You remember 2017? It was a weird, transitional year for phones. Apple finally ditched the home button with the iPhone X, and Samsung was busy making screens curve around every available edge. But in the middle of all that noise, Huawei dropped the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. At the time, people just saw them as "those Chinese flagship phones with the Leica cameras." Looking back now, they were actually the blueprint for almost every "AI" feature you see in a modern smartphone today.
Seriously.
Huawei was screaming about the "Neural Processing Unit" (NPU) inside the Kirin 970 chip while the rest of the industry was still focused on raw clock speeds. Most of us rolled our eyes. We thought it was just marketing fluff. It wasn't.
The Kirin 970 was the unsung hero of the AI era
Before the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, your phone was basically a reactive tool. It did what you told it to do, when you told it to do it. Huawei wanted the phone to think. The Kirin 970 was the first mobile platform to feature a dedicated NPU.
Why does that matter?
In simple terms, standard CPUs are great at general tasks, and GPUs handle the visuals. But AI tasks—like recognizing that you’re pointing your camera at a plate of spaghetti rather than a sunset—require a different kind of math. By putting this on a dedicated slice of silicon, the Mate 10 could process 2,000 images per minute. That was insane for 2017.
It wasn't just about the camera, though. The NPU handled "Machine Learning-based Resource Management." Basically, the phone watched how you used it. If you opened Instagram every day at 8:00 AM, the Mate 10 would start prepping the RAM and CPU cycles for that specific app before you even touched the screen. Huawei claimed the phone wouldn't slow down after 18 months of use. Most Android phones back then became stuttery messes after six months, so this was a huge promise.
And honestly? It mostly worked.
What was the actual difference between the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro?
This is where things got confusing for buyers. Usually, a "Pro" model is just a bigger version of the base model. Not here.
The standard Mate 10 actually had a higher resolution screen. It was a 5.9-inch IPS LCD with a 2560 x 1440 resolution. It stayed with the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio, which made it feel wide and substantial in the hand. It also kept the 3.5mm headphone jack—something the Pro model annoyingly ditched—and featured a front-mounted fingerprint scanner.
Then you had the Mate 10 Pro.
It went with a 6-inch OLED panel. Because it used an 18:9 aspect ratio, the phone was narrower and taller, making it way easier to grip with one hand. But the resolution actually dropped to 2160 x 1080. You got better colors and deeper blacks thanks to OLED, but fewer pixels. The Pro was also the only one with IP67 water resistance.
So, you had to choose: Do you want the headphone jack and the sharper screen, or the sexy OLED and the water resistance? It was a tough sell.
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Quick specs at a glance:
- Processor: Kirin 970 (10nm process)
- Battery: 4,000 mAh (huge for the time)
- RAM/Storage: Mate 10 (4GB/64GB), Pro (6GB/128GB)
- Camera: Dual Leica optics (20MP Monochrome + 12MP RGB)
- OS: Shipped with Android 8.0 Oreo
The Leica partnership wasn't just a sticker on the back
Smartphone photography used to be pretty basic. You’d snap a photo, and if it was dark, it looked like garbage. The Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro used a dual-camera setup that was fairly unique. Instead of a wide and a telephoto lens, Huawei used one color (RGB) sensor and one monochrome (black and white) sensor.
The monochrome sensor captured raw light and detail. The RGB sensor captured the color. The phone then mashed them together using the NPU.
The result? Incredible contrast.
If you’ve ever seen a black-and-white photo taken natively on a Mate 10 Pro, you’ll know it hits different. It’s not just a filter; the sensor is literally seeing the world in greyscale with a level of texture that an RGB sensor can't replicate. The f/1.6 aperture on both lenses was also world-leading at the time. It let in a ton of light, which made the "Night Mode" actually usable before Google's Night Sight became the industry standard.
It was basically a computer in your pocket (literally)
Samsung had DeX, but you needed a chunky, expensive docking station to make it work. Huawei looked at that and said, "Nah."
With the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, you just needed a USB-C to HDMI cable. Plug it into a monitor, and boom—Easy Projection. It gave you a full desktop interface. You could use the phone as a touchpad or keep using it as a phone while you watched a movie on the big screen. It was a glimpse into a future where we don't need laptops, just a screen and a cable.
We’re still not quite there as a society, but Huawei was pushing the envelope harder than anyone else back then.
The elephant in the room: EMUI
We have to talk about the software. EMUI 8.0 was... polarizing.
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Coming from a "clean" Android experience like a Pixel, EMUI felt heavy. It looked a lot like iOS, with no app drawer by default (though you could toggle it back on). Icons were colorful and a bit cartoonish.
But beneath the skin, it was incredibly powerful. The battery management was aggressive—sometimes too aggressive, killing background apps to save juice—but it resulted in the Mate 10 Pro being a two-day phone for many people. In a world where iPhones were struggling to hit 5:00 PM, that 4,000 mAh battery was a godsend.
Why people still talk about these phones
The Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro represent the peak of Huawei’s global momentum before the trade bans changed everything. They were sophisticated. They didn't feel like "budget" alternatives to Samsung; they felt like the superior engineering choice.
If you find one in a drawer today, it probably still feels remarkably modern. The glass-and-metal sandwich design with that signature "stripe" across the camera module has aged incredibly well.
Actionable insights for tech enthusiasts:
If you are looking at these devices from a historical or hobbyist perspective, here is what you need to know:
- Battery Replacement is Key: If you’re reviving an old Mate 10, the 4,000 mAh cell is likely degraded. Replacing it is relatively straightforward for a repair shop and breathes new life into the Kirin 970's efficiency.
- Check the Model Number: If you’re buying one second-hand, ensure it's the BLA-L29 (Pro) or ALP-L29 (Standard) for global LTE band support.
- The Monochrome Hack: Use the dedicated "Monochrome" mode under the 'More' section in the camera app. Don't just take a color photo and desaturate it; the dedicated 20MP monochrome sensor provides a dynamic range that software can't fake.
- Desktop Mode: If you have a USB-C hub with HDMI, try the Easy Projection. It still works with most modern monitors and is a great way to use an old phone as a dedicated media center or light workstation.
The Mate 10 series wasn't just a milestone for Huawei; it forced the entire industry to take "AI" seriously. It moved us away from simple hardware specs and toward the era of computational photography and intelligent software. It was a powerhouse then, and it remains a fascinating piece of tech history now.