[Review] Huawei Mate 9: Add some drama to your life

I've been using the Huawei Mate 9 as my main phone since it was launched last month, and I'm kinda in two minds about the device.

Ooh look at those delicious dual Leica lenses

The Bad

1) EMUI 5.0 is pretty awful. It's supposed to get an update soon but it hasn't been touched yet. My biggest problem with this is the status bar - notifications don't pop up as icons, but as a number. E.g. Instead of a Gmail and Whatsapp icon, you get '2', and you need to pull the status bar down to check what they are.

What is '1'? One email? One missed call? One Direction?

2) The Kirin 960 is honestly a bit of a disappointment. While on paper it's supposed to be in the region of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 and Exynos 8890, it sure doesn't feel like it. It stutters when scrolling though my FB feed and it takes a full 30 seconds to load up Pokemon Go. Meh.

Mate 9 y u so slow??

BUT!!

There is one very good reason I've been sticking with the phone: It takes super dramatic pictures.

Dum dum dum...

The camera is pretty much the same as the shooter on the P9, which means dual 27mm f/2.2 Leica lenses. The Mate 9 just lumps on additional OIS and increased monochrome resolution.

To make something suddenly very exciting, you just need to hit these two buttons: wide aperture and vivid saturation.