Samsung Galaxy S8 or Huawei Mate 9?

Sharlotte Marie Ravelo asks, “Which is better: Samsung Galaxy S8 or Huawei Mate 9?“

This match is a battle between a flagship phablets. What are we waiting for? Let’s get started.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is Samsung’s newest flagship phablet, which was released last May 2017. It has a 5.8” Super AMOLED Quad-HD + Infinity display with 2960 x 1440 resolution, a Samsung Exynos 8895 chipset with 1.7GHz reaching up to 2.3GHz, 64GB internal storage, 4GB of RAM, 12MP dual pixel rear camera dual-tone with dual-LED flash, 8MP auto-focus front camera, and a 3000mAh battery.

The Huawei Mate 9 is Huawei’s flagship phablet and was released last December 2016. It has a 5.9” Full HD IPS LCD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, Kirin 960 chipset, 64GB internal storage, 4GB RAM, Dual Leica rear cameras with 20MP monochrome sensor and a 12MP RGB sensor, 8MP front camera, and a 4000mAh battery powering up the phablet.

Here are the detailed specs for both phones.

	Samsung Galaxy S8	Huawei Mate 9
Display	5.8-inch Super AMOLED Quad-HD+ Infinity display @ 2960×1440, 568ppi	5.9-inch full HD IPS LCD display @ 1920 x 1080, 373ppi
CPU	Samsung Exynos 8895 64-bit 10nm octa-core 4 x ARM Cortex A53 1.7GHz + 4 x Exynos M1 2.3GHz	HiSilicon Kirin 960 2.4GHz octa-core
GPU	Mali G71 MP20	Mali-G71 MP8
Memory	– 64GB internal storage – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM	– 64GB internal storage – 4GB RAM
Camera	– 12MP Dual pixel rear camera dual-tone, dual-LED flash, f/1.7 aperture – 8MP front-facing auto-focus camera with f/1.7 aperture	– Dual Leica rear cameras – 20MP monochrome sensor, 12MP RGB sensor with F2.2 aperture, OIS – 8MP front camera with F1.9 aperture
Battery	3,000mAh non-removable battery	4000mAh non-removable battery
OS	Android 7.0 Nougat with TouchWiz	Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.0

Here are each smartphone’s advantages:

Samsung Galaxy S8

+ Better screen display

+ Higher resolution with 1440p

+ Slightly better CPU performance

+ Better GPU

+ IP68

+ More features

Huawei Note 9

+ Slightly higher screen size by 0.1“

+ Better rear camera MP value

+ Larger battery

+ Cheaper

In this flagship battle, the winner is Samsung Galaxy S8 in terms of overall performance and user experience. Even though the Huawei Mate 9 has a better battery life, the Galaxy S8 offers better features than the Mate 9. For their respective camera performance and quality, we will leave it to your judgment to decide which camera is better. You can find our review and sample photos for the Samsung Galaxy S8 here. The review and sample photos for the Huawei Mate 9 are located here. The difference in UI will be dependent on the user’s preference. If we look at their prices, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is priced at Php 39,990 (see listing here), while the Huawei Mate 9 is priced at Php 31,990 (see listing here). If it is a price battle, then we would choose Huawei Mate 9 since their price difference is quite significant as both of them are above the 30k price range. Both flagship phablets are good choices, however Samsung Galaxy S8 is the clear winner here if price is not a factor.