Review Huawei P20 Pro: One of the best smartphones of 2018

Huawei P20 Pro is the best smartphone made by Huawei, and it competes for the title of the "best smartphone of the year" alongside big names like Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus and the iPhone X. It runs on the latest mobile hardware available, it looks great, and it comes with a three-camera system, powered by Leica optics. Does it sound interesting? We believe it does, and after testing it for a couple of weeks, we think that this smartphone's photography skills are amazing. If you want to know what Huawei P20 Pro is capable of offering to its users, is strengths and weakness, read our review:

Huawei P20 Pro: Who is it good for?

The Huawei P20 Pro is an exceptional smartphone for:

• Smartphone users who love to take pictures, but also for semi-professional photographers
• People who want the best of the best in terms of design
• Users who want smartphones with excellent hardware and amazing performance
• Those who like to be on the cutting edge of mobile technology and can afford to be there

Pros and cons

These are the positive features of the Huawei P20 Pro:

• It is probably the best, or at least one of the best smartphones for photography
• The artificial intelligence that Huawei developed for the camera makes any amateur photographer look like a semi-professional
• It is a beautiful smartphone with pleasant shape, that is comfortable to hold
• It has high-end hardware that offers excellent performance in all tasks
• The 4000 mAh battery is generous and offers excellent autonomy
• The screen has excellent color reproduction and great outdoors visibility
• The face detection algorithms work great, even in low-light conditions, providing instant unlocks
• It comes with the latest Android 8.1 Oreo installed
• The EMUI user interface looks good and offers plenty of customization options

As weak spots, we have to mention that the Huawei P20 Pro:

• It has a notch on the top of the screen, just like the iPhone X. Luckily, it can be hidden from the software
• Has a screen with tempered glass, not Gorilla Glass, making it slightly less scratch resistant than its main competitors
• The unusual 18.7:9 aspect ratio generates some minor visual artefacts in a few apps and games
• It does not have wireless charging

Verdict

The Huawei P20 Pro is the best smartphone created by Huawei, and it is one of the best Android smartphones of the year. Its only real competitor is the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, but we feel that the P20 Pro is a better deal. This smartphone impressed us with its looks, speed and its camera prowess. The artificial intelligence makes it easy for anyone to take great photos and film videos, even if you have no photography skills. Also, the face detection works great, providing almost instant unlocks. The only important thing we wished was different is the price. Huawei followed the market trend and increased their prices. As a result, Huawei P20 Pro is more expensive than the previous generation was at launch. Even so, it manages to be slightly more affordable than its competitors. Therefore, if you can afford it and you want a great smartphone, buy the Huawei P20 Pro. You will not be sorry you did. It is almost impossible to find a better smartphone.

Hardware specifications and packaging

The Huawei P20 Pro arrives in a simple white box. The only items that are printed on it are the name of the device, Huawei's logo and the text "Leica Triple Camera" that emphasizes its most important feature.

On the bottom and the sides of the box, you might also see some stickers that tell you some of the hardware specifications of the Huawei P20 Pro.

Inside the box, the first thing that greets you is the Huawei P20 Pro smartphone. Then, tucked away under cardboard support, there is a small pin for ejecting the SIM tray, the quick start guide, and a soft silicone case, the power charger with a detachable USB Type-C cable, a pair of wired headphones and a small USB Type-C to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter cable.

The Huawei P20 Pro is available in four color variations: Twilight, Black, Midnight Blue and Pink Gold. The model that we tested was the black one, a classic color that fits most tastes.

The Huawei P20 Pro features a 6.1 inches AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2240 pixels at 408 ppi pixel density. The screen uses tempered glass (but not Gorilla Glass) that should offer protection against scratches, dust, and even against occasional drops. It is also worth noting that the Huawei P20 Pro is IP67 certified, meaning that it is dust and water resistant, up to 1 meter in depth, for 30 minutes.

The smartphone is powered by a high-end Hisilicon Kirin 970 chipset that features an octa-core processor (four Cortex-A73 cores at 2.4 GHz and another four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8 GHz), and a Mali-G72 MP12 graphics processing unit. The Huawei P20 Pro comes with 6GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal flash storage space. It does not offer support for adding a microSD card, but you may not need that, considering the generous internal storage space. The autonomy of the Huawei P20 Pro is provided by a big non-removable Lithium-Polymer 4000 mAh battery.

