INTRODUCTION:
When
Huawei Philippines officially unleashed its latest flagship smartphone – the
P20 Pro, our team has received a handset to try on. And as we get along with the device for a month now, we can’t deny the fact that it’s one of the most impressive phones that we’re able to mingle with.
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| Huawei P20 Pro Review; A Revolutionary Three-lens Camera Phone! |
Loaded with powerful specs, the P20 Pro is a revolutionary camera phone that boasts
triple Leica cameras. On top of this groundbreaking feature, we spent more time to see what more it can offer.
Here's our full review!
PHYSICAL:
The P20 Pro is the most premium-looking smartphone that Huawei has to offer yet. Dressed with metal and glass body, the phone could easily get the upper hand if we’re going to compare it with other flagship devices in terms of its look.
The brand’s flag bearer is big at
155m x 73.9mm x 7.8mm, while it weighs
180 grams. Although it can comfortably sit on our hands through its curved and rounded corners, we still don’t recommend one-hand usage as its body is too slippery. We also advise consumers to use its protective case to avoid smudges, noting that it has a fingerprint-magnet and glass-like body.
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| 18.7:9 Screen Aspect Ratio |
Its front flashes a large
6.1-inch FHD+ OLED panel with
18.7:9 screen aspect ratio. Together with its regular variant, the P20 Pro is also the brand's first smartphone to join the notch party. The notch houses the earpiece and its 24-megapixel selfie snapper. Good thing, you can hide it in the display settings if you prefer to.
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| Fingerprint Scanner |
Its fingerprint scanner, however, is awkward below its screen. Also works as its home button, I personally felt like it’s better if it is located at the back of the phone where we can easily tap it.
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| Speaker Grilles and USB Type-C Port |
The left side of the phone accommodates its hybrid dual-SIM card slot, while its volume rocker and power/lock button are placed on the right side. On the other hand, its USB Type-C port and loudspeaker are sited at the bottom of the device. And yup, it lacks an audio jack.
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| Mirror-like Design |
Flip the device on its back to see how it disguises itself as a mirror. It is mounted with a triple-camera setup composed of
40-megapixel RGB shooter,
20-megapixel monochrome sensor, and
8-megapixel telephoto lens.
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| Multi-touch Test |
Going back to its display, it features a
6.1-inch FullView OLED screen with
2240 x 1080 pixels, translating to
408 ppi. The device is good for watching videos and playing games with heavy graphics. In addition, its brightness works fine both indoors and outdoors. We don’t mind its notch on the top of its panel, as well.
It scored
10 on multi-touch test.
SOFTWARE:
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| Software |
The P20 Pro runs on
Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 skin on top of it. It has simple interface, though it is somehow confusing at first. EMUI 8.1 features
floating navigation dock,
Smart Split screen, and
Smart Multi-Column Display.
To navigate the phone, users can choose from three System Navigation options: an
Off-Screen navigation button which requires a gentle touch on the navigation key or trackpad;
On-Screen Navigation Key which you can hide anytime and reveal by simply swiping up from the bottom of the screen; and V
irtual Navigation Bar, a conventional navigation keys found in various Android phones.
It comes with pre-installed apps, including Google native apps, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Lazada, and some games.
PERFORMANCE:
The P20 Pro is powered by 2.3GHz 64-bit
Kirin 970 octa-core processor with NPU dedicated A.I. chip and i7 co-processor. It is complemented with Mali-G72 MP12 graphics, and is coupled with
6GB of RAM and
128GB of non-expandable storage.
We ran it on various benchmark apps to give us a preview of its raw processing power. Here are the results:
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| Benchmark Results |
- AnTuTu – 204,257
- Geekbench – 1,899 (Single Core)
- Geekbench – 6,720 (Multi Core)
- 3DMark – 30,093 (Ice Storm Unlimited)
- 3DMark – Max (Ice Storm Extreme)
- 3DMark – 3,267 (Sling Shot)
- 3DMark – 2,954 (Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL ES 3.1)
- 3DMark – 2,975 (Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan)
- PCMark Work 2.0 – 7,225
Its good benchmark scores reflect its actual performance. Used as our primary phone, the P20 Pro was able to accompany us from doing our simple tasks to heavy usage. It has speedy performance, and could manage multi-tasking, as well.
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| Pre-installed Game |
Also, it can smoothly play videos and games with heavy graphics. Freezing isn’t a thing to mind, but we noticed that it gets hot when we heavily used it while its battery is at low level. It’s manageable, though.
See Also:
Huawei P20 Pro versus Samsung Galaxy S9+
CAMERA:
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| Triple Leica Cameras |
Still co-engineered with Leica, the phone boasts a triple camera setup composed of
40-megapixel f/1.8 RGB shooter,
20-megapixel f/1.6 monochrome sensor, and
8-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens. The device is equipped with
24-megapixel seflie snapper, as well.
