Huawei Mate 8 – Camera

On the back of the Huawei Mate 8 there’s a 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation, an f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus.

  The camera app looks a lot like it’s been taken straight from iOS

There’s also a whole load of modes too, including a rather fully featured manual option that lets you alter the focus, ISO, white balance.

That’s a pretty nice looking set of specs and features, but it doesn’t really tell the whole story.

Daytime shots tend to look overexposed

For seemingly no reason, the camera app slows down on random occasions. One minute the phone would open up the camera app and focus in a few seconds, the next it would stutter and jolt around for 15 seconds with a black screen.

When it does work, the results are equally inconsistent. The 16-megapixel sensor captures a lot of detail, but it’s prone to overexposing even when the lighting conditions seem perfectly fine.

  Again, it’s very easy to end up with overexposed photos

Indoor shots with less of an overbearing light source come out better, and there’s plenty of depth to the blacks when you’re shooting at night. But, again, catch a strong light and it’ll instantly blow-out.

The shutter speed can lag when taking photos at night

The camera app itself is reminiscent of the one on iOS, with a selection of options along the bottom and live filters. It’s probably the best of Huawei’s native app in design terms, but I wish it didn’t suffer from odd performance issues.

Low-light shots have good black depth

Video recording tops out at 1080p, sorry 4K fans, but the results are nice and clear and not too shaky. On the front there’s an 8MP camera for selfie shooting, it’s fine but please steer clear of the all too weird beauty mode that makes me look like a freakishly clear skinned alien.