The best kind of overkill

Hey, iPhone XS – we'll take your two cameras and raise you with three shooters and more artificial intelligence features. 7 nanometer processor? We have that too. Facial identity? We have facial recognition and a fingerprint sensor on the screen. And your poor battery of 3,174 mAh, your iPhone XS Max? We have a much bigger one, and when you run out of juice, you can use the back of our phone as a wireless charger.

According to this description, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is not designed to beat Apple's flagship products. It seems explicitly designed to drag them.

I had the chance to work hand in hand with Huawei Mate 20 Pro in New York. Here is the pros and cons so far, based on my initial impressions. And do not forget to take a look at our practical glimpses of the Huawei Mate 20 and Huawei Mate 20 X 7.2-inch.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Cheat Sheet

• A huge battery of 4,200 mAh should last all day and its charging capacity is 70% in just 30 minutes.
• The innovative charging back function turns the back of the Mate 20 Pro into a wireless charger for other phones, including the iPhone.
• You can unlock the phone with a built-in fingerprint sensor on the 6.39-inch OLED display or via a 3D facial recognition with the front camera.
• Three rear cameras: 40 MP wide-angle, 20 MP ultra-wide angle and 8 MP telephoto.
• The AI ​​camera features include 4D Predict autofocus and a movie mode that applies video filters in real time.
• The Kirin 980 processor is the first 7-nanometer chip of an Android phone.

Price and availability of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro

We are waiting for the Mate 20 Pro to be available for sale, but Huawei has released its prices. The Mate 20 Pro (6 GB + 128 GB configuration) will have a MSRP of 1049 €. That translates into a very high amount of $ 1,216, but we assume that prices in the United States would be lower.

Design: Choose between gorgeous and rough

I've been checking phones for 20 years and the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is one of the most breathtaking handsets I've ever seen. The edges are curved on all eight sides and the pretty square that houses the three lenses and the flash of the Leica camera allows this phone to stand out among a multitude of similar tiles.The Mate 20 Pro is available in 5 colors, but finishes vary. My favorite hue is Twilight smooth glass, with a blue-purple gradient that changes depending on the intensity of the light on the handset. Too bad the finish deteriorated quickly while I manipulated it.

If you prefer something with fingerprint-resistant fingerprint printing, the Midnight Blue and Emerald Green versions offer what's called a hyper-optical pattern on glass. When you put your nails on the back of the phone, you get a cold scratching sound. Yes, it's an addiction.

All Mate 20 Pro models are IP68 water resistant, meaning they can be immersed in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the Mate 20 Pro does not include a headphone jack.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Specifications

Battery: phone and wireless charger in one

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro contains a powerful battery of 4,200 mAh that should last you all day. For example, the Galaxy Note 9 4,000 mAh battery has been used for more than 11 hours by our web browser battery test. We hope that the Mate 20 Pro will last even longer.

Even better, the Mate 20 Pro comes with a 40-watt Super Charger that promises to charge that phone to 70% in just 30 minutes. Most of the leading Android products reach 50% in 30 minutes with their fast chargers.

But the coolest battery feature is by far the reverse charge. While the Mate 10 lets you use other phones via USB, the rear window of the Mate 20 Pro serves primarily as a Qi charger. So you place another handset above the back of this phone, as I did with the iPhone X, and the phone will start to take over. It's clever.

Cameras: A Thoughtful Triple Threat

The Huawei P20 Pro triple lens has turned out to be one of the best year – round camera phones based on our shootings with the iPhone X and the Pixel 2. And the Mate 20 Pro raises the level with three more cameras and more intelligent AI features.The Mate 20 Pro retains the PMP Pro's 40-megapixel wide angle camera and 8 MP telephoto lens that offers a 3x optical zoom, but negotiates the old model's 20 MP monochrome sensor against a very wide angle 20.2 Lens MP. Based on my work time, it was a wise choice because I could easily zoom out by sliding my finger on the screen to insert more scene into the frame. In fact, in some cases, the Mate 20 Pro will decide to switch to the very wide-angle lens.

Like other camera phones, the Mate 20 Pro's artificial intelligence can automatically recognize scenes and adjust camera settings for the best possible grip, but Huawei has increased the number of scenes to 1,500. Interesting feature of the AI ​​is the prediction of the focus by 4D for the automatic locking of moving subjects during shooting, which I have not yet been able to test.

