it that Huawei began to be perceived as a really serious smartphone manufacturer, not only in terms of the number of handsets sold, but also in terms of the level of products manufactured. Very good both in terms of characteristics and impressions of working with it, Mate 7 sagged a little, except perhaps in terms of the performance of the proprietary Kirin 925 platform, and it did not have a sufficiently high-quality camera.
In autumn, we got the development of the Mate 7 ideas in a slightly more compact Mate S model with an improved system-on-a-chip, an AMOLED display, but at the same time a less capacious battery. Now let's talk about a full upgrade of Mate 7 - with the same six-inch screen (again IPS, again Full HD), about the same battery, but with improvements in all other characteristics. Is the Apple iPhone 6s Plus and Samsung GALAXY Note 5 worth it? afraid of a newbie or does the Chinese flagship pose no threat to them?
⇡ Specifications
| Huawei Mate 8 | Huawei Mate S | Samsung GALAXY Note 5 | Google Nexus 6P | LG V10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 6 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 368 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.5 inches, AMOLED, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 401 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.7 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch, S Pen support | 5.7 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.7 inches, 2560 × 1440, IPS, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch |
| Additional display | No | No | No | No | 2.09 inches, 1040 × 160 pixels, IPS; Gesture support |
| Air gap | No | No | No | No | No |
| Safety glass | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on both sides | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| CPU | HiSilicon Kirin 950 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A72, 2.3GHz; quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.8GHz) + IntelliSense i5 coprocessor | HiSilicon Kirin 935 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.5GHz; quad-core ARM Cortex-A53e, 2.2GHz) | Samsung Exynos 7420 (four ARM Cortex-A57, 2.1GHz; four ARM Cortex-A53, 1.5GHz) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.55GHz + dual-core ARM Cortex-A57 @ 2GHz) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.4GHz + dual ARM Cortex-A57, 1.82GHz) |
| Graphics controller | Mali-T880 MP4 | Mali-T628MP4 | Mali-T760 MP8 | Adreno 430 | Adreno 418 |
| RAM | 3/4 GB | 3 GB | 4 GB | 3 GB | 4 GB |
| Flash memory | 32/64 GB | 32/64/128 GB | 32/64 GB | 32/64/128 GB | 64 GB |
| Memory card support | eat | eat | No | No | eat |
| Connectors | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | USB-C, 3.5mm mini jack | microUSB, 3.5 mm minijack |
| SIM cards | two nanoSIMs | two nanoSIMs | one nano SIM | one nano SIM | two nanoSIMs |
| Cellular 2G | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | |
| Cellular 3G | UMTS 800/850/900/1900/2100 MHz | UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSDPA 850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100 MHz | HDSPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
| Cellular 4G | FDD LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 17, 19, 20, 26, 38, 39, 40 | FDD LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20, 38, 39, 40, 41 | FDD LTE Cat. 9 (up to 450/50 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26 | LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 19, 20, 28, 38, 39, 40, 41 | LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 7 |
| WiFi | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11b/g/n | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| NFC | eat | eat | eat | eat | eat |
| IR port | No | No | No | No | eat |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS (BeiDou for Chinese market) | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou |
| Sensors | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Light, proximity, accelerometer, barometer, magnetometer (digital compass), pulse sensor | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | |
| Ambient light, proximity sensor, pressure sensor, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | |||||
| The fingerprint scanner | eat | eat | eat | eat | eat |
| Main camera | 16 MP, ƒ/2.0, autofocus, OIS LED flash, Full HD video recording | 13 MP, ƒ/2.0, autofocus, OIS, LED flash, Full HD video recording | 16 MP, ƒ/1.9, laser autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, 4K video recording | 12.3 MP, ƒ/2.0, laser autofocus, LED flash, 4K video recording | 16 MP, ƒ/1.8, laser autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, Full HD video recording |