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| Camera Settings |
Its main camera features
4D predictive focus,
AIS,
5x zoom,
4K video recording,
960fps slow motion, and
dual tone LED flash. In addition, its AIS delivers steady images for up to
six (6) seconds even without the use of tripod. It also comes with
A.I. technology that can intelligently detect more than
500 scenarios in 19 categories to produce more pro-like photographs.
Its front camera, on the other hand, is coupled with
A.I. Face Beauty and
3D portrait lighting.
Sample Photos:
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| Outdoor (Original) |
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| Outdoor (3x Zoom, Same Spot) |
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| Outdoor (5x Zoom, Same Spot) |
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| Outdoor (Original) |
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| Outdoor (3x Zoom, Same Spot) |
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| Outdoor (5x Zoom, Same Spot) |
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| Outdoor |
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| Indoor |
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| Aperture |
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| Outdoor |
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| Indoor |
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| Outdoor |
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| Outdoor |
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| Outdoor |
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| Outdoor |
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| Night Mode |
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| A.I. Scene Detection |
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| A.I. Scene Detection |
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| Night Mode |
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| Night Mode |
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| Night Mode |
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| Night Mode |
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| Night Mode |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Monochrome |
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| Selfie |
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| Indoor |
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| Portrait |
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| Night Mode |
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| Portrait |
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| Night Mode |
Yup, the P20 Pro might be the king of camera phones today. With its revolutionary camera setup, its rivals will definitely have a hard time exceeding its performance.
Personally, the most impressive ability of the phone is its 5x zoom. During our test, it took not just clear but also great photos even when the subject is too far from us. We just have to mention that this feature works better in places with good lighting. It can produce good photos in low-light settings, as well, but some noises became visible.
It has the best low-light camera performance compared to other smartphones that we’ve tested yet. True enough, shooting night photos using the device is fun and never been exciting like this.
Its A.I. technology can intelligently detect different scenes, too. Although it adds more flavors to photos, we sometimes prefer to disable it, as photos turned unnatural especially when shooting landscape. Nevertheless, a regular camera setting will allow you to take professional-looking images, so, disabling this feature isn’t a problem at all.
Its front camera performs great, too. It will produce studio-like photos through its 3D lighting. But again, for us, we prefer its plain camera setting.
Also Read:
Huawei P20, P20 Pro Lead DxOMark Mobile Rankings
CONNECTIVITY:
The P20 Pro is a dual-SIM device that supports two nano-SIM cards with LTE capabilities. It has basic connectivity options, including WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, and GPS. We never had a problem dealing with these features. We enjoyed excellent call quality through our good signal reception.
Other connectivity feature includes USB Type-C. It has no 3.5mm audio jack, though.
BATTERY:
One of the best things that the P20 Pro has to offer is its huge
4000mAh battery, which is complemented with SuperCharge technology. As our primary phone, it could push itself up to
13 hours of continuous usage. Meanwhile, it scored
9 hours and 43 minutes at PCMark Battery Test.
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| PCMark Battery Test |
Our actual usage includes basic communications, browsing of social media apps, minimal gaming, and other multimedia activities. So, it’s impressive enough that its juice could last more than 12 hours.
Moreover, through
Huawei SuperCharge, we can charge it from zero to full in less than an hour!
CONCLUSION:
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| Huawei P20 Pro |
The Huawei P20 Pro packs all the great things you would ask for an Android smartphone. With its impressive overall performance, the P20 Pro can go ahead other flagship devices available today.
Also, it sets the bar higher if we’re going to talk about its revolutionary triple Leica cameras. Indeed, it has the best camera performance compared to other photography-centric handsets.
The P20 Pro is available nationwide, and sells for
Php44,990.
Huawei P20 Pro Specs:
- Single SIM (Nano) or Dual SIM (Nano+Nano), dual stand-by, supports LTE connectivity
- 6.1-inch FullView OLED (2240 x 1080) touchscreen display, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 408ppi
- Dimensions: 155mm x 73.9mm x 7.8mm
- Weight: 180 grams
- Android 8.1 Oreo (EMUI 8.1)
- HiSilicon Kirin 970 octa-core processor
- Mali-G72 MP12 GPU
- 6GB RAM
- 128GB ROM
- Main Cameras: 40MP f/1.8 RGB shooter, 20MP f/1.6 monochrome sensor, and 8MP f/2.4 telephoto lens
- Front Camera: 24MP f/2.0
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth 4.2
- USB Type-C
- NFC
- IP67 certified
- Battery: 4000mAh with SuperCharge
- Colors: Midnight Blue, Black, Pink Gold, Twilight
- Price: Php44,990
