Design and Display
The Mate 8 isn't breaking new ground in the industrial design category, but it's a pleasing mix of existing elements from familiar handsets. There's some Galaxy Note here, along with a little iPhone, perhaps; but there isn't really a need to reinvent the wheel with a phablet like this. The screen dominates the front of the phones, and there is a subtle curve to the edges of the glass that provides a smooth feel.
Let's take a quick look around the perimeter of the phone:
The chamfered edges (a term I learned watching Apple product announcements) on the alumium sides are a nice touch, and the overall design is understated, and simple. There's a microUSB port and speaker/mic openings on the bottom, 3.5 mm headphone jack on top, and volume rocker and power button on the right side. A SIM slot is positioned on the left side of the phone.
And now the back of the device:
There's a fingerprint reader positioned under the primary camera, with the remainder of the back of this (sealed) handset covered in a smooth aluminum. The phones does feel a little slick at times, but this isn't an issue if you use a case, of course. The rear is also slightly curved, which helps to make the Mate 8 feel a little smaller in hand; though it's still a giant phone.
Display
The most important part of a smartphone has to be the display, as this is the way we interact with the device (for the most part). I'm very hard to please in this category, and I was very pleasantly suprised by the quality of the Mate 8's display. The screen looks fantastic. The panel is IPS-NEO, which is said to offer improved black levels compared to typical IPS designs. I believe it.
While the Mate 8 is of normal size for a phablet at 6 inches, it is of below-average resolution for a 5+ inch Android phone. It offers FHD (1920×1080) resolution, rather than the more common QHD (2560×1440) for larger Android device screens these days. This is, however, right in line with a current Apple device, as even the larger iPhone 6s Plus sports FHD resolution with its 5.5-inch screen.
Macro shot of the Mate 8's IPS-NEO panel
My subjective impression of the screen is that it offers excellent contrast with deep blacks, and rich color saturation. This isn't OLED, but it looked better than any IPS I've seen from any other phone, including Apple. I would certainly expect a good screen from a premium device, and the Mate 8 delivers.
From the CIE diagram we see a level of saturation – particularly with green – that looks more like OLED than IPS. The screen can also get very bright, measuring just above 400 lux brightness when manually set to maximum.
Touch was very responsive, and my overall experience with the display was outstanding. This is a top-notch implementation.
A shame about the GPU
A shame about the GPU results. If it had done better the Kirin chip could have been a real contender for high performance phones. Unfortunately (as far as I see it) these results are more indicative of a lower mid range item.
Would a person who doesn’t
Would a person who doesn’t play mobile games notice the slower gpu?
I’ll agree the comment above,
I’ll agree the comment above, the HUAWEI looks more like a lower mid-range office.
Although the US just got the S7 with the 820 version, it’s still good enough it looks like.
May be a firmware update
May be a firmware update might fix the GPU performance later on.
Unfortunately, this is the
Unfortunately, this is the real performance, cause Kirin 950 uses just 4 shader cores of Mali T880, while Exynos 8890 uses 12 and its closer to Adreno 530. The full Mali T880 (16 shader cores) could be faster than Adreno 530 (SD820) but it seems it might not be suitable for smartphones.
What a shame.
What a shame.
Am i the only person that
Am i the only person that looks at all the current phone releases and says why?!? Until Google outlines DayDream further why would anyone consider a phone that is more than $200 right now?
Apple is probably doing the same thing as Google with the next release.
All phones on the market are about to be considered bargain bin phones with the exception of the photography phones.
With the S7 regular now
With the S7 regular now available for around $370us just got 1 and that’s my limit now.
It’s not a custom ARMv8A ISA
It’s not a custom ARMv8A ISA running micro-arch, it’s just 4 reference A72s, and 4 A53s Big/Little and not so much. Maybe we will be seeing the A73 CPU micro-arch and the Mail/Bifrost GPU IP at some time in the future, but this SKU is too costly relative to the performance it provides. Until the New Mali/Bifrost based GPUs are available the graphics will not be too exciting!
So at Hot Chips conference day one 8/22/2016, 9:45 AM
“GPUs & HPCs Bifrost, the new GPU architecture and its initial implementation, Mali-G71 Jem Davies ARM”
Who covered this and when will the Mali-G71 graphics/IP be in any new products. The Zen coverage was good, but now it’s about phones so who covered this presentation on the new Bifrost GPU architecture!
Why do smartphones need 8
Why do smartphones need 8 cores? What advantage does having 8 cores on a smartphone provide over 4 cores?
Maybe it’s an American thing,
Maybe it’s an American thing, but I’m much happier putting my money towards Samsung (many made in Korea) than HUAWEI (China).