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.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3: Fantabstic side-kick!

I have been using the Tab for a number of weeks now and I am fairly comfortable, giving my 2 cents on this piece of kit. First, this is Samsung's first truly premium tablet. I have to describe its build and aesthetically features to demonstrate that fact. Unboxing
The Tab comes in a very nice dark grey box with seals for guarantee of "newness". Opening that box exposes some well thought-out and neatly packed items which include the S Pen, The Tab and the charger together with cable and documentation. The Tab itself will be in a dust proof sleeve, whose unfastening process actually gives you that kind of satisfaction, if you get what I mean.

Unboxed Tab

Unboxing this beauty was an awesome experience. As always, and often, I had the luxury of doing the unboxing, with my 2 best buddies who are 11 and 6 years old :D, Their reaction was very positive, and they liked what they saw. We have an unboxing video on periscope, can follow the link below
https://www.pscp.tv/foolishious/1djxXLvlPjzxZ

Looks and feel With the Tab S3 it is clear that Samsung are aiming for the most premium and complete android tablet experience. The metal rounded edges and glass back together with a light weight, only 429g, makes the tablet is perfectly balanced and fits very comfortably even in somewhat small hands.


Talking of premium look and feel, the AKG glass back of this tablet is just one such feature which gives the device its "Woohah!"
The screen is so vivid, as if things are about to spring into life. Using the tab, is like a kill, in broad-day-light. I mean literally, the screen is so vibrant that you are forced to wonder why there ever had been some tablets with screens that simply did not work in bright sun/day light. Simply this table is the best 'under the sun', excuse the pan.

Specifications, Hardware and S Pen The following is an overview of the specifications of this Tab;
Dimensions (mm) 237.30 x 169.00 x 6.00 Weight (g) 429g Battery capacity (mAh) 6000mAh Removable battery No
Screen size (inches) 9.7 inches Resolution 2048x1536 pixels
Processor 1.6GHz quad-core Processor make Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 RAM 4GB Internal storage 32GB Expandable storage Yes, microSD upto 256GB
Rear camera 13-megapixel Camera Flash Yes Front camera 5-megapixel
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac GPS Yes Bluetooth Yes, v 4.20 NFC No Infrared No
Compass/ Magnetometer No Proximity sensor No Accelerometer Yes Ambient light sensor Yes Gyroscope Yes Barometer No Temperature sensor No
The S Pen is fantabulous, its thick enough to feel like a real pen and is quite sensitive. Air-play (or is it whats its called?) works like a charm, sensing the pen even whilst its still hanging up in the, Oh boy..."air"
The S-Pen is light weight and comfortable to use and obviously doesn’t need batteries or charging or some pairing process with the tab before use. It just works. The animated "swoosh" sound that plays as you write with the pen is quite satisfying, as if one is writing on a real paper. My handwriting is probably among the worst, people used to say I write like a medical doctor on hospital cards, but the Tab has always got the gist of what I would be trying to write, every time, Its magical.
Well, as it happens , my first test-drive included streaming my beloved Beatles collection in the background while I checked-out loads of other features. Its an understatement to say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound. My auditory orifices where quite elated on consuming such well-rounded acoustic and sonic energies. In simple words, top-quality audio... That quality audio is bellowed from 4 speakers at each of the rounded corners of the tab. Call it surround sound or what you will, I will call it perfect sound from a perfectly sound technology. Did I tell you this sort-of indulgence lasted a good half-day? (24hr day :D) Well, if that's not "New testament" to the battery capacity, I don't know what is. The Tab can pack a sizeable punch of AmpHours to make even Mayweather jealous. It makes the Tab go on and on and on like an energiser battery, and believe me, that's great staying power!, no one minute wonders... For once it feels good to own a mobile device that I don't have to charge every hour.

Competition I will not even let you search wildly in the market, for this Tab's competition, because there is only one. Without beating about the bust, the iPad Pro is the only competition here. Both Tabs come with a stylus, a metal frame, a vivid display and comparable size and weight.
So what separates them?

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Its probably best that I don't waste time on obvious stuff, and stick to the issues. There are differences that some people may be interested in. Generally these two devices offer comparable value, so I will highlight the 3 areas where I believe you may notice differences.
First is the screen. You may want to head over to iPad pro 9.7' s specs to compare, buy simply, the Galaxy Tab S3 takes the crown here. The S3 Tab is HDR ready (High dynamic range) which allows to watch HDR content, bringing more sharp and vivid images onto the screen.

The second is the camera. Tab S3 has 13Mega Pixels compared to iPad Pro's 12MP, BUT the results from the iPad trounce the S3 by a country mile. Visually the sharpness of the images from the iPad is captivating. Could it be the True Tone flash? could it be the Live View functionality? my opinion is that the iPad wins on this one.

Lastly, but not least of-course, if the juice tank that keeps everything ticking, the battery. From my research (of-course i do not own the iPad pro 9.7) generally the iPad ticks for around 10hrs continuous use as compared to the Tab S3 which can go upto around 12hrs. It should be noted that the iPad battery is 7306mAh whereas the Tab S3 is 6000mAh. So the Galaxy tab wins on this one.

I have not forgotten about the issue of the pocket by the way. So I will simply say Samsung produced a device to give Apple a run for its money in this particular market. So it can generally be expected that Samsung's offering will equally break your bank in the same fashion your usual Apple device does.
The Tab S3 retail price is £599 including S pen (Standard 32GB WiFi model). It comes in black or silver colours.
The iPad Pro costs £549, plus £99 for Apple pencil (Standard 32GB WiFi model). It comes in silver, gold, space-grey and rose-gold colours.
So not much difference in price, (iPad cost £49 more) but indeed both tablets aim to search your pockets somehow, when compared to the rest of that market space... I do believe they deserve to, though...
I dressed my Tab S3 in quality gear that did not even break my bank. I am talking about the case and Bluetooth keyboard.

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This device has become my companion, providing entertainment (I love movies and music) on the go. Funny enough, I have also found that its a formidable work device. I am "rdesktoping" to my work computer and enjoying both worlds simultaneously. Sometimes I am also using Google Docs to do a lot of business and work on the tab. Writing with the S Pen is making this a favourite of mine for any office work Kudos Samsung!