Saturday 2 March 2019

Huawei Mate20 Pro - A great spec'ed flagship!



I received this product as part of a review program in return for an unbiased review
The Huawei Mate20 Pro smartphone is essentially, according to me, a phablet if we are to go by the screen size. But let's face it, size really matters! I do not want to squint my eyes when i am watching videos on Youtube and Video Hub or other “tubes” and “hubs”. Screen real-estate is a critical factor, as the trends have proved. The Mate20 Pro’s screen is "Yuuuuge" at 6.39 inches, whilst the phone weighs only 189 grams and is 8.6mm thin. This is probably the best screen size to weight ratio I have seen. Moreso, the phone fits snuggly into one's' hand allowing one hand operation without any problem, thanks to the much reduced width of only 72.6mm, slimmer than even the P20 Pro. The key feature here is the edge-to-edge screen, which monopolises the phone's real estate. You will probably instantly notice the "top notch" (pun or no pun, you decide). The notch can be turned off if one doesn't fancy it.




There is no home button on the front, like on the P20 Pro, instead, the fingerprint scanner comes embedded into the screen. Like most modern smartphones the Mate20 Pro ditches the home button so as to dedicate the front, to the screen. Other interface features of note are the screen recording, which allows one to record all screen interactions, and the split screen, which allows two applications to be run on separate screens simultaneously. This seems to be a standard feature for most Huawei phones now
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The battery on the Mate20 Pro is a humongous 4200mAh, thats 200mAh more than the already juice-saving record breaking P20 Pro. This means the Mate20 Pro will be able to keep things ticking for 2 days easy-peasy, after a full charge. I managed a whole 3 days uptime despite my intensive use of the camera as I was testing various modes and scenarios during the same period. Couple this with the quick-charge feature, you realise that you soon forget about the yesteryear wores of cellphone charging.

Like its predecessor, this phone is all about the camera. The phone has got 3 rear Leica cameras which work together to provide appropriate lighting, depth, focus and colour performance. Indeed the power of AI is summoned on this phone to aid in object auto detection, auto camera mode sand settings accordingly, making this behemoth, a perfect point and shoot buddy.

The Mate20 Pro has all other bells and whistles that one would expect from Huawei’s flagship. It's all IP68, IR sensor is versus, NFC etc etc. but this phone has its shortcomings like all things “many-made” and man-made. The in-display fingerprint sensor is sometimes inconsistent, failing to recognise my fingerprint, meaning i have to use other authentication modes. Also if one uses a tempered glass screen protector, this problem can be made worse. This technology could be in its early stages and one hopes this will improve with time.

However, the Mate20 Pro comes with all PIN, Fingerprint and 3D face recognition mechanisms, this allows one to choose the methods they feel is most effective considering their circumstances.