You’ve got to hand it to Huawei. Just a week out from Apple’s iPhone 6S launch, it’s revealed the Mate S, which has almost certainly stolen a bit of the Apple phone’s thunder by including its iOS rival’s expected lead feature.
Still, Force Touch isn’t the only thing the Mate S has going for it. For starters, it’s got a genuinely useful rear finger print scanner, used not only for unlocking the phone, but other controls too. A horizontal swipe lets you scroll through gallery images, while a vertical one pulls down notifications. Tap the sensor with the front-facing camera activated and you’ve got yourself a selfie-snap trigger, too. Even after just a few minutes with the phone, I found myself pulling down the notifications toolbar and scrolling through photos intuitively — something that on paper I’d have likely sniffed at.
The phone itself is tidily designed. With a slightly curved 5.5-inch 1080p display, it makes use of an all-metal waterproof unibody design that sits somewhere between an iPhone 6 and the HTC One M9. Only 2.65mm at its thinnest thinnest point, its tapered back and angular edges make for a comfortable fit in the hand.
A 13MP rear camera with manual controls performed surprisingly well in the low light conditions of the demo hall and, despite its ludicrous nature, those that wish to crop their photos using “Knuckle Sense 2.0” rather than their fingertips will find that the phone can accurately determine when it’s a finger joint rather than tip fondling the screen.
Running Android 5.1.1 from a speedy Hisilicon Kirin 935 processor, the Mate S seemed zippy enough on the stock apps provided on Huawei’s demo unit. But it’s the Emotion UI that lets things down. It’s just not as pretty as the hardware it’s paired with, and decisions such as the complete removal of the app drawer (again aping Apple) make no sense when Android is at the core.
It’s a promising handset then overall, marred at first glance by some strange decisions and feature creep. Going up for pre-order on September 15th, the standard edition 32GB/3GB RAM grey or champagne handsets will cost 649 Euros (around $1050) while the 64GB/3GB RAM gold and pink versions will cost 699 Euros (roughly $1130). No word yet on release or pricing for the 128GB model — a pity since it’s the only one that will come with the Force Touch screen. Expect it to be notably more expensive whenever it does arrive.
Our newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix. [clear]
The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans
It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.
At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.
