Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Overview & Price

Huawei has seriously pulled it out the bag with this one, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is their latest flagship and it’s simply amazing.

In this Huawei Mate 20 Pro review, we go over what makes the phone special, as well as showcasing the best Huawei Mate 20 Pro deals.

The phone was released October 26^th and has really took the market by storm, according to the Huawei Mate 20 Pro market review, it is still one of the best phones money can buy.

Now that Huawei has established their place in the market, they are really producing some insane devices, the Mate 20 Pro is sending shivers up Apple and Samsung’s spines due to its ridiculous spec and awesome capabilities.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro specs are seriously impressive, if you’re looking for a phone that can handle anything, then this could be the one for you.

Priced at around £899 in the UK the phone is a huge contender for those looking for the best of the best and it’s easy to see why.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Design & Display

The first thing you will notice about the Huawei Mate 20 Pro design, is that it’s absolutely stunning.

It looks like a pricey handset and feels super-premium and is very thin and slick.

We did find that the phone was kind of hard to use in one hand with it being so slim and it feels like Huawei has went all out on the display rather than usability, so those with small hands will find using it 2 handed is a lot more comfortable.

That being said the phone is amazing and has a beautiful design, Huawei offer five colours for the phone which are; Black, Pink Gold, Twilight, Emerald Green and Midnight Blue.

Our favourite being the twilight due to its uniqueness, who can say they have a twilight phone bar Huawei users?

Huawei has really done things different with this phone and you will notice this immediately as on the back, they have collected all of the three cameras and its flash in a raised square block around the back of the phone.

This makes the phone look very unique and instantly gives it a cool look.

This is definitely the most distinctive thing about the phone, as well as it being extremely grippy on the back thanks to the vinyl like texture, making it a lot less likely you will drop the phone.

Now Just like the P20 Pro, the Mate 20 Pro does still have a notch at the top of the phone in order to house the Face ID and selfie camera, but it does have a much slimmer border around the phone and coupled with the curved glass gives a real edge to edge feel to the display.

Another cool feature of the design is that much like the Google Pixel 3 you will get a coloured power button giving it some extra flair, on the Twilight you get a red power button and it really catches the eye.

At the bottom of the phone you will find a USB-C port with a loudspeaker built into it, but you will not find a headphone jack, as it has been removed, just like the P20.

The phone is IP68 certified giving users a little more peace of mind when using the phone around water, so don’t worry too much if you drop it in the shower.

Huawei boasts a 6.39” AMOLED display that is absolutely insane; it is extremely bright and sharp which makes for an unreal gaming experience especially when in max graphical settings.

The colours pop and are extremely vibrant, watching Netflix and YouTube on this phone is absolutely bliss thanks to its big screen and fantastic display.

A highlight of the phone is definitely the in-screen fingerprint scanner, allowing the user to instantly unlock the phone by placing their finger anywhere on the screen, which is actually a first for smartphones, another example of Huawei leading the way in the smartphone market.

We don’t think you will be disappointed with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro design at all, it is easily one of the best looking phones we have seen.

The scanner is extremely secure and is great for saving passwords on the phone, online banking and other security features you might require on the phone.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Performance

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro runs Android 9.0 Pie out of the box giving users a head start over most android phones still trying to claw their way up to the new OS.

Coupled with Huawei’s EMUI OS over the top meaning you get a layout much like used on Apples IOS for easy navigation and a very clean setup of apps.

Gestures are largely the same as on other Huawei phones with knocking for screenshots and knocking and sliding in order to split the screen, allowing to send texts and watching a video at the same time!

The Mate 20 Pro does come with the Kirin 980, which is an extremely high-performance chip, allowing the phone to have a truckload of power and glide through apps and the interface seamlessly.

Thanks to the Huawei Mate 20 Pro specs, it can literally handle anything, from browsing Instagram and Facebook, to smashing Fortnite for long periods on your device.

The phone is super powerful and can handle intense usage very well, we played multiple games on the phone in HD graphics and everything worked perfect.

Testing it out on our favourite game ‘RuneScape’ was a great experience and we played for a lot longer than expected due to enjoying it so much on this phone.

The Mate 20 Pro also has a new GPU, the G76 which promises to be 30% more improved than its predecessor the G72, again adding the to wonderful performance of the phone.

The Mate 20 Pro also has a decent set of speakers, one in the earpiece and one built into the USB-C port and they are surprisingly good, music is clear and loud, making gaming experiences much more enjoyable.

However sometimes you may notice that your finger will cover the one in the earpiece, but this is easily adjusted and you will quickly realise where you can and can’t place your fingers when watching movies.

Huawei has packed the phone with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage as standard, thus giving the phone lots of firepower, however, one thing that is slightly annoying is that the phone does not allow for a microSD card but instead, Huawei has launched its own storage named NanoSD.

These cards are smaller and honestly we think that most phones will start using these SD cards in the future but as of right now they are not available to buy, which we found bizarre.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Camera

Huawei has always been known for their incredible cameras, and this phone is no exception! The Mate 20 Pro offers 3 different lenses, a normal lens, a super-wide-angle and a telephoto.

The standard camera is a whopping 40MP with f/1.8 aperture, wide-angle at 20MP and f/2.2 and finally the telephoto is an 8MP at f/2.4 aperture.

See Related:

*Huawei P20 Lite Review*
*Huawei P20 Pro Review*
*Huawei P20 Review*
*Huawei P30 Review*
*Huawei P30 Pro Review*

Huawei has been working closely with the German company Leica in order to produce some extremely impressive results for their cameras in smartphones.

