Integrated metal body+selling 4 199 yuan Huawei Mate S evaluation

IT 168 evaluation I remember that after the release of Mate 7 in September last year, a friend in the store once lamented that for every Mate 7 sold, Samsung Note sold one less. It can be seen how much influence Huawei Mate series has on Samsung Note series. Mate series sells well for many reasons. Long battery life, metal body, good fingerprint identification experience, large screen and dual card dual standby are all pain points for target consumers. After a year, what kind of sequel did Huawei bring to Mate series? Can it continue to be brilliant? Today, we will bring you the evaluation article of Huawei Mate S just officially released in Hangzhou.

"The hardware parameters are clear at a glance.

In terms of hardware, Huawei is the most "alternative" among domestic manufacturers. While other manufacturers began to purchase top-class SoCs from Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung as flagship product processors, Huawei has always adhered to the route of independent research and development of SoCs, and has its own set of complete and clear design lines. At the beginning of the evaluation article, we still let everyone have a simple quantification of Huawei Mate S in the form of hardware parameter table.

"Huawei Mate S exclusive edition main parameters

operating system

EMUI 3. 1 (Huawei is based on Android 5. 1 deep customization)

Network standard

Mobile Unicom Shuang 4G

Fuselage size

149.89 * 75.35 * 7.2mm

weight

156g (medium)

screen

5.5 inch 1920* 1080 resolution AMOLED screen.

camera

13 megapixel F/2.0 aperture OIS optical image stabilization

processor

Huawei Kirin 935 eight nuclear 2.2GHz

Body memory

Ram: 3gb rom: 64gb (expansion supported)

eigenfunction

Dual-card dual-standby fingerprint identification, etc.

battery

2700mAh (built-in non-replaceable)

Fuselage color

Silver/gray/gold/pink

listed price

"4 199 yuan

Through the hardware parameter table, we can see that compared with the previous generation products, Huawei Mate S has not made much breakthrough in hardware. However, in terms of details, the AMOLED screen has been replaced, and an updated fingerprint sensor, RGBW four-color sensor camera and so on have been adopted, which means that the screen display, fingerprint identification experience and photo taking experience have all been improved. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that Huawei Mate S Escape Edition is also the first smart phone equipped with a pressure sensor (the exclusive version of this evaluation does not support this function).

"Industrial design

It can be said that more and more mobile phone manufacturers are paying attention to the industrial design of product appearance. Jobs believed that the iPhone bought the iOS system, and the mobile phone was just the "outer packaging" of the iOS system. When the gap between hardware is getting smaller and smaller, how to do a good job in industrial design of mobile phone appearance is the key factor to determine the success of a mobile phone. At this stage of the article, let's see if the industrial design of Huawei Mate S is your dish.

As the latest product of Mate series, Mate S has reached the peak of Huawei products in industrial design. On the whole, Huawei Mate S adopts an all-metal integrated body design and an ultra-thin body design similar to the name S, and the front adopts the resolution of 1920* 1080 AMOLED screen. Compared with IPS screen, AMOLED screen has the advantages of thinner screen and wider color gamut, while Huawei claims that Mate S's color gamut has reached 105%. Moreover, AMOLED has the characteristics of self-luminous screen, which makes it possible for Huawei Mate S to update the screen display in standby state later.

In terms of color matching, Huawei Mate S*** has four colors: gray, gold, white and pink. Among them, the one in the author's hand uses a white color scheme. A receiver speaker, a self-timer soft light, a front 8-megapixel camera and a light distance sensor are placed on the top of the fuselage. The distance sensor and breathing light are also hidden in the white panel. And also adopted Corning Gorilla 2.5D curved glass design. The advantage of using 2.5D curved glass is that it can reduce the presence of the frame visually, and the transition with the metal frame is more natural, further improving the hand feel.

"Industrial design

At the bottom of the fuselage, Huawei Mate S still adopts the screen virtual button design. Only Huawei LOGO is arranged at the bottom as decoration. And through the close-up, we can see that between the screen and the metal frame, Huawei Mate S also designed a polycarbonate buffer layer to enhance the stability of the whole machine when it falls. This design has also been consistently adopted by manufacturers such as Huawei and Apple.

On the back of the whole machine, Huawei Mate S adopts an integrated metal body design and an arc design commonly used in the industry at present. Compared with the arc design of plastic fuselage, few manufacturers in the industry adopt the arc design of metal fuselage at present. The reason is that the arc metal design will increase the difficulty of the whole cutting and injection molding process. Moreover, this time Huawei Mate S adopted the whole anodizing+ceramic sandblasting process, which made the touch of the metal body more delicate.

