Build & Design
Build and Design
I always prefer to note down the first impressions of a smartphone when writing a review. Like wise Huawei seems to be doing same with a few previous flagships specially since Mate 8. It some how manages to impress with the first looks of the the phone.
Killing the full-metal design on previous Mate devices, Huawei chooses the glass body on Mate 10. The 3D glass body is symmetrically curved on all four ends of the back panel.
For some non-serious reason people usually taunt Huawei for copying others. But considering the long range of devices, Huawei’s designs are more dynamic which keep changing at any extent. Mate 10, however, is the greatest and most unexpected face-lift of Huawei’s design language.
An inch-high stripe that goes from one edge to the other crossing over the dual-camera arrayed vertically, makes the design unique and more appealing.
Components and Controls
Huawei makes a good use of that wide space by placing dual-LED flash on one side and the laser sensor for autofocus on the other. Between them there’s “Leica” branding and the optics labeling which refers to SUMMILUX-H lens. Leaving all the space below the camera stripe, Huawei branding comes at the lower portion with product labeling.
To my dislikes, the fingerprint scanner is not present on the back side. Instead it’s on the front below the screen to your thumb’s reach.
This sure is a personal preference, but I’d like the fingerprint sensor to the reach of my index finger – that’s on the back. Huawei mostly places the sensor there but most recently with it’s opting for a front-mounted fingerprint scanners. Second thought can be given only if it’s fast enough to work with a thin stripe to recognize a part of your thumb. Mate 10 actually does the job and is that fast to leave no objections. Still I’ll prefer it to have on its back, and in fact the Mate 10 Pro has it on the back.
The sensor on the front, while by default it’s just a home key, it can serve more than just that. Dubbed as Navigation key, if enabled, the virtual on-screen navigation will turn off and the swipe gestures on the navigation key will guide the system to go back and forth. Such as a simple touch will perform as back key, touch and hold will take you to the home screen, left or right swipe will bring up the recent tasks view. For Google App, you just need to swipe up from the bottom edge of the display.
Those slim bezel on top and bottom are sure appealing. On top, we have a metal grill covering the earpiece which also works as a secondary speaker and a front-facing camera which two are pretty visible. Other hidden stuff include some basic sensors – proximity, ambient etc.
USB Type-C has now been a common thing among flagships and Mate 10 is no exception. With a healthy improvement this is now USB 3.1. Along side on the bottom, there is a primary speaker and then a mouthpiece.
The top side hosts a 3.5mm audio jack on one end while on the other, there’s secondary mic for active noise cancellation. In addition, there is an IR blaster as well.
It’s worth mentioning that the Mate 10 Pro doesn’t have a traditional 3.5mm audio jack. So you can guess that Huawei has shown its transition to abandon the the feature in next future.
Power button and the volume buttons are on the right like always.
On the left, there is only a single hybrid slot for dual-SIM cards and microSD card. You know that you can not use microSD card when using two SIM cards.
