Impressive performance. I'd love to see the Kirin 960 in a slightly smaller form factor, though, perhaps the next Honor. The biggest flaws of the Honor 8 were the GPU and EMUI 4.1. Most of the other faults were easily forgivable given the reasonable price. The Mate 9's pricing is very competitive given the specs, but I personally find it hard to justify buying anything over $300 anymore.
Thanks to the nougat update you now get EMUI 5 for the Honor 8. The GPU is relatively slow in benchmarks, that's correct. But: I didn't manage to find a single game that lags yet.
I discussed this in the software section of our Honor 8 review. Anecdotally, security updates seem to be more frequent recently, but Android updates are still an issue.
Similar to you. I find it hard to spend such money on "a phone". My first Huawei phone was a 300 dollar Mate2, almost 3 years ago. Not the fastest, not the brightest screen, but that battery life and stability won me over. When the Mate8 came out last year, it had one of those silly high prices. When the Mate9 was about to be released, the price on the 8 dropped to around 400 dollars. A little more than what I originally wanted to pay, but a LOT less than what it was a short 6 months ago. These "flagships" are almost like purchasing a new automobile. The minute you drive it off the lot, it loses a ton of value, but, if you want til the end of the model year, you can pick up a good bargain, and, at the end of a production run, the LAST of the model in theory, should be better than the FIRST of that model.
Well written. For me the performance part is the most interesting one, especially the UI part. I own the Honor 8 for some time now. A few days ago, I got the nougat update (EMUI 5.1) and installed it. One of the first things I noticed was the worse UI performance. When scrolling through the homescreens, in the browser or in the settings, the phone isn't quite as fluid as I'm used ti. The gpu render profil looks quite similar to the pictures you posted, sometimes even worse: https://twitter.com/shox2201/status/82387455831067...
I hope they find and fix the issue, as I think EMUI 5.1 is a really good looking and well working UI.
That's an interesting find. The Honor 8 update was not available the last time I checked, but that GPU profile is definitely different than what I see with EMUI 4.1.
This was one of the worst gpu profiles I saw. But it seems pretty inconsistent, sometimes it's close to 60fps, sometimes visible worse in what seems like similar tasks. Here is a screenshot from scrolling through the homescreens: http://imgur.com/a/om2oI
And you can put your crap talk about "big screen + ""small"" phone" (bezel free) and "manageable width + huge screen" (putting in cinema screen aspect rations - stop that.) somewhere because if the phone is a zepelin it's not going to appeal to the public however good it is.
One of the few things that irks me in some phone reviews (don't get me wrong, great review!), is the emphasis placed on color accuracy.
I don't understand the need to have a perfectly calibrated display. The average consumer won't care or notice. In fact, I welcome additional saturation and contrast as it really makes the software pop.
Sure, you might have the occasional photographer that really wants his calibrated screen, but to put that much emphasis on a pretty much unnoticed aspect of the phone is kind of silly imo.
This is why I like to see OEMs include multiple screen modes or other methods to adjust display parameters, and why I take the time to test and show the results for them in my reviews.
really only shame is huawei not bothering optimising video recording .. compare to galaxy 6 or 7 crap stuttering when moving from right to left ... on old iphone 6 and old galaxy s6 video recording at 1080p60 is simply the best ..
Maybe the picture you take or video you attempt to capture... and 'edit' - possibly the movie you watch (5.9" after all! With speakers to boot) or the photos you view, games you play, video calls you make, there's even apps that will allow for capturing colors for Adobe profiles (for creatives) -- More and more folks' phones have become significantly more, for many... it's their primary computer And IMHO, with so many OEMs delivering accurate displays today, crappy ones tend to stand out and make it nearly impossible to use that phenomenal camera to it's full potential
The "average consumer" isn't checking Anandtech for reviews. I truly appreciate the color accuracy testing. Having at least a SOMEWHAT color accurate display is appreciable, once you actually use one. Some devices have colors that are way, way off and things just look ridiculous.
One of the things Anandtech does in reviews that's different from most other tech sites is in-depth display analysis of all the deivces (those with displays anyhow) that they handle. Although someone like me that uses a computer to write books and fetch e-mail isn't concerned about such things, I think a pretty big percentage of AT's readers care quite a bit. Plus, putting attention on display quality may encourage device manufacturers to focus more on that sort of thing over time.
If it's not important to you, just skip those portions of the review. That's what I usually do with screen testing portions.
I think the number one most underrated feature on display is AR coating.
For me iPhone 7 - higher brightness OK, better efficiency - superb, more saturation - great. But a AR coating even on the level 2014 iPad Air 2 would enhance all those measures much further.
This is true. The anti-reflective coating makes a bigger difference to usability outdoors than screen brightness. The iPad Air 2 and Pro really excel there.
There is not much else to talk about this phone's display. This is a plain old LCD with inaccurate colors. All other LCD shortcomings apply as well. High brightness is nice but that cannot replace the versatility of high contrast (e.g. AMOLED).
I agree to some extent. I do appreciate moderate color accuracy, but not nearly to the extent I would expect from a tablet or large stand alone monitor.
Color volume, contrast ratio and sunlight visibility, I believe, are more important than reference color on these tiny screens. For that, nothing comes close to OLED.
