When Huawei announced the Mate S last year, they took pains to emphasise the premium smartphone’s design with the launch theme being ‘gold’. This is very well reflected in the device itself which has a unibody all metal design with a prominent gold trim.

BEAUTIFUL SHELL

The full metal design also has the advantage of superior heat dissipation compared to hybrid metal and plastic models. The Mate S is also extremely thin, measuring just 7.2mm at the edges. Weight is also not a problem with the device weighing just 156gms.

There is no real bezel to speak of with the Gorilla Glass cover extending right to the edges. But keep in mind that it does not curve all the way around like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. There is a fingerprint scanner on the rear, precisely where your index finger is likely to be. The fingerprint sensor has been upgraded from the previous version, boasting 100 percent increased recognition speed and increased sensitivity. In our tests, it was certainly very responsive.

The fingerprint sensor is also useful for taking selfies. Tapping it in selfie mode will trigger the shutter while swiping down will allow access to the notification center. Swiping from left to right (and vice versa) in the Gallery app will allow scrolling between your various photos and videos.

DISPLAY MATTERS

The Mate S has an AMOLED Full HD 1080p display. In the current age of 4K smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, it would be fair to say that this resolution is below par for a premium device. On the flip side, the 5.5-inch AMOLED screen does produce higher contrast images and is also very bright.

IN-HOUSE HARDWARE

In an interesting choice, Huawei has chosen its own HiSilicon Kirin 935 SoC to power the Mate S. In a market dominated by premium smartphones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, it certainly sets the Mate S apart.

The HiSilicon Kirin 935 consists of an octa-core CPU and a Mali-T628 MP4 GPU. The GPU in particular is not the most powerful around. The SoC is also paired with 3GB of RAM. Internal storage starts at 32GB which can be expanded using a microSD card.

Verdict: Literally golden in design, but not quite in performance

Value: 8/10

Features: 9/10

Performance: 7/10

Design: 10/10

Usability: 9/10

Total: 8.6