HUAWEI CEO offers first Mate 10 details, says it will be "more powerful" than the new iPhone

We expected Huawei to be working on the Mate 10, given that the Mate 8 and Mate 9 were released in November 2015 and November 2016 respectively, but rumors regarding the handset have been thin on the ground. However, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, HUAWEI Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu has now confirmed the device, and shed some light on what it’s going to offer.

In the report, which went online yesterday, Yu briefly discussed the Mate 10 and how it would compete with Apple’s upcoming 10th anniversary iPhone. Yu said that the Mate 10 would be “an even more powerful product” than Apple’s new flagship, adding: “The Mate 10, which has much longer battery life, with a full-screen display, quicker changing speed, better photographing capability and many other features that will help us compete with Apple.”

In the second part of his statement, it’s unclear if Yu is comparing the Mate 10 to the unreleased iPhone 10 (which wouldn’t really be possible) or a previous HUAWEI phone, but what we can take from it is that it would have a large battery, and a screen-to-body ratio similar to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8 (and probably Galaxy Note 8).

The “changing speed” comment, meanwhile, is similarly unclear. While it could be a reference to performance, like app switching, presumably this is meant to be “charging speed” — with the Mate 10 likely housing USB Type-C connectivity and fast charging capabilities.

HUAWEI has already made great progress in smartphone camera tech in recent years following its partnership with German optics company Leica, and, judging by Yu’s statement, it appears that HUAWEI has once more made phototrophy a focus for its upcoming device.

Additionally, the handset is anticipated to include HUAWEI’s upcoming Kirin 970 chipset, a platform that is believed to be not just faster than its predecessor (of course) but that may also support AI functionality. This wasn’t discussed in the interview, however.

We don’t yet know when the HUAWEI Mate 10 will go on sale, or for how much, but you can expect to be at the premium end of the spectrum, and to arrive before the end of 2017. What are your thoughts on the HUAWEI Mate 10’s potential? Let us know in the comments.