Personally I really enjoy an accurate screen (I use a Nexus 5X) and can immediately tell when a screen is badly calibrated. So the screen accuracy tests are of big interest to me.
"The average consumer won't care or notice." Depends how you use your devices. In the Apple world, if you're constantly moving your gaze from iPhone to iMac to Apple Watch it is very noticeable and jarring when supposedly the same image (especially faces) looks slightly different, and your brain is incredibly sensitive to this. Actually Apple has become really good at this now, of course, so it's no longer a problem, but it was really obvious say five years ago before they started the real push for better screens and before they added ColorSync to iOS.
Now if the only device you ever use is your phone, or if you don't expect any sort of visual sync between them because you're using Windows on your PC and Android on the phone, and don't have much shared state, it's probably less of an issue. Even there, however, I expect you see a lot of common faces in photos on Facebook or Twitter across the two devices, and it's jarring if they differ in color detail.
This is a good observation. The only aspects of screen quality I care about, it the screen brightness (it is going to be bright enough to be used outside on a sunny day?) and the black level (can it accurately show "dark scenes" when viewed in a dark environment? The rest of the issues, like whether the screen has too much blue and too much yellow tint on the screen, most people don't care about this.
Thanks for this in-depth review, especially all the effort on the camera results. Personally, I like this size device, especially for media (ebooks and video) for which the microSD is a perfect complement. The phone is more bulky but it does everything and does it well.
Seems like a nice SoC they have there. Four A73 cores are pretty performant. Maybe the challengers to Qualcomms near monopoly will come from China, if no one else is up to the task.
I was expecting a more deep analysis of the new architectures too and performance/power curves. But that was Andrei work not Matt, but I like his reviews too, just missing more details of the SOCs.
I was planning on including a deeper look at Kirin 960, but time spent on other projects forced this review to run late. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a separate article that looks at the A73 and Kirin 960 more in depth, but based on my current workload I cannot make any promises.
Serious question. Should we stop expecting deep dives from anything that isn't Apple? I mean, do deep dives from the Ax chips actually matter since that's all what any iPhone user would ever get?
Since Android is fairly open, wouldn't it be easier, and take less time, to make several deep dive write ups of various Android device SoCs than a single Apple chip?
Deep analysis of technology, including SoCs, is still the central theme of our coverage, and we will continue to cover products and components from a variety of companies. The issue with this type of coverage is that it requires a lot of time and specialized knowledge, making it very difficult to find people who can contribute. This is why we have not posted as many deep-dive articles recently.
Thanks for the response. But isn't it a bit contradictory to say that it's the theme of your coverage yet isn't possible due to lack of staff?
Bear with me. Other than display analysis, what other type of coverage is Anandtech committed to ATM? What makes you different from the plethora of mobile review sites that provide the same benchmarks and subjective personal opinion?
I've mentioned this before during the GS7 and Note7 reviews. We can get benchmark numbers from other sites WAY earlier than you guys deliver. Hardware and UI designs are subjective. Battery life benches have nothing to do with real life expectations. Camera reviews are biased and unsystematic. So what's left?
Again, benchmarks aren't straight forward. Many factors come into play. You just saw this first hand with how the Kirin 960 performs, yet scrolling speed (which wasn't present at earlier builds as others have noted) isn't perfect. It was deep dives that drew a clearer picture of how and why devices and SoCs performed the way they did, it's what separated meaningless numbers from educated understandings of what to expect. A trained eye can read the numbers differently from others, even from the author. It's that data that kept us coming back. If that's gone, what's left??
Please take this to heart. I'm not criticizing for the heck of it.
You initiated the conversation by referencing "AX Apple deep dives" - an obvious dig on the site, and you along with a few others' beliefs that Anandtech's coverage is 'Apple heavy' - you're eloquently responded to and yet you still don't 'get it'
Move along, certainly no reason apparently to be here, much less criticize the author/site's few employees (who do what they do for their love and passion for tech, not the cash, I promise) with a workload you have somehow made up in your mind as critical... all the while being literally clueless as to what he and his fellow colleagues' workload entails
Ignorance and belittling the employees says much more about your anonymous, demanding self than it does the site's content
I think Huawei as an overall company has more legs that Xiaomi because they take technology more seriously and have fingers in more pies. But that doesn't mean they'll inevitably continue to do well in phones. One needs a longer track record, and more of a feeling of how they do things, than just one or two popular models.
About scrolling performance. Would it be possible to log clock speeds from the point you touch the screen, then flick and let go, to the point scrolling stops? This smells like a governer issue, if anything.
Pixel and Nexus devices usually ramp the clock up higher than other OEM devices, and the clocks stay higher for a bit longer after you flick. Galaxies usually have the lowest ramp up, which is why they don't feel as smooth. It would be nice to have a comparison of various device/skin clock speed logs, and the impact they have on perceived performance vs on-screen battery life.
Excellent review Matt. I'm still in the "I won't pay more than $400 for a phone" camp, but if I was willing this phone would tempt me greatly. I really don't want bigger than 5 inches, but maybe it's just because I've never had a phone with a screen bigger than 5 inches. My wife's is 5.5 and it feels like a brick compared to my 4.95" phone. Disappointing that they didn't implement MU-MIMO, but otherwise there is a lot to like with this phone. I would have appreciated seeing some mention of the 960 PRO you included in your graph on page 1, I know the Porsche model (lol) was already in a pipeline article but this is the first I've heard of the Pro model. It looks like it just uses more storage? Anyway, great review, I hope this encourages more companies to start implementing the A73's.