On the top of the fuselage, Huawei Mate S is equipped with Sony IMX278 sensor and13 megapixel camera. Although the curved body is adopted, the lens still slightly protrudes to the back due to the use of a larger focusing motor to ensure a faster focusing speed. The camera also uses a high-gloss metal decorative ring. This IMX278 can be said to be the top13 megapixel camera module in the industry. Due to Huawei's large-scale procurement and higher cost than other13 megapixel modules, few other manufacturers in the industry have adopted this camera at present. What is the quality of this camera? We will explain it in detail at the back of our evaluation article.

This time, Huawei Mate S still uses the back-pressure fingerprint identification sensor and FPC new generation fingerprint sensor. On the basis of 360-degree wet hand recognition of the previous generation sensor, intelligent operations such as self-timer and sliding photo album are added. T-shaped injection molding strips are responsible for the signal overflow of WiFi and other signals and the signal overflow of NFC approach communication chip respectively, with smooth surface and good workmanship.

The bottom of the fuselage is an important communication signal overflow area of Huawei Mate S. Huawei Mate S also designed a nano-injection antenna overflow belt. This time, Huawei Mate S really adopted an integrated metal body design, and the plastic areas on the back were also changed to metal materials.

On the side of the whole machine, Huawei Mate S adopts the design method of double CNC high-speed cutting of the frame, which makes the narrowest part of the frame reach 2.65 mm Although the thickness of the whole machine reaches 7.2mm, it still feels ultra-thin visually. And because of the curved body design, in order to make better use of the internal space, Huawei Mate S also uses a 2700mAh trapezoidal lithium-ion polymer battery. Compared with the common lithium-ion polymer battery, the capacity is increased by about 15%.

At the top, Huawei Mate S is equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a noise-reducing microphone. A symmetrical design is also adopted. In fact, symmetry can better satisfy visual aesthetics. However, manufacturers need to fine-tune the internal chip layout. The top and bottom of the fuselage are important channels for antenna signals, and it still needs some technical strength to realize the symmetrical interface design.

In terms of the bottom of the fuselage, Huawei Mate S also adopts a symmetrical design, with a speaker sound outlet on one side and a microphone sound outlet on the other. Moreover, CNC is also used to cut grid sound holes directly on metal. This time Mate S still uses microUSB charging and data interface to support fast charging. The metal body is fixed with two hexagon screws at both ends.

On the network side, the Huawei Mate S exclusive edition we evaluated this time supports mobile Unicom dual 4G. Dual-card and dual-standby design is adopted, in which one SIM card slot can be used as the expansion slot of the microSD card, and the SIM card slot adopts the hybrid plug-in design, so that users can switch the primary and secondary cards in the system.

In terms of overall design, Huawei Mate S can be described as adopting the essence of all current Huawei ID designs. The integrated metal body, 2.5D curved glass and high-speed cutting of the frame all make this machine a plaything that you are willing to hold in your hand. However, the author also noticed that there are not many accessories sold in official website at present, hoping to improve the types and quality of official accessories in the future.

"EMUI3. 1 experience

Since September last year, all new machines launched by Huawei have adopted EMUI 3.0 and the latest customized UI, and we have also evaluated EMUI 3. 1 several times. This time, Huawei Mate S is also equipped with the latest EMUI 3. 1 system. And we have added new functions, such as quick call-out application of knuckles, open-screen recording function of double knuckles, adding new actions in fingerprint recognition area and so on. In this part of the article, we will review EMUI 3. 1 and briefly introduce the new functions on Huawei Mate S. ..

In fact, there are many preconditions for the quality of a customized UI, such as whether it is smooth enough. Experience EMUI 3. 1 with Huawei Mate S this time. As Huawei's strongest mobile phone at present, running EMUI 3. 1 has no problem in fluency. And the memory occupied by the system is basically the same as that of the previous EMUI 3.0 (about 2.0G of memory can be used when booting). The word Caton is no longer relevant in EMUI 3.0, but it is more fluent in EMI3.1. In addition to fluency, the unity of system style has also become an important factor in whether a system is excellent or not. Let's talk about the system interface of EMUI 3. 1.

