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Alexa on Huawei's Mate 9 won't listen unless you press
When we first learned that Huawei planned to bring Amazon's Alexa to its Mate 9 flagship, there weren't many details on what the execution would look like. All we really knew was that it would be rolling out via a software update to the phone, and that its availability would be limited. Today, Huawei has revealed just how the integration will work. Sadly, parts of this implementation don't make sense, with the most disappointing piece being that you have to press your phone at least once before you can talk to Alexa. That basically defeats the point of even having a voice assistant.
Pros and cons: Our quick verdict on the Huawei Mate 9
The most interesting thing about Huawei's latest flagship, the Mate 9, is actually invisible to the naked eye. Under the hood, the phone uses machine learning to anticipate which apps you're going to use when, allowing for supposedly smoother performance. What the phone would have been like without this AI, we don't know, but we can say that the performance feels brisk throughout. If fluid day-to-day use seems like table stakes, you might also be impressed with the long battery life, bright display and the fact that it actually has a headphone jack. Unfortunately, what's otherwise a great phone stumbles with low-light photography, as well as some heavy-handed software tweaks that will turn off Android purists. ] The Mate 9 isn't on sale here in the US yet, but we expect to learn pricing in the next month or so. If the price is on par with what it costs in Europe, the phone will be on par with or slightly cheaper than its rivals, which would make it a good value, so-so camera notwithstanding.
