Huawei Mate 9 review: A 2016 phablet with Leica dual cameras and a machine-learning launcher.
The Leica phablet that learned your habits.
Mate 9 refined Huawei's Leica dual-camera with a 20 MP mono sensor and pitched a "machine learning" launcher to fight Android slowdown. The big battery and SuperCharge were real wins; the 1080p panel and EMUI were the period costs.
01Display
66/10066/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2016 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
70/10070/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2016.
03Performance
64/10064/100 trails the 68-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2016.
04Battery
74/100At 74/100 this is one of the strongest battery showings among flagship phones of 2016 — 7 points above the cohort average.
05Build
72/10072/100 trails the 75-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2016.
06Value
62/10062/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2016.
- Second-gen Leica dual camera.
- Big 4,000 mAh battery + SuperCharge.
- "Machine learning" launcher kept it smooth.
- microSD + jack.
- 1080p on a 5.9" panel.
- EMUI 5 was cluttered.
- Two-year update window.
- No water resistance.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 109-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .