Huawei Mate 20 Pro review: The notch giveth, and the notch taketh away

Sometimes an action is intended to create a positive outcome with simultaneous effects. For every yin, there is a yang; for every good, a bad; for every … you get the picture.

The Huawei flagship, the Mate 20 Pro, that is the one I'm thinking about. Huawei has a lot of other things to do, and I would argue integral – features.

But more on that later.

The story so far

It has been three weeks since Huawei unveiled its ultimate flagship, and some have hailed the device for cutting-edge brilliance while others have dismissed it as a camera with a phone.

Huawei's latest premium handset is on the face of every level. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro promises a lot of things in the world of a smartphone in 2018, and then some: a long battery life, a high-quality camera with AI-infused effects, an in-screen fingerprint reader, and even a built-in in your device. I'm not sure how many consumers are requesting that last one, but hey … we'll take it.

Before we dig too deep into what it's like to use the device on a day-to-day basis, here's a quick overview of the phone's innards. Everyone likes specs, right? Right.

What lurks beneath: the specs

Size (mm): 72.3 x 157.8 x 8.6
Aspect ratio: 19.5: 9
Weight: 189 grams
Screen: 6.39-inch OLED display (3120 x 1440)
SIM: Dual-Nano SIM
Storage: 128GB / 256GB (expandable by a further 256GB via Huawei's new Nano memory card slot, which doubles as the secondary SIM card slot)
RAM: 6GB / 8GB
chipset: Huawei Kirin 980
Rear camera (Triple Leica lenses): 40-megapixel wide angle, 20-megapixel ultra wide angle, 8-megapixel telephoto
Front (selfie) camera24-megapixel
Water resistance: IP68
Operating system: EMUI 9.0 (Android 9)
Battery: 4,200 mAh
ports: 1 x USB-C

First impressions

Usually you can tell if you will like a device within a minute of setting eyes on it and picking it up. There's just something about the feel, the aesthetics, the weight, the texture. Some phones shout "square," "bezels," "heft," or a bunch of other descriptors that get you off the wrong footing. And when that happens, it becomes just a little bit weaker than imperfections.

Fortunately, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro does not suffer from any of that. It really is a beautiful phone. Aesthetically, my first impression was that of a Samsung Galaxy device, such as the S9 or Note9, with a slender body and gorgeous polished curved display. However, the distinctive feature of X territory.

The small bezels have allowed Huawei to maximize screen size, and while the display stands out as large and bright, the device does not scream BIG. It is easy to hold, it's easy to hold, it's easy to hold, and it's one of the most noticeably impressive facets of the device. It gets things off to a good start.

Charging and battery

As with most phones, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro ships, so you can turn it straight out of the box. But out of habit, I like to fully charge things before I get going – setting everything up after unboxing can be a power-intensive process.

So, this one is one of the most impressive aspects of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro: the battery.

Huawei displays the battery with two digits after the decimal point. So when you're watching it juice up (do we all love to do, right?), it rolls up fluidly, giving the impression that it is charging super quick.

But this is more than a visual trick – the Huawei Mate 20 Pro really does load ridiculously quickly. Thanks to the 40-watt wired SuperCharge functionality, the gargantuan 4,200 mAh battery can go to nearly 100 percent in an hour. But if you do not need a full charge, the battery lasts – 30 minutes provides about 70 percent charge.

It's worth noting that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is also equipped for 15-watt wireless charging, but I did not try that I did not have the wireless charging pad. Besides, with the option to Supercharge through a wire, I'm not sure I'm going to get this much more. That is one peripheral I can live without.

Now, in terms of battery life, I'd say the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has the best longevity of any phone I've used. In my first test, I get the phone to 100 percent on Sunday night, and by Wednesday morning it still had 10 percent remaining. To be clear, I was not doing any kind of battery-sapping activity, such as streaming movies or albums, but I was not being conservative – just the usual phone – a million times to day to check Gmail, Slack, Google Maps, random internet things, the occasional YouTube video, and so on.

However, I should point out some of the ways Huawei achieves this extra life. The battery size is only one piece of the puzzle here, part of the reason Huawei Mate 20 Pro has such longevity is that it optimizes the apps running on your phone. It actually took me a while to realize why Huawei's software was the root cause. This is great for your battery, but it's not so great if you're trying to keep on top of important things in your life.

For example, Gmail and WhatsApp seem to be fine in terms of push notifications, but others, such as activity-tracking apps, eBay, Twitter, Words With Friends, and the like, rarely came through the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. I missed a few important alerts as a result of this – but there is a way around it.

By default, Huawei assumes control of all your apps 'background processes, and it' s likely to affect push notifications for many – if not most – apps. There's a section called "app launch," which gives you a hands-on view of how your apps perform. I was able to resolve most of my push notification problems.

I should add here that the battery did not pay for it. I was still enjoying the part of a full load, even after making these changes.

But this is a big downside: its aggressive software. I'm all in favor of reaching out to you, but this means getting your notifications from your phone, which is not so great. But more on the software later.

Additionally, there are two battery-saving modes that should get you extra juice. "Power Saving Mode" limits background app activity while disabling email auto-sync and cutting system sounds and some of the visual effects, which should buy you an extra 2.5 hours.

However, there is also an "ultra power saving mode" that would buy you nearly two extra days.

As you would expect, this mode is very limited. By default, you can only use the dialer (phone), messages (SMS), and contacts, though you can manually add an additional list to the list. Obviously, the more apps you have having power in the background, the bigger the impact they will have on the battery.

Still, it's a nice touch and keeps you moving during long camping trips.

Camera

The Mate 20 Pro sports a Leica-powered triple-camera camera arranged in a grid-like setup alongside the flash. In terms of lenses, it consists of 40-megapixel wide angle, 20-megapixel ultra wide angle, and 8-megapixel telephoto – Huawei has not included a dedicated monochrome lens on this camera like it did on the P20 Pro.

As a general observation, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro captures amazingly clear and detailed photos, including colors and low-light shots. We recently wrote about Huawei P20 Pro, and it's pretty much more of the same on the Mate 20 Pro. One of the key differences, however, is that with the Mate 20 Pro we now have an ultra-wide angle lens in the mix.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro really shone in low-light situations. However, I did not notice a great deal of difference in the outcome between "night mode" and the normal photo mode, though "night mode" may have produced a slightly crisper image. Either way, the quality of photos in dark settings was pretty exceptional.

These photos ("normal" and "night mode") were taken in very dark, late-night situations. It looks like there is a spotlight shining onto the scene, but there was not. And you'll notice that it's picked up in the night sky, too.

Huawei phones via over-the-air (OTA) software updates.

One neat new tool is a video bokeh effect called "background blur" which – as its name indicates – blurs the background as you shoot a video. This is a pretty common feature in still image screenshots from smartphones, but it's interesting to see it for the latest Huawei flagship.

Based on my tests, it was produced on a large scale, but at times it was a little rough around the edges, with the blur on the mark. the edges of the subject.

Arguably more exciting than a video bokeh is a new Sin City-style color isolation feature that keeps the subject in color, while everything else in the scene is black and white. Huawei calls this effect "AI color."

Based on my tests, it was not always perfect, and sometimes the switch would be a switch.

But by and large it worked, and worked well. If you're into making arty home movies, this will save you a lot of spade work in desktop-based editing suites.

It's worth noting that these effects are not yet available, but Huawei told VentureBeat that they will be rolling out in the near future.

At its launch event last month, Huawei also uses a real-world object – such as a soft toy – a moving digital representation. In effect, you can film your kid in a scene with their favorite teddy bear, dancing together.

Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available in the pre-release software made available to VentureBeat, so we are not able to test it yet.

Elsewhere on the camera, you have access to the usual array of features that you do not need to know about other flagships, such as your fashion portrait, and 3D emoji that mimic your facial expressions. Kids love it.