On its back, the Huawei P20 Pro has a triple camera system installed. There is one camera that has 40 megapixels (RGB, f/1.8 aperture), one that has 20 megapixels (Monochrome, f/1.6 aperture) and one that has 8 megapixels (Telephoto, f/2.4 aperture). The camera system uses Leica optics, can optically zoom in up to 3x, has Optical Image Stabilization, phase detection, and autofocus, and LED flash. On its front side, it comes with an impressive single-lens camera that has 24 megapixels and f/2.0 aperture.

Regarding connectivity, the Huawei P20 Pro is available in two variations: Single SIM or Dual SIM. Both variations use Nano-SIM cards. The model that we tested was a Dual SIM one, and it uses a Dual SIM Dual Standby implementation, which means that even if both SIM cards are active when you are not using them, once you take a call on one of them, the other becomes inactive.

The Huawei P20 Pro has a USB 3.1 Type-C port, Bluetooth v4.2, NFC, infrared port, and offers dual-band wireless support for the 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 GHz and 5GHz networks.

The smartphone also benefits from the information it gathers from its many built-in sensors: gravity sensor, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, front fingerprint sensor, hall-sensor, gyroscope, compass, and color temperature sensor. The fingerprint reader is mounted on the front of the device, beneath the display, and has a rectangular shape with rounded corners.

The Huawei P20 Pro is a slightly larger than the average smartphone, but it is not too heavy or bulky: it has 6.10 inches in length (155 mm), 2.91 inches in width (73.9 mm), 0.31 inches in thickness (7.8 mm), and weighs about 6.35 ounces (180 grams).

For more details about Huawei P20 Pro's hardware specifications and features, visit its official webpage: Huawei P20 Pro Specs.

The unboxing experience you get from the Huawei P20 Pro is pleasant, and the hardware specifications describe a modern high-end Android smartphone.

Design and build quality

The Huawei P20 Pro is one of the most beautiful smartphones we have tested. But this statement alone is not enough for you to get an idea of just how gorgeous this smartphone is so let's take a closer look at it.

Its body is made of glass both on its display, where it is normal and mandatory, but also on its back, where the glass rounds up to the edges and ends in a metal frame. Sure, some people might say that glass is nothing more than a magnet for fingerprints, but boy, it looks good. If you care about protection, you can use the silicone case that Huawei provides, or buy yourself a fancier one.

On the back of the smartphone, the three cameras system sits gloriously on the top-left area. The cameras are slightly protruding from the smartphone's back surface. They are not, however, bulky enough to bother you. Closeby, there is also the LED flash and then the Leica branding. On the opposite corner, you can also see the Huawei name written. Both the cameras and the Huawei name are positioned vertically on the smartphone, and that makes them all the more noticeable when you keep the smartphone in a horizontal position as you will usually do when taking photographs.

The front of the smartphone is one big display with small bezels, especially on its left and right sides, but also on its top. That is also the place where the front 20 MP camera is found, taking a small area out of the display. Just like the iPhone X, the Huawei P20 Pro has what you would call a small bang, as in haircut. 🙂

On the bottom of the display, the bezel is slightly larger than the others, but this one is also quite small. In the center, you will find the fingerprint reader which has a rectangular shape with rounded corners.

The SIM tray is positioned on the left side of the Huawei P20 Pro and can be taken out by pushing the small pin provided by Huawei or by using a paper clip.

On the right edge of the smartphone, towards the top, you get the usual volume rocker and the power button. The power button is separated from the others and is easily identifiable by its red stripe.

On the bottom edge, there are the speakers, the microphone, and the USB 3.1 Type-C port. The USB port is used for charging the smartphone, but you can also use it to transfer data to and from the internal flash storage space and for plugging the headphones, or the USB to 3.5 mm audio jack adapter cable.

The Huawei P20 Pro looks beautiful, and its design is well thought out. We like how glass and metal mingle towards the edges and, although some might say otherwise, we like how the display fits the entire front of the smartphone, even if that means that the front camera is occupying a small part of the display. The tiny bezels and the glass back also add to the good impression.

If you would like to know more about the smartphone experience offered by the Huawei P20 Pro, its cameras, bundled apps, and performance in benchmarks, read the second page of this review.

The smartphone experience on the Huawei P20 Pro

When it comes to making and receiving phone calls, the Huawei P20 Pro performs great, as its signal reception is reliable and its audio systems are working very well. All the phone calls we had on this smartphone were of high quality, regardless of the type of radio network and signal strength we had in our area. We used it in a mountainous area where mobile coverage is not the best at all times and in all places. Even so, all our phone conversations were clear on both ends of the wire (pun intended). 🙂

If you like watching movies or listening to music on your smartphone, you should know that the Huawei P20 Pro excels at this too. On the bottom edge of the smartphone, to the left and the right of the USB 3.1 Type-C port, there is a set of stereo speakers that do a good job at playing sound even at the highest volume settings. There are no interferences and no distortion whatsoever. If you prefer a higher level of audio clarity and fidelity, the bundled headphones are a good choice, and the Dolby Atmos will surely not let you down regarding quality. But, if you want to charge the smartphone and also use headphones, you have to buy yourself a pair of Bluetooth headphones, because the ones bundled are wired and connect through USB Type-C, just like the charger. There is no 3.5 audio jack on the Huawei P20 Pro.

