5 best features of the Huawei Mate S

Overall, the Huawei Mate S has everything one would look for in a flagship device, plus a sprinkle of nifty features that makes it unique.

Many great smartphones were released this year. Among them is the new Huawei Mate S, a successor to the bigger Huawei Mate 7 from last year.

Here are the top five reasons why we think the Huawei Mate S should be one of this year’s greats:

1. Best in class design and build quality. The Mate S was designed using an all-metal unibody with dual diamond cut edges. It is slim and sleek with a simple yet elegant look. The large 5.5-inch AMOLED display fills the front panel and protected with Gorilla Glass 4 that comes with 2.5D so the edges slightly curve toward the sides of the device.

2. Impressive performance. Running its own homegrown chip, the Mate S is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 935 octa-core processor that runs up to 2.2GHz. It is paired with 3GB of RAM, which is good for multitasking, resulting in a smooth and fluid user experience. You can run multiple apps simultaneously on this device and play the most graphic-intensive games without running into any problem.

The Mate S runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with Emotion UI 3.1 for optimal performance. Huawei also added a lot of customizations and features on top of the stock Android operating system. The screen even responds to your knuckles to activate some shortcut actions.  The Force Touch technology, which we saw in the iPhone 6S, is also present in the 128GB variant.

3. Great camera quality. The main camera uses a 13-megapixel sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS). This helps prevent blurry shots and shaky video recording, even in low-light conditions. It is paired with a dual-tone, dual-LED flash so shots are well-lit and look more natural. The Pro Camera mode also provides manual controls of the settings like shutter speed and ISO.

The front-facing camera also features an 8-megapixel BSI wide-angle sensor that comes with soft light so selfies are not flooded with harsh light due to its short distance from the subject.

4. Functional fingerprint scanner. Finger-print scanners have become more and more common since the iPhone introduced it a couple of years back. Huawei’s approach with the scanner is to place it at the back just below the rear camera. That way, it’s easier to access and more comfortable when holding the phone with one hand. Aside from unlocking the screen, the fingerprint scanner can also be used to lock certain apps for added security.

5. Long battery life. With a 2,700mAh Li-Polymer battery, the Mate S can last for about a day-and-a-half with moderate mixed use. Our standard battery test resulted in 10 to 11 hours of continuous playback of a video at 50-per cent screen brightness. This is at par with most other flagship devices like the Galaxy S6 and the LG G4 we’ve tested in the past. Take note, though, that results will vary depending on the individual usage behavior of the user.

Overall, the Huawei Mate S has everything one would look for in a flagship device, plus a sprinkle of nifty features that make it unique.

The handset is available in a variety of nice colors like rose gold, titanium grey, mystic champagne and luxurious gold in either 32GB, 64GB or 128GB storage. Huawei is offering the 64GB model for P31,995 in stores starting this month.