Through the screenshot, we can see that the improvement on the interface is quite obvious. The icon adopts a uniform rectangle with large radian and rounded corners. And has adapted to the commonly used application software in the market. Other unsuitable software icons use green rounded rectangles to make the style cartoon and unified. As for the drop-down interface and system interface, EMUI 3. 1 uses more plane elements such as lines as decoration. The virtual buttons at the bottom use triangles, circles and rectangles to replace the traditional back, home and multitasking icons. The overall style has become much smaller and fresher, which will not make users feel redundant. In terms of details, we can see that in terms of fonts, compared with the previous generation, the fonts that are not bold are clear and highlight the lightness of the whole system. The icon shadow has also been slightly adjusted. The shadows become brighter. And in the aspect of color matching of system-level icons, a brand-new warm color icon is adopted, which is not bright, and it looks more comfortable for human eyes and has no dazzling feeling.

In the drop-down menu, we can clearly feel the flat design concept. The notification bar appears at the top left of the screen, and the function of timeline is added to the notification bar, so you can see important information such as missed calls, text messages and emails without opening it, which is quite convenient. Slide from the top right of the screen to display the small switch interface. The icon of the small switch is outlined with thin lines. Generally speaking, it feels very light. Compared with EMUI3.0, 3. 1 improves the small opening and closing of the drop-down menu. Users can slide up and down in the drop-down menu and see more small switches.

The setting interface is divided into two parts: the top bar and the setting part. The top bar is transparent and consistent with the desktop. The Settings menu is divided into two parts-General Settings and All Settings. The style is the same as the drop-down menu, and the content is not much different from the previous generation EMUI. It is worth mentioning that, compared with EMUI3.0, this EMUI3. 1 is based on the deep customization of Android 5.0, and it also changes the art mode to the default mode, and officially supports 64-bit from Android 5.0, which also makes Huawei Mate S a real 64-bit mobile phone (both hardware and software use 64-bit).

Long press the screen to bring up the menu, we can see the wallpaper. This time Huawei EMUI 3. 1 is equipped with seven well-made wallpapers. We changed the colorful wallpaper and landscape wallpaper we used before, and adopted a more stable tone. With the black body, we can also intuitively feel the borderless effect of the screen. I wonder if the gold version of the built-in wallpaper is optimized for color. In terms of small plug-ins, Huawei also updated some plug-ins such as clocks. I don't know if more small plug-ins will be added in the subsequent official version. In terms of switching effect, EMUI 3. 1 gives different switching effects in 8 pages, but the author still prefers the default (no effect) switching. In terms of layout, Huawei also gives three layout methods: 4x4, 4x5 and 5x5.

The multitasking menu uses four recent tasks on a single page and can be set to turn pages. Users can quickly switch between several open softwares. And the user can swipe a single task to clear it, or swipe up from the bottom of the interface to create a global sense. Of course, Huawei also provides a small plug-in to clear the cache with one click. In terms of folders, when users open the folder of EMUI 3. 1, the desktop at the back will be dimmed, each page of the folder can store 9 applications, and users can also turn pages in the folder.

In the overall style, EMUI 3. 1 continues the simple and flat style of EMUI3.0, but there are also many changes in EMUI 3. 1. For example, although it is not a brand-new system, the experience has been steadily upgrading.

"EMUI 3. 1 brand new small function experience.

"tape recorder

This time, Huawei Mate S adopts a three-microphone design, which has better sound recognition ability compared with the design of traditional mobile phone dual microphones (a talking microphone and a noise-reducing microphone), which means that Huawei Mate S can not only provide better call and recording quality, but also recognize sounds in all directions. This time, Huawei Mate S also updated a brand-new tape recorder specifically for this hardware advantage. By identifying the sounds coming from different directions when recording, we can selectively filter out the useless sound sources when playing the recording, which is simply the gospel of the reporter.

"The fingerprint identification area has added new functions.

Previously, Huawei Mate 7 also took the lead in carrying the fingerprint identification function in Huawei models, and supported the large-value fingerprint payment function through cooperation with Alipay and WeChat, and also achieved industry-leading speed in fingerprint unlocking. In addition to fingerprint payment and fingerprint unlocking, Huawei Mate S is also equipped with functions such as sliding gallery in fingerprint area, answering phone calls, taking selfies, etc. This is also because Mate S is equipped with a second-generation push-type fingerprint recognition sensor.

"Glove gestures to upgrade again.

Previously, on Huawei P8, Huawei had brought you the function of knuckle screen capture and knuckle area screen capture, and this time Mate S upgraded the knuckle gesture again, bringing a brand-new double knuckle screen recording function. In fact, this function can be realized because since Android 5.0, Google's permission to record screens has been reduced, so that mobile phones can record screens without ROOT, and this time Huawei Mate S is the first to integrate this function into a customized system. Users can record small videos or 5-minute HD videos and share them directly in the gallery.

