Still unknown in our country a few years ago, China's Huawei is doing everything it can to achieve its stated goal: to become the world's number one smartphone manufacturer, ahead of Apple (which is well on the way) and Samsung (which still has a long way to go...).
To achieve this, the Mate range, with its strong business focus, is spearheading the brand. The Mate 10 Pro (€799) is extremely promising, offering excellent performance in a number of key areas for professional use.
According to the manufacturer, the artificial intelligence (AI) on board enables it to improve both performance and autonomy. It's the Kirin 970 10nm chip, dedicated to artificial intelligence and machine learning functions, that is at the heart of the device's performance. As a result, the very powerful 4,000 mAh battery (like the previous generation) is now more autonomous, with lower power consumption of up to 50 % depending on the situation. On paper, it is possible to last a full day with very intense use, i.e. spending 7 to 8 hours using your smartphone, and 2 days with moderate use. A 20-minute fast charge should provide energy for the rest of the day.
According to Huawei, the processor's ability to learn and adapt for greater efficiency also means a gain in performance estimated at 20 %. Interestingly, Huawei's CEO claims that the system will maintain this performance over time, albeit a relative 18 months.
Several areas made smarter
AI is used in a variety of fields. The off-line translation service, whether oral or via video playback (of a menu, for example), offers interesting prospects. Particular attention is paid to the sound quality of telephone conversations, with background noise management and the ability to gradually learn the sound of the smartphone owner's voice to optimise it, even if he or she is whispering.
Telephone reception is taken care of to the max, with 4 integrated antennae and a very high theoretical data rate in excess of 1 Gbit/s (although the French network does not allow such speeds). There are two SIM card slots, both of which offer 4G connectivity.
When it comes to applications, Google intends to encourage new developments next year that take advantage of the system's artificial intelligence capabilities. The Mate 10 is one of the very first to run Android 8.0 (Oreo), accompanied here by the brand's own Emui overlay, which is visually and functionally similar to Apple iOS.
Following in the footsteps of Samsung and Windows Phone, the Huawei can now be connected to a monitor and used as a basic PC or as a support for presentation slides. The advantage is that it doesn't need a special docking box. The smartphone screen also becomes a kind of trackpad for navigating the monitor screen. A practical solution.
For photos, AI helps the remarkable, very bright dual sensor with an f/1.6 aperture to immediately find a mode suited to the image you want to take (portrait, food, landscape...). The whole system is the result of a renewed collaboration with the great Leica brand.
Still on the subject of agreements with German partners, Huawei has had its fast-charging battery certified by the TÜV inspection body, and Porsche Design is once again in charge of the ultra-top-of-the-range model, with slight visual differences (and twice the on-board memory) sold at almost double the price (€1,395 instead of €799).
The Mate 10 Pro comes as standard with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Its attractive, sober design is available in 4 colours (anthracite, brown, dark blue and pink) with a beautiful 6-inch 18:9 OLED panoramic screen in Full HD resolution - a practical format for opening 2 windows.
Still on the pro side, the Mate 10 Pro is able to fill its address book with all your LinkedIn contacts. Security is also important here with Google Zero-Touch, allowing a company to automatically configure its entire fleet of smartphones according to its wishes.
The Mate 10 should also make a good portable music player, with its high-resolution 384k/32-bit encoding. It also benefits from IP 67 immersion protection. So, on paper, the Mate 10 Pro has just about everything you could ask for to stand up to Apple (iPhone 8 and X) and Samsung (S8+ and Note 8). All that remains is for it to prove the real value of its AI, whether as a differentiating factor or simply an evolution of the capabilities of current smartphones.
