Ever since Huawei bagged the chance to manufacture Google’s Nexus 6P back in 2015, there’s been no turning back for the company. The Chinese smartphone vendor soon went on to become one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world.
And among the lot, Mate series is one of the company’s flagship line which is famous for outing phablet-sized phones. Last year’s Huawei Mate 9 was no exception and going by the rumors, the upcoming Mate 10 won’t be too. If anything, it will be even better.
There have been a good number of leaks as well as a few official confirmations by the company itself in the recent past throwing some light on different aspects of the handset.
We have tried to put all these rumors in a single article. And here’s everything we know about the Huawei Mate 10.
Huawei Mate 10 Release Date (Expected)
Huawei hasn’t revealed any launch date or such for the Mate 10 just yet. But, Richard Yu, chief of Huawei’s consumer division has confirmed in a recent interview that the smartphone will see the light of day around the same time when Apple unveils its iPhone 8.
Huawei Mate 10’s predecessors, the Mate 9 and Mate 8 were both announced in November. If the company plans to stick to the one-year cycle, November is when we will see Huawei’s next flagship outing ideally. Recent leaks, however, have pointed at an October launch which is nearly a month after the iPhone 8’s supposed launch. So, October is our best bet for now.
Huawei Mate 10 Specs
Design and Display
A near bezel-less design has almost become a norm of sorts these days as far as flagship handsets are concerned. LG has done it, Samsung has done it, and the Cupertino-based tech giant is also expected to do it with the yet-to-be-unveiled iPhone 8.
Now, it’s only obvious for Huawei to follow suit. Many leaks have suggested the same too. Confirming them, Richard Yu, stated that Mate 10 will indeed have a full-screen display.
The smartphone is expected to boast a 6.1-inch QHD display with a 2:1 aspect ratio and a screen-to-body-ratio higher than the Galaxy S8.
Interestingly, word has it that the company will be able to pull off the onscreen fingerprint scanner with the Mate 10 which could be missing on both the Galaxy Note 8 and the iPhone 8.
A recently leaked image render of the smartphone, however, revealed that it will come with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner which will be placed just below the Leica-branded dual camera setup (more about the camera below).
At this point in time, we can’t confirm the authenticity of either of the leaks. Huawei still has a good amount of time left in its hands to figure out a way to integrate the fingerprint scanner on the screen itself. But, we highly doubt its possibility.
Overall, the Huawei Mate 10 is expected to feature a simple and neat design with minimal bezels around the display as can be seen from the images above (or below).
Processor
Huawei, as usual, will be using its in-house Kirin chipset. The Mate 10 will most likely debut the company’s long-awaited Kirin 970 chipset which is built on the 10nm process.
The Chinese company hasn’t revealed the specifics of the Kirin 970 SoC, but going by the rumors, the chipset will feature an octa-core CPU with four ARM Cortex-A73 cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores. A few rumors point at the inclusion of Cortex-A75 cores as well. But, nothing is certain, for now.
Richard Yu was also quoted saying that the Mate 10 will be an “even more powerful product” than the upcoming iPhone. It will be interesting to see how the smartphone will hold up to these claims when it’s officially launched.
RAM and Storage
Most of the leaks that surfaced online in the past haven’t revealed anything about RAM or storage on the Huawei Mate 10. Changing this, a new rumor has popped up on the internet hinting that the smartphone will come with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.
Although we can’t vouch for the credibility of the leak, it sure seems possible.
Software
Huawei’s Mate line, apart from all the bells and whistles, is known to bring along with it the latest software available in the market. The Mate 10 shouldn’t be an exception to this trend.
To put it in other words, the Mate 10 will most likely boot Android 8.0 (O) out-of-the-box. Of course, there will be a layer of the company’s EMUI custom skin on top of it.
Camera
Huawei Mate 10 is expected to feature a 34MP Leica co-engineered dual camera setup on the back and 16MP front-facing cameras for selfies and video calls.
Firstly, if true, it would be a slight overkill. But, hell yeah! Who wouldn’t want to see a good camera on a smartphone, right?
Further, it also makes sense, as Richard Yu revealed that the Mate 10 will have “better-photographing capability” in comparison to its counterparts, the iPhone 8, especially.
As far as its implementation is concerned, the Mate 10 will most likely get a standard RGB sensor coupled with a Monochrome sensor to provide sharper and detailed images. This has always been the case with Huawei phones (in case you are unaware) and we don’t see it changing now.
The company has been upping its camera game with each passing year. And going by the current rumors, the imaging department only seems to get better.
Battery
Huawei Mate 9, for the unaware, came with a massive 4,000mAh battery. And going by Yu’s claims, we will get to see an even bigger battery this time around. He, however, didn’t reveal the exact battery capacity of the Mate 10 in the interview. So, we may have to wait a little longer to learn these details. What’s sure, though, is that the Mate 10 will get a battery whose capacity will definitely be bigger than 4,000mAh. Also, he did mention that the Mate 10 will come with quicker charging speeds which is always good news.
Other features
Water and dust resistance is one such feature that has become pretty common on flagships these days. Although not confirmed or rumored, we hope Huawei waterproofs its upcoming Mate 10. Other rumored features include iris scanner, 3D facial recognition, support for augmented reality, and Alexa integration (possibly).
Huawei Mate 10 Price (expected)
Price will play a key role in determining the Mate 10’s success. Last year’s Mate 9, to recall, was priced around $600 (€630) for the base model. The Mate 10 should be priced similarly going by the company’s history. But taking into account the huge changes that the smartphone is expected to bring with it, we should see a significant increase in price this year.
Rumors suggest that the Mate 10 will be priced over $1,000. Yes, that sounds ridiculous. But, let’s not take it for certain just yet.
