The Huawei Mate 10 Pro pushes mobile technology to new boundaries, owing to a variety of innovations in its sleek design.
But it’s perhaps the camera department that’s seen the most attention, making the phone a strong contender for 2017’s best device for photos.
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Record-equalling aperture in a smartphone
A smartphone camera’s aperture is an important factor, most notably for low-light shots. Think of the aperture as the pupil if the camera is the eye.
A larger aperture (expressed as a lower number) means that more light enters the camera and hits the sensor, resulting in brighter images than a phone with a smaller aperture.
The Mate 10 Pro’s two main cameras pack a large f/1.6 aperture, which is tied as the largest aperture on a mainstream phone yet. By comparison, Samsung’s phone packs a slightly smaller f/1.7 aperture while the iPhone 8 has an even smaller f/1.8 aperture.
Industry leading experience with depth of field/blur effects
Huawei was the first company to bring adjustable depth of field/bokeh effects to a major smartphone, doing so back in 2015 with the Honor 6 Plus.
So the company has had a ton of time to tweak and optimise the so-called wide aperture mode, delivering a flexible option for creative users.
A versatile monochrome camera
You can use a filter to get the job done, but the Mate 10 Pro has a 20MP black and white camera that delivers more detailed monochrome shots than a simple, software-based filter.
The monochrome camera is also used to increase the level of light captured when the sun goes down, resulting in better low light shots. And in another cool feature, the Mate 10 Pro is capable of producing 20MP colour shots, despite having a 12MP colour camera. This is achieved through sophisticated imaging algorithms that fuse data from the 20MP monochrome camera and 12MP colour sensor.
Better than normal digital zoom
Most smartphones use digital zoom, the camera app only cropping the image and blowing it up to give the “zoomed” image.
Huawei packs a 2x hybrid zoom feature into the Mate 10 Pro, a feature which uses pixel binning techniques to show more detail than regular smartphone zoom.
AI brings better quality snaps
The Mate 10 Pro also packs a neural processing unit (NPU), being used to boost camera quality. The phone uses the NPU to power scene recognition, being able to quickly identify 13 varied scenes/objects (landscapes, foliage, dogs, cats, people etc), dynamically adjusting camera settings.
Huawei says the machine learning nature means more scenes will be recognised over time, laying the groundwork for a more versatile camera.
RAW support
It’s been available on some smartphones for a while now, but RAW support is a key feature if you plan to use advanced photo apps to edit your pictures.
Usually, traditional JPEG files degrade in quality after editing because the image data gets overwritten — not so with RAW files. RAW images allow for “non-destructive editing”, which means you can edit the photo with the assurance that the image data will be saved — in case you like the original, untouched shot, after all.
An easy way to do light painting
It’s possible to do light painting effects with other phones using manual options, but Huawei has long offered a dedicated mode for this effect. The Mate 10 Pro is no exception, obviously.
Want to take a photo of light trails in a city at night? Or maybe you want that silky water effect? Simply choose the light painting mode, select the scenario and you’re good to go. No pro adjustments needed.
