Huawei has had a strong presence in the premium camera space thanks to its tie-up with established camera brand Leica.
For the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, it's taken the formula it applied to the Huawei P10 Plus and improved it just a little, with dual rear sensors clocking in at 12MP RGB and 20MP monochrome, both at f/1.6 compared to the P10 Plus' f/1.8. Like the P10 Plus, they're Leica Summilux lenses. On the front, you'll find an 8MP RGB sensor for selfies that can also (like Google's Pixel 2 phones) manage its own portrait mode through software alone.
Like the Pixel 2, the effect can work well, or it can be a little obviously artificial. Here's a sample selfie with and without the portrait bokeh effect in play:

There's also an inbuilt beauty mode, which can polish out minor imperfections, or turn you into a plastic surgeon's nightmare if you take it too far.
Huawei pitches the Mate 10 Pro as a premium camera, and the folks at DxOMark seemed to agree at the time, placing it firmly in the top performing camera phones of 2017. Here's how the Huawei Mate 10 Pro compared against other premium flagships of its era according to its scoring benchmarks:
Handset | DxOMark Score |
---|
Google Pixel 2 | 98 |
Apple iPhone X | 97 |
Huawei Mate 10 Pro | 97 |
Apple iPhone 8 Plus | 94 |
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 | 94 |
Apple iPhone 8 | 92 |
While the underlying camera hardware on the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is impressive, it's in the software that Huawei claims it can make a difference to the user experience. The Mate 10 Pro features a neural processor that Huawei specifically uses to identify scenes and automatically apply the best possible photographic settings.
The AI can (in theory) identify the differences between cats and dogs and alter parameters on the fly for the best results, with a tiny image of its selected mode appearing when it identifies a subject. It's not quite 100% accurate, although there is scope for it to learn over time.
It's a similar approach again to how the Google Pixel 2 handles its camera work, but where that phone uses software, Huawei is explicitly using hardware to handle the heavy lifting. If you're a photo novice it can work very well, especially in low light. Here's how the Huawei Mate 10 Pro automatically interpreted a low light shot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

Here's how the Pixel 2 XL took that shot:

And the iPhone X's interpretation of the scene:

If you're not a fan of the camera automatically deciding on settings for you, pro tweaking is only a swipe away.
Overall, the Mate 10 Pro lives up to the expectations I'd have of a premium Huawei phone in 2017, with fast capture and focus, and pleasing photographic results. Here are some sample shots:






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