What is the Huawei Mate RS?
What happens when Huawei's P20 Pro and Mate 10 Pro splices into an unpleasant teleportation disaster? Give me a Mate RS, Scotty.
Okay, maybe it's not that simple: the Mate RS has a couple of tricks in its case adapted for Porsche Design, but there's a lot of P20 Pro DNA here. [19659004] That's not bad, since Huawei's flagship is one of the best Android phones of today, with a set of triple lens cameras that is among the best, as well as a smooth performance and duration of the battery throughout the day. The Mate RS inherits all that and more.
One of the biggest unique selling points of this Porsche Design special is its on-screen fingerprint scanner, although it turned out to be totally useless. The WQHD + OLED screen is a great success, fortunately, and the storage options are 256GB or 512GB massive.
However, the initial price is the real trick. It starts at € 1550 and goes up to € 2095 for additional storage. And there is no titanium, platinum or authentic certified lunar dust in sight.
Related: Best smartphones
Huawei Mate RS – Design
The Huawei Mate RS looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S9 +. It has a similar metal and mixed glass chassis, a rear camera facing the center and an equal amount of dead space at the top and bottom of the 2.5D curved screen, instead of a notch.
The 6 The 1/4 inch OLED screen has the same 18: 9 display ratio as the 6.2-inch AMOLED on the S9 +.
But the camera in Mate RS has a trio of lenses, like the one in the P20 Pro. There's also no 3.5mm headphone jack here; You get a 3.5mm UCB-C adapter in the box, as well as a pair of USB-C in-ear headphones.
It feels lovely to hold, with those gracefully curved edges that help you get comfortable in your hand and do the light work of that 6 inch screen. It also feels solid without being cumbersome. Makes Mate 10 Pro look old-fashioned already. Personally, I could live without the screaming Porsche Design logo stamped on the front.
On the left edge there is a dual SIM slot, but there is no space for a microSD card. However, when you have 256/512 GB inside, you should not need to expand the storage.
A leather case is supplied in the box. Since it is likely that third parties do not create cases for the Mate RS, this will almost certainly be the only case he will have for him, which is a pity. It's a little naff and it actually looks more like synthetic skin. The folio flap also does not completely bend over itself, so try to back up a bit while holding it. It does not act as a support to place the phone on a desk and watch videos, either.
On the positive side, the transparent panel extending on the right side of the case allows you to obtain a monochromatic mini screen by pressing the power button while the case is closed. You get time, date, weather and steps to follow. You can also accept or reject incoming calls by simply sliding up or down the panel.
Huawei Mate RS – Screen
The 6-inch OLED screen is one of the best there is. It is bright and clear, with fantastic viewing angles and excellent levels of black. The text is very clear, and watching movies and TV shows on this phone is a joy, except for the fact that the case does not allow it to be held freely.
I even got to say that this is the best screen I present &. seen on an Android phone so far. By running an identical video next to the Galaxy S9, the Mate RS had a better contrast that kept the colors and highlights strong without sacrificing details in the darkest areas of the scenes.
The resolution can be set to HD + (1440 x 720), FHD + (2160 x 1080) or full WQHD + (2880 x 1440), although the use of the intelligent resolution mode means that Mate RS will automatically reduce the number of pixels to save battery when additional resolution is not necessary.
Si & # 39; Not satisfied with the color balance, the Mate RS also allows you to retouch without stopping. It is set to Vivid by default, which may explode too much, while Standard mode is a bit boring, so it's good to be able to easily reach an intermediate point. Most people will definitely leave it at Vivid and they will be perfectly happy.
The Quick Setting pop-up menu provides easy access to the Eye Comfort mode, which reduces the blue on the screen. If you have trouble sleeping well at night, it is worth using this mode at night, since I have found that these blue light filters are very effective in allowing my brain to turn off.
Huawei Mate RS – Performance [19659002] If you are paying more than a grand for a phone, you would expect nothing more than slippery running. And that is exactly what you get. I have not experienced any delay or stuttering, with each application opening when it should and functioning as it should. The exploration of multiple tabs was not a problem either. That combination of a Kirin 970 octa-core processor and 6GB of RAM should be enough for anything you can throw at the moment.
Power-intensive games like Real Racing 3 worked without any signs of CPU acceleration, and the Mate RS never got very hot. Porsche Design worked with Huawei to develop a state-of-the-art aerospace microcapsule cooling system, the first in the world for a smartphone, which stores the heat generated by internal components, periodically releasing it to maintain a constant operating temperature, instead to disperse. immediately. It seems that it works.
Running our usual benchmark tests showed that it is on par with its Huawei brothers, although it is not oscillating the same scores as the 2018 competition flagships. However, this disparity has not been demonstrated in the use in the real world. You can see the full scores below.
| Single core | Multi-Core | AnTuTu 7 | ||||
| Huawei Mate RS | 1913 | 6777 | 209311 | |||
| Huawei P20 Pro [19659027] 1921 | 6837 [19659025] 209658 | |||||
| Huawei Mate 10 Pro | 1906 | 6740 | 178091 | |||
| Galaxy S9 Plus | 3720 | 8890 | 251205 [19659029] iPhone X | 4257 | ] 10364 | 235607 |
| Pixel 2 | 1917 | 6312 | 184336 |
The sound quality of the double speakers is the brazen side compared to the Galaxy S9, but at least the Mate RS is impressively loud.
Huawei Mate RS – Software
The Android rejuvenation of the Huawei EMUI has taken a good kick in recent years, but it has improved and been cleaned to the point that, I'll admit, I actually like it now . However, I had a rather annoying problem with EMUI in the Mate RS.
The particular flavor used here is based on Android 8.1, and repeatedly told me that I needed an update, to the same version. I kept accepting the update, hoping that at some point he would stay. But no. Now I have upgraded to the same version of EMUI four or five times, and still tells me that there is a new software version available. Hmm.
Ignore that and everything is very clever, with an excellent drop-down menu and some useful configurations, especially those of battery saving. If you want to have an application drawer, the option is there.
One thing that is as far from the stain as you can get is the fingerprint sensor on the screen. I entered two different fingers, one of them three times, and the Mate RS still refused to recognize them 99% of the time. For a phone that costs more than € 1000, it is embarrassing.
Fortunately, the rear fingerprint scanner is super fast and reliable, and facial recognition is also quite reliable.
