Huawei Mate 10 Pro review

Telephony

The Mate 10 Pro dialer has a shared interface with the contacts app. There are no groundbreaking features here, but there is nothing missing either.

Smart dialing • contacts • a contact

The dual-SIM settings menu (where available) lets you rename the SIM cards, disable them, and select which one does calls or data by default. Both cards can connect simultaneously to LTE networks thanks to Kirin 970's modem.

Loudspeaker

The stereo speakers of the Mate 10 Pro delivered excellent loudness just like the Mate 9 and 10. The quality of the output is also top notch with crisp and rich sound.

The speaker loudness isn't balanced though. The top speaker is used mostly for high-frequency sounds and it's very quiet, but you'll notice this only if you mute the very impressive bottom one. Somehow Huawei managed to use this feeble earpiece to create some very good stereo effect, which is nice.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Huawei Mate S	66.0	65.8	66.6	Below Average
Samsung Galaxy Note8	67.8	69.5	71.5	Good
Samsung Galaxy S8+	68.5	69.4	71.6	Good
Huawei P10 Plus	64.8	69.8	82.5	Good
Huawei Mate 9 Pro	67.2	72.4	79.5	Very Good
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2	67.6	71.0	82.7	Very Good
LG V30	66.9	72.3	84.5	Very Good
Huawei Mate 10 Pro	70.1	73.8	84.2	Excellent
Apple iPhone 8 Plus	76.0	74.6	79.0	Excellent
Huawei Mate 9	83.1	74.5	85.0	Excellent
Nokia 8	88.0	77.1	81.4	Excellent
Huawei Mate 10	90.6	73.7	84.0	Excellent

Pre-installed apps

There are a few apps pre-installed on the Mate 10 Pro. Among the more notable ones is the Health app, which tracks steps and calculates calories, but can also count the number of floors you've climbed.

Health app

You also have a ton of basic tools preloaded, including a proper file manager, IR remote control, calendar app, notes, weather, compass, sound recorder, and flashlight.

Very good file manager • Files • Remote control • voice recorder • calendar

Pictures, video, and music

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro comes with the familiar EMUI gallery on board. In addition to your camera roll, it offers sorting by albums, or smart sorting by subject, places, events, among others.

The EMUI gallery has its own image editor, if needed, and it also works with variable aperture shots for adjusting the bokeh effects post factum.

The EMUI gallery

The Mate 10 Pro also comes with a pre-installed Video app, which offers basic controls and support for pop-up play.

Video app

The EMUI's Music app is very nice. Its background changes dynamically to match the album art, which is a nice little touch. Lyrics are available and downloaded automatically. Finally, Huawei's Histen sound effects are available on the Mate 10 Pro and include equalizers and simulated 3D audio.

Music app • Now Playing • Lyrics • Sound settings • Equalizer

Audio output is great

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro output was identical to that of the Mate 10. It had loudness well above average in both parts of the test.

Accuracy of the audio reproduction was great too - flawless with an active external amplifier and almost as good when headphones come into play. In fact the only affected reading was stereo crosstalk and that suffered so very marginally that you'd barely notice. An impressive showing indeed.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Huawei Mate 10 Pro	+0.02, -0.03	-93.5	93.6	0.0027	0.0075	-93.4
Huawei Mate 10 Pro (headphones)	+0.05, -0.03	-93.2	93.2	0.0037	0.062	-70.8
Huawei Mate 10	+0.02, -0.03	-93.4	93.5	0.0027	0.0071	-94.3
Huawei Mate 10 (headphones)	+0.05, -0.04	-93.1	93.1	0.0036	0.063	-71.6
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2	+0.02, -0.02	-94.3	94.3	0.0038	0.0072	-93.5
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 (headphones)	+0.31, -0.01	-93.3	93.3	0.016	0.243	-63.8
Samsung Galaxy S8+	+0.01, -0.03	-92.1	92.1	0.0020	0.0086	-92.5
Samsung Galaxy S8+ (headphones)	+0.03, -0.03	-92.5	92.5	0.0024	0.046	-77.3
LG V30	+0.02, -0.01	-93.2	93.1	0.0008	0.0069	-94.2
LG V30 (headphones)	+0.03, -0.02	-92.9	92.9	0.0057	0.051	-68.1
OnePlus 5	+0.03, -0.01	-94.1	94.1	0.0010	0.0070	-94.2
OnePlus 5 (headphones)	+0.15, -0.08	-94.0	94.0	0.0033	0.139	-59.9
HTC U11	+0.05, -0.11	-94.1	94.1	0.0017	0.0067	-94.5
HTC U11 (headphones)	+0.05, -0.02	-93.7	93.8	0.0018	0.105	-53.7
Sony Xperia XZ Premium	+0.01, -0.03	-90.6	90.4	0.018	0.027	-92.6
Sony Xperia XZ Premium (headphones)	+0.30, -0.20	-90.5	90.0	0.0018	0.145	-65.7

Huawei Mate 10 Pro frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.