Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: The Best Smartphone Camera

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: The Best Smartphone Camera

At the end of the year Huawei officially launched the flagship smartphone Mate 20 Series in the country. But only at the beginning of January 2019 two smartphones can be found on the market both online and offline.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review The Best Smartphone Camera

Now we will go deeper into one of the highest models of the two models.
Positioned higher than the P20 Pro, Mate 20 Pro still carries three Leica cameras behind. But now the latest device is powered by the newer Kirin 980 chipset (the P20 Pro is supported by Kirin 970).
Compared to the 'younger sibling', there are at least 5 main differences between Mate 20 and Huawei Mate 20 Pro. That is located within the design, camera resolution, fingerprint, wireless charge, and battery capacity.

In plain view, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro looks slimmer with a 6.39-inch AMOLED screen and elongated bangs. While the Mate 20 design is rather roomy with a 6.53-inch IPS LCD screen with water drops format bangs.

A striking difference that you can immediately notice is the existence of a fingerprint. Mate 20 Pro places a fingerprint sensor inside the screen while Mate 20 is behind (under the camera).
After knowing the differences between the brothers in terms of appearance, let's discuss more deeply about the brother, Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

The Design

Mate 20 Pro looks beautiful with curved front and rear glass designs as seen on the Galaxy S9 Plus. Both the front and rear panels are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass which is capable of blocking blunt object scratches.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a glass body with a smooth texture on the back which is comfortable to hold. At present the company only provides one color choice in Indonesia, namely Emerald Green, which looks beautiful with sparkling diamond shapes (gems).

Huawei Mate 20 Pro comes with a brilliant AMOLED screen 6.39 inches Quad HD + resolution (3120 × 1400 pixels) with a ratio of 19.5: 9. Bezel-less, the screen-to-body ratio reaches 87.9 percent.
The Power button is extremely eye-catching because of the red color. Perched on the right-wing with the elongated volume buttons.

Nano-SIM and nano-memory card slots are arranged stacked, located at the bottom of the phone, along with a C-type charge port that supports USB on-the-go.
Already supports Dual SIM card standby, but with a Hybrid format so users must choose between activating SIM-SIM or SIM-memory card.

The rear camera of the smartphone looks very striking, the position of three camera lenses and one LED light are arranged in a square pattern in the top center complete with Leica writing on the top and the Huawei logo on the bottom.

You won't find a fingerprint sensor on the back panel because Mate 20 Pro uses the latest fingerprint in display technology.

Do not miss, Mate 20 Pro already pocketed IP68 certification, which means it can survive in water with a maximum depth of 1 meter and a maximum duration of 30 minutes.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro uses a new type of memory card (not microSD) called Nano-Memory (NM) which is currently still being produced by Huawei.

Without a 3.5mm audio jack, Huawei includes earphones with Type-C ends. The vendor also includes a 3.5mm adapter to plug your favorite earset or headphones into the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.


Specification HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro
Dimension 157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mm
Weight Around 189 g
Color Emerald Green
Screen HUAWEI FullView Display
6.39 inch OLED curved screen
19.5: 9 DCI-P3 HDR display
2K + (3120 × 1440)
High color saturation
High contrast ratio
Chipset Kirin 980
CPU:
2x Cortex-A76-based @ 2.6GHz
2x Cortex-A76 @ 1.92GHz
4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz
GPU: Mali-G76 720MHz
Dual-NPU
Operation System Android P-based EMUI 9
RAM and Storage 6GB + 128GB
Memory Card 256GB via Nano Memory Card
Camera Leica Triple Camera:
40MP (27mm Wide Angle, f / 1.8)
20MP (Ultra Wide Angle 16mm, f / 2.2)
8MP (3x Telephoto 80mm, f / 2.4, OIS)
Front camera:
24MP (f / 2.0, FF)
Dual SIM Yes
Battery 4200mAh (Typical Value)
Charging 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge

Three Leica Cameras

Just like the P20 Pro, Mate 20 Pro also carries three Leica cameras on the back. But the formation is different. If the P20 Pro consists of a wide lens, B / W, and telephoto, the Mate 20 Pro consists of wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto.

The disappearance of the monochrome lens in Mate 20 Pro turned out not to be a problem. Because even without it, Huawei Mate 20 Pro can shoot black and white photos brilliantly. Even the level of density is deeper than the P20 Pro.

Yes, Huawei takes a different approach to Mate 20 Pro. The trio of embedded Leica lenses are 40MP f1.8 wide-angle lens, 20MP f2.2 ultra-wide-angle lens, and 8MP f2.4 telephoto lens with AI optimization.

Designed for different scenarios, the main RGB lens with 40MP resolution will record sharp details in each photo, while the 8MP telephoto lens focuses on remote photos and the new Leica Ultra-Wide Angle Lens with a new 20MP resolution is perfect for shooting landscaping and macro.

Thanks to the Ultra Wide Lens, the smartphone supports shooting from extreme wide angles and approaches small objects. Also, the Mate 20 Pro camera can produce a wider and three-dimensional effect on the photos produced.

In essence, Mate 20 Pro offers a lot of flexibility with a wide-angle, normal, telephoto, and super macro modes. Ultra-wide angle and macro lenses perfect the camera system on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

Not to forget, the smartphone also has an AI Portrait Color mode that can isolate human subjects and desaturize colors around them to focus on those subjects.


Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review The Best Smartphone Camera The Design

For selfies, a 24mm f / 2.0 26mm (wide) camera lens is lodged in the screen bangs with the earpiece.
The camera menu is very complete. You can find optimized standard features on Mate 20 Pro. Starting from HDR, Monochrome, Panorama, until Bokeh. These four features can be found on many other smartphones.

Many features are provided in the camera menu, but you will need a tripod for maximum results. In the "More" camera settings there are features of Light Painting, Under Water, Time Lapse, Slow-Mo, and 3D Panorama. Not only that, but there are also three fancy features namely Super Macro and Ultra Wide modes and Zooming.


Thanks to macro capabilities, Mate 20 Pro can shoot at a distance of 2.5 cm from the object. For zooming, Mate 20 Pro is capable of 3x lens zoom to produce images equivalent to 80mm camera lenses, 5x hybrid zoom equivalent to 135mm lenses, and 10x digital zoom equivalent to 270mm lenses.

We tried taking photos in almost all the features provided, and the results were impressive. Even in low light conditions, photos remain sharp and clear.

There is a "Night" mode that takes a lot of pictures for a few seconds, putting them together into a brighter and sharper picture, compared to the night mode on other smartphones. But the process isn't fast, so you can't catch fast-moving objects in Night mode.

For video recording, most smartphone cameras are only capable of producing low-quality videos. But not with Mate 20 Pro. This smartphone is equipped with the ability to record HD quality video so you don't need to think long to share it on social media.

The existence of AI Cinema Mode that comes with five filters: AI Color, Background Blur, Fresh, Vintage, and Suspense, allows users to record videos like a widescreen movie.

Another interesting video feature is Spotlight Reel, which can be accessed from the Gallery application. This feature will scan the library to find subjects chosen by the user and produce a montage. Not only can it combine multiple clips, but this feature can also eliminate unneeded recordings. Just select who you want to display.

Kirin 980 Chipset

Mate 20 Pro became Huawei's first smartphone supported by the company's latest processor Kirin 980. Together with Apple, Huawei is the only company that offers a 7nm process-based chipset.
Octa-core Kirin 980 processor is claimed by the company to offer a 20 percent increase in performance and increase the 40 percent efficiency of the 10nm chipset. That way, Mate 20 Pro will be smooth when executing a given task.

During the use of a relatively short time with the device, everything runs smoothly without the slightest lag.

With 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space, smartphones can handle graphic-laden games and video streaming smoothly. Switching between applications is also easy and fast.

In testing using Antutu Benchmark v7.1.2, Huawei Mate 20 Pro scored 271027
While using Geekbench 4.3.2, the device gets a single-core score of 3315 and 9938 for a multi-core score.

With that score, no doubt Mate 20 Pro is perched at the top position in the ranks of the strongest smartphones, where the second rank is Mate 20, and Mate 20 X is in the third position. While Asus ROG Phone is ranked fourth and OnePlus 6T fifth.

Fingerprint on the screen

The fingerprint sensor inside the screen was first introduced to Indonesian consumers through the Vivo V11 Pro. Huawei Mate 20 Pro became the second device we saw using the screen fingerprint scanner.

Instead of placing a special fingerprint scanner on the back or bottom bezel of the phone, Huawei makes use of the Mate 20 Pro screen to record your fingerprint.

It is located around one-third of the screen and is comfortably reached by any finger you use. At a glance, you cannot see the sensor with the naked eye, and there is no notification when the screen is on.

The small fingerprint icon will light up when the screen is locked to tell you where to place your fingerprint, provided you have set the fingerprint ID settings beforehand.
When we tried, the sensor sensitivity was very good. The sensor can read fingerprints in less than one second. It recognizes fingerprints quickly and accurately.

Face ID

In addition to access to open the screen with a fingerprint, Mate 20 Pro also features a 3D face scanner to be able to unlock the device just by looking at the screen.

Face Unlock in Mate 20 Pro functions like Apple's Face ID. Simply register your face on the device first and the system will automatically scan to unlock when you pick up the phone.

The Mate 20 Pro facial unlocking feature also works well, and can recognize my face more often. Yes, there are several times the front camera does not recognize my face, especially when lying down.

You should also enable the fingerprint reader as a backup, because sometimes there are uncomfortable situations that bring the phone to your face.

Flash & Wireless Charging

Since the presence of P20 Pro, Huawei has introduced a self-composed fast fill feature called SuperCharge. Well, Mate 20 Pro has been supported by the flash charging technology.

Despite its large capacity of 4,200 mAh, thanks to the 40W Huawei SuperCharge technology, users can charge as much as 70% in just 30 minutes. While for full charging it will take around 68 minutes (from 0%).

Apart from via cable, smartphones can also be charged via Qi-based 15W wireless charging. Already supporting wireless reverse charging, Mate 20 Pro can also play a power bank to charge other devices.

Worth buying?

The combination of style & performance Mate 20 Pro is almost perfect. Full features and highest specifications for today's smartphones. Kirin 980's fast performance combined with Leica's tri-camera system is easy to use and versatile.

There is only one drawback in Mate 20 Pro which is located on the type of external memory card Nano-Memory card, because maybe it will be hard to find it on the market. But considering 128GB of internal storage, it looks like you no longer need additional storage space on Mate 20 Pro.

With the above considerations, of course Huawei Mate 20 Pro is very worth buying, especially if you want satisfaction in mobile photography and top-notch performance.