Is it just me, or has the smart phone market gone a bit quiet in the last few months?

 

Maybe that's what happens when one of the most anticipated devices of the year starts exploding in people's pockets.

 

In an unprecedented turn of events, suddenly lovers of phones with oversized screens were left with a lot less to choose from. Until now.

 

 

This could well be the moment Huawei has been waiting for. In the wake of the Note 7's spectacular demise, my feeling is Samsung users are still unlikely to cross to the dark side (iPhone). Google's Pixel XL models are an option, but they're an expensive option and I'm not sure how many people want to shell out $1400 plus for a relatively untested newcomer to the marketplace.

 

Meanwhile, Huawei has consistently been producing elegant, high-performance, non-exploding handsets for several years. The Mate 9 is clear evidence Huawei is more than ready to foot it with the biggest of the big boys.

 

There's small a list of things the Mate 9 is missing, but the list of things it's got going for it is a lot longer - and some of those things you won't find on another phone.

 

To start with, it's really pretty. Remember, this is a massive phone; the display is 5.9 inches. But because that screen stretches right to the very edge of the handset, it still fits easily in your hand. The curved back and noticeably bevelled edges make the Mate 9 even more comfortable still. It's super slim at the sides and the first phones available in New Zealand will be "Mocha Brown" in colour. This is not a dark brown, it's somewhere between gold and grey - very sophisticated.

 

The Mate 9 features the same innovative Leica camera as it's P9 predecessors, you know; the one with two lenses. This means amazing black and white options, as well as satisfactory low-light performance. However, as I found with the P9, the auto-shoot setting doesn't always produce stellar results and if you have the opportunity, you're probably better off fiddling with the settings to ensure the perfect shot. (At least those advanced settings are accessible with a simple swipe, and it's certainly worth the effort)

 

Sadly, Huawei still hasn't figured out how to charge wirelessly through a metal casing, but you do get genuinely fast charging via USB-C cable (that's the one that doesn't matter which way round you plug it in). The fast charger lives up to its name, especially considering the Mate 9's huge 4000mAh battery. It takes a battery that powerful to run a 5.9 inch screen and it was certainly interesting to note how easy it was to either save or waste power with a few tweaks (brightness settings, darker wallpaper etc). Don't worry, a long day's use is absolutely no problem on a full charge. The two days Huawei alludes to on its website is, as with any phone's publicity, pure hype. (Unless you just leave the phone in your pocket and never turn the screen on)

 

The Mate 9's fingerprint sensor is, without doubt, the best I've ever experienced. For starters, it's on the back, right where your index finger naturally sits. But it still works even if you pick up the phone sideways or upside down. Better yet, it turns the display on straight to your home screen, instantly. Even when my fingers were damp or greasy, I struggled to get the sensor to not work. Love it.

 

When it comes to the UI, Huawei has made some pretty significant tweaks. Yes, the EMUI interface is still installed over the top of the Android 7.0 OS, but now you can choose to tuck your icons away in an app drawer instead of being forced to scroll through screens and screens of apps and folders you hardly ever use (suck on that, iPhone users). But the real breakthrough is finally, FINALLY an over-sized phone comes with the native ability to display its home screen in landscape mode. Yes, my prayers (for years) have been answered at long last. Normally I'm forced to use Nova Launcher to set up a sideways home screen, but I didn't even install Nova on the Mate 9 - the new functionality let me customise everything quite satisfactorily indeed. In saying that, occasionally the Mate 9 was slow to recognise it had been unlocked in landscape mode and would require a little shake to straighten things out.

 

The Mate 9 even has a couple of secrets up its sleeve. While there's no on-board stylus as you'd find on a Sumsang Galaxy Note, you do still have the ability to multi-window, which is actually pretty useful on a screen of this size. The trick is how to activate it. I knew it was supposed to do it, I just couldn't see how. Eventually (on about the 3rd page of my Google search) I discovered something called a knuckle swipe. This unique gesture literally slices the display in half, allowing you to show and control 2 apps at once.

 

What I didn't know the Mate 9 could do is control my telly. It's been a while since I heard of any phone maker including IR capability on their handsets - Samsung stopped building it in years ago. I thought that was a weird decision, especially if you were already likely to be using your device to stream content to your home theatre. For some reason Huawei has brought that function back on the Mate 9, once again turning your phone into a universal remote. Good on them.

 

Huawei's now famous Kirin CPU keeps this phone working super fast, with a variety of options to improve download speeds. In short, the Mate 9 is designed to monitor the way you're using it and is supposed to actually speed up over time when other phones start to seem tired.

 

The display, while full HD, is not QUAD HD. No, don't worry - I don't really know what that means either. Apparently it may have limitations when it comes to displaying VR content. I'll consider this a limitation when I'm spending all day watching VR content. Till then, it looks fine to me.

 

Oh, it comes with a massive 64GB of storage as standard by the way, and you can use the dual sim tray to accommodate an extra microSD card if you should ever need more.

 

Sorry this review is so long, but this phone is really that good. I keep remembering more things I love about it - like the brilliantly intuitive keyboard or the easily accessible range of themes (I knitted my home screen its own festive jersey for Christmas). Yes, it's a significant jump in price ($300 more than the smaller P9), but I have no qualms claiming the Mate 9 is $300 better and it's still way cheaper than an iPhone 7 Plus.

 

No, the Mate 9 isn't waterproof, but it doesn't explode either. Huawei have successfully jumped into the ill-fated Note 7's gap and it might take Samsung a while to force them back out.

 

Click here for more information on the Huawei Mate 9