| Front-camera | 8 MP, fixed focus | 8 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP, fixed focus | 8 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP fixed focus 80° FOV + 5 MP fixed focus 120° FOV |
| Nutrition | 15.2 Wh non-removable battery (4000 mAh, 3.8 V) | Non-removable battery 10.26 Wh (2700 mAh, 3.8 V) |
13.11 Wh (3450 mAh, 3.8 V) non-removable battery | Removable 11.4 Wh battery (3000 mAh, 3.8 V) | |
| Size | 157.1×80.6×7.9mm | 137×72×9.8mm | 153×76×7.6mm | 159.3×77.8×7.3mm | 160×80×8.6mm |
| Weight | 185 grams | 156 grams | 171 grams | 178 grams | 192 grams |
| Hull protection | No | No | No | No | No |
| Operating system | Android 6.0 Marshmallow, native EMUI 4.0 skin | Android 5.1 Lolliipop, own skin EMUI 3.1 | Android 5.1 Lolliipop, Samsung's own TouchWiz skin | Android 6.0 Marshmallow | Android 5.1 Lolliipop |
| Current price | 600-700 euros (not yet sold in Russia) | 41,000 rubles (for the version with 64 GB of memory) | 44,000-49,000 rubles (depending on the amount of memory) | 49 990-56 990 rubles (depending on the amount of memory) | 50 990 rubles |
⇡ Appearance and ergonomics
The design has not changed much compared to Mate 7 - the general outlines have remained the same, all the changes have affected the details. But to compare the device with some HTC does not come to mind. Firstly, the smartphones of the Taiwanese company have changed a lot, take a look at least at One M9 + or One A9. Secondly, the younger models of the Honor line (for example, 5X) adopted many decisions - and now this style can already be called proprietary for Huawei, if, of course, you can see some “family” features in it. Smartphones from Huawei are cute, but, subjectively, they still lack some kind of corporate character.
Huawei Mate 8, front panel: earpiece, front camera, ambient light sensor and miniature status indicator are located above the display
Huawei Mate 8, rear panel: at the top is a camera module with dual LED flash, below it is a fingerprint scanner; top and bottom we see plastic inserts above the antennas
The Mate 8 is no exception, although there is nothing to complain about formally: the case is made of metal and tempered glass, the assembly is excellent, the colors are interesting (gold, silver, gray, chocolate) - but can you distinguish Huawei from other top smartphones at first glance? ? However, such claims can now be made to many, starting with Apple.
Huawei Mate 8, top: second microphone hole and 3.5 mm mini-jack
There are practically no frames around the display - due to this, it was possible to save a lot of dimensions and Mate 8 turned out to be more compact than many smartphones with a smaller display diagonal.
It also became even thinner than the Mate 7, due to the less protruding camera above the body. It actually turned out to be fun. Last time they declared a thickness of 7.9 millimeters, now we are told that they managed to reduce it by 0.4 mm - and it turned out ... 7.9 millimeters. Amazing things are happening, almost Bulgakov's scale. However, just as it was impossible to make claims to the Mate 7 - you are supposedly too fat - you can’t find fault with the Mate 8 either. It is rather too thin - it is not very convenient to hold it because of this; but the usability of 6-inch smartphones is generally a separate topic that can be argued forever.
Huawei Mate 8, right side: a standard set of volume rockers and a power key located below it
Huawei Mate 8, left side: a single slot for both nanoSIM cards and a microSD card
Other differences from Mate 7: moved to the bottom edge of the main speaker, which now does not overlap if the smartphone is on the back; reduced "swelling" of the back panel; a modified form of the camera module and fingerprint scanner; a single slot for two SIM-cards and a memory card (previously there was one SIM card, and there were two slots).
Lived up. Smartphone manufacturers are now measuring who has a more accurate and faster fingerprint scanner - at least that's what Huawei boasted about at the presentation of the device in Las Vegas. And bragged about it. On Mate 8, Android 6.0 is used with a scanner supported by default, you didn’t even need to make your own software.
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The scanner is very fast and error-free, allowing you to unlock your device in the blink of an eye. It is noteworthy that it is suitable not only for unlocking: there is also the ability to take pictures by touching the sensor, which is especially convenient when taking selfies. But flipping through photos in the gallery, as, for example, on Mate S, is impossible. The scanner is still primarily a convenient way to protect a smartphone, its other uses are secondary.
⇡ Software
We already wrote about Android 6.0 in detail in the review of the first smartphone with a clean version of this OS -
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