Huawei Mate 9 review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

Huawei absolutely knocks it out of the park with the Mate 9, putting every other smartphone maker on notice.

In the premium phone space, timing is everything. It’s inevitable that nobody wants to release their phones head to head with Apple, for a start. In 2017, Samsung opted to delay the Samsung Galaxy S8 until after MWC for that very reason, with LG announcing the LG G6 there.

Huawei, meanwhile, beat everyone to the punch by launching the Huawei Mate 9 in February 2017. However, Huawei could be accused of cheating as the Mate 9 was announced in 2016, which could lead you to suspect that it’s a phone more suited to last year’s needs rather than a true premium handset for 2017. So how does the Mate 9 stack up?

Design

• Large 5.9-inch screen is great for entertainment on the go.
• Lack of water resistance is a little disappointing.

• Read our full review of the Huawei Mate 9's design

  The Huawei Mate 9 boasts a large 5.9-inch display with a Full HD resolution. That’s slightly problematic on a screen this large simply because it gives it a relatively low pixel density. For regular viewing it’s entirely fine, but if your desires lean more towards virtual reality, for instance, you’re going to have a face full of blocky pixels rather than a particularly fine image.

  On the plus side, if anything happens to that screen, Huawei has your back. Along with throwing a screen protector onto the Mate 9 in the factory, it provides an extra layer of protection in the form of a three-month accidental damage warranty. If you drop your Mate 9 in the first three months of owning it, Huawei will replace the display free of charge. You only get one fumble fingers freebie, but given that the cost of screen repair for premium phones can be considerable, it’s a fine inclusion.

  Like most premium smartphones, the Huawei Mate 9 includes a fingerprint sensor for added security. Huawei has shifted the sensor to the rear of the Mate 9, which does take some getting used to. It also means you can’t unlock it without picking it up. That aside, the Mate 9 excels in sheer speed of unlocking, so it’s probably a good thing the sensor sits on the back. It gives you time to be ready for it.

  If you travel and use a roaming SIM, one of the Mate 9's capabilities you’ll appreciate is its support for two SIMs. While it’s not unheard of for premium phones to offer dual SIM capability, it’s very rare that we officially see those phones released in that style here. You can get a Galaxy S7 Edge in a dual SIM configuration, but you’d have to import one. Huawei offering it locally means that it’s supported locally. The only downside is if you prefer to buy on contract. The Mocha Brown dual SIM variant is for outright sale only, but the Space Grey version that you get on contract will only take a single SIM card.

  Huawei has significantly refined the Emotion UI launcher it puts on its phones with the Mate 9. We’re big fans of the fact that you can choose between having an Android-style app drawer, or a simple run of apps iOS style. Still, the UI is clunky in places when you’re trying to find a particular setting.

  The one big feature missing from the Huawei Mate 9 is water resistance. In the premium space, water resistance is fast becoming a given, but the Mate 9 doesn’t include any IP rating at all. Anecdotally, our review sample got rained on and made it through unscathed, but we were not brave enough to submit it to a dunking to see how well it handled that.

Camera

• Dual-lens camera array delivers incredibly sharp photos.
• Easily on par with the iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7.

• Read our full review of the Huawei Mate 9's camera

  Like the Huawei P9, the Huawei Mate 9 uses a dual lens camera approach co-developed with Leica. On the rear sits a 12MP colour and 20MP monochrome lens which combine to form very pleasing images. It’s also entirely feasible to shoot simply in monochrome, and this can give very sharp images indeed, sometimes bordering on a little too sharp.

  Huawei’s camera app layout is logical enough, although we do wish the swipe to the left for camera functions worked in landscape shooting mode. Premium cameras have to work particularly hard to stand out, and the Mate 9 easily stands up there with premium shooters such as the Google Pixel XL, Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7.

Performance

• Huawei's custom Kirin processor delivers excellent performance both on paper and in real-world testing.