Unlock

If you want to secure your phone so that you can not have the device.

There is a passcode option, which by default requires six characters. But you can edit the passcode option so that you can use it between four and 16 digits – though that option is not immediately obvious. You can also use a pattern or a password.

If passcodes are not your thing, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has you covered. The company has managed to shoehorn a fingerprint reader into the actual screen itself. This is a first-ever smartphone company. OnePlus launched the 6T last month with an in-screen fingerprint scanner, while the likes of Vivo, Xiaomi, and Huawei itself have introduced devices with in-screen fingerprint readers. But it is still a little bit of a novelty.

Getting it set up was straightforward; you just have to touch your finger on the sensor zone a few times to register your fingerprint, and thereafter you'll see a little circle on the lower third of the screen to unlock it. It worked pretty flawlessly; However, I did not think it would be much easier than it was to be. But it still only takes a second to unlock if your technique is right.

However, the jewel in the security crown is 3D Face Unlock, which is blazing fast. IPhones, 3D Face Unlimited Projects of Your Face and Your Face.

It really is a great way to unlock your phone, but you will still need to use your fingerprint unlocking to authenticate apps.

Software: EMUI 9

As with other Huawei devices, the Mate 20 Pro comes with the EMUI software as part of the package. It's basically a thick skin plastered on top of Android, and it has not gone well with users in the past. In my view, there are a lot of nice little elements to EMUI

Let's start on a positive note, though.

One of the features that has been baked into EMUI for a while is something called Twin App. It is possible to have two accounts running simultaneously in social apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat.

This means you can have a personal and business Facebook profile on your phone at the same time without having to log in and out of the app.

Given that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a dual-SIM phone, it can also be used for the same time. This will not be of use to everyone, but many who use dual-SIM functionality will probably love this feature.

Overall, however, EMUI 9 feels like it gets in the way and interferes unnecessarily with Android. I'm not going to review EMUI here – there are plenty of online guides that you'll find in the world of Huawei's Android skin, but I'll highlight a few particularly awful elements.

One example is lockscreen notifications, which are just not very functional. Rather than sliding my finger over a window to full screen, I have to double-tap it in a very specific place, and then it jumps to the top of the screen. You can not really do anything with it – you can not delete an email from your inbox from the lockscreen.

Another irksome design flaw is that EMUI 9 does not offer an app drawer. This means you are always ready to go home, similar to iOS, which is not great. Appearing are useful for those apps. Of course, this is entirely subjective.

But one of the most annoying parts of EMUI 9 is something called HiSearch. It's a Huawei-built search engine for your apps and contacts, and it automatically pops up when you swipe downward on your homescreen. This happens all too frequently, because it is not important that you know it. I tend to swipe down the top of the top of the page by a millimeter, you will inadvertently activate HiSearch. And there does not appear to be any way of deactivating it.

Is it a feature? Is it a bug? It's really hard to tell.

And that, ultimately, is the problem with EMUI. It feels like too many unwanted features are forced on you, with no obvious way of getting rid of them.

I was informed by Huawei much later than the version of the software I have not the final release, meaning it might be prone to bugs. So I can not really be sure which facets of EMUI were bugs and which are features. There was a lot of things to do, but – for example, the phone would have to be randomly switched to the default SMS app. It seemed to be this week, and I've never figured out how to stop it from happening.

The notch

As a result of this review, the yin-yang effect makes a positive decision to bring something positive to the mix can be used in negative outcomes.

So, about that notch.

Huawei has given the Mate 20 Pro a big old notch in a similar vein to the iPhone X lineup. Based on my rough measurements, it's about the top edge of the display.

The notch allows Huawei to offer a marginally longer screen. But this is not a problem because of a camera, a 3D projector, a 24MP RGC camera, a flood illuminator, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and an IR camera.

That's all great, but in the process Huawei effectively removes any meaningful status bar notifications from the device. One of Android's strengths in its notifications, which makes it easy to see what needs to be addressed.