The display Huawei used for the P20 Pro is AMOLED and thus very bright and with vivid colors. You will not have any issues understanding what is shown on the screen, even if you use it outdoors, in sunlight. The resolution is slightly higher than Full HD, and the display size is a perfect fit. They display has 408 ppi pixel density, which means that images, fonts, and gradients look smooth.

Multitasking is a breeze on the Huawei P20 Pro. The processor and the graphical unit are powerful, and the RAM is more than enough for anything you might want to run on it. No matter how many apps we had opened simultaneously, or how demanding the games were that we ran, the Huawei P20 Pro was always fast and fluent. The only minor downside was the 18.7:9 aspect ratio of the screen, which is not that common on modern smartphones. As a result, a few apps and games (Instagram and Clash Royale are two popular examples) have a few minor visual glitches in some places. App developers may need to update their apps to support better this aspect ratio that is common to all new Huawei smartphones in their P20 lineup.

Unlocking the Huawei P20 Pro was quick both when using the fingerprint sensor, and the face detection. We were especially pleased by the face detection algorithms which worked great even in low-light conditions. As a result, unlocking the smartphone almost always happened in an instant, which is very convenient.

As for its autonomy, the Huawei P20 Pro draws it from a large Lithium Polymer battery that has a capacity of 4000 mAh. It is more than enough to get you through a whole day of normal use, and even more if you use it lightly. For instance, we had the Huawei P20 Pro on a bicycle trip that lasted for eight hours. During this time we took many pictures, we had the GPS, and mobile data turned on, plus a Bluetooth headset connected to it. Also, Endomondo was running in the background during the whole trip, monitoring our cycling experience. At the end of our journey, the smartphone still had about 60 percent battery remaining, which is impressive.

The Huawei P20 Pro is an excellent smartphone. The phone calls you make are of high quality regardless of the network signal strength, and the processing power is more than enough for any activities, from browsing to social media to gaming or productivity. The only minor downside is that some apps and games need updating, to better support the screen's 18.7:9 aspect ratio.

The camera experience on the Huawei P20 Pro

The camera system on the Huawei P20 Pro is extraordinary. There are three main cameras on its back and one on its front, and all of them are outstanding. You get Leica optics and:

• One camera with 40 megapixels. It is used for color photography and has a f/1.8 aperture.
• A second camera that has 20 megapixels. This one is used for monochrome photography and has a f/1.6 aperture.
• The third camera has 8 megapixels and is used for telephotography. It has a f/2.4 aperture and can zoom optically up to 3x.
• On its front side, it comes with an impressive single-lens camera that has 24 megapixels and f/2.0 aperture.

The Camera app is also a lot better than anything we have seen on other smartphones. The app benefits from an Artificial Intelligence interface that Huawei calls Master AI. It can, in real-time, automatically detect 19 different photo categories. Once it does that, it automatically adjusts the camera settings to match the subject in front of you and deliver professional quality photographs. The Huawei P20 Pro camera system can detect and apply photo profiles for the following: Cat, Food, Group, Natural, Close-up, Night shot, Text, Greenery, Portrait, Dog, Fireworks, Blue Sky, Flowers, Stage, Document, Sunset, Snow, Waterfall, and Beach. If these do not satisfy you, although we doubt it, the Camera app also comes with a specialized Pro mode in which photographers can manually adjust any settings they want.

The pictures you take with the Huawei P20 Pro are great in almost all situations. The colors are vivid, the images have great contrast, and the dynamic range is excellent. We loved taking close-ups and shooting nature landscapes.

We were impressed to a whole new level when we started taking portraits. There is no noticeable noise in any photography, and the bokeh effect is like second nature for this smartphone. 🙂

The Huawei P20 Pro offers exceptional results in low-light environments also. The smartphone's camera AI shows its powers here too. We have taken photos in pitch black, like the one you can see below, without using a tripod or anything like that. The results are impressive considering that hands shake, things move, and the sun has set a long time ago. There is a bit of noise in such photos, but it is nowhere near to what other smartphones give you in similar conditions. One more reason to love the Huawei P20 Pro!

