Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review: A solid winter flagship that cribs from the best

Camera

Along with the Kirin 970, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro continues to propel the Huawei brand ahead when it comes to smartphone photography. The company’s pact with lens company Leica continues to pay dividends here, as does the Mate 10 Pro’s ability to leverage its NPU processing capabilities towards delivering consistently better everyday photography.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

The Huawei Mate 10 series utilises object recognition and machine learning tech. Rather than overwhelm you with options when it comes to specific camera modes for specific things - the device is said to be smart enough to know what you’re trying to take a picture of and adjust the settings accordingly and appropriately.

In practice, this feature does work well - though it's maybe not as immediately striking as the algorithmic augmentation you'll find in the Google Pixel 2.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

I did also encounter a minor-but-frustrating usability issue when holding the Mate 10 in two hands to take horizontal shots, however. The various triggers and toggles for the camera app are located on the leftmost side of the screen and attempting to press them using your left-hand can often accidentally trigger an alert telling you to stop blocking the front-facing camera.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

Still, we found that the Mate 10's camera produced pretty solid results for the most. In particular, we got a lot of mileage out of the device's Wide-Angle lens.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

When it comes to video, video footage taken using the Mate 10 Pro looks good but not quite as smooth as what you’d get out of the dual OIS in the Note 8 or the enhanced EIS in the Pixel 2.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG