Huawei Mate 10 Pro vs Mate 9: Camera Comparison

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The Huawei Mate 10 Pro was revealed and, by all accounts, the company has an amazing flagship device on their hands. As with many new smartphones, a lot of talk about the Mate 10 Pro has focused on the camera. The Mate 9 has a great camera and the Mate 10 Pro has largely kept with the same overall build as the Mate 9 but Huawei has attempted to make some improvements. So, the question that must be asked is: when it comes to the camera, does the Huawei Mate 10 Pro vs Mate 9 show a lot of improvement?

First, let’s look at the specs on paper. Both devices have dual sensor setups – one 12-megapixel sensor and one 20-megapixel sensor. Both the Mate 10 Pro and Mate 9 have laser autofocus. And, both devices have LED flash. Basically, the main specs are the same. One major difference between the two is aperture size. The Mate 9 has f/2.2 lenses while the Mate 10 Pro has f/1.7 lenses. The lower the number, the bigger the aperture. This means that the Mate 10 Pro will be able to take in more light during a shot. Theoretically this should make the Mate 10 Pro a much better device to have in low-light situations. In addition, the Mate 10 Pro has a lot of new software features that the Mate 9 does not. For example, the Mate 10 Pro is supposed to be able to sense the situation and adjust the camera settings to best suit the type of photo that you are taking. We saw these features in other new smartphones over the past year including, most notably, the Galaxy Note 8.

So, on paper, the camera showdown between the Huawei Mate 10 Pro vs Mate 9 goes to the newer device. Of course, specs on paper only tell half the story.

GSM Arena was able to get their hands on a pre-release version of the Mate 10 Pro for a real-world camera comparison with the Mate 9. The results were a good indication of what we can expect when comparing the Huawei Mate 10 Pro vs Mate 9.

First of all, as you would expect, the Mate 10 Pro performed much better in low-light situations. Both devices take very respectable shots but you can definitely see the difference. The outer edges of objects are more crisp in low-light shots taken with the Mate 10 Pro. Colors are also much more vibrant rather than feeling dark and washed out.

In a lot of shots you could also see that the Mate 10 Pro had adjusted the settings to provide the best photo. This was kind of hit and miss for me. In some situations the lighting was much improved in the Mate 10 Pro photos. In other shots, the pictures looked over processed like when your friend puts a photo on Instagram and goes crazy with the tweaks and filters. Keep in mind, this is not the final software that will be in the Mate 10 Pro so we can’t make a complete judgement. Hopefully Huawei is able to fine tune things. With that said, in most shots, the Mate 10 Pro clearly had an advantage over the Mate 9. With some more improvements the Huawei Mate 10 Pro vs Mate 9 camera gap could widen.

It will be interesting to see some more real world camera showdowns between the two devices once the software is finalized. I already give the edge to the Mate 10 Pro now and I’m excited to see what the final product can do.

Is the Mate 10 Pro on your short list of devices to check out this fall? I want to hear your thoughts and whether you think the Mate 10 Pro camera is worth the upgrade from the Mate 9. Comment below!

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