I do have one question though, wouldn't A73 matched with A35 make more sense in BIG.little than A73/A53? A35 is a true low power core and is a more modern design than the A53, seems like that would make for the perfect "little" yet I never see it used.
First off -- excellent review Matt! Best I've read on Anandtech for a very long time. I particularly liked the software section, which is so often overlooked but of course utterly crucial to the experience of using a phone.
Second; gosh the A73 is good. If only it was being made with TSMC's '10nm' process, as I believe the Snapdragon 835 is. The use of a smaller process will undoubtedly flatter the 835. That Bifrost GPU is pretty good too.
But where is the A35? Should it have not replaced the A53 by now? It's conspicuously MIA...
The A35 is more of an A5 replacement, while A53 is A7 replacement. The A35 makes sense in a watch or IoT, or instead of low clock A53 in little.little configuration.
My understanding is that the A35 is a better 'follow-on' to the A7 than the A53 was, just as the A72 is a much better follow-up to the A15 than the A57 was. It seems to me that maybe the SoC companies don't see the A35 as such a worthwhile investment as the A72 is. Perhaps we'll see it at the next process node.
since the modem in Kirin 960 supports 4x4 MIMO I guess there are actually 4 antennas on the Mate right? All future phones with Kirin 960 should support 4x4 then?
I am more thrilled to see Le Pro 3 here. Thank you so much Anandtech! Le Pro 3 was deliverately ignored or given unacceptable score by other review sites.
Would you please tell us more about how the Le Pro 3 achieved electrifying speed of 1.38 hours charging time? Did you use the default charger? Did you do the charging while the phone is off?
When is anyone going to mention that the Huawei phones do not support Band 30?. AT&T is using band 30 more and more and it is disingenuous to suggest an AT &T customer can buy a phone without band 30 support. So many phone reviews are cramp, ignoring glaring problems and not teaching the consumer anything by leaving this stuff out. If you are an AT&T customer and live anywhere outside of a big city, DON'T GET FOOLED BY THIS BEAUTIFUL PHONE!. I want a Huawei badly, but just have to wait. However, it doesn't help that the pros won't force manufacturers to make a product people can use by pointing out the glaring faults. Sorry, Huawei...please support band 30 to compete in the US!
The Mediatek X30 should be a very interesting SoC to take a closer look at. I hope Anandtech does a deep dive for it. 2X A73 @ 2.8Ghz with 4x A53s and 4x A35s all on 10nm process. This should be the first Mediatek SoC that is competitive with the rest when it comes to power/watt, and we will see the A35 for the first time.
Are you guys also going to review the Huawei Mediapad M3? That was basically the only top-major-vendor brand new Android tablet introduced in the USA in 2016.
Anandtech reviews are completely losing sight of what's important.
There is a whole section on "Software", where multiple paragraphs are spent talking about what the icons looks like and what this specific highlight color is. And yet there is no mention of stuff that actually matters: What Android security patch level is this thing running? Has the manufacturer committed to providing security updates on a timely basis? For how long?
What's the point of spending $600 on a device that comes with root exploits out of the box?
Now tell me, is prompt security updates not worth even a single mention in a product review?
I discussed Huawei's update policy in our Honor 8 review, which I linked to in the first paragraph of the software section. As of today, the Mate 9 has the November security patch. Currently, I would say Huawei is about average for releasing security updates and a little below average for releasing OS updates.
Matt, I just wanted to drop a quick thanks and throw some shade your way for both a job well done and continued efforts in spite of ridiculous, incessant and from the same family of foolishness ubiquitous throughout technology review and rumor sites, forums and social media. I'm not alone and I'm sure most here recognize just the recovery time to 'process' sites, sounds - products and future technology gleaned from another CES - which ended just three weeks ago! Not to mention 'Vegas' recovery in and of itself, travel and catch up with, what I'm sure each of you have, that 'other life'! It's obligations, responsibilities and a few hours of sleep -- Not to mention constant communications with different OEMs about product, shipping and scheduling and doing so with the offering of a completely free website run by enthusiasts who possess more knowledge in a broader expanse of tech hard and software than most of us readers and typical but focused enthusiasts interested in other areas and aspects of technology. IMHO, the job you do for the millions each of you makes yearly;) - is nothing less than greatly appreciated by an exponential percentage that'll ever take the time to post, even register with your site - IOW; you've a huge percentage of 'happy' and 'return' visitors vs. the usually humorous and ignorance displayed by a few in your response and comments. I've long since given up responding to each bozo I disagree with, reserving my attacks for those deserving and spreading unusual, over the top BS about product to perspective users, buyers or legitimate queries
You still host a site second to not a single site when it comes to in depth, well written and researched/combined with real world usage, avoiding time to press pressure... providing amazing, compelling reviews filled with detailed objective and subjective data by authors with obvious enthusiasm for technology and it's constant march in to the future inevitably offering faster, more reliable, durable 'better' product choices every day, week, month, and years that go by...