The VCR also launches into the action of artificial intelligence with AI Cinema modes. For example, you can put your subject in color while the rest of the background is in black and white.

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This feature worked quite well during my first tests, which were tested during the filming of my colleague Caitlin. However, you will want to make sure that the ambient light is sufficient because the effects are not as convincing as there is grain or noise in the image.

Face recognition and fingerprint detection on the screen

It will not be long before most of the flagship Android products allow you to unlock your phone by simply pressing a marked area in the lower part of the screen. The implementation of Huawei worked well in my brief tests; the dynamic pressure detection system instantly recognized my figure after saving it in the settings.

At the front, there is also a 3D depth detection camera, equipped with a 24 MP RGB camera, a flood projector and an IR camera that, according to Huawei, unlocks the phone 30% faster than its previous models with this function. The Mate 20 Pro supports mobile payment solutions using facial recognition, with full support for Alipay, WeChat Pay and Huawei Pay. However, the payment feature is only available in China.

Whichever unlocking method you choose, you can associate your fingerprint or face with a password safe to automatically enter passwords. We will have to see to what extent the two methods of unlocking are found in our tests.

Kirin 980 power: 7 nanometers hits Android

Apple was the first to offer a 7-nanometer processor in a phone equipped with the iPhone XS and XS Max's A12 Bionic chip, but Huawei seems to want to match the score with its own Kirin 980 processor. 20% improvement in speed compared to the Huawei P20 Pro's Kirin 970, with an improved energy efficiency of 40%.

The Kirin 980 contains 4 small cores, 2 medium cores, and 2 large cores for a total of 8, and graphics processor performance is assumed to be 45% faster.

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Huawei also plays on its Dual Neural Processing Units (NPUs), the first of which can handle tasks such as object recognition and the second can perform operations such as real-time video rendering and natural language processing. .

The company gives us a lot of numbers, so we'll have to see how the Mate 20 Pro performs well in synthetic tests and our tests in the real world.

EMUI 9.0: simplified (a little)

Huawei said it listened to comments from customers and critics, and that the new EMUI 9.0 interface is definitely simplified on the Mate 20 Pro. For example, the number of parameter elements has been reduced by 10%, although the total number remains relatively high (843). Huawei nevertheless deserves credit for trying to hide some of the complexity of its software and consolidate similar elements.

The company also claims to have accelerated its performance in terms of gesture navigation and tasks such as opening applications. A new feature of GPU Turbo 2.0 promises to offer better stability and better energy efficiency during games.

For those looking to use their phone as a PC, Huawei wants to use the Galaxy Note 9 with a feature called Wireless PC Projection. You will be able to get an experience similar to that of a desktop computer on a larger monitor without cables, as long as the monitor or the TV itself supports wireless via Miracast. (Huawei will also sell a dongle.)

MORE: Huawei Mate 20 Pro may be the best camera phone ever

Finally, Huawei is embarking on the digital wellness train that Google and Apple are already piloting with a Digital Balance dashboard that tracks device usage metrics and allows you to set quotas for your device. 39, use for applications. And Wind Down has helped you relax before you fall asleep.

My problem with EMUI is really a question of aesthetics. The icons and general presentation are just not as simple and clean as Google adopts Android Pie in the last few pixels, despite the reduced footprint of Huawei's interface.

Perspective

Huawei has recently overtaken Apple for smartphone sales worldwide for a reason. Chinese society is simply innovating faster than most of its competitors. And the Mate 20 Pro is bursting with significant innovations, ranging from a third ultra wide-angle camera to the ability to charge other wireless phones via reverse charge.

There are also some tricks here, like the AI ​​Cinema movie effects for video, and it really looks like Huawei is in a race to arm with Apple regarding its 7-nanometer chip (we have more of hearts!) Without end clear. . The EMUI 9.0 software seems improved, even if it is indeed Android.

Based on my first impressions, the Mate 20 Pro looks like one of the best premium phones of the year, with an elegant design that surpasses Note 9 and 3 and a camera that should be up to par, if not is surpass that of Apple and Google. The big question is where Huawei will decide to sell this phone because the P20 Pro is one of the best phones you can not buy in the United States. We look forward to seeing how the performance of the Mate 20 delivers.