- [Jonathon] Yo guys, Jonathon here,
and when you think of a great smartphone camera,
most people might think of Samsung and the Galaxy S7,
Apple and the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus,
LG's V20 was great,
but what you might not think of,
or maybe even heard of for that matter,
is the Huawei Mate 9.
Now with it being 2017, the Mate 9
was announced late last year
but it officially launches here in the US this week at CES.
So huge shout out to Huawei for not only
sponsoring this video and kicking off my CES coverage early,
but also sending this my way
so I could get a hands on pretty early in the game.
Now what immediately stood out to me with the Mate 9
is the build quality is phenomenal.
It's solid aluminum, super premium,
and absolutely nothing about this phone says "cheap."
It's got a wicked fast fingerprint reader
which is located on the back,
it's packing great specs with
four gigs of RAM, 64 gigabytes of storage,
and micro SD card expansion.
Now on top of that the Mate 9 is priced
pretty competitively at $599,
and because it's geared to compete with the iPhone 7 Plus,
and Google Pixel XL,
if you were considering one of those this could potentially
save you almost 200 bucks.
So next what I want to do is break it down
into the top three most compelling features of this phone,
and first is hands down the camera.
Just like we saw in Huawei's P9,
once again they've teamed up with Leica
for the glass on the smart phone, and the end result
is a really good freaking camera.
Now within the camera are two sensors,
a 12 megapixel RGB sensor that's gonna capture
the color and the bulk of the photo,
and then a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor
that's gonna work together to capture the finer details.
Now this thing is jam packed full
of features and software,
including a pro mode,
which is gonna give you not only tons of control
but also flexibility.
What surprised me most and what may be my
favorite feature about this camera,
or software rather,
is actually how you can control exposure
when you're not in pro mode.
Instead of dragging exposure up or down,
what you can do is tap to select your focus points,
and then from there actually drag an exposure tracking point
where you can use a specific part of the image
to balance exposure.
So in this case instead of using the wood
to balance exposure,
I was able to drag the point over to a brighter area,
and with that I was able to find
a pretty solid middle ground,
and the end result was surprisingly good.
In taking a deeper look at some of the photos I took
this one in particular really impressed me.
It's sharp, there's great dynamic range,
and surprisingly this shallow depth of field
is real and not simulated.
This one here is also a really great example
of natural shallow depth of field,
no simulation here either.
And then hopping over to some indoor shots
this one in particular is also one of my favorites
because of how it handles the highlights,
the shadows,
the color is also really well balanced,
it's not too saturated,
it's just a nice mix of everything.
Now with that monochrome sensor comes the fun
of taking true black and white pictures.
Yes you could take a normal photo and de-saturate it
or apply a black and white filter,
but there's something special about taking
a true black and white picture.
Now this is by no means a game changer
and I understand completely
that the majority of you out there
want most of your photos in color.
What it does do though is give you
a creative spin on the pictures
you do want in black and white.
It almost forces you to think of the picture,
the composition, the framing differently,
and the end result is really nice.
There's tons of detail,
and the flexibility of being able to take
really great black and white photos,
and really great color photos is awesome.
Now everything we've seen up until this point
in terms of depth of field has been completely natural,
but because there are two sensors
there is also a simulated depth mode,
and again like most simulated depth software
out there it's not gonna be perfect every time,
but when you get it right, it looks really good.
The advantage that you might have with this
over something like the iPhone 7 Plus is that
really only truly works well with people and portraits
like the name implies,
but with this you're able to utilize it with objects as well
instead of just people.
On top of that it's also rocking
an eight megapixel camera on the front
that is equally impressive,
and over all like I talked about
it is a really fantastic camera
that competes with the best of the best.
Now next, the second most compelling feature
of the Mate 9 has gotta be battery life
because inside this guy is packing
a 4,000 milliamp hour battery.
Most Android phones these days
teeter between 2500 and 3500 milliamp hour range,
so the fact that this jumps into 4000 is awesome.
Now as far as the display goes this thing
is packing a 5.9 inch 1080p display
so you are sacrificing some pixels in terms of battery life.
Myself personally, as much as I do love pixels,
1080p still looks really good on a smart phone.
If you're used to 1440p you're
probably gonna notice a difference,
but really it comes down to
would you prefer a lower resolution screen
and better battery life,
or the maximum amount of pixels.
Rounding out the battery and battery life,
this thing charges and connects via USB-C
which in my opinion is the better route.
There's an ever growing list of USB-C devices,
peripherals, chargers,
so the fact that the Mate 9 includes USB-C is a win.
Now last up the third most compelling feature of the Mate 9
is the fact that it ships with Android 7.0 Nougat.
As far as software and updates go
sometimes Android can be the wild west,
so the fact that you get this
out of the box is reassuring.
For the most part the phone feels
extremely lightweight and responsive while using it,
it's fast, it's zippy,
and over all the performance of Android 7.0
paired with the battery life,
the camera, the micro SD card expansion
make this a really well rounded smart phone
at a fantastic price.
Aside from that hopefully you enjoyed the video,
if you did and you are feeling like being awesome
make sure to smash that like button.
I am currently at CES 2017 so go ahead
and drop a comment down below
on what you want to see covered.
This is Jonathon and I will catch you guys later.
(poppy electronic music)