Gadgetory

Here we are. The first durability test of 2018. It's time to play with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. I'm a fan of these glass sandwich phones normally, especially when the back glass is replaceable. I've already torn down the titanium gray colored Mate 10 that Huawei gave me, so if you haven't seen that video yet, check it out after this one. This midnight blue version I bought myself since I only do durability tests to brand new phones so I can keep things fair. Let's... get started. [Intro] I always start with the scratch test to check what the screen is made from. Not all screens are made equally. This Mohs scale of hardness let's us find the difference between plastic, glass and sapphire. I hear that Blackberry just released a new phone with nano diamond scratch resistant coatings, so that test should be interesting. Huawei has included a high quality plastic screen protector covering their phone, which is nice of them to go the extra mile. But I am going to remove that for this test. Plastic scratches at a level 3, tempered glass at a level 6, and sapphire would be a level 8. This Huawei Mate 10 Pro scratches at a level 6 with a deeper groove at a level 7. Very normal so far. The Huawei logo under the glass is permanent. The front facing camera is also under the glass and protected. The earpiece grill is metal with small holes, so if the magnet does attract metal shavings or dirt, it should still be pretty easy to keep clean. The sides of the phone are made from anodized aluminum that you can see me scraping away with my razor. Drops and dings might show up as silver, as you can see here, but Huawei is nice enough to include a free case in the box - still going the extra mile. At the bottom of the phone there is one hole for the USB-C charging port and nothing else. There is no headphone jack which I guess is fine for most people these days apparently, but for me, a headphone jack is kind of like a toothpick - you don't need one every day, but it's still incredibly nice to have one when you do need it. For now, my daily driver will always have a headphone jack. The sides and buttons are made from metal. Thumbs up to Huawei for consistency and quality materials. Even up here at the top of the phone it's still metal. We also find a little infrared sensor at the top next to one of those little microphone holes. Now, the back of the phone has two lenses - the one at the top being a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor covered by glass. And the bottom lens is the 12 megapixel color optically stabilized camera, also covered with glass. Both lenses are aesthetically tucked into rectangular banding at the top of the glass. The metal lens circles do protrude a bit from the glass, but not as much as we've seen with the new iPhones. The fingerprint scanner has a plastic coating over the top which can scratch pretty easily with a razor blade. You know how it is. But even after heavy damage, it can still read my fingerprint surprisingly quick. I do like the positioning of this sensor right below the camera lenses. I don't ever use the fingerprint scanner on my current phone, the Galaxy S8 Plus, because it's in such an awkward spot. So at least Huawei has the placement right. And now for the burn test. I still haven't found a reason for this test yet, it's mostly just fun to watch, since as we know, AMOLED screens don't ever fully recover from the flame, while IPS displays sometimes do. In this case, the HDR10 6 inch AMOLED display lasted 40 seconds, which is one of the longest lasting displays yet - right up there with the Galaxy S8. Definitely don't try this at home though because it does melt away the oleophobic glass coating...and burning your own phone is just not a smart thing to do. I'm a professional phone burner. While maneuvering the phone into the bend position, I noticed the screen dropped down into the lower third of the phone, I assume for easy one-handed operation. I'm not sure how I managed to do this, but it's kind of a nifty feature, especially for bigger devices like this one. Still fully functioning with the display back in it's fully extended proper position, we commence the bend test. Not all phones survive. The glass HTC U11 last year was one of the least durable phones, snapping under the pressure of the bend test. But this Huawei Mate 10 is faring much better. Whether bent from the back or the front, there's hardly any flex to the phone, with no damage being done to the glass screen or the glass back. Not even a crinkle near the metal power button. The Mate 10 Pro passes my durability test. This is only the first durability test of 2018 - I think we should test many, many more. Let me know what other phones you want to see tested this year in the comments, and come hang out with me on Instagram. Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.