Smartphone Huawei Mate 8: reviews and features

Huawei Mate 8 (reviews, photo posted later in the article) is a Chinese manufacturer's sample of the November 2015 model. In many respects, this device belongs to the premium class, which determines its high cost. But for their money, the buyer gets ease of use and one of the best specifications in the industry.

Huawei Mate 8: reviews, specs, and reviews

The main technical characteristics of the phone are as follows:

• The display is diagonal 6.0 ", 1080 x 1920 pixels.
• Camera 16 megapixel, video 1080p.
• Processor 8-core Hisilicon Kirin 950 frequency of 2.3 GHz.
• The size of RAM - 3 or 4 GB, flash memory - 32 or 64 GB, additional memory - up to 128 GB.
• Lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 4000 mAh.
• Weight - 185 g.
• Dimensions - 157 x 81 x 7.9 mm.

Following in the footsteps of Mate 7, the phablet is also a serious and pretty smartphone. He loudly declares: this is business.

But the high price ($ 450), some characteristics that do not correspond to premium phones, as well as reviews suggest that the fablet is not worth the money. The best alternative is the Nexus 6P and Galaxy Note 5. With the same size, they offer a sharper and more vivid image and a first-class camera.

Design and build quality

Design Huawei Mate 8 customer reviews are rated highly. The phone has an unrivaled business-class aura thanks to precision machining of metal and glass parts, sharper, bold edges. Available in golden, silver, gray and coffee designs.

For a 6-inch smartphone, the device is very compact. The phone is 4.2 mm shorter than the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P of the same manufacturer, and less by a millimeter than the iPhone 6s Plus, whose display diagonally has only 5.5 inches.

The booklet is equipped with a solid aluminum body, corresponding to its status of the flagship model. The back panel features a thin satin finish. True, it is not removed, there is no access to the battery.

Hybrid Slot

Mate 8 comes with a so-called hybrid slot for DualSIM / MicroSD cards. This means that the phone has two card slots. The first is for the basic SIM card and can be connected to LTE networks. The second slot can be used to connect a second SIM card (only 2G) or a microSD memory card. Depending on the needs, this can be either good or bad.

The best fingerprint scanner

One of the best aspects that distinguish the smartphone Huawei Mate 8, user reviews note the presence of a fingerprint sensor, located on the rear panel. This is one of the best implementations on the market: the sensor is always on, lightning fast and rarely wrong. Unlocking and displaying the start screen occur almost instantly. In addition, the sensor can be configured for shooting, answering calls or turning off the alarm.

Display

The 6-inch display has a Full HD resolution, which corresponds to 1080 x 1920 pixels. The density of 368 pixels per inch simultaneously exceeds what Apple calls Retina, and should not be burdensome for a battery and a graphics chip.

The panel uses the IPS-NEO LCD panel with JDI, which provides a greater depth of black. Black Huawei Mate 8 user reviews are not as impressive as in AMOLED-displays.

The maximum brightness level when displaying a white is 471 nits. Although this is not an outstanding result, but still quite a lot. The claimed contrast is nevertheless excellent - 1361: 1. In Huawei Mate 8 reviews of owners mark good readability of the display in bright sunlight.

With regard to the accuracy of color reproduction, the screen of the phablet has an average deviation of Delta E of 6.1, which is slightly larger than would be desirable in the ideal. But even many flagship devices show worse results, so this smartphone is located somewhere in between. To read the screen correctly calibrated, its maximum deviation should not exceed 4.

Battery life

Mate 8 comes with a battery of extra-large capacity - 4000 mAh. The phone supports fast charging and can recharge a battery of such a large capacity with 9V / 2A technology in just 2.5 hours. At a charge rate of 49.33 mAh / min, the phablet is among the fastest-charging smartphones. When using a standard memory Mate 8 is not inferior to the Galaxy S6 and Note 5. Nexus 6P is a bit slower, and LG G4 and Honor 7 are far behind. The speed is constant (from 0 to 85%) for about 75 minutes, and then significantly slows down. This should be remembered when you need to quickly restore your phone. Wireless charging is not supported. 30 minutes of charge should be enough for a full day of operation of the device.

Special testing showed that the Mate 8 has a stamina rating of 103 hours in the mode with one SIM card. This is an estimate of how long the phone will work if it is used by the hour for calls, browsing the web and playing video a day.

This scheme may not correspond to the individual scenario, but it allows you to compare the duration of operation of various devices.

103 hours of work in this mode is an excellent result. Smartphones, which can reach a three-digit number, are one. Moreover, no current competitor in the upper segment is able to approach this phone in terms of the duration of Internet surfing, even if there are some that surpass it in the video playback mode.

The long work of the publication is due in part to the fact that in the sixth "Androide" there is an energy-saving utility Doze. "Marshmallow" in the standby mode plunges some applications into a deep sleep, reducing energy consumption. In addition, the manufacturer offers the ability to block or allow individual applications to run in the background. The battery manager also determines the most energy-intensive applications.

The entire Mate line supports the ability to recharge another phone.

Audio

The design of the case with holes for two speakers can be misleading. Melomaniacs will be disappointed by the discovery that the sound comes only from the right, and the left one serves for beauty. The tablet is equipped with a 3.5-mm jack, but headphones, unlike Mate S, do not reproduce DTS-sound. True, this is not a big drawback, since it is very difficult to catch a difference.

