The past 12 months or so have seen Huawei transform from a budget Chinese phone maker into a flagship smartphone powerhouse. The company'due south two major 2022 handset releases – the Huawei P9 and Laurels 8 – were both fantastic pieces of hardware with bonny cost tags to boot.

Huawei's first phone of 2022 complements these by releases besides equally the upcoming Huawei P10. Designed for those who prefer larger screens, the Huawei Mate nine packs a 5.ix-inch brandish alongside an upgraded dual camera solution and a faster SoC. In that location are few hardware compromises here; the Mate 9 is a showcase of what Huawei's engineering team can accomplish.

The Mate 9 borrows many design elements from the beautiful Huawei P9. Most of the phone is a single aluminum unibody chassis, which wraps around all 4 edges and forms almost the entire dorsum console. The subtle curves around the edges make this big phone comfy to agree and use, while the use of metallic gives the phone a solid, premium feel. Like the P9, the Mate 9 is a elementary, elegant handset that relies on its great utilise of materials to smooth.

The forepart of the device is a single slice of Gorilla Drinking glass 3, which is tapered at the edges to produce a swooshable experience. The left and right bezels beside the display are slim – and of import pattern selection that makes this big display easier to use – while the bezels higher up and beneath are somewhat larger. Y'all're not getting an LG G6-similar full screen experience, but a screen to body ratio of 78% is well above boilerplate. Large screened phones should be dominated by the display, and this is certainly the case with the Huawei Mate nine.

Bated from a typical drove of features that includes the front camera and speaker, the forepart of the Mate ix is clean. The phone uses on-screen navigation buttons and does not come up with dual front-facing speakers, and then there's zip below the brandish. The Mate 9 uses the bottom-firing speaker in conjunction with the in-telephone call speaker during audio playback for a stereo feel, although every bit the speakers have different sound profiles, the stereo experience is somewhat unbalanced. The bottom speaker has a larger range and better, though not amazing, audio quality; in an ideal world, the elevation speaker would produce the aforementioned quality.

I should too mention the Mate nine comes with a notification LED, which in my opinion is a must-accept for all Android smartphones.

Huawei has repositioned their dual-photographic camera system into a vertical module that protrudes slightly from the rear aluminum console. It'south flanked past a dual-LED two-tone flash and a laser-assisted autofocus system in a design that's more than visually pleasing than the Huawei P9's implementation. Beneath the camera is the round fingerprint sensor that's extremely fast and authentic. It'southward also in the perfect position: my finger naturally falls near the sensor while I'chiliad holding the device, and it'southward easy to find and actuate the sensor without looking at it.

My only complaint almost the design is the employ of plastic strips at the top and bottom of the rear panel. These sections are in that location so the Mate 9's antennas can function without large antenna lines, but the difference in end between the plastic and metallic is noticeable and less bonny than simple antenna lines. Information technology's non a huge upshot though and I expect only perfectionists would be bothered by this divergence.

The ability and book buttons on the Mate 9'due south right-manus edge are piece of cake to hit and very clicky, which is fantastic. The SIM carte slot is establish on the other edge, and supports both a nano-SIM and a microSD carte. Yes, it's piece of cake to include a microSD card slot in a device similar this, as Huawei continually reminds usa across their product line.

Connectivity on the Mate 9 consists of a USB-C port and a three.5mm headphone jack, equally well as an infrared LED on the superlative border for decision-making your dwelling house theater gear. It'due south disappointing more handsets don't include an infrared LED equally your smartphone makes a perfect universal remote.

The biggest event people volition face regarding the Mate 9 is its size. The telephone is only slightly taller than the Google Pixel Xl, only information technology's wider so information technology can arrange a larger 5.9-inch display (compared to 5.five-inches). People with small easily volition find the actress width unwieldy, and it's unlikely anyone will exist able to operate all parts of the display single-handedly, at to the lowest degree without serious phone juggling.

The extra display size is fantastic for content consumption, and I'chiliad generally a fan of larger phone screens, but information technology does come at a usability cost. The good news is the Mate 9 isn't thick at seven.9mm, and its 190 gram weight is mostly due to the big four,000 mAh battery housed within. The phone is slightly heavier than its competitors, only information technology doesn't feel like a brick.