Some'll still be feeding spiders in mom's basement, drinking Mt Dew with a serious lack of 'outdoor time' - @ 45 years old behind the anonymity of their keyboards waking daily with a single goal in mind. Belittle others, demand from anyone but themselves, and magnify their miserable (yet easily changed, bettered, and enjoyed...) existence online. As anonymous ghosts empowered by their ability to hide in mom's basement, enjoying a false sense of security while feeding said spider;)
Take care, Happy New Year and hopefully you've had the opportunity to recover from CES, transfer your stills and video and 'thoughts/notes' to the 'mainframe' - with a chance to unwind and debrief! As always, regardless of when the A10 'deep dive' is posted, an in depth essay on the architecture of the new SD-835 or your review of the new MacBook Pro's 15" fully upgraded Touch Bar hits - whether beaten by your ten pages on Dell's XPS 15" - I'll be here, I'll read and guaranteed, I'll enjoy your time, efforts and enthusiasm for a job VERY Well Done
So... a phone at flagship price with sub-par display and jaggy animations. Oh and a brand new processor that can't touch Apple's chips from two years ago. I used to use exclusively Android. Devices such as this is the reason I switched to Apple.
I have to take issue with the reviewers comments regarding colour balance. In one hand I am reading this on an IpadAir2, the other a Mate9. The whites on the latter certainly looks cooler than the Ipad, but there certainly is no colour cast as implied by the review. I have set the screen to "warm" because it looks better, and so I disagree with the reviewer's remark that this makes it look worse. The reviewer states that there is a red colour cast when the screen is viewed at an angle, but all I notice is a loss of luminescence, about equal to my Ipad. The reviewer states that there are "concentric ovals" seen off-axis, but I can't see them! From casual use I don't see a problem with the colours displayed on this phone, and I really appreciate the "natural" colour rendition of the camera. Also the review doesn't seem to say anything about the potentially awesome 4K video cam, so here's my mini review: This 4K cam produces very detailed well rendered video. I keep exposure compensation permanently at -3, works for me. The optical stabilisation is permanently on, and is rather "fragile", in other words the image quality can abruptly fall apart if subject to vibrations at certain seemingly random frequencies, always hold the cam firmly with both hands, using a tripod is best. The image is also subject to aliasing from geometric patterns like most cams, but I would say its worse than average. Otherwise yes, its awesome!
A total disappointment that Mate 9 is NOT - Dual Sim Full Active- like Mate 8. I was ready to order a Mate 9 but after a quick research I bought mate 8 just a couple of days ago for that feature (moved from other brands flagship).
Huawei was the only company with that feature that helped them to attract many customers.
If Huawei on Mate 10 will return the DSFA feature back I will stick with Huawei if not I will move to other brands next year as they all are DSDS.
I have the Mate 9 and don't seem to see the battery benefits stated in the article. This is my second one, I sent the first one back because my battery didn't last a day, and they replaced it with a new one. The new one behaves the same.
My Mate 7 had a better battery life than this one.
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SaolDan - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Neat!!mmrezaie - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Good to see an A73, finally.zeeBomb - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Amen. And does top of the charts as I expected!Crono - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Impressive performance. I'd love to see the Kirin 960 in a slightly smaller form factor, though, perhaps the next Honor. The biggest flaws of the Honor 8 were the GPU and EMUI 4.1. Most of the other faults were easily forgivable given the reasonable price. The Mate 9's pricing is very competitive given the specs, but I personally find it hard to justify buying anything over $300 anymore.Michael22 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Thanks to the nougat update you now get EMUI 5 for the Honor 8. The GPU is relatively slow in benchmarks, that's correct. But: I didn't manage to find a single game that lags yet.mmrezaie - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
How is their update track record? are they providing new interfaces and update the android core on their older phones?Matt Humrick - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I discussed this in the software section of our Honor 8 review. Anecdotally, security updates seem to be more frequent recently, but Android updates are still an issue.mmrezaie - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Thanks for the update.MrSpadge - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I'd like to see Kirin 960 in a Lumia 960!p51d007 - Sunday, January 29, 2017 - link
Similar to you.I find it hard to spend such money on "a phone". My first Huawei phone was a 300 dollar Mate2, almost 3 years ago. Not the fastest, not the brightest screen, but that battery life and stability won me over.
When the Mate8 came out last year, it had one of those silly high prices. When the Mate9 was about to be released, the price on the 8 dropped to around 400 dollars. A little more than what I originally wanted to pay, but a LOT less than what it was a short 6 months ago.
These "flagships" are almost like purchasing a new automobile. The minute you drive it off the lot, it loses a ton of value, but, if you want til the end of the model year, you can pick up a good bargain, and, at the end of a production run, the LAST of the model in theory, should be better than the FIRST of that model.
Michael22 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Well written. For me the performance part is the most interesting one, especially the UI part. I own the Honor 8 for some time now. A few days ago, I got the nougat update (EMUI 5.1) and installed it. One of the first things I noticed was the worse UI performance. When scrolling through the homescreens, in the browser or in the settings, the phone isn't quite as fluid as I'm used ti. The gpu render profil looks quite similar to the pictures you posted, sometimes even worse:https://twitter.com/shox2201/status/82387455831067...
I hope they find and fix the issue, as I think EMUI 5.1 is a really good looking and well working UI.