The shots captured with this phone are incredible, and the 40MP main sensor captures plenty of detail.

This is because it shoots purely at 40-megapixels meaning you get the most out of the shot, although when shooting with this lens it means that you can not zoom and will leave you with some chunky files.

Huawei’s main focus of the camera this time around is the huge implementation of AI, when taking shots the phone will automatically switch you to the wide-angle camera if the phone thinks you will need it and can produce a better photo.

This is pretty cool, as when pointing the phone at a person it will automatically switch to portrait mode, allowing an inexperienced photographer to capture the best image possible with this phone.

Although this can get annoying if your slightly more experienced and want to manually shoot in different modes. If the AI feature really isn’t for you it can simply be turned off altogether in the settings.

Huawei is really adapting to recent times and ware making each photo primed and ready for that perfect Instagram post!

The dynamic range on the phone is great and you can really see the difference of colours in every single shot, and low light shots are really impressive too as there is not much noise at all.

Huawei also has implemented a dedicated night mode for capturing great photos in the darker environments and it works really well, it actually works by snapping multiple shots at different exposures and stitching them together for a brighter, better image.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Battery Life

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a huge 4200mAh battery, which allows for an easy 2 days usage with no stress, there are multiple settings on the phone, which allow you to be a lot more conservative with the battery (not that you need to be).

Endurance is a breeze on this phone and although many phone companies say that their phone will last 2 days, the Mate 20 Pro actually does!

The phone has 2 pre-configured battery saving modes which allow you to make the most of that last 10%, and even offers the exact opposite with a ‘performance mode’ which allows the phone to become fine-tuned and optimises the settings to make everything faster.

This phone also supports 40W fast charging which is huge, it allows you to go from flat to 70% in around 30 minutes, making it super convenient when in a hurry to nab a half charge!

So undoubtedly the coolest feature of this phone is that wireless & reverse charging, most phones with glass backs can wirelessly charge but this monster can actually charge other phones or another device that supports ‘Qi Charging’.

By placing another phone, which supports wireless charging back-to-back with the Mate 20 Pro, the huge 4200mAh battery pack will start to wireless charge the other device.

You can be the lifeline that your friend needs when on their last couple of % to keep their phone running for longer!

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Summary

So is this phone worth your cash?

YES, YES and YES. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro offers users an experience like no other; the phone has a beautiful display, which is ideal for long sessions watching Netflix or YouTube videos.

Coupled with a beautiful design the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, it’s seriously stylish!

The phone has the capability to handle almost anything you throw at it with a super-fast chip and 6GB of RAM. 128GB storage is also great although the option for a microSD would have been nice as most high-end phones are capable of expanding this but this will come very soon with the NanoSD.

We also found that most networks here in the UK are offering some pretty impressive Huawei Mate 20 Pro deals, it can be attained for around £40per month with the likes of EE.

HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro 128 GB 6.39-Inch 2K FullView Android 9.0 SIM-Free Smartphone with New Leica Triple AI Camera, Single SIM, UK Version - Twilight 

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro specs are seriously impressive, you will not have any performance issues with this device at all, it can handle everything.

Then there is the incredible battery power of the phone, lasting easily 2 days and even the ability to charge other peoples phones when needed! Overall this phone is seriously not to be missed out on and as a package is the best phone out there at the minute!

We hope you have enjoyed our Huawei Mate 20 Pro review, and feel free to check out the best Huawei Mate 20 Pro deals at the top of this post.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: Full Specification

Launch: 2018, November

Body:

• Dimension: 157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mm (6.21 x 2.85 x 0.34 inches)
• Weight: 189g (6.67 oz)
• Build: Front/black glass & aluminium frame
• Sim: Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
  – IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 2m for 30 mins)

Display:

• Type: AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
• Size: 6.39 inches, 100.2cm² (87.9% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution: 1440 x 3120 pixels, 19:5:9 ratio (-538 PPI density)
• Multitouch: Yes
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass (unspecified version)
  – DCI-P3
  – HDR10
  – EMUI 9.0

Platform:

• OS: Android 9.0 (Pie)
• Chipset: HiSilicon Kirin 980 (7nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (2×2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.8 GHz A55)
• GPU: Mali-G76 MP10

Memory:

• Card slot: NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB (uses SIM 2)
• Internal: 256GB, 8GB RAM or 128GB, 6GB RAM

Camera:

• Primary:
  40MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF/Laser AF
  20MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.7″, PDAF/Laser AF
  8MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4″, 5x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF/Laser AF
• Features: Leica optics, dual-LED dual-tone flash, panorama, HDR
• Video: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS), 720p@960fps
• Single: 24MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide)
• Features: HDR
• Video: 1080p@30fps

Sound:

• Alert Types: Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
• Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
• 3.5mm Jack: No
  – 3-bit/384kHz audio
  – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
  – Type-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter

Comms:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
• Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, aptX HD, LE
• GPS: Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
• NFC: Yes
• Infrared Port: Yes
• Radio: No
• USB: 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB on-the-go

Features:

• Sensors: Face ID, fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass
• Messaging: SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
• Browser: HTML5
• More:
  – Fast battery charging 40W (70% in 30 min)
  – Qi wireless fast charging 15W
  – Reverse wireless charging
  – DivX/XviD/MP4/H.265/WMV player
  – MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV/FLAC player
  – Document editor
  – Photo/video editor

Battery:

• Non-removable Li-Pro 4200 mAh battery

Misc:

• Colours: Emerald Green, Midnight Blue, Twilight, Pink Gold, Black
• Price: As seen in the above post

Tests:

• Battery life: Endurance rating 85h