The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is one of the best premium handsets currently on the market. Photo / Supplied
The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is one of the best premium handsets currently on the market. Photo / Supplied
First came domination in China and earlier this year Huawei moved past Apple's global smartphone sales for the first time.
And when you look at the Chinese smartphone manufacturer's latest flagship device, it's easy to see why more people are choosing a Huawei over an iPhone.
The Huawei Mate 10Pro offers an industry-leading camera, premium aesthetics, an OLED display and fantastic hardware.
While the smaller Mate 10 models are slightly cheaper than the Pro model, after using the device you will have no problems paying the premium price point.
The Mate 10 Pro has ditched the smaller 5.9-inch display from its predecessor, making the new screen 6-inches, with a 2,160x1,080-pixel resolution.
Like most premium phones on the market, the Mate 10 Pro has removed the physical home button from the front of the device to allow for maximum screen space.
The device has minimum bezel on the sides and a small bar across the bottom and top — thankfully Huawei didn't go the way of the iPhone X and its nasty notch.
Huawei has switched the rear design from metal to glass, with the fingerprint scanner also found on the back of the phone below the camera.
The position of the fingerprint scanner feels natural, offering a fast and accurate response.
While Apple recently opted for the glass back to help with wireless charging, the Mate 10 Pro doesn't support such a feature and has been designed purely for aesthetics.
This isn't a huge deal breaker as wireless charging is often slow and painful.
The glass back is a nice premium touch and although it will show fingerprints, it's surprisingly scratch resistant — good news for those who leave it in their pocket or handbag.
At the bottom of the device is the USB-C charging port and a single speaker which offers more than enough volume for your day-to-day use.
For those who haven't joined us in 2017, there is no physical headphone jack, which means you will need an adaptor or upgrade to wireless headphones.
The phone has 128GB of in-built storage, but sadly offers no MicroSD expansion like many other Androids on the market.
Huawei's OLED display offers vibrant, sharp colours and inky blacks with no backlight bleeding.
It must be mentioned that brightness is extremely high, although this was likely needed to meet the Mobile HDR 10 standard.
Camera
As with all Huawei models, the device has an industry-leading camera designed in collaboration with lens company Leica.
The rear dual camera set up is similar to the shooter found on the Huawei P10, with a 12MP sensor taking shots in colour and 20MP sensor shooting exclusively in black and white.
To simplify the process, the Mate 10 Pro uses object recognition and machine learning to automatically adjust the settings so you can get the best shot depending on the subject.
While impressive, it can't match the algorithmic augmentation found on the Google Pixel 2 XL.
The dual Leica camera is a real selling point for this device. Photo / Supplied
Shots from both sensors are clear, and offer great exposure in both bright and low light conditions.
On the front is an 8MP camera, which has a wide-angle lens to ensure the perfect shot when a group of mates decide it's time for a selfie.
The front camera also includes "beauty mode, which smooths out imperfections on your skin — just be warned it might look a little too fake.
Video footage taken using the Mate 10 Pro is shot in 4K, although unlike Sony's Xperia XZ Premium you won't be able to watch the recording in this format on your phone.
Everything else
Finally Huawei has made its latest flagship water renitent with the Pro is IP67 rated, meaning it can be submerged in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes.
The Mate 10 pro is every bit as speedy as you'd expect from a top-end phone, with the latest Kirin 970 octa-core processor and 6GB of RAM found on the device.
One of the most impressive features is the 4,000mAh battery found inside the device, which Huawei claims will give at least two days of use — if you are not using your phone.
Despite falling short of the two days through my heavy use, the battery was more than sufficient and easily rivals that of the Samsung Note 8 or Pixel 2 XL.
The device also offers adaptive fast-charging for those who need to top-up on the go. In terms of the operating system, the Mate 10 Pro runs on the latest version of Android, with a Huawei Emui 8.0 interface overlaid.
