Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: A notch above the rest

Having launched on October 16th, the Mate 20 Pro is Huawei's latest attempt at cracking the premium end of the smartphone market, following on from last year's Mate 10 Pro that was well-received by fans and reviewers alike. This year's Mate 20 Pro has set itself apart from its predecessors with a snazzy Hyper Optical design that adds texture and catches the eye as well as the addition of a notched display, an in-display fingerprint reader, and a bump in battery capacity. As we saw with the impressive P20 Pro that launched back in March, the Mate 20 Pro also features a trio of Leica-branded rear cameras, although the dedicated monochrome sensor has been swapped out for an ultra-wide lens which adds an extra element to the phone's photography abilities.

Huawei has thrown the proverbial kitchen sink in with the Mate 20 Pro in terms of features, including the fun yet gimmicky reverse wireless charging function, but does it make for a cohesive smartphone experience? Join us after the break for our review of the Mate 20 Pro.

Design

Huawei has given the Mate 20 Pro a snazzy all-glass contoured design that is much different to the finish seen on the P20 Pro and Mate 10 Pro previously. The Mate 20 Pro's Hyper Optic finish brings a bit of texture and grip to the rear panel, and despite being made of glass it actually feels and sounds like an old vinyl record when you scrape a fingernail across it. Everything on the rear panel is centrally located down the spine of the phone, with the Leica branding sitting just above the square camera that houses the trio of rear sensors and LED flash. Speaking of the camera housing, it juts out when the phone is naked without a case, which means, even though the Mate 20 Pro is nowhere near as slippery as the P20 Pro, you should still get a case around it. As with most Huawei handsets in recent times, the build quality is up there with the best.

With its 6.39-inch display that folds into the metal frame, the Mate 20 Pro is not a small handset, however, the clever design makes the phone feel smaller than it actually is.

The IR blaster sits on the top edge alongside a microphone, while the power button is placed below the volume rocker on the right-hand side.

Unusually, there is no speaker chamber present on the Mate 20 Pro with the audio being channeled through the USB Type-C charging port instead. The SIM tray is located to the right of the charging port and there's a microphone hole to the left.

Hardware

Performance

Unlike the Mate 10 Pro that makes do with a 1080P display, the Mate 20 Pro boasts an OLED panel with WQHD+ resolution (3120 x 1440). It's a stunning display with vibrant colors and deep, deep blacks. There is a cutout present that is jam-packed with sensors, but you can choose to hide it via the Settings if it offends your eyes. If you do choose to hide the notch, the OLED display ensures that the black areas to the left and right of its match the blackness of the notch itself, unlike with some LCD panels.

With the 7nm Kirin 980 Octa-core processor under the hood, the Mate 20 Pro is a top-notch performer that makes the most of every single ounce of energy that the massive battery holds. Performance is smooth with apps opening in a split second and there is no lag to be found, despite the phone running Huawei's EMUI interface. The Mali-G76 MP10 Graphics Processing Unit ensures that the Mate 20 Pro provides a killer gaming experience, with games such a PUGB Mobile and Asphalt 9 loading up in a jiffy.

We don't tend to place much stock in benchmarks but we've run the Mate 20 Pro through the 3D Mark and Antuntu benchmarking apps, with the results below:

With 128GB of built-in storage as standard, most users won't worry about inserting a memory card, and that is a good thing because Huawei has developed a new memory card standard called Nano-Memory that is the size of a nano-SIM card that is somewhat expensive to buy. Another downer is the lack of 3.5mm audio jack, but there is a USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor in the box.

And so we come to the in-display fingerprint reader which is about the best I have experienced so far. Sadly, it isn't as fast and accurate as the sensor found on the rear panel of the Mate 10 Pro. You'll need to be far more deliberate when unlocking the Mate 20 Pro than when using a regular fingerprint scanner, pressing harder and making sure that your finger is in the target area. I should add that the in-display sensor is vastly better than the one found on the Mi 8 Pro which is downright frustrating to use.

Making up for whatever frustrations you might experience with the in-display fingerprint scanner is the excellent face-unlocking system that uses the IR Emitter, dot projector, and the 24MP front camera to unlock the device in a split second. The system is extremely quick and works in low-light conditions without needing to power on the display. For the most part, you'll find that you'll only use the in-display fingerprint reader as a redundancy.

Battery

As we've experienced on Huawei handsets before, battery life on the Mate 20 Pro is incredible. With a huge 4,200mAh battery, only the most active power user will struggle to get two days of usage out of the Mate 20 Pro without the use of any power-saving methods. As an example, you can look forward to an hour of Netflix via Wi-Fi with the display on 50% brightness using just 5% battery life. If you do somehow empty the tank, a mere 30-mins of charge on the included 40W wall adaptor will bring the battery back up to the 70% mark. It is crazy fast and will ensure that you never experience battery anxiety ever again, unless you use a Pixel 3 XL, that is. Battery saving options such as Power Saving, Smart Resolution (which reduces the display's resolution to conserve power), and the very aggressive Ultra Power Saving modes are present, just in case you need to stretch battery life even further.