To get a better idea of the camera system quality, here is a gallery with some of the photos that we have taken with the Huawei P20 Pro. It includes diverse shots, taken in different lighting conditions, and also a few selfies:

The smartphone can shoot videos in up to 4K UHD resolution at 3840 x 2160 pixels. If you want video stabilization to work though, you must use a Full HD resolution of 1080p. That is what we prefer because shaking images is not our favorite thing to see. Fortunately, the Huawei P20 Pro uses its camera AI to stabilize videos, and the results are great.

Even if you are driving or if you are filming while walking, the images are never shaky and look like you are floating or walking on clouds. 🙂 Here is a sample of a video we took while cycling through the woods:

The same image quality with vibrant colors and good contrast as in the photos it takes can be seen in the videos that the Huawei P20 Pro films. To get a better idea of how it fares in a more static scenario, check the panorama video below:

And if you are a fan of slow-motion videos, Huawei P20 Pro has you covered. It can film slow-mo videos in 4x speed (120 fps), 8x (240 fps), and in super slow-motion in 32x speed (960 fps). Here is how the super slow-motion looks like:

If you love to photograph or film everything you see, then the Huawei P20 Pro is probably the best Android smartphone you can get.

Android 8.1 Oreo, EMUI and bundled apps

The Huawei P20 Pro comes with the latest Android operating system from Google: Android 8.1 Oreo. Instead of using the default Android user interface, Huawei prefers to use their user interface called EMUI, which now has reached version 8.1, the same number Android. EMUI was a good interface in the past, but now it feels better still. The company has polished it to match this smartphone and offers exciting features and useful apps. For instance, because the Huawei P20 Pro has that notch on the top of the screen, where the front camera resides, EMUI offers a setting for masking it with a black status bar, if you do not like it.

EMUI also lets you change the way the buttons from the navigation bar are displayed and used. For example, you can set it so that you see the Home, Back and Recent apps buttons always displayed on the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, you can hide them and use the fingerprint reader as the Home button if you tap and hold on it, tap only to go Back and swipe on the screen to switch to recent apps that you have used.

Regarding the apps that are preinstalled on the Huawei P20 Pro, you should know that although there are many, most of them are useful. Here is the list of apps that are bundled with the Huawei P20 Pro:

• AppGallery - is a reinterpretation of the Play Store on Huawei's part. You have to connect to your Huawei account (or create one first), and then you can access a curated store of apps recommended by Huawei.
• Backup - use it to backup personal data such as contacts, messages, call logs, apps and also multimedia content. You can save backups to your computer or on a USB storage device.
• Booking.com - the official app for the popular travel service. If you are not interested in using it, you can remove it with ease.
• Clock - an app that shows you the time and also gives you access to a stopwatch and a timer.
• Calculator - a simple and easy to use a calculator.
• Calendar - lets you manage your time and schedule events.
• Compass - a simple compass app that tells you the cardinal points.
• eBay - the app for the popular online marketplace.
• Email - an email app that lets you connect email accounts from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Exchange or other similar services.
• Facebook - the official app of the Facebook social network. If you do not want it, you can remove it.
• Files - your basic file manager for Android. It is easy to use and useful.
• Flashlight - the app does what its name implies, and it can be useful at times.
• Gallery - this is Huawei's reinterpretation of the Google Photos app, which is also bundled with your smartphone. Even though it is a well-built app, we prefer Google Photos.
• HiCare - a support app that provides you with customer care services. You can use it to find information such as the nearest service center, read the warranty policy, check your warranty status, read the manuals and so on.
• Health - provides information about health activities such as the steps you have taken or the calories you have burned.
• Mirror - while a mirror is not always at hand, your smartphone is, and you can use it to see how awesome you are.
• Music - a simple music player.
• Netflix - the app of the popular movie service bearing the same name.
• Notepad - a simple note-taking app.
• Phone Clone - lets you move data such as contacts, call log, messages, calendar events, Wi-Fi, multimedia files, app data, browser and content owned by you, from an old device to your new smartphone, via Wi-Fi.
• Phone Manager - cleans your smartphone of junk files, cache, and malware, and shows details about the mobile data you used, the app permissions you gave and so on. It is worth mentioning that Avast powers the antivirus.
• Quik - a simple video editor that can help you create new videos using the photos and videos you shot on your smartphone.
• Smart Remote - this app lets you add remote controls that use the infrared port on your smartphone to control various home appliances such as your TV, air conditioner, set-top box, DVD player, projector and so on.
• Recorder - a basic voice recorder that can be useful when you need this type of app.
• Themes - a portal for discovering and installing themes and wallpapers. It works only if you log in with a Huawei ID.
• Tips - shows you tips on how to get the most of your new smartphone.
• Translator - is an app developed by Microsoft that lets you translate voice and text in real-time.
• Video - basic movie player for viewing the movies that are stored on your smartphone.
• Wallet - with it you can store credit or debit cards details and use them to buy stuff.
• Weather - gives you the weather forecast for your area or for the places you specify.

