Gadgetory

these phones are quite a bit alike in a number of different ways for you specs junkies you can pause the video here to get a quick look at the hardware differences between the two now with that out of the way in part one of our big phone dual-camera showdown we're pitting huawei's mate 9 against what will likely be one of the top-selling phablets of the year the iPhone 7 plus both are rockin 1080p LCDs both have fingerprint sensors both have stereo speakers and both have crazy-cool dual camera systems these displays are pretty evenly matched with a slight brightness edge going to the iPhone Apple scores for having better color accuracy but it's incredible to see how much screen Huawei has packed into a frame nearly the same size as the iPhone looking at overall build quality both phones feel solid aluminum frames the iPhone landing a touch thinner but that's less a concern with such large devices personally I prefer the rear mounted fingerprint sensor on the mate as dancing a slippery phone around in your hand is daunting at this screen size however we do appreciate that Apple includes enhanced water resistance for the durability win speaker performance is also a fairly even matchup but the headphone playback shows a wider difference the mate 9 is more convenient for having the jack built-in but Apple's headphone adapter delivers higher quality audio and a quick look at battery life the iPhone 7 plus is our undisputed champ for benchmarking but the main tonight doesn't land too far behind 30-minute streaming HD video over Wi-Fi at 190 Lux the seven plus drained three percent of its battery while the mate drained for both phones easily lasting all day or two days with light use and power saving options the script flips on recharging though where the mate is a screamer using the included charger for 30 minutes the iPhone topped off 19 percent while the mate 9 hit a fantastic 58 percent recharge lastly we've got to talk about these cameras and for two dual camera systems they couldn't be more different in feel and application Apple has stayed consistent with the simplified interface while Leica and Huawei are delivering a fairly full-featured photography layout in general looking at full auto to full auto shots the iPhone remains the more consistent performer in image processing and we like that Apple seems to play more with the color of afternoon light California Sun gets warm in the evenings mate photos tend to be a bit stark with the white balance airing on true white but we are happy to see that this dual camera system still delivers on what we liked from the p9 images have terrific dynamic range with excellent detail and the larger camera sensors produce softer bouquet it doesn't take much of an adjustment from manual modes or an editing to fill in some without warm or white balance apples dual sensor design incorporates a zoom while the mates uses info from both sensors to improve light color and contrast Huawei utilizes a number of fancy / scanning tricks for image processing Apple's Hardware delivers a 2 X optical zoom which can be further cropped while the mate over samples the image to deliver a 4x hybrid zoom which still retains the 12 megapixel resolution of standard shots the iPhone output is a bit sharper but while weighs performance here is surprisingly good for this kind of software processing and gets it just a touch closer to your subject before cropping adding Hardware stabilization to the mate 9 is a huge step up over the p9 and we also get you HD video using h.265 compression to keep file sizes from getting out of hand one minute of UHD video on the iPhone weighs in at 325 megabytes while the mate 9 is saving you more than 100 megabytes per minute for comparable quality o is is appreciated but Huawei's implementation is noticeably busier software stabilization can have some issues with panning but apple's solution is formidable and produce a smoother output especially when trying to hold still the mates videos just livelier though it's important to mention that the iPhone still loses on audio capture with a mono signal while the may not only delivers stereo audio it can also focus those microphones to hone in on the direction of your subject the other handy advantage of having dual sensors is the ability to use depth information Apple has released the portrait mode beta and it's a smooth operator using the zoom lens to help deliver a prettier bouquet blur to your background when you line up the shot under the right conditions the effect pops into place nice and easy the problem is this is an automatic filter if you're too close or the camera besides there's not enough light the effect won't activate this is problematic for the zoom lens as that camera is using a smaller sensor with a smaller aperture so it's already not a low light champ the mate 9 on the other hand is able to use both sensors together since the lenses have the same focal length like as wide aperture mode doesn't require any specific distance or lighting conditions and users have the option of adjusting blur after the shots been taken so even close up under dim indoor lighting you can still apply the background blur effect these to deliver on very different philosophies as I personally prefer shooting on cameras which give the user more control I'm obviously going to lean towards the mate but I also have to admit that this system has one of the steeper learning curves for folks looking to jump in and start shooting if you're apt to shoot full auto you'll likely be better served by the iPhone so let's wrap this up where does that leave us between the mate 9 and the iPhone 7 plus these Titans deliver a brutal battle nearly option for option where one might take an advantage the other will top on a different feature even personally where I enjoy the mates camera I prefer listening to music on the iPhone I personally prefer Android but emu i5 and huawei's customizations still need to prove themselves against the performance track record of iOS and Apple's history of support and updates for my money I'd still pick the mate but for anyone considering an ecosystem swap this is a tough choice between two monster devices which phone would convince you to part with your cash vote in our viewer poll by clicking the more info icon in the upper right corner of this video as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for our full mate 9 coverage we're not done with the comparisons just yet as there's another dual sensor phablet ready to join the battle and sharing these videos on your favorite social networks is always greatly appreciated for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos bag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next comparison