Huawei's Mate 10 Pro Hits U.S. in February as a $799 Unlocked Phone
Huawei's Mate 10 Pro finally has a U.S. release date and a price, but lacks a wireless carrier as a launch partner, as had been rumored.
Editors' Note: Updated at 2:29 a.m. ET to include remarks from Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, at CES.
LAS VEGAS — Huawei's Mate 10 Pro finally has a U.S. release date, a price and even a fancy alternative version whipped up by Porsche Design. What it doesn't have is a wireless carrier as a launch partner, as had been reported.
Huawei announced today (Jan. 9) that it will start taking preorders for its Mate 10 Pro flagship phone on Feb. 4. Order the $799 phone before it officially goes on sale Feb. 18, and you can get a $150 gift card from whichever retailer you place your order with.
You can buy a Mate 10 in Midnight Black or Titanium Gray from Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft, B&H and Newegg. Missing from that list is any wireless carrier. In the buildup to the Mate 10 Pro's U.S. launch, rumors had suggested the phone maker would team up with AT&T to offer the phone. However, a day before Huawei's keynote here at CES 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that AT&T had walked away from the deal.
MORE: Unlocked or Carrier? How You Should Buy Your Next Phone
The Huawei executives we spoke to at CES characterized the decision to not release the phone under AT&T's umbrella as a mutual one, with Huawei opting to offer the Mate 10 Pro unlocked, as it has for previous U.S. releases of its phones. Those executives didn't rule out striking a deal with a carrier for future Huawei phones, though.
Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei's consumer business, was less circumspect during his keynote speech today at CES. "It is a big loss for us and also for carriers but more for consumers,” Yu said of the aborted AT&T deal.
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The Mate 10 Pro debuted late last year, and is most notable for its Kirin 970 mobile processor, which includes a built-in neural processing unit. That feature gives the Mate 10 Pro an on-board artificial intelligence, allowing it to do things like recognize images you're about to photograph, and adjusting the camera settings to take the best shot for subjects like flowers, pets and people.
Price | $799 |
OS | Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 |
Screen Size (Resolution) | 6 inches (2160 x 1080) |
CPU | Hisilicon Kirin 970 |
RAM | 6GB |
Storage | 128GB |
microSD Slot? | No |
Rear Camera | 12-MP main, 20-MP monochrome, dual f/1.6 |
Front Camera | 8-MP, f/2.0 |
Battery Life (Hrs:Min) | 14:33 |
Water Resistance | Yes (IP67) |
Size | 6.07 x 2.93 x 0.31 inches |
Weight | 6.28 ounces |
Colors | Midnight Black, Titanium Gray |
Other Mate 10 Pro highlights include a 5.9-inch 2160 x 1080 display, with an 18:9 aspect ratio that stretches from one end of the phone to the other. The Mate 10 Pro also provided more than 14 hours of battery life (in our testing), dual rear cameras and IP67 water resistance.
The Mate 10 Pro won't be the only phone that Huawei releases in the U.S. The company also teamed up with Porsche Design for Mate 10 Pro Porsche Design edition, which costs $1,225. In addition to a ceramic appearance and other Porsche-inspired aesthetic changes, the special edition phone offers 256 GB of storage instead of the Mate 10 Pro's 128 GB.
The Porsche Design edition of the phone will be available in mid-February.
Philip Michaels is a Managing Editor at Tom's Guide. He's been covering personal technology since 1999 and was in the building when Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone for the first time. He's been evaluating smartphones since that first iPhone debuted in 2007, and he's been following phone carriers and smartphone plans since 2015. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics, old movies and proper butchery techniques. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.