Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Meet the Rocky Balboa of Phones The phone has finally been launched in India and is priced at Rs 69,990

HUAWEI IS a tech giant that has many firsts to its name when it comes to smartphone innovation. But stiff competition and back-to-back phone launches makes it difficult to constantly innovate, both in terms of the product and the user experience.

However, Huawei seems to have no qualms when it comes to standing up to its competition and upping its game with each new launch. Which brings us to the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

The device oozes quality, both in terms of hardware as well as software. It’s a near-perfect device and that’s why its a real shame that the phone’s entry into the Indian market was delayed. The phone was launched in New Delhi and is priced at Rs 69,990.

We have been using the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and here’s our detailed review.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Design

‘Stunning’ is the first word that comes to mind when one looks at the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Critics will, however, say that it looks exactly like the Samsung Galaxy S9.

But you’ll change your mind the moment you hold the phone – it’s all glass and all quality.

The front is taken up by its edge-to-edge curve display with a notch at the top while the rear has a smooth finish with no rough edges. The panel is an  OLED display that offers a 2K resolution.

Huawei’s triple rear camera is definitely a design and engineering feat, and reminiscent of the headlamps on the Porche Panamera. The power button on our midnight blue Huawei Mate 20 Pro is painted red, adding class to the device.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is IP 68 water and dust resistant and is just shy of 190 grams having dimensions of 72.3×157.8×8.8mm. The device sits perfectly in your palm and is also easy to pocket.

That said, it is a shiny device and users will have to make an extra effort to keep it clean and fingerprint free.

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Huawei Mate 20 Pro Notch

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro comes with a notch but this is probably the only Android device that houses more than just the front camera and the earpiece on it.

The notch has the Dot Projector, a 24-megapixel RGB selfie camera, a flood illuminator, proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor and an IR camera.

The phone comes the close to matching the notch prowess of an iPhone XS Max. Also, the IR camera ensures that you get a fast face unlock if you wish to set it up.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Display

Huawei has used an OLED panel on the phone measuring at 6.39-inches with 16.7 million colours on offer and a resolution of 3120×1440 pixels. The display is crisp and has a pixel density of 538ppi.

The 2K display on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a curved glass with exceptional clarity bettering the Samsung Galaxy S9 display quality. The viewing angles and the sunlight legibility is also impressive.

This can easily be the best display on a smartphone trumping even the iPhone XS Max. The device also comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor just like the Vivo NEX and the OnePlus 6T.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Performance

This phone has no dearth of power. There is 6GB RAM for operations and 128GB of onboard storage that’s expandable via a nano memory (NM) card.

The device is powered by a 7nm Kirin 980 octa-core chipset which surpasses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC making it the world’s fastest mobile processor.

Four cores with A76 architecture are clocked at 2.6 GHz and 1.96 GHz while the remaining cores have a Cortex A55 architecture clocked at 1.8 GHz.

Simply put, this has all the firepower that you would need for the next two years.

The chipset management works just like the cylinder-on-demand technology in a sports car.

Everyday apps and functions do not even use half the processing prowess that the Kirin 980 has to offer and if you want to multitask or even play a game like PUBG on full graphics settings, it will still be left with some juice to deal with other functions.

The EMUI 9.0 based Android OS is quite intuitive and easy to use even for an iPhone user like me. In terms of performance, if you are not a Qualcomm loyalist then this is the device for a power user.

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Huawei Mate 20 Pro Cameras

This is where the Huawei Mate 20 Pro excels. Huawei has again collaborated with Leica to give you the unique tri-camera + flash rear camera setup.

There is a 40-megapixel (yes, that’s right) wide-angle lens, a 20-megapixel ultra wide-angle lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens.

This allows you to click 2.5 cm ultra-macro photos and provides an exceptional depth of field for portraits. The front camera has a 24-megapixel RGB sensor giving you exceptionally detailed selfies.

The device’s camera is also loaded with super HDR technology that fuses up to 10 frames in raw to produce exceptional images. The cameras come with 10x zoom and Huawei has also thrown in an underwater mode for the more adventurous users.

We’ll also be getting you a full camera review of the all-new Huawei Mate 20 Pro very soon, but for this review, all we have to say is that if you love clicking quality images and recording videos, this is the phone to buy.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Battery

The phone has 4200mAh non-removable battery that can easily last more than a day and is a good support to the OLED panel and powerful processor.

This can be attributed to the immensely meticulous battery management system and the EMUI 9.0 that maintains balance and makes the battery last longer.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro also supports fast and wireless charging. The 40W Huawei SuperCharger is quite powerful but doesn’t match up to the DASH charger on the OnePlus 6T.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Verdict

This is one of the most exciting phones that we have used this year trumping even the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Google Pixel 3 XL.

In our opinion, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro might not be the king of smartphones but it definitely is the king of flagship Android smartphones in 2018.

So, if you are bored with your Samsung or a Pixel flagship’s incremental upgrades year on year, this is the device to switch to.

~ENDS~