But because of the notch on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, you can not see a glance if your alarm is set without swiping down; you may have been @ -mentioned on Twitter; you can not see Gmail gold New York Times breaking news alerts. For the most part, you can not see any notifications at the top of your screen.

Clocks, Wi-Fi symbols, Bluetooth icons, dual SIM network status, and so on. , notifications. You can move the battery rate indicator inside the battery symbol, which gives you an extra slot to work with, and sometimes a random Gmail or WhatsApp notification will actually appear in the bar at the top.

I should also stress that you can hide the notch, but that is merely an aesthetic tweak that makes it look like it is not You can not actually get rid of it, and there is a way to move the status / notification bar down below it.

Personally, I would rather have 5mm less screen in the bar. As a result of the notch, I spend a lot of time doing this too much.

So yeah – the Huawei Mate 20 Pro notch does not help you, it does not work anymore.

The notch giveth, and the notch taketh away.

The (no) headphone jack

If you're tired of people talking about 3.5mm headphone jacks, you can skip this section. Removing headphone from the phones is all the rage. But just because this is the most important thing I'm going to stop whining about it for eternity.

The reasons Huawei removed the headphone Jack from the Mate 20 Pro are pretty much the same reasons it sucks the headphone Jack from the P20 Pro – namely, it has allowed the company to improve water resistance and shoehorn a bigger battery into the device.

There are plenty of devices around my house that should be wireless, such as TV remote control and the music speaker for my phone / tablet / PC. Heck, I've grown to love my little cord-free vacuum cleaner. But a mobile phone is a long way from the headphones, so a wire is not a big deal. And wired headphones do not need to be charged.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro actually does not have a headphone dongle so you can plug your normal headphones into the USB-C port, but I'm probably going to buy lots of dongles so that I can be sure I have one on hand whenever I need it. Yesterday, for example, I needed to jump quickly to a Skype call to my phone, and I was going to plug my hand "big" headphones in, I suddenly remembered that the phone did not have a 3.5mm jack and the dongle was on the other side of the house

But the overarching problem is the cause for the removal of the head. There is little question that the battery in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is insanely good – the best I've encountered in any smartphone. But it also loads insanely quickly. So this raises the question: Does someone really need battery life? That good when it charges That Quickly? There is a valid argument to support the notion – but for me, it is not a worthwhile trade-off.

The other stated reason for the headphone jack raises its own set of questions. Both the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Huawei Mate 20 have a dust and water resistance rating of IP68, but Samsung has managed to get a headphone jack into its phone. Go figure.

Verdict

Having used the Huawei Mate 20 Pro day in, day out for several weeks now, I can say that I have something of a love-hate relationship with the device. It really is a beautiful phone that is "premium." The form factor is just about perfect for me, the screen is great, and it's packed with a ton of solid features. The camera is fantastic, and it comes with a bunch of unique features. From a hardware perspective, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is great.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro will not be going on sale in the U.S. anytime soon. But using the euro pricing as a guide, this is basically a $ 1,100 device – so we have to judge it on that basis. For comparison, it is around the cost of the OnePlus 6T.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a premium device on every level, and it is priced accordingly. That's why, I'm just a bit disappointed by the software and some of the design decisions.

It's the small irritations that add up you've used a device for a while. I can not get over the top – it's way too big, everything seems crammed in, and there is no room for notifications in the status bar. Occasionally, a Gmail or WhatsApp icon might show up there, but I've never figured out why that only happens sometimes.

Good hardware requires good software. There are just a few other things that can not be removed, and I am not quite sure that I am dealing with a feature or a bug. on the review device is pre-release.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am also disappointed by the removal of the headphone jack. But that is now the way of things in the smartphone world, so it's life.

These may seem like a few things, but they are not easily ignored. Together, they fundamentally changed how I use a phone. In a $ 1,000 + device, I do not want to overlook niggling inconveniences – I want perfection.