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Huawei Mate 10 Pro and Honor 7X: Hands on with Huawei’s 2018 entries into the US market

Huawei has been working hard for the past few years to bring its devices, and specifically its flagships, to the US market. It’s made ground with sub-brand Honor and the “X” series, and last year’s Mate 9 managed to turn some heads. However, 2018 is going to mark a big year for the Chinese brand, so before we enter the new year, let’s take a closer look at what Huawei has in store for the States.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro

Looking first at the flagship, Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro is expected to make its debut in the States shortly after CES 2018. The premium, powerful, spec-heavy device is equipped to fight in the big leagues.

The Mate 10 Pro packs Huawei’s in-house Kirin 970 processor, a custom chip for processing AI tasks, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a fantastic 6-inch OLED display.

I’ve been using the Mate 10 Pro a fair bit over the past few weeks, and I really like it. The glass design of this device feels unique even in the sea of glass-backed phones on the market today, and the build is rock solid and has a nice heft in the hand.

The screen up front has also seen a nice evolution since the Mate 9. Thanks to the 18:9 aspect ratio, the 6-inch panel is still very manageable.

That OLED display is also fantastic with vivid colors, excellent brightness, and it does all that while sitting at just 1080p. While most OEMs have graduated to QHD, the 1080p display on the Mate 10 Pro is still excellent, and it helps make the battery last longer.

Speaking of, the 4,000 mAh battery on the Mate 10 Pro is simply fantastic. This is a phone that can easily make it through 2 days of typical usage, meaning serious power users are essentially guaranteed a full day of use without heading to a charger. Huawei also includes a fast charger, as you’d expect with any flagship.

Another important note on the Mate 10 Pro comes in the form of its software. Out of the box on this device, Android Oreo is installed with EMUI 8.0 over top.

In short, it’s no better or worse than what we found on the Mate 9 in EMUI 5. That’s not a bad thing, as that skin was a massive improvement over Huawei’s past offerings. Having Oreo’s various improvements are also very welcome.

Huawei’s camera collection on the Mate 10 Pro is also great, taking excellent photos and videos. The company’s additions in AI on the camera app for adjusting various settings are a huge plus and work very well in my experience.

So far, I’ve been pretty impressed with the Mate 10 Pro. I’m not quite as obsessed with it as I was the Mate 9, but it’s undoubtedly a great offering. We’ll learn more about Huawei’s plans for this phone in the States at CES, so this is definitely one to keep an eye on…

Honor 7X

Turning attention over to Huawei’s sub-brand Honor, the mid-range Honor 7X is also coming to the US. Available now, the Honor 7X offers up quite a lot for its $199 price tag.

You’re getting dual-cameras, a Kirin 659 processor, and a display that measures in at 5.93-inches with an 18:9 aspect ratio and FHD resolution. The phone is powered by a 3,340 mAh battery, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage with Android Nougat out of the box.

Admittedly, I have yet to spend much time with the Honor 7X, but my first impressions are pretty good. This phone has speedy performance through EMUI 5.1 and handles just about everything I’ve thrown at it so far.

What’s really impressed me to date on this phone, though, is the hardware. The metal build of the Honor 7X feels (and looks) like an iPhone to an extent, but that’s not really a bad thing.

There’s a fingerprint sensor on the back which is very easy to reach. That 5.93-inch display is also very manageable in the hand thanks to the 18:9 aspect ratio.

I’ll have more to say about the Honor 7X in a full review in the coming weeks, but so far I’m very impressed. At $199, this is a very solid offering going into the new year. Although it does have microUSB, which is stupid.


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