Those of us whose lives revolve around mobile technology, like yours truly, have become accustomed to the Huawei Mate 10 family of devices for a while such that it seems normal to assume that all the three devices in that family, the standard Mate 10, the Mate 10 Pro and the Mate 10 Lite, are officially available in the Kenyan market. That hasn’t been the case. While Huawei Kenya did demo all the three devices when they were launched in November, only the standard model went on sale immediately, through Jumia.
It wasn’t until mid-December when the “budget” Huawei Mate 10 Lite went on sale.
After a promised “coming in few weeks”, finally the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is also officially available in the market. This time round, the Chinese device maker has gone with longtime partner and leading mobile network operator Safaricom.
Both the Mate 10 Lite and the Mate 10 Pro have been available since November last year through third-party resellers.
Here’s what I said about the Mate 10 Pro back in November in reference to what sets it apart from the standard Mate 10:
Other than having its fingerprint sensor at the back while it’s located on the front on the home button of the standard Mate 10, the other main difference between the two devices is the display size, tech and aspect ratio. The Mate 10 Pro has a 6-inch 18:9 OLED display, a stark contrast to the 5.9-inch 16:9 LCD panel on the standard model. It is worth noting that the Pro has an IP 67 rating which means that it can survive a dunk in the sink thanks to its water and dust resistance while the standard Mate 10 can only withstand splashes thanks to its inferior IP 53 rating.
See specifications of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro here.
As we had already noted, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro goes for Kshs 90,000. Huawei is throwing in a free wearable, the TalkBand B3, valued at Kshs 18,000. Buyers of the device will also be getting free 4GB data from Safaricom. As you would expect with anything to do with Safaricom from now going forward, you can place your order for the Mate 10 Pro over at Masoko, Safaricom’s own e-commerce platform that is rivalling Jumia.
Interestingly, the Masoko listing includes something that Huawei hasn’t been screaming from the rooftops about despite having it as part of its after-sales service for its premium devices sold in Kenya since 2016: that users get a free screen replacement should the screen break within the first 6 months. Nice touch.
