Camera and Audio
Camera
The camera sensor in the Mate 8 is very well specified, with a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 lens, OIS (optical image stabilization), phase detection autofocus, and a dual-tone flash. In practice, however, the image quality was lower than I'd hoped – specifically in situations without ideal lighting.
Here are a some example shots, taken with the stock camera app and automatic settings:
All of these photos defaulted to 1/33 sec exposure time, ISO-160. They were taken inside my light box (with the same lighting I use for all review photos) and no editing of any kind has been done. The full images can be opened and examined if desired. The light box is a best-case scenario for lighting, and the images still look a little dark to my eye. Once outside of the light box, low-light images started to produce quite a bit of noise, in spite of the lower ISO speeds and longer exposures possible thanks to OIS.
On the other hand, overall 'snappiness' of the camera was very good. I would equate the time to focus and snap a shot as very similar to a recent Samsung Galaxy phone, and that's excellent. In contrast, my old Nexus 6 (and even more so the Nexus 5 before it) were quite slow to focus and actually snap the photo, so quick shots were basically out the window with those cameras.
I nearly forgot to mention the front-facing camera, and it's actually impressive. At 8 MP it's capable of some very good photos on its own, and it did very well for me in good lighting.
Audio
Sound is a particular standout with the Mate 8. Calls were clear and loud, and this may have the best earpiece speaker I’ve heard on any phone. This is an aspect of smartphones that seems so basic, but is often disappointing. I was pleased that even at higher volumes the earpiece managed to produce clear sound, without noticable distortion.
External sound from the mono speaker on the bottom edge of the phone is very good as well; clear, and capable of a fair bit of volume when needed. Headphone use is another standout with the Mate 8, which has a far superior 3.5 mm output than many devices I’ve used. My daily driver during my time with the Mate 8 was a Nexus 5X, and it paled in comparison in the headphone department. In all instances the Mate 8 drove the same headphones with more clarity and bass.
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).