Last year's Mate 8 made waves thanks largely to its mostly premium features in a phone selling for $300-$400 less than established premium devices. This season's Mate has pushed the specs up, and with that, the price.

It lacks the refinement of the iPhone 7 Plus and Google Pixel XL, but the Huawei Mate 9 is better value (outright or on a plan), offering a bigger screen in a relatively compact unit, long battery life, a good camera and plenty of storage.

Huawei has set itself apart from its competitors by making an actually smart phone that can adjust its performance based on your habits. The Mate 9's machine-learning algorithm prioritizes resources to apps that it anticipates you'll use, making your overall experience smoother.

Unique machine learning algorithm; Impressively thin for such a large-screen device; Long battery life; Brisk performance; Large; bright display; Actually has a headphone jack

Only supports GSM carriers; Mediocre camera quality in low light; Polarizing skin will turn off Android purists

It doesn't have the flame-prone Note 7's beautiful lines and curves, but if you're after a high-performance big-screened phone that won't set your pants on fire, the Mate 9 is a great option.

The Huawei Mate 9 has more power than you'll need; a camera that's great for arty shots and a battery that won't quit on you by dinner

Its screen is only full HD and its design is utterly forgettable

Naturally, the camera of the Huawei Mate 9's dual-lens main camera is the highlight of the phone. More specifically, the bigger highlight of the phone's main camera is its 20MP monochrome camera sensor, which has gained Leica's approval and takes some absolutely gorgeous photos as well.

New HiSilicon Kirin 960 SoC is very snappy; Leica-approved dual-camera is capable of taking impressive photographs; EMUI 5.0 user interface blends seamlessly with the Android 7.0 Nougat OS; Battery life on phone is impressive

Pricetag still a bit on the high side

Huawei's Mate 9 is a strict evolution of its high-end phablet. It is another step ahead in terms of features and performance, and it is still one of the biggest devices in this class, even though it now has a slightly smaller screen. Despite the size, the handling is still very good.

fast camera, great camera with hybrid zoom, fast storage, compact and appealing design, up to three years warranty, LTE Cat; 11, wide frequency coverage, great voice quality with noise suppression, App cloning, IR blaster, dual-SIM ..

..; but only as hybrid slot, microSD-cards cannot be formatted as internal storage, no App2SD, clattering power adapter, slow SD slot, mediocre WiFi performance

In many markets around the world, this might be one of the only options for a truly large screen premium phone. It handles this responsibility with grace. I'm not personally a fan of big phones, yet this Huawei has been one of my favorite phones to review this year.

Improved software skin; Excellent battery life; Excellent camera hardware; Very good stereo speakers; Well accessorized out of the box; Premium fit and finish; Good display brightness

We'd prefer a higher resolution display; Camera software is complex to navigate; No enhanced water protection; Poor headphone audio

At the beginning of November, Huawei released something a little bit exciting – the Huawei Mate 9. I was lucky enough to be given one of these devices for review and as such have been using it for the past few weeks.

What makes this phone so good? Where to begin? Let's start with the superior hardware and software, the 12MP Leica dual lense camera that enables users to capture the highest phone quality pictures, the ‘Press Touch' feature that recognizes subtler variations in screen pressure, making your phone...

aesthetics; camera; functionality

The Huawei Mate 9 excels as a piece of hardware. The display is big and bright. The processor performs admirably and is relatively fast albeit with an occasionally slowdown. The camera produces high quality pictures. The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate.