Huawei Mate 10 Lite Will Make You A Selfie Superstar [REVIEW]

The Huawei Mate 10 Lite is one of the newest additions to the Chinese smartphone maker’s line-up, and if you’re into taking selfies, this is one phone that should appeal to you. It sports both a rear-facing and a front-facing dual-lens camera, making it the first model from the company to have four cameras. As the name implies, it’s a “lite” version of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, but don’t let that word “lite” fool you. There’s plenty of power under the hood.

Huawei Mate 10 Lite: curvy and sleek

ValueWalk got some hands-on time with the Huawei Mate 10 Lite, and it features a solid construction with a metal chassis and metal frame. The seamless unibody features curved edges and soft lines. The Huawei Mate 10 Lite sports a fingerprint sensor on the back, along with a flashlight. The phone comes in three colors: Graphite Black, Prestige Gold and Aurora Blue.

Under the hood, the phone runs on Huawei’s octo-core Kirin 659 chipset, which is made using a 16-nanometer process and clocks up to 2.36GHz. The phone has 4GB of RAM, which certainly doesn’t place it at the top of the heap, but it’s no slouch either. The smartphone comes with 64GB of internal storage, although that can be expanded via the microSD slot, which supports cards up to 256GB.

The Huawei Mate 10 Lite packs a 3,340mAh battery, which the company claims can last up to two days of so-called “ordinary” use. If you’re not a heavy user, this is certainly possible, but if you’re making good use of the four cameras on this phone, it probably won’t last that long. It takes less than three hours for the battery to reach a full charge.

Huawei Mate 10 Lite is ergonomically designed

At 5.9 inches, the FullView display is certainly quite large, although it doesn’t feel as large as it is. The company says it managed to make the 5.9-inch display feel more like it’s only 5.5 inches, and although that doesn’t sound like much, it does make a difference with the handling. Huawei also continued the trend of the high screen-to-body ratio at 83%, which is just a little bit higher than the iPhone X and about the same as the LG V30’s ratio. The aspect ratio is 18:9, and it is possible to run two apps side by side.

The company also designed the display to reduce eye strain, a technology it calls Eye Comfort 2.0. The display filters out 450nm blue light to do this and also automatically adjusts the screen’s brightness and color temperature according to the light around you.

Huawei also spent a great deal of time working on the phone’s audio, which sounds incredible thanks to the multiple algorithms it uses to fine-tune all the sound.

Huawei Mate 10 Lite features dual-lens selfie camera

We saved the best of the Huawei Mate 10 Lite for last. This is the perfect phone for anyone who likes to take photos, especially selfies. The front-facing camera features a 13MP lens and 2MP lens with an aperture of f/2.0 and a Smart Selfie Toning Flash. Between the two lenses and the flash that’s designed especially for selfies, there’s certainly no doubt that this phone is the one that was created for selfie lovers.

The Smart Selfie Toning Flash is designed to make flatter you, even in low-light conditions or a dark environment. The Huawei Mate 10 Lite adjusts the flash automatically so that anyone can take professional-grade selfie photos—even if you’re not a professional photographer.

It’s all about the selfie flash

The flash features an 80% color rendering index, which is aimed at mimicking natural light as much as possible. As a point of reference, natural sunlight has a 100% color rendering index. The Huawei Mate 10 Lite captures accurate colors and skin tones.

One of the challenges in creating a flash for a front-facing camera is that they can look rather harsh and uneven, but the Huawei Mate 10 Lite has what the company calls a “Translucent Light Lampshade,” which aims to make the lighting look more even and natural. The selfie flash features a 120-degree angle that highlights more than just the face in the photo.

According to the company, the selfie flash on the Huawei Mate 10 Lite simulates what’s called the butterfly lighting technique, which is used by professional photographers in their own studios. The technique is one of the oldest lighting techniques in photography, and it’s named for the shadow that’s created under the hose.

To create this very fine detail, photographers had to take a shot underneath their light source. It’s generally used for glamor shots, which is why it’s the perfect technique to use for a selfie camera. It’s also a feature that the average person wouldn’t notice in a photo, and yet, it’s one detail that makes a difference in a portrait.

Rear-facing camera is superb too

The rear-facing camera features a 16MP and 2MP lens. The 16MP lens handles the image rendering, while the 2MP lens is tasked with creating a professional-quality bokeh effect by capturing depth of field. The bokeh effect also makes images look more natural, and it can even be adjusted manually. Portraits are crisp and clear, and photos can be taken quickly and then readjusted later by changing the image focus. Various effects can also be applied.

The camera also supports live pictures, which are two-second moving pictures created from still photos.

Huawei Mate 10 Lite specs

The Huawei Mate 10 Lite just started landing in some markets this fall, so if you’re really into taking selfies, this is one phone that’s worth considering. In Pakistan, it’s priced at Rs 29,999.