Huawei Mate 10 Release Date Debuts AI Camera, Starting Price €699

Huawei announced its Mate 10 series in Munich Monday, showcasing three models of the device, which features the new Kirin 970 chip. The SoC is the first on the market to introduce a dedicated NPU or Neural Network Processing Unit to enable artificial intelligence capabilities natively on the device.

The Huawei Mate 10 will be available to markets including Spain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia in late October for €699, while the Mate 10 Pro will be available to markets including Germany, France, Italy, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand in November for €799. The Porsche Design Mate 10 will also be available to select markets in mid-November for €1395.

Watch Huawei Mate 10 keynote launch here.

With the Mate 10 series, Huawei is promoting the transition from the smartphone to the "intelligent machine." This discussion has been continuous throughout the year, with Huawei CEO Richard Yu introducing the concept during the CES Keynote in January. Yu then unveiled the Kirin 970 at the IFA Keynote in September. Now the Mate 10 series is making its public debut.

The standard Huawei Mate 10 features a 5.9-inch Quad HD FullView display, a Kirin 970 chip, 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage with MicroSD support up to 256GB, Dual SIM 4G support a 4000mAh battery and Android 8.0 Oreo with the EMUI 8.0 overlay. The device will be available in Mocha Brown, Black, Champagne Gold, and Pink Gold color options.

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro features a 6-inch display UHD FullView display, but unlike the standard model, does not feature a home button. All other features remain the same outside of the 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage and 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage options and Midnight Blue, Titanium Gray, Mocha Brown and Pink Gold color options.

The Huawei Mate 10 Porsche Design also features a 6-inch display UHD FullView display with no physical home button and 6GB RAM and 256GB internal storage.

For design, the Huawei Mate 10 features a glass body design with curves on all sides and signature reflective stripe on the back. On the Porsche Design, the stripe is vertical. The Huawei Mate 10 Pro features IP67 water resistance and the displays on all three models are certificated at HDR 10.

The Mate 10 models include a dual camera setup with a 20-megapixel monochrome lens and 12-megapixel RGB lens with a f/1.6 aperture on both lenses and optical image stabilization on the RGB lens. Features include BSI CMOS, Dual-LED flash PDAF, CAF, Laser, Depth autofocus, 2x Hybrid Zoom and 4K video recording.

The Kirin 970 chip allows the Mate 10 camera to identify photography subjects in real time and to apply the best camera settings for the scene being captured. The camera is able to differentiate between people, food, plants, flowers, and landscapes, among other scenes. The Kirin 970 chip also real-time text translation when users take a photo in a different language. The front camera on all models is an 8-megapixel lens with f/2.0 aperture.

Huawei claims the addition of an NPU into the Kirin 970 increases device performance by 25 times and efficiency by 50 times. The manufacturer also claims the Kirin 970 chip Mate 10 is up to 5 times faster than competitor devices, including the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy S8 in AI recognition. The Kirin 970 introduces Cat. 18 LTE to the market, allowing for download speeds of up to 1.2 gigabits per second on the Mate 10 Pro and Porsche Design models. The standard Mate 10 supports Cat. 16 LTE.

Huawei also claims the Mate 10 can provide over two days of battery life, with 20 hours of video playback, 30 hours of 3G calling and 20 hours of browsing, supported by its the device's 4,000mAH battery. The Mate 10's supercharging capability allows for a power increase of up to 58 percent in 30 minutes. The manufacturer has had the device certified as safe for end-to-end fast charge by the German certification company, TÜV. With its NPU and safety certification Huawei promises the Mate 18 will stable in battery life and processing ability for at least 18 months after purchase.