Besides all the above apps, Huawei P20 Pro also comes with the standard apps from Google: Google, Gmail. Maps, YouTube, Drive, Play Music, Duo, Photos, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Chrome.

We like the fact that the Huawei P20 Pro uses the latest Android operating system available to date, and we like the new version of EMUI too. Huawei invested effort in making it more beautiful and customizable than its previous versions. Also, with a few exceptions, most of the bundled apps are useful, so you will probably not uninstall or disable them.

Performance in benchmarks

The hardware specifications for the Huawei P20 Pro are impressive. But how do you compare them with those of other smartphones in the real world? The short answer is benchmarks, so that is what we did. Here are its results in some of the most common benchmark apps for Android:

First, we ran the Basemark OS Platform Benchmark, an all-in-one benchmarking tool for measuring the average performance of Android smartphones and tablets. Huawei P20 Pro has had an overall score of 3317 points, which is almost identical to what you get with a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. You can also see individual scores for working with the memory, the graphics chip or the web, in the screenshot below.

Next, we used Geekbench 4 to see how well Huawei P20 Pro uses its processor cores. The single-core test is relevant because many apps still do not know how to take advantage of a multicore processor, and some games also need high single core speed to work well. Here, Huawei P20 Pro had a score of 1915 points. You can see how it compares with other smartphones in the screenshot below.

The multi-core test revealed a score of 6752 points. This test set assesses the processor's speed when running multiple tasks simultaneously, and using multiple cores. You can see a comparison between Huawei P20 Pro and other smartphones in the screenshot below.

Next, we checked the web browsing performance, using the AnTuTu HTML5 Test. Huawei P20 Pro had a score of 30768 points. You can see how it compares with other devices, in the screenshot below.

Huawei P20 Pro supports 4G LTE mobile data connections, so we also measured its performance in this area also. We used Speedtest, an app which tests how fast your internet connection is. The results were excellent and similar to what you get with other high-end smartphones in our area.

We also wanted to run some gaming benchmarks, to see how good the Huawei P20 Pro is in games. To do that, we used an app called GFXBench GL Benchmark. We only took into consideration the results measured in the 1080p Car Chase Offscreen, 1080p Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen and 1080p T-Rex Offscreen tests. We choose to use only the 1080p tests because their resolution is standardized at 1080p and the results can be compared more easily with other smartphones, even if their screen resolutions differ.

In the 1080p Car Chase Offscreen test, Huawei P20 Pro rendered 1325 frames, a similar result with that of the Samsung Galaxy S8. This is a good result for users who are interested in gaming on their smartphone.

In the second gaming test that we ran, which was 1080p Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen, the Huawei P20 Pro managed to render 2460 frames. This is also a similar result to that of a Samsung Galaxy S8.

The third gaming test that we ran, 1080p T-Rex Offscreen, showed that the Huawei P20 Pro fares great in older games with fewer visual details, too. It managed to display no more no less than 6812 frames, which is 15% more than what you get on a Samsung Galaxy S8.

We conclude that if you want an Android device for gaming, the Huawei P20 Pro is an excellent choice, as it can run anything at the maxed graphical quality and high framerates.

Finally, there is one other significant aspect of any smartphone: how long can it last on a full battery charge. Although we mentioned earlier in this review that the battery time is great in our opinion, now it was time to measure it. For that, we used PCMark's Work 2.0 battery life test. It measures the autonomy of the battery when running normal daily activities such as browsing the web, editing documents and photos. Huawei P20 Pro managed to last for more than 10 hours in these tests. It is an excellent result for a high-end smartphone. For example, in this benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus lasts a bit more than 8 hours.

The only conclusion that we can draw at the end of our benchmarks is that the Huawei P20 Pro is one of the best smartphones with Android.

Do you like the Huawei P20 Pro?

As you have seen, the Huawei P20 Pro is a great smartphone, and we love it. Its design, its performance, and its camera are top-notch, and there are very few smartphones out there that can match it. Do you like it too? Would you buy it? Or will you wait until its price drops a little? Share your opinion in the comments section below and let's discuss.