The Mate 20 Pro is capable of fast wireless charging at a rate of up to 15W, and as we've touched on before, the phone also has the Reverse Wireless Charging function. This means, in theory, that you can use the Mate 20 Pro to wirelessly charge other Qi-compatible devices. In practice, despite it being a fun novelty, the function is ill-suited to charging other handsets as it's such a low output and is likely a better fit to charge small accessories such as earbuds.

Software

While EMUI 9.0 will still upset the purists that worship stock Android, Huawei's custom interface is lighter, leaner, and easier to navigate than ever before. That isn't to say that Huawei's software interface is without its little quirks, unfortunately. By default, EMUI 9 will spread apps around the home screen much like you would find on iOS although thankfully you can neaten things up by enabling the app drawer in Settings.

It's unfortunate that Huawei has tinkered with Android Pie's notifications management, resulting in some messages from certain apps such as Airbnb simply not registering a notification at all on the lock screen or notification shade. Other messaging apps such as WhatsApp simply notify you of a message from Bob, for example, without the content being revealed, despite the option of Show All Content being enabled in Settings. This means you have to waste time unlocking the phone to see the WhatsApp message. Another frustration is that you can't interact with notifications on the lock screen; you'll need to unlock the phone to do so.

So, we've talked about the niggles, what about the features? Well, there is a boatload of features including Huawei's version of Digital Wellbeing that is branded as Digital Balance that allows you to set app timers and track how much screen-time you are racking up over the course of a day. You can also track which apps you are using the most over a seven-day period and the average amount of minutes between each unlock, which can be quite distressing. Besides the Eye Comfort Mode in the Quick Settings panel that will make the display easier on the eyes at night, you can use the Bedtime option in the Digital Balance section to grey the screen and restrict access to certain apps.

Huawei has also included the welcome option of a system-wide dark theme in the Battery section of all places, while the notch is able to be disabled in the Display settings.

Camera

After the wildly-impressive P20 Pro that announced Huawei as a serious contender in the camera stakes, a lot has been made of the Mate 20 Pro's trio of rear cameras that consists of a 40MP RGB sensor, a 20MP wide-angle lens, and an 8MP telephoto lens. Frankly, Huawei has outdone itself, the Mate 20 Pro is further proof that the high-profile partnership between the Chinese handset-maker and renowned camera company, Leica, is producing the goods.

The clever thing about Huawei switching out the dedicated monochrome sensor in favor of a wide-angle lens is that the new sensor enhances the macro photography abilities of the Mate 20 Pro. One minute you are taking a wide-angle shot of the skyline, the next minute you are using the same setting to get up close and personal to a bug on the wall. It's something that we've seen on numerous handsets, and I'm glad to see that Huawei has added its versatility to the Mate 20 Pro.

On the whole, the camera app on the Mate 20 Pro is almost perfect, my only real criticism is that you have to scroll to the right and tap on More in order to enter HDR mode. Other than that, everything else is easy to find and navigate to, with keen photographers given the option of using Pro Mode.

With 5X Hybrid Zoom, you can be miles away from an object or building and still take high-quality images. Night Mode is a feature we've seen on previous Huawei handsets, coming to the fore with the P20 Pro thanks to the ability to take a 4-5 second exposure without the use of a tripod. This is further enhanced with the Mate 20 Pro, producing stunning images in low-light conditions, and showing things that simply weren't visible to the human eye when taking the shot. In essence, Night Mode is a game changer for smartphone photography.

Thanks to the Kirin 980's dual ISP's and dual NPU's, the camera recognizes more than 1500 scenarios across 25 categories, which means it can sense the cuteness of your cat or the beauty of the sunset you are trying to capture. With Master AI enabled, the camera will automatically adjust to what it decides are the right settings for that particular scenario, optimizing colors, brightness, and contrast to produce the best possible image. The results are perfect for Instagram and other social media services, although some might feel the grass looks too green or the sky looks too blue, in which case the Master AI feature can be disabled via the camera settings.

Conclusion

Huawei packed the Mate 20 Pro with a ton of handy features such as wireless charging, updated cameras, enhanced AI capabilities, an improved EMUI experience, and battery life that just doesn't know when to quit. There's also a few gimmicks in the form of reverse wireless charging which isn't very useful thanks to its snail-like charging speed and the ability to make animated 3D objects. Both are party-tricks that while fun to show off a few times, will hold no long-term interest or use. And that's perfectly fine because the Mate 20 Pro has more than enough essential functions and features to make up for a couple of gimmicky additions.

Huawei has moved from producing smartphones aimed at matching competitors such as Apple and Samsung to making phones that push the technological envelope with their unique features. The Mate 20 Pro is not only the best smartphone that Huawei has ever made but also my pick for best smartphone of 2018. It is just that good. A big and vibrant display, a trio of rear cameras that produce astonishing images, and the incredible 2-day battery life make the Mate 20 Pro the compelling choice when buying a flagship smartphone.

Buy it Now: Huawei, Amazon

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