{"id":23796,"date":"2017-03-18T07:48:59","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T23:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=23796"},"modified":"2024-01-25T13:42:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T05:42:27","slug":"huawei-mate-9-part-1-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2017\/03\/18\/huawei-mate-9-part-1-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Huawei Mate 9 – Part 1: Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the nicest things about living in Asia is access to a wide range of mobile technologies, more so with China’s emergence as a leading tech giant. The large telco providers invariably bundle their subscription plans not only phones from mainstream manufacturers – e.g. Samsung, LG, Apple, Sony – but also from equally large manufacturers that are normally not sold bundled with Western carriers, e.g. those in the US . These manufacturers, often from China and Taiwan, include Asus, Oppo, Huawei, HTC, ZTE, Xiaomi, Leagoo and so on. And that’s not counting the other less-known manufacturers that are sold directly from retail shops, usually without manufacturer warranties but with in-store support instead. It’s as one YouTube reviewer <\/a>of Huawei’s phones mused: that some of these Chinese manufacturers are capable of producing really crazy good smartphones that are sold much cheaper than the well-known ones. But despite their advertising dollars spent, these phones are still largely ignored by the American consumer sector as they simply aren’t bundled with carrier plans.<\/p>\n

I was initially intending to change phones only in June when my current contract makes me eligible for a re-contract without the early termination fee. As luck would have it, Ling’s phone contract had already expired, and after some discussion about what she’d want for her next phone, my Note 5 would go to her. On account that she wanted a phone with a stylus, that she didn’t want to pay much for it, and the phone can’t be larger than her Note 3 (something about not fitting into her handbag pouch LOL).<\/p>\n

So, I’d be out of a phone earlier than I thought. Between the couple of phones I listed in the recent post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro<\/a>: was out of stock.<\/p>\n

Oppo R9s Plus: would had been my next choice, were it not for the fact that it does not support NFC – i.e. no Android Pay. Too bad. The relative lack of reviews and commentary about this phone also made me a mite less confident about it.<\/p>\n

Huawei Mate 9<\/a>: reviewed in a lot of sites, and for the most part quite well-received with reviewers noting its decent build, great battery life, brisk processor and speeds, and decent cameras if still slightly under the Note 5 in terms of imaging quality. And on the flip-side, OK screen only and not QHD (not as nice as the Oppo’s or Note 5’s), and on-screen buttons only (matter of personal preference).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Huawei Mate’s Advertising.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, it was the Huawei Mate 9. And for once, switching to this phone from the Note 5 actually feels more like a downgrade than an upgrade LOL. The Note 5 is superior in just about every aspect that I care about: screen quality, resolution, stylus-support, imaging, build, and that it runs for even longer on its 3000mAh battery despite it being smaller than the Mate 9’s 4000mAh. The only thing that the Mate 9 has going for it in comparison is the very slightly larger screen – and that it’s new LOL.<\/p>\n

Still – unboxing pictures for the phone that just arrived, with notes on actual usage to come later!<\/p>\n

\"\"
This is the nicest packaging I’ve yet seen from a smartphone package. Huawei packs the Mate 9 in a premium and oversized gift-styled box.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
User guide, a slim translucent case, quick charger, USB Type-C cable, and microUSB adapter. The earphone’s still in the box.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More in the next post<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the nicest things about living in Asia is access to a wide range of mobile technologies, more so with China’s emergence as a leading tech giant. The large telco providers invariably bundle their subscription plans not only phones<\/p>\n

Read More Huawei Mate 9 – Part 1: Decisions<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[551],"class_list":["post-23796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-toys-technology","tag-smartphone","wpcat-16-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2017-technology-OMEC0451-huawei-mate9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35338,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23796\/revisions\/35338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}