Huawei Mate 20 Pros & Cons Review

- Analysis by KJ David

The Mate 20, which serves as the mother model for its X, Pro, and Porsche Design offshoots, is one of Huawei's most-ambitious 2018 releases, aiming for a spot in Phonerated's list of the best smartphones for photography/videography. Before discussing its imaging pros, however, we thought it best to get some of this Mate edition's slight cons out of the way.

Kicking things off is its decision to stick to an FHD+ (2244 x 1080) resolution on its otherwise promising 6.53-inch IPS 18.7:9 facade. As a result, it only scores a so-so 381ppi pixel density , which obviously weakens its chances at taking on some of the best VR-ready phones on the market -- most of the models in the aforementioned list safely pass the 500ppi threshold. Its 128GB native memory might come off as off-putting for some tech-savvy users as well, since several competing 2018 flagships boast 256GB native memory caps -- it supports up to 256GB's worth of top-up storage, though.

Nevertheless, the Mate 20 skirts flagship territory with a triple rear camera headlining its mix of pros and cons. This Leica-powered triple lens system is composed of a 12-megapixel RGB lens for standard photography, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens for picking out fine details, and a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens for scenic shots. Its imaging specs also include Huawei's self-branded AI Image Stabilization technology as well as the combination of laser, phase-detection, and contract autofocus.

Compared to most of its 2018 contemporaries, the Huawei Mate 20 possibly comes out ahead when it comes to selfies (It potentially finds itself alongside the best selfie smartphones), rocking a high-resolution 24-megapixel f/2.0-aperture front-facing camera whose raw pixel resolution was matched by only a handful of other high-enders as we were reviewing its technical pros and cons.

Under the hood, the Mate 20 runs on the 7nm Huawei Kirin 980 engine , which is a rare (as of 2018 Q4) triple-cluster chip composed of a 2.6GHz dual-core performance cluster working alongside 1.92GHz (dual-core) and 1.8GHz (quad-core) efficiency clusters. It is aptly accompanied by 6GB of RAM, although Huawei also ships a variant with a 4GB-only RAM count -- obviously for less-demanding users. Also joining in is a 4000mAh battery that claims to power back up to 58 percent under a 30-minute charge .

With the Android 9.0 Pie skinned with the EMUI 9.0 and a casing of either Black, Twilight, or Midnight Blue rounding out its features, the Mate 20 calls out to high-end Android shoppers who have some serious photography in mind.

On-paper Review score:

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