Matt Humrick - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
That's an interesting find. The Honor 8 update was not available the last time I checked, but that GPU profile is definitely different than what I see with EMUI 4.1.Michael22 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
This was one of the worst gpu profiles I saw. But it seems pretty inconsistent, sometimes it's close to 60fps, sometimes visible worse in what seems like similar tasks. Here is a screenshot from scrolling through the homescreens:http://imgur.com/a/om2oI
Ariknowsbest - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
When I switched to the appdrawer mode I noticed similar inconsistencies, it close to 60 fps but deviation from 60 around 12fps.Using the homescreen mode seems to be more optimized, and I prefer to have all my favorite apps on the homescreen.
Michael22 - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Not for me. Tested both modes, it produces the exact same frame time picture.Michael22 - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
Any news on the issue?Ariknowsbest - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I noticed the exact opposite on my Honor 8 (4GB/64GB). The first beta was less fluid, but the the next few build became better and better.GC2:CS - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Good phone indeed. But 5.9" ?Waaay to big (for me and many others).
And you can put your crap talk about "big screen + ""small"" phone" (bezel free)
and "manageable width + huge screen" (putting in cinema screen aspect rations - stop that.) somewhere because if the phone is a zepelin it's not going to appeal to the public however good it is.
I am looking at you samsung and LG !
negusp - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I definitely prefer bigger phones as they're much easier to handle imo and feel hefty and solid.negusp - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
One of the few things that irks me in some phone reviews (don't get me wrong, great review!), is the emphasis placed on color accuracy.I don't understand the need to have a perfectly calibrated display. The average consumer won't care or notice. In fact, I welcome additional saturation and contrast as it really makes the software pop.
Sure, you might have the occasional photographer that really wants his calibrated screen, but to put that much emphasis on a pretty much unnoticed aspect of the phone is kind of silly imo.
Matt Humrick - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
This is why I like to see OEMs include multiple screen modes or other methods to adjust display parameters, and why I take the time to test and show the results for them in my reviews.Ethos Evoss - Thursday, February 23, 2017 - link
really only shame is huawei not bothering optimising video recording .. compare to galaxy 6 or 7 crapstuttering when moving from right to left ... on old iphone 6 and old galaxy s6 video recording at 1080p60 is simply the best ..
beepboopbop - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
The biggest benefit I see from a perfectly calibrated display is that you'll be seeing media as it was meant to be seen.mrvco - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
What media is "meant" to be seen on a tiny mobile phone screen?akdj - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
Maybe the picture you take or video you attempt to capture... and 'edit' - possibly the movie you watch (5.9" after all! With speakers to boot) or the photos you view, games you play, video calls you make, there's even apps that will allow for capturing colors for Adobe profiles (for creatives) -- More and more folks' phones have become significantly more, for many... it's their primary computerAnd IMHO, with so many OEMs delivering accurate displays today, crappy ones tend to stand out and make it nearly impossible to use that phenomenal camera to it's full potential
Nitemare3219 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
The "average consumer" isn't checking Anandtech for reviews. I truly appreciate the color accuracy testing. Having at least a SOMEWHAT color accurate display is appreciable, once you actually use one. Some devices have colors that are way, way off and things just look ridiculous.BrokenCrayons - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
One of the things Anandtech does in reviews that's different from most other tech sites is in-depth display analysis of all the deivces (those with displays anyhow) that they handle. Although someone like me that uses a computer to write books and fetch e-mail isn't concerned about such things, I think a pretty big percentage of AT's readers care quite a bit. Plus, putting attention on display quality may encourage device manufacturers to focus more on that sort of thing over time.If it's not important to you, just skip those portions of the review. That's what I usually do with screen testing portions.
GC2:CS - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I think the number one most underrated feature on display is AR coating.For me iPhone 7 - higher brightness OK, better efficiency - superb, more saturation - great.
But a AR coating even on the level 2014 iPad Air 2 would enhance all those measures much further.
It should be noted more by the reviewers.
Meteor2 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
This is true. The anti-reflective coating makes a bigger difference to usability outdoors than screen brightness. The iPad Air 2 and Pro really excel there.lopri - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
There is not much else to talk about this phone's display. This is a plain old LCD with inaccurate colors. All other LCD shortcomings apply as well. High brightness is nice but that cannot replace the versatility of high contrast (e.g. AMOLED).lilmoe - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I agree to some extent. I do appreciate moderate color accuracy, but not nearly to the extent I would expect from a tablet or large stand alone monitor.Color volume, contrast ratio and sunlight visibility, I believe, are more important than reference color on these tiny screens. For that, nothing comes close to OLED.
Meteor2 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
6" is tiny?lilmoe - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Compared to a 30" monitor? Yea..Meteor2 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Personally I really enjoy an accurate screen (I use a Nexus 5X) and can immediately tell when a screen is badly calibrated. So the screen accuracy tests are of big interest to me.name99 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
"The average consumer won't care or notice."Depends how you use your devices.
In the Apple world, if you're constantly moving your gaze from iPhone to iMac to Apple Watch it is very noticeable and jarring when supposedly the same image (especially faces) looks slightly different, and your brain is incredibly sensitive to this.