Generally speaking, the improvement of software experience on Mate S is also based on the improvement of hardware details, such as the second-generation push-type fingerprint recognition sensor equipped with the latest FPC, three microphones and an updated screen touch sensor. Compared with other manufacturers' accumulation of main parameters, Huawei is better at optimizing software and hardware in details that can improve the user experience, which requires its own software and hardware development strength. And it is worth mentioning that the top version of Huawei Mate S has a pressure-sensitive screen. What different experiences can Huawei bring with this pressure-sensitive screen? Leave a foreshadowing here, and give you a detailed explanation when evaluating the top version.

"Hardware performance analysis

As mentioned earlier, the performance of Huawei Kirin chip has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past two years. In fact, in the traditional sense, the performance of mobile phone processors is nothing more than a few key words: architecture, manufacturing technology and technology. For example, if two CPUs with the same architecture, technology and technology compare the performance of CPU, the performance is directly proportional to the main frequency. Why are Qualcomm Snapdragon series chips sought after by many high-end flagship mobile phones? It is because Qualcomm is one of the few CPU vendors to improve the public architecture of ARM again, and Kriat architecture has become a unique secret of Qualcomm. However, since the beginning of this year, ARM has launched a brand-new architecture more and more times, which makes Qualcomm fully accept the public version architecture and temporarily abandon the Krait architecture, which also brings opportunities for Huawei, Samsung, MediaTek and other manufacturers to occupy the high-end market. At this stage of the article, let's take a look at the performance of this Huawei Kirin 935 processor installed on Huawei Mate S.

Huawei Kirin 935 processor installed on Huawei Mate S adopts eight nuclear A53 architecture, 28nm technology and HPm technology, and its main frequency can run at 2.2GHz. We all know that Samsung and Qualcomm have introduced processors based on A57 architecture, which are more powerful. This process starts at 28 nanometers. Why is Huawei Kirin still using the combination of A53+28nm? This question has been answered in a previous communication meeting on new products of Hayes Kirin.

A53 architecture

A57 architecture

A72 architecture

Main frequency (GHz)

1.0

1.2

1.2

Performance (speed 2K/GHz)

500

780

820

Power consumption (mW/GHz)

150

525

44 1

Huawei believes that architecture and manufacturing process are complementary. Huawei found through experiments that the overall performance of A57+A53 core is stronger, and it can run at a higher frequency without limiting power consumption. However, the experimental data also show that the performance of A57+A53 core with 20nm design is 56% higher than that of A53 architecture with 28nm process, but the power consumption is 256% higher. Therefore, Huawei chose A53 architecture with 28nm technology on the latest Kirin 935 processor.

Huawei's Main Software Optimization for 64-bit Systems

1

Optimization of ART 64-bit computer system

2

Memory optimization, such as KSM/ZRAM

three

Framework 64-bit optimization

four

64-bit optimization of image codec

five

Optimization of Android Version Installation Process

six

SKIA 64-bit optimization

seven

Optimization of ART 64-bit compiler

eight

Improved compatibility between third-party applications and games.

nine

Optimization of GPU drawing ability

10

GPU cache optimization

1 1

Hmp scheduling optimization

12

Optimization of file system driver

At the same time, Huawei also has its own layout for the future development of mobile phone processors. First, Huawei has basically determined that it will not use the 20nm HPm process, but will focus on the 16nm (or 14nm) FinFET process, and it is very likely that it will skip the A57 architecture and choose a brand-new processor with A72 architecture in the future, but the above can only be experienced by subsequent products. As we all know, ARM defines A53 architecture as a small core with low power consumption, which is used to handle simple tasks, which also leads to the failure of A53 architecture to run at high frequency. To solve this problem, Huawei has also made improvements, developed its own library, and formed a brand-new A53X architecture, which can finally make the processor run stably at 2.2GHz. In other words, the brand-new Huawei Kirin 935 is a eight nuclear 64-bit processor with quad-core A53X+ quad-core A53. Finally, performance and power consumption are guaranteed. In a word, the performance of Kirin 935 processor is not the same as that of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 10 and Samsung Orion 7420, but the performance per unit energy consumption is not inferior at all. Moreover, Huawei has also made 64-bit optimization for 300 projects such as ART and Framework, making Huawei Mate S truly a 64-bit mobile phone.

What we said before are all keywords of processor performance in the traditional sense. But in fact, any chip manufacturer can achieve almost the same performance as long as it is authorized by ARM. What truly reflects the technical strength of a hardware manufacturer is the overall SOC performance, including the comprehensive strength of network signal, power management, image and audio ISP. How does this perform on Huawei Mate S? What is the TAS smart antenna adjustment technology mentioned at the press conference?

