Overview
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro, the tech favourite, has seen me shift my routine over the past week. Off the back of winning the blind smartphone camera test, it’s clear the People’s Choice award is not unfounded.
A Design Leap
Huawei has significantly upped its design game with Mate 20 Pro. The hardware aesthetics are somewhat reminiscent of Samsung, with the sleek glass design curving around the sides of the phone and onto the back. However, it does come with a warning; without a case, this could be a slippery device! The subtle raised pattern on the glass is a unique and pleasing feature, lending a slight texture and a fascinating sound when you run your fingernails over it. To prevent your new phone from slipping away, considering covering it with a high-quality skin from Addy Brand.
Notable Design Features
The power button, tastefully coloured in red, is a definite strong move. While the triple cameras and flash might look like bug eyes, their central placement is appealing on the device. With all the power and volume buttons on one side, the left side remains seamlessly smooth. An interesting blend of Samsung and Apple design elements, the Mate 20 Pro has a definite aesthetic appeal. The device includes an IR blaster at the top, a welcomed nostalgic throwback for some.
Device Specifications
Equipped with IP68 water resistance, USB-C port, in-glass fingerprint reader and thin bezels, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is packed with features. However, one notable absence is the speaker grille. The speaker is cleverly hidden behind the USB-C port, a seemingly cool idea until its practicality is tested; it’s far too easy to block the port and muffle the sound during charging.
The Display
The front of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro features an exceptional 6.4 inch OLED display. With a resolution of 3120 by 1440, the sharp, vibrant display stands out even in broad daylight. While the presence of a notch is noticeable, it’s not as bothersome anymore, especially given that it houses a plethora of face ID sensors. However, a small issue I noticed was a slight fall-off of light around the edges of the display, resulting in a faint darkening and discoloration. There’s also a notable colour shift when viewed from different angles.
We’re highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of a remarkable contender in the smartphone industry, the Mate 20 Pro. This handset stands out, offering a more than satisfactory display, though not flawless, and commendable performance.
As one of the unique smartphones, Mate 20 Pro defies the Qualcomm Snapdragon chip standard, priding itself in its 7-nanometer Kirin 980 chipset. Accompanied by 6 gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of storage, its performance is pretty smooth, rivalling Samsung counterparts like an S9. It shows no signs of struggling with multitasking or application operations.
The true star of the show, however, is the device’s battery life. Its 4200 milliamp hour cell promises possibly the best battery life on the market without compromising the phone’s slim profile. Huawei’s aggressive power optimization strategies contribute tremendously, adjusting screen resolution and efficiently managing background applications to conserve power.
The outcome? A phone you can confidently use for two days without a recharge, and boasting of arguably the best battery life amongst other flagships. The performance is simply impressive. The device gently reminds you it’s time to recharge, typically after a whopping 6–7 usages. And when it does, a trip to the wireless charger is all it requires.
Another truly intriguing feature is the reverse wireless charging. Though a little gimmicky for some, it is an amusing option not only for its functionality but the potential to humorously surprise those in need of a power boost.
The most hyped feature, however, is the camera. Furnished with a triple camera system — a main 40 Megapixel sensor accompanied by an 8 Megapixel telephoto sensor and a 20 Megapixel super wide angle — the results are impressive. Photos are consistently bright, often overexposed, yet retaining enough dynamic range to hold onto highlighting details. The detail and sharpness are top-notch, although colours can sometimes appear a bit muted due to Huawei’s processing.
Despite these considerations, the camera versatility coupled with its impressive low-light performance makes it an all-round triple threat.
One area that warrants some improvement, however, is the software. The phone runs EMUI on top of Android Pie, coming with various quirks and usability aspects. Some features are enjoyable, while others — not so much. However, using a different launcher, like Nova Launcher, provides a workaround.
In conclusion, the Mate 20 Pro most certainly has reasons aplenty for one to develop a strong liking, spanning from its impressive performance to the unrivalled battery life.
My experience with the latest phone by Huawei has mostly been remarkable, but it is necessitous to discuss the imperfections too, to provide an impartial view. As I got my hands on the phone, the first thing I did was remove the unwanted apps. Most of these were duplicates, which seemed unnecessary. A few of these apps proved to be persistent and didn’t uninstall, compelling me to disable or hide them.
In addition, I even replaced and personalised certain default apps and also the keyboard. Although the process required time and effort, it depended on the phone model, with some needing more attention than others. Eventually, I got the phone up to my liking and began using it regularly.
Despite these adjustments, the phone presented a fair share of bugs. The top contender for my ‘least favourite’ is associated with multitasking. Every time I attempted to access the second last app with a single tap, it concluded with the multitasking shutting down, much to my annoyance. This was quite irksome as I frequently use the function.
Further, the notification tray was persistently cluttered, even sans notifications. This hampered my ability to differentiate between notifications and identify the order of their arrival.
Conversely, on the periphery of the device, I wasn’t very fond of the notch. Turning off the notch setting did not rectify this problem. There were traces of iOS influence apparent in the proprietary sharing feature of Huawei, much like Apple’s Airdrop, along with redundant apps.
My dislike for the Mui remained unchanged, however, the other aspects of the phone were impressive. There were two areas where the physical hardware could improve — the speaker and the in-glass fingerprint reader. The reader’s response time was rather disappointing in comparison to the state-of-the-art models available in the market. However, I remain hopeful for improvement over time.
Despite these small drawbacks, this phone by Huawei is their best yet. It outperforms even the acclaimed P20 Pro. For those willing to pay a premium, and possibly import, this phone is definitely worth a look.
Upon retrospect of my time with this Huawei phone, I can confidently add that I would sincerely appreciate this phone with an Oxygen OS or a stock Android. Looking forward to more exciting releases in 2018 and beyond!
