Video Huawei Mate S - Gorgeous, powerful Android phone [Review]

Full review at www.redferret.net . The Huawei Mate S comes in a couple of models, one with dual SIM and one with a microSD card facility. We tried out the latter, which can take up to a 128GB memory card in the SIM slot to add to the onboard storage. Our test unit also didn't have the touch sensitive screen, but even so we were very impressed with the handset overall.

The specs of the phone are not shabby. We're talking a 5.5 AMOLED screen, Kirin 935 2.2GHz 64bit octa-core processor, Android 5.1, 3 GB RAM, 32GB ROM, LTE/4G, 13 megapixel rear camera with OIS (optical image stabilisation) and a 2700 mAh battery. All housed in a gorgeous 7.2mm slim form factor.

The phone features the usual Huawei EMUI user interface layered on top of Android, which comes with a bunch of cool and unusual stuff. As always, purists will probably hate the fact that Android has been polluted like this, but as Samsung has proved, custom interfaces build product loyalty, which is a good thing from a repeat sales viewpoint.

Chief among the innovative features of the phone is the 'Smart Fingerprint Reader', which doesn't just do service as a biometric security device to lock your phone, but also gives you some navigation skills. You can use it to swipe through photos and pull down the notification screen, which are useful tasks which happen a lot. Especially valuable for one handed operation.

We also especially liked the flexibility of the camera in Pro Mode, which lets you manually change things like exposure, ISO and other DSLR type functions, to get the perfect shot. And the scenes featuring light painting looked like they could really be fun. We're including some sample images at the bottom to check out, but overall the camera was impressive.

Conclusion
The Huawei Mate S is a great entrant to the Tier 2 phone market. We would say it's probably one of the most beautiful phones on the market at the moment, and there are no compromises in the specifications either, which makes it a real bargain for those looking for an Android smartphone replacement. It may not have the brand credibility of Sony, but in all other departments it's a worthy rival in every way.

Price: £399.99 SIM Free / $637.00 SIM Free