Kirin 93X series

Products of other hardware manufacturers

2G drops back to 4G speed.

$33.5

2800 dollars

4G falls back to 2G speed

2 1.5 USA

1600 USA

TAS smart antenna adjustment technology has also appeared on Huawei mobile phones and Moto and other smart phones before. As we all know, at present, many smart phones are designed with metal frames, and the requirements for antenna signals are more stringent. The upper and lower injection molding strips on Huawei Mate S, and the plastic isolation belt between the front screen and the frame are all overflow ports of antenna signals. But once these overflows are blocked by hands, there will still be short-term poor signal. At this time, TAS smart antenna adjustment technology was born. When the user holds a mobile phone to block a part of the antenna, Huawei Mate S will automatically switch to the received part of the antenna to continue working. The time difference of this handover is maintained at the level of the United States, while the speed of other manufacturers' products in the process of switching again is hundreds of times that of Huawei Mate S. Such small details are still reflected in Huawei Mate S.

"The communication experience in the high-speed rail scene is better than other mobile phones.

4g is superior to other mobile phones in online time and speed.

The delay of 4G online games is better than other mobile phones.

The success rate of network 4G weak signal is better than other mobile phones.

In fact, these small details will inadvertently affect our goodwill towards a brand. Through this part of the article, I think everyone can understand why Huawei MateS adopts Kirin 935 processor. If this processor is defined, I think there is still a gap between this processor and mainstream flagship chips in CPU performance, but there will be no jamming phenomenon when running software games. In terms of signal processing, Kirin chipset can be said to be the most suitable chipset for Chinese people.

"photo experience

Although Huawei Mate S does not emphasize the camera function too much, it is still equipped with the most powerful Sony IMX278 four-color sensor lens module13 million pixels, and also added OIS optical image stabilization function. In terms of software, more filters and professional camera modes have been added. In this part of the evaluation article, we look at the photo experience of Huawei Mate S through proofs.

First of all, the Sony IMX278 Sony stacked photosensitive element is quite different from the flagship photosensitive element such as Sony IMX2 14 which we are familiar with before, because its photosensitive element adopts RGBW photosensitive strategy. As we all know, the visible light of human eyes can be combined by different arrangements of RGB (red, green and blue). RGBW, on the other hand, adds a white sub-pixel to each photosensitive pixel on the basis of the three primary colors of red, green and blue. This technology is widely used in high-end LCD TV. Imagine that IMX278 with13 million pixels has13 million white sub-pixels on hardware, and the most direct feeling for human eyes is the improvement of picture brightness. Moreover, this time Huawei Mate S is also equipped with F/2.0 super aperture and OIS optical image stabilization design, so the night scene will be a big advantage of Huawei.

Next, we will experience the use experience of this13 megapixel four-color sensor camera through proofs, and also briefly explain the use experience of the new filter and professional camera equipped on Mate S.

▲ Click on the picture to view the original picture.

▲ Click on the picture to view the original picture.

▲ Click on the picture to view the original picture.

▲ Click on the picture to view the original picture.

Generally speaking, Huawei Mate S has greatly improved the image quality compared with the previous work, and the brightness and noise of the night picture are also well controlled. The sensitivity of the night sample is basically maintained at around ISO200, thanks to the cooperation of OIS optical image stabilization and RGBW four-color sensor. It should also be emphasized that Huawei Mate S adopts an arc body design, which makes the camera as flat as possible without reducing the thickness of the camera module, so that it can be equipped with a focus motor with better performance, which makes the focus speed of Huawei Mate S (especially at night) also improved. The screen is also equipped with a more colorful AMOLED screen. A variety of factors * * * led to Huawei Mate S taking photos in terms of color, details, focusing speed and so on.

"Evaluation summary

As mentioned earlier, Huawei's Mate S integrates all the essence of Huawei's industrial design: integrated metal fuselage, curved fuselage design, CNC, sandblasting technology and so on. It also achieves a visually thinner effect through the double-sided trimming of the border. In terms of hardware, Mate S takes the form of small details upgrade, such as a better13 megapixel camera, a better fingerprint sensor, a better microphone, a better charging method, a better trapezoidal battery and so on. These small hardware upgrades directly enhance the experience of Huawei Mate S in details. Generally speaking, Huawei Mate S is indeed a sincere work.

However, the battery life problem that users are most concerned about on Mate S can fully meet the normal use of the whole day in the author's daily experience. There are many rumors about Huawei hardware recently. I believe that Huawei will also usher in a new wave of outbreaks next year. Let's wait patiently.