Actually Apple has become really good at this now, of course, so it's no longer a problem, but it was really obvious say five years ago before they started the real push for better screens and before they added ColorSync to iOS.
Now if the only device you ever use is your phone, or if you don't expect any sort of visual sync between them because you're using Windows on your PC and Android on the phone, and don't have much shared state, it's probably less of an issue. Even there, however, I expect you see a lot of common faces in photos on Facebook or Twitter across the two devices, and it's jarring if they differ in color detail.
UtilityMax - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
This is a good observation. The only aspects of screen quality I care about, it the screen brightness (it is going to be bright enough to be used outside on a sunny day?) and the black level (can it accurately show "dark scenes" when viewed in a dark environment? The rest of the issues, like whether the screen has too much blue and too much yellow tint on the screen, most people don't care about this.Arbie - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Thanks for this in-depth review, especially all the effort on the camera results. Personally, I like this size device, especially for media (ebooks and video) for which the microSD is a perfect complement. The phone is more bulky but it does everything and does it well.tipoo - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Seems like a nice SoC they have there. Four A73 cores are pretty performant. Maybe the challengers to Qualcomms near monopoly will come from China, if no one else is up to the task.ToTTenTranz - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Can we expect some in-depth approach on the Cortex A73 cores?I'd love to see some frequency/power curves, akin to the ones you have done for Cortex A72 in the Kirin 950 article from last year?
Lodix - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I was expecting a more deep analysis of the new architectures too and performance/power curves. But that was Andrei work not Matt, but I like his reviews too, just missing more details of the SOCs.Matt Humrick - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I was planning on including a deeper look at Kirin 960, but time spent on other projects forced this review to run late. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a separate article that looks at the A73 and Kirin 960 more in depth, but based on my current workload I cannot make any promises.lilmoe - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Serious question. Should we stop expecting deep dives from anything that isn't Apple? I mean, do deep dives from the Ax chips actually matter since that's all what any iPhone user would ever get?Since Android is fairly open, wouldn't it be easier, and take less time, to make several deep dive write ups of various Android device SoCs than a single Apple chip?
Meteor2 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I think Ryan and co have already said as much. Certainly there'll be no in depth description of the 820.Matt Humrick - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Deep analysis of technology, including SoCs, is still the central theme of our coverage, and we will continue to cover products and components from a variety of companies. The issue with this type of coverage is that it requires a lot of time and specialized knowledge, making it very difficult to find people who can contribute. This is why we have not posted as many deep-dive articles recently.lilmoe - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Thanks for the response. But isn't it a bit contradictory to say that it's the theme of your coverage yet isn't possible due to lack of staff?Bear with me. Other than display analysis, what other type of coverage is Anandtech committed to ATM? What makes you different from the plethora of mobile review sites that provide the same benchmarks and subjective personal opinion?
I've mentioned this before during the GS7 and Note7 reviews. We can get benchmark numbers from other sites WAY earlier than you guys deliver. Hardware and UI designs are subjective. Battery life benches have nothing to do with real life expectations. Camera reviews are biased and unsystematic. So what's left?
Again, benchmarks aren't straight forward. Many factors come into play. You just saw this first hand with how the Kirin 960 performs, yet scrolling speed (which wasn't present at earlier builds as others have noted) isn't perfect. It was deep dives that drew a clearer picture of how and why devices and SoCs performed the way they did, it's what separated meaningless numbers from educated understandings of what to expect. A trained eye can read the numbers differently from others, even from the author. It's that data that kept us coming back. If that's gone, what's left??
Please take this to heart. I'm not criticizing for the heck of it.
akdj - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
Maybe you should go somewhere elseYou initiated the conversation by referencing "AX Apple deep dives" - an obvious dig on the site, and you along with a few others' beliefs that Anandtech's coverage is 'Apple heavy' - you're eloquently responded to and yet you still don't 'get it'
Move along, certainly no reason apparently to be here, much less criticize the author/site's few employees (who do what they do for their love and passion for tech, not the cash, I promise) with a workload you have somehow made up in your mind as critical... all the while being literally clueless as to what he and his fellow colleagues' workload entails
Ignorance and belittling the employees says much more about your anonymous, demanding self than it does the site's content
Be gone, already
AJ
melgross - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Still waiting for the "deep dive" promised for last October for the A10 chip.tipoo - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Me too, any status on that?beaner_b - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Any word on their FCC certification status for CDMA?zeeBomb - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Dam...Why today not yesterday? We're seeing a great company on the rise people!name99 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Didn't they say that about Xiaomi a year ago?...I think Huawei as an overall company has more legs that Xiaomi because they take technology more seriously and have fingers in more pies. But that doesn't mean they'll inevitably continue to do well in phones. One needs a longer track record, and more of a feeling of how they do things, than just one or two popular models.
Meteor2 - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Xiaomi is doing well, isn't it?melgross - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
No. Sales are down over 30%, among other problems.lilmoe - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Thanks for the review.About scrolling performance. Would it be possible to log clock speeds from the point you touch the screen, then flick and let go, to the point scrolling stops?