• See test results and read our full review of the Huawei Mate 9's performance

  Rather than go with the industry-standard Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, Huawei has opted for its own Octa-Core Kirin 960 processor to run the Mate 9. It’s extremely quick, whether you’re throwing games at it or heavy spreadsheets, and its benchmark scores reflect that. Here’s how the Mate 9 compares against its premium competition using Geekbench 4’s cross-platform CPU test:

  Handset	Geekbench 4 CPU Single Core (higher is better)	Geekbench 4 CPU Multi Core (higher is better)
  Huawei Mate 9	1,925	6,068
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	3,374	5,649
  Apple iPhone 7	3,452	5,599
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	1,359	5,333
  Samsung Galaxy S7	1,378	4,718
  Apple iPhone SE	2,449	4,171
  Apple iPhone 6s	2,465	4,052
  Google Pixel XL	1,629	4,051
  Motorola Moto Z	1,477	3,853
  Sony Xperia XZ	1,636	3,604

  It’s not quite as solid a competitor in the 3D rendering/games space. Here’s how the Mate 9 compares against a range of premium phones using 3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited test:

  Handset	3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Result
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	37,956
  Apple iPhone 7	37,717
  LG G5	29,597
  Apple iPhone SE	29,276
  Samsung Galaxy S7	28,903
  Samsung Note7	28,646
  Google Pixel XL	28,458
  Huawei Mate 9	28,457
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	28,402

  In all of our testing, the Mate 9 responded rapidly, which is what you want in a premium priced phone.

Battery life

• Despite low benchmark results, the Mate 9 is easily capable of multi-day battery life.
• Minimal downtime thanks to Quick Charge support.

• See test results and read our full review of the Huawei Mate 9's battery life

  One of the benefits of having a large phone body is that manufacturers can slam in large quantities of power under the display. The Mate 9 packs in a 4,000mAh battery and is very aggressive with its battery optimisations. However, in our battery benchmark, using the older Geekbench 3’s battery test, it scored relatively poorly against other premium phones:

  Handset	Geekbench 3 Battery Test Duration	Geekbench 3 Battery Score
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	11:55:00	7,150
  Huawei Mate 8	11:14:40	6,659
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	11:11:20	6,713
  Samsung Galaxy Note7	11:02:20	6,623
  Samsung Galaxy S7	10:01:20	6,013
  Google Pixel XL	9:14:20	5,543
  Huawei Mate 9	9:00:30	5,330
  Apple iPhone 7	7:50:10	4,701

  It’s not quite iPhone-level disappointing, but it did surprise us, simply because our own anecdotal testing suggested it should be a front runner, as last year’s Mate 8 was. We suspect that’s more an issue of the benchmark and how the Mate 9 reacted to it. We never had a problem with all-day battery life, and two days is entirely reasonable especially if you actively allow it to monitor apps in the background that are still eating up power.

  Huawei also supports fast charging through its own proprietary charger, which means even if it does run low, topping it up is exceptionally quick.

Verdict

• A powerhouse smartphone that stands tall among 2017's best.

• Read our full Huawei Mate 9 verdict

  The Mate 9 is an exceptional entry into the 2017 smartphone space, and one that puts every other phone maker on notice. Even if Huawei jumped into the premium pool first, giving everyone else time to engineer further phone miracles, it set a very high performance bar indeed.

  In the premium space, if you wanted a large screen phone with good performance, you’d have to step up to either the Google Pixel XL or Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus, either of which will set you back a significant quantity more than the Mate 9. If the Mate 9’s dual camera optics entice you, you could opt to slide down the performance scale a tad and opt instead for the very capable Huawei P9 instead.

Pricing and availability

Huawei Mate 9

Bigger is better

Go big whether you're going home or going out with the Huawei Mate 9 and its extra-large 5.9-inch screen.

Buy Now

• The Huawei Mate 9 is available from online retailers like Catch for around $600.
• You can also buy the Huawei Mate 9 on contract through Optus.