Huawei Mate 10 review
Telephony
The Mate 10 dialer has a shared interface with the contacts app. There are no groundbreaking features here, but there is nothing missing either.
Smart dialing • contacts • a contact
The dual-SIM settings menu (where available) lets you rename the SIM cards, disable them, and select which one does calls or data by default. Both cards can connect simultaneously to LTE networks thanks to Kirin 970's flagship modem.
Loudspeaker
The stereo speakers of the Mate delivered an excellent loudness just like the Mate 9. The audio quality is excellent with crisp and rich sound.
The speaker loudness isn't balanced though. The top speaker is used mostly for high-frequency sounds and it's very quiet, but you'll notice this only if you mute the very impressive bottom one. Somehow Huawei managed to use this feeble earpiece to create some very good stereo effect, which is nice.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
| 62.9 | 65.2 | 71.6 | Below Average | |
| 65.4 | 68.0 | 69.1 | Average | |
| 67.8 | 69.5 | 71.5 | Good | |
| 68.5 | 69.4 | 71.6 | Good | |
| 64.8 | 69.8 | 82.5 | Good | |
| 66.9 | 72.3 | 84.5 | Very Good | |
| 76.0 | 74.6 | 79.0 | Excellent | |
| 83.1 | 74.5 | 85.0 | Excellent | |
| 88.0 | 77.1 | 81.4 | Excellent | |
| 90.6 | 73.7 | 84.0 | Excellent |
Pre-installed apps
There are a few apps pre-installed on the Mate 10. Among the more notable ones is the Health app, which tracks steps and calculates calories, but can also supposedly count the number of floors you've climbed.
Health app
You also have a ton of basic tools preloaded, including a proper file manager, IR remote control, calendar app, notes, weather, compass, sound recorder, and flashlight.
Very good file manager • Files • Remote control • voice recorder • calendar
Pictures, video, and music
The Huawei Mate 10 comes with the familiar EMUI gallery on board. In addition to your camera roll, it offers sorting by albums, or smart sorting by subject, places, events, among others.
The EMUI gallery has its own image editor, if needed, and it also works with variable aperture shots for adjusting the bokeh effects post factum.
The EMUI gallery
The Mate 10 also comes with a pre-installed Video app, which offers basic controls but supports pop-up play.
Video app
The EMUI's Music app is very nice. Its background changes dynamically to match the album art, which is a nice little touch. Lyrics are available and downloaded automatically. Finally, Huawei's Histen sound effects are available on the Mate 10 and include equalizers and simulated 3D audio.
Music app • Now Playing • Lyrics • Sound settings • Equalizer
Flagship-worthy audio output
The Huawei Mate 10 was nicely loud in both parts of our audio quality test. It’s not the loudest out there, but it’s well above average and enough to drive even high-impedance headphones to sufficient loudness.
Accuracy of the audio reproduction was great too - flawless with an active external amplifier and almost as good when headphones come into play. In fact the only affected reading was stereo crosstalk and that suffered so very marginally that you’d barely notice. An impressive showing indeed.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| +0.02, -0.03 | -93.4 | 93.5 | 0.0027 | 0.0071 | -94.3 | |
| +0.05, -0.04 | -93.1 | 93.1 | 0.0036 | 0.063 | -71.6 | |
| +0.02, -0.02 | -94.3 | 94.3 | 0.0038 | 0.0072 | -93.5 | |
| +0.31, -0.01 | -93.3 | 93.3 | 0.016 | 0.243 | -63.8 | |
| +0.01, -0.03 | -92.1 | 92.1 | 0.0020 | 0.0086 | -92.5 | |
| +0.03, -0.03 | -92.5 | 92.5 | 0.0024 | 0.046 | -77.3 | |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.2 | 93.1 | 0.0008 | 0.0069 | -94.2 | |
| +0.03, -0.02 | -92.9 | 92.9 | 0.0057 | 0.051 | -68.1 | |
| +0.03, -0.01 | -94.1 | 94.1 | 0.0010 | 0.0070 | -94.2 | |
| +0.15, -0.08 | -94.0 | 94.0 | 0.0033 | 0.139 | -59.9 | |
| +0.05, -0.11 | -94.1 | 94.1 | 0.0017 | 0.0067 | -94.5 | |
| +0.05, -0.02 | -93.7 | 93.8 | 0.0018 | 0.105 | -53.7 | |
| +0.01, -0.03 | -90.6 | 90.4 | 0.018 | 0.027 | -92.6 | |
| +0.30, -0.20 | -90.5 | 90.0 | 0.0018 | 0.145 | -65.7 |
Huawei Mate 10 frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
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