This smells like a governer issue, if anything.
lilmoe - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Pixel and Nexus devices usually ramp the clock up higher than other OEM devices, and the clocks stay higher for a bit longer after you flick. Galaxies usually have the lowest ramp up, which is why they don't feel as smooth. It would be nice to have a comparison of various device/skin clock speed logs, and the impact they have on perceived performance vs on-screen battery life.fanofanand - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Excellent review Matt. I'm still in the "I won't pay more than $400 for a phone" camp, but if I was willing this phone would tempt me greatly. I really don't want bigger than 5 inches, but maybe it's just because I've never had a phone with a screen bigger than 5 inches. My wife's is 5.5 and it feels like a brick compared to my 4.95" phone. Disappointing that they didn't implement MU-MIMO, but otherwise there is a lot to like with this phone. I would have appreciated seeing some mention of the 960 PRO you included in your graph on page 1, I know the Porsche model (lol) was already in a pipeline article but this is the first I've heard of the Pro model. It looks like it just uses more storage? Anyway, great review, I hope this encourages more companies to start implementing the A73's.I do have one question though, wouldn't A73 matched with A35 make more sense in BIG.little than A73/A53? A35 is a true low power core and is a more modern design than the A53, seems like that would make for the perfect "little" yet I never see it used.
Meteor2 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Lol, I posted my comment (below) before reading the other comments. Mine is spookily similar to yours! Great minds, of course ;).UtilityMax - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
MU-MIMO is useless 99 point 99 percent of time.lopri - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Will Huawei keep the promise of OS update? My Honor 8 runs the same version of Android when I first got it today.Ariknowsbest - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Android 7 Nougat is already available by OTA, on Honor 8. It started to roll out around a week or two ago.Meteor2 - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
First off -- excellent review Matt! Best I've read on Anandtech for a very long time. I particularly liked the software section, which is so often overlooked but of course utterly crucial to the experience of using a phone.Second; gosh the A73 is good. If only it was being made with TSMC's '10nm' process, as I believe the Snapdragon 835 is. The use of a smaller process will undoubtedly flatter the 835. That Bifrost GPU is pretty good too.
But where is the A35? Should it have not replaced the A53 by now? It's conspicuously MIA...
Ariknowsbest - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
The A35 is more of an A5 replacement, while A53 is A7 replacement. The A35 makes sense in a watch or IoT, or instead of low clock A53 in little.little configuration.Meteor2 - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
My understanding is that the A35 is a better 'follow-on' to the A7 than the A53 was, just as the A72 is a much better follow-up to the A15 than the A57 was. It seems to me that maybe the SoC companies don't see the A35 as such a worthwhile investment as the A72 is. Perhaps we'll see it at the next process node.https://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-a/c...
masimilianzo - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
since the modem in Kirin 960 supports 4x4 MIMO I guess there are actually 4 antennas on the Mate right? All future phones with Kirin 960 should support 4x4 then?Matt Humrick - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Yes, the Mate 9 has 4 cellular antennas. Other phones with Kirin 960 would still need the front-end components to enable 4x4 MIMO.masimilianzo - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Thanks for the reply! Is 4x4 MIMO on Mate 9 enabled at the software level? the S7 has 4x4 MIMO hardware but it shipped without support for it. Thanksjoms_us - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
I am more thrilled to see Le Pro 3 here. Thank you so much Anandtech!Le Pro 3 was deliverately ignored or given unacceptable score by other review sites.
joms_us - Friday, January 27, 2017 - link
Would you please tell us more about how the Le Pro 3 achieved electrifying speed of 1.38 hours charging time? Did you use the default charger? Did you do the charging while the phone is off?Peaceinvt - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
When is anyone going to mention that the Huawei phones do not support Band 30?. AT&T is using band 30 more and more and it is disingenuous to suggest an AT &T customer can buy a phone without band 30 support. So many phone reviews are cramp, ignoring glaring problems and not teaching the consumer anything by leaving this stuff out. If you are an AT&T customer and live anywhere outside of a big city, DON'T GET FOOLED BY THIS BEAUTIFUL PHONE!. I want a Huawei badly, but just have to wait. However, it doesn't help that the pros won't force manufacturers to make a product people can use by pointing out the glaring faults. Sorry, Huawei...please support band 30 to compete in the US!1_rick - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
Now just imagine how all us poor Sprint users feel after every review!lolipopman - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
No mention of thermal throttling, great work, guys!Meteor2 - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
?? Read the review more carefully.s.yu - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
At least they didn't send the Samsung copycat version over for the review.Shadowmaster625 - Saturday, January 28, 2017 - link
And yet another android SoC gets eaten by apple.cokata1 - Sunday, January 29, 2017 - link
The Mediatek X30 should be a very interesting SoC to take a closer look at. I hope Anandtech does a deep dive for it. 2X A73 @ 2.8Ghz with 4x A53s and 4x A35s all on 10nm process. This should be the first Mediatek SoC that is competitive with the rest when it comes to power/watt, and we will see the A35 for the first time.thek - Sunday, January 29, 2017 - link
Hey look this website isn't dead..UtilityMax - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Are you guys also going to review the Huawei Mediapad M3? That was basically the only top-major-vendor brand new Android tablet introduced in the USA in 2016.aryonoco - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Anandtech reviews are completely losing sight of what's important.There is a whole section on "Software", where multiple paragraphs are spent talking about what the icons looks like and what this specific highlight color is. And yet there is no mention of stuff that actually matters: What Android security patch level is this thing running? Has the manufacturer committed to providing security updates on a timely basis? For how long?
