Ah, a new Photo king rises, but its kingdom of apps was taken away before its birth. What happens next then, the crowd asks? Will its subjects flee with the riches now gone? Or will the Huawei P40 Pro break new paths through this uncharted territory and keep its former glory? The crowds shall get their answer!
It was tough for Huawei to lose Google support, but it will be even more challenging to sell in the current stagnated market amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. But the P40 series is having its launch despite the global health crisis, and the P40 Pro surely looks like it is ready to stand its ground.
The P40 Pro provides a premium camera experience with improved sensors and a focus on the optical zooming, plus it has the new 90Hz 1200p OLED screen. There is an even more premium device than the Pro – the new P40 Pro+ with a ceramic body and a jaw-dropping 10x optical zoom.
The Pro+ launch was moved for this summer season though and it seems it will be more of a limited edition, quite expensive at that. So, all eyes on the P40 Pro here, please, as it is the star of this show.
The P