The Huawei Mate 9 Pro (left) and the Huawei Mate 9. Photo: Ben His
When Huawei unveiled its 2016 flagship phablet, the Mate 9 on November 3, the Chinese tech and telecommunication powerhouse also introduced a super luxurious (aka overpriced) variant dubbed the Porsche Design Mate 9. Aside from the gratuitous “luxury sports car” branding, the souped-up version of the phone is probably mostly notable to the tech world for being eerily similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (or more precisely, the now-dead Note 7), meaning it’s got that same dual curved edge display that Samsung first introduced in 2015, and Chinese phonemakers, from Xiaomi to Vivo to Gionee have since followed suit.
With the Porsche version of the phone valued at a whopping $ 1,600, there was no way I was going to get one, despite my love of the Huawei’s camera software and dual curved display. And so when Huawei announced a few weeks later the Mate 9 Pro, which is basically the Porsche Mate 9 without the expensive luxury branding, jumped and purchased one.
I have already reviewed the standard Mate 9 here, and while that phone is excellent, the Mate 9 Pro is indeed a bit better.
The most notable difference between the two phones to me and most techies is the screen — no, I’m not talking about the resolution bump from the standard Mate 9′s 1080p to quad HD, or the curved screen for that matter. The difference I’m talking about is AMOLED vs LCD. The standard phone uses a LCD panel, while the Pro goes for AMOLED. Many people, including myself, have written about why AMOLED panels are better than LCD displays, and the difference here is clear when the phones are placed side by side. The Mate 9 Pro’s “true blacks” make the same image on the standard Mate 9 look kind of grey, with a bit of a glow.
Black backgrounds look much better on the Mate 9 Pro (left) than on the standard Mate 9 because AMOLED beats LCD. Photo: Ben His
As for the body of the phone: the Mate 9 Pro makes the curious decision of moving Huawei’s regular rear fingerprint sensor to the front (which only makes the device look that much more similar to the S7 Edge/Note 7…) while the standard Mate 9 sticks with Huawei tradition. The dual-lens set-up in the back look almost identical, but the Pro’s back is a brushed aluminum while the standard Mate 9′s back is more traditional metal.
Also notable is that the Mate 9′s top bezel is a lot slimmer than the Pro’s top bezel (the bottom bezels are mostly the same sizes), I wonder if this is a design choice done on purpose because Huawei wanted the Pro version of the phone to have a complete symmetrical design — front and black, top and bottom — a la the Note 7. The curves on Mate 9 Pro’s screen also isn’t as drastic as the curves found on the S7 Edge or the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, and Huawei hasn’t developed any “edge” software features here (I say for the better, since the Edge features on the Galaxy phones are mostly gimmicks), so these curves are exclusively just for looks and feel.
Notice the top bezel on the Mate 9 (right) is a lot smaller than on the Mate 9 Pro.
The Huawei Mate 9 Pro’s (center) the curves aren’t as noticeable at the ones on the S7 Edge (left) and the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 (right). Photo: Ben His
But it does feel nice. I’ll be back with a full review, as well as a “curved display phone showdown” between the Mate 9 Pro, Xiaomi Mi Note 2, and the Galaxy S7 Edge.
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