What's the point of spending $600 on a device that comes with root exploits out of the box?
Now tell me, is prompt security updates not worth even a single mention in a product review?
Matt Humrick - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
I discussed Huawei's update policy in our Honor 8 review, which I linked to in the first paragraph of the software section. As of today, the Mate 9 has the November security patch. Currently, I would say Huawei is about average for releasing security updates and a little below average for releasing OS updates.akdj - Wednesday, February 1, 2017 - link
Matt,I just wanted to drop a quick thanks and throw some shade your way for both a job well done and continued efforts in spite of ridiculous, incessant and from the same family of foolishness ubiquitous throughout technology review and rumor sites, forums and social media.
I'm not alone and I'm sure most here recognize just the recovery time to 'process' sites, sounds - products and future technology gleaned from another CES - which ended just three weeks ago! Not to mention 'Vegas' recovery in and of itself, travel and catch up with, what I'm sure each of you have, that 'other life'! It's obligations, responsibilities and a few hours of sleep --
Not to mention constant communications with different OEMs about product, shipping and scheduling and doing so with the offering of a completely free website run by enthusiasts who possess more knowledge in a broader expanse of tech hard and software than most of us readers and typical but focused enthusiasts interested in other areas and aspects of technology.
IMHO, the job you do for the millions each of you makes yearly;) - is nothing less than greatly appreciated by an exponential percentage that'll ever take the time to post, even register with your site - IOW; you've a huge percentage of 'happy' and 'return' visitors vs. the usually humorous and ignorance displayed by a few in your response and comments. I've long since given up responding to each bozo I disagree with, reserving my attacks for those deserving and spreading unusual, over the top BS about product to perspective users, buyers or legitimate queries
You still host a site second to not a single site when it comes to in depth, well written and researched/combined with real world usage, avoiding time to press pressure... providing amazing, compelling reviews filled with detailed objective and subjective data by authors with obvious enthusiasm for technology and it's constant march in to the future inevitably offering faster, more reliable, durable 'better' product choices every day, week, month, and years that go by...
Some'll still be feeding spiders in mom's basement, drinking Mt Dew with a serious lack of 'outdoor time' - @ 45 years old behind the anonymity of their keyboards waking daily with a single goal in mind. Belittle others, demand from anyone but themselves, and magnify their miserable (yet easily changed, bettered, and enjoyed...) existence online.
As anonymous ghosts empowered by their ability to hide in mom's basement, enjoying a false sense of security while feeding said spider;)
Take care, Happy New Year and hopefully you've had the opportunity to recover from CES, transfer your stills and video and 'thoughts/notes' to the 'mainframe' - with a chance to unwind and debrief! As always, regardless of when the A10 'deep dive' is posted, an in depth essay on the architecture of the new SD-835 or your review of the new MacBook Pro's 15" fully upgraded Touch Bar hits - whether beaten by your ten pages on Dell's XPS 15" - I'll be here, I'll read and guaranteed, I'll enjoy your time, efforts and enthusiasm for a job VERY Well Done
Thanks
Jeremy
phexac - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
So... a phone at flagship price with sub-par display and jaggy animations. Oh and a brand new processor that can't touch Apple's chips from two years ago. I used to use exclusively Android. Devices such as this is the reason I switched to Apple.TheSmurfboard - Wednesday, February 1, 2017 - link
I have to take issue with the reviewers comments regarding colour balance. In one hand I am reading this on an IpadAir2, the other a Mate9. The whites on the latter certainly looks cooler than the Ipad, but there certainly is no colour cast as implied by the review. I have set the screen to "warm" because it looks better, and so I disagree with the reviewer's remark that this makes it look worse. The reviewer states that there is a red colour cast when the screen is viewed at an angle, but all I notice is a loss of luminescence, about equal to my Ipad. The reviewer states that there are "concentric ovals" seen off-axis, but I can't see them! From casual use I don't see a problem with the colours displayed on this phone, and I really appreciate the "natural" colour rendition of the camera. Also the review doesn't seem to say anything about the potentially awesome 4K video cam, so here's my mini review:This 4K cam produces very detailed well rendered video. I keep exposure compensation permanently at -3, works for me. The optical stabilisation is permanently on, and is rather "fragile", in other words the image quality can abruptly fall apart if subject to vibrations at certain seemingly random frequencies, always hold the cam firmly with both hands, using a tripod is best. The image is also subject to aliasing from geometric patterns like most cams, but I would say its worse than average. Otherwise yes, its awesome!
cmvrgr - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
A total disappointment that Mate 9 is NOT - Dual Sim Full Active- like Mate 8. I was ready to order a Mate 9 but after a quick research I bought mate 8 just a couple of days ago for that feature (moved from other brands flagship).Huawei was the only company with that feature that helped them to attract many customers.
If Huawei on Mate 10 will return the DSFA feature back I will stick with Huawei if not I will move to other brands next year as they all are DSDS.
kirenpillay - Thursday, June 22, 2017 - link
I have the Mate 9 and don't seem to see the battery benefits stated in the article. This is my second one, I sent the first one back because my battery didn't last a day, and they replaced it with a new one. The new one behaves the same.My Mate 7 had a better battery life than this one.