The loudness of the dynamics of the Huawei Mate 8 (32 GB) user reviews is below average. Galaxy Note5 and LG V10 are slightly louder, but Lumia 950 XL is superior to everyone in this respect.

Nevertheless, the quality of sound through the 3.5 mm connector has surpassed all expectations.

When connected to an active external amplifier, the output signal of the smartphone is clean, and its volume is much higher than average, making it one of the best competitors.

Even more impressive was the fact that the connection of headphones does not cause distortion - even the usual crosstalk in the stereo mode is very small, and the end result is excellent. Other characteristics are also intact, and the volume level is high.

Camera

The Sony Ericsson 1 / 2.8 "sensor with a resolution of 16 megapixels is used in the camera of the smartphone.It has optical image stabilization and phase autofocus.The two-tone LED flash is useful in the dark and will allow you to get more realistic photos.

Pictures taken by Huawei Mate 8, user reviews are called too soft. Although on paper the characteristics of the apparatus are more than sufficient, in practice they do not find confirmation. Photos lack the details and textures that are familiar to high-end smartphones. In addition, all parts of the image, except the brightest ones, abound with noise.

Colors are displayed conservatively - they can not be called energetic. In the afternoon the exposure works consistently accurately, without changes from the picture to the picture. The dynamic range is decent, with only a small tendency to limit the bright spots.

The front 8-megapixel camera Huawei Mate 8 user reviews are rated positively. The detailing is good, the noise is small, a good dynamic range and nice colors. There is also a beautiful background blur.

In general, compared with the images obtained on the Galaxy S6, Sony Xperia Z5 and LG G4, the photos are pale. This is not a phone for avid amateur photographers, but for documenting everyday life and posting photos in social networks cameras will fit.

Camcorder

A smartphone can record video in a resolution of up to 1080p at a speed of 30 or 60 frames per second. Strangely enough, but the booklet does not support recording in the format of 2160p and 4K, although most of its competitors already offer this option.

At least when recording video, the optical image stabilization system is used, and the result is good and stable even when shooting with hands. True, stabilization in Galaxy Note 5 functions better.

Quality video Huawei Mate 8 reviews of users called insufficient. The image lacks the details that you would expect from such clarity, they have a limited dynamic range. The good news is that there are no annoying jumps of focus, the image is smooth and steady.

Software

The smartphone uses the operating system "Android 6.0 Marshmallow" with its own interface EmotionUI v.4.0. The latter, to put it mildly, has much less in common with Android than with iOS. For the faithful followers of the traditions the manufacturer left the opportunity to replace the user interface.

The lock screen of the smartphone is filled with many things and events, starting with alternating screensavers after each device activation (each time the user meets other stunning beauty wallpaper) and ending with many other functions.

As is customary in Chinese Android interfaces, after the lock screen, the application bar does not appear.

Tracking movements also plays a significant role. There are flip-gestures, as well as picking up, tilting and even things like finding a joint and drawing. All of them can be customized to the taste of the user.

The interface looks as if it is designed for a user with poor eyesight. The default settings include stretching the contents to all 6 inches of the screen. But this can be corrected if you select in the display settings instead of the large medium or small display mode.

Multiple Scenes

Smartphone Huawei Mate 8 (32GB) reviews of customers consider it good thanks to the potentially convenient, if it is used in practice, limited by many windows. It can be started by sliding the finger joint or by a much more logical holding of the button for launching recent applications. Allows you to view two applications at the same time. You can resize the windows and swap them. True, the choice of supported programs is limited, among them there is not so much a browser.

Performance testing

The Mate 8 uses the Kirin 950 chipset, manufactured by HiSilicon, a subsidiary of Huawei. This is not the first chip of the manufacturer, which constantly makes efforts to create its own designs of electronic circuits. All Kirin chips traditionally had a problem with graphics performance, but as for the integrated processor for processing graphics Mali-T880 in Huawei Ascend Mate 8, user reviews of such shortcomings do not report.

Tests indicate that at the time of the appearance the tablet was one of the fastest smartphones on the market. On its performance, it has surpassed quite a few phones, such as Galaxy Note5, Nexus 6P, iPhone 6s Plus and V10.

Advantages and disadvantages

Benefits:

• The size of the 6-inch tablet does not exceed the dimensions of 5.7-inch devices.
• Long battery life.
• Android 6.0.
• All-metal case.
• A good and fast fingerprint sensor.
• Two SIM cards.
• Leading the class in the fineness of settings and granting rights to applications.
• Excellent headphone sound.

Disadvantages:

• Photo and video camera are mediocre.
• There are no formats for 2160p and 4K.
• Low resolution.

Huawei Mate 8: reviews, overview in general

At one time, the tablet was the best 6-inch smartphone, only the diagonal size is critical. The phone certainly gives very convincing arguments in its favor. Take at least a display that has a high contrast and exceptional readability of the LCD panel in the sunlight. Battery life is also worth admiration. The processor will do everything you need, and even much more.

Unfortunately, the image quality and video in Huawei Mate 8 (32GB) user reviews are called mediocre. Not everyone will like EmotionUI, even though the interface offers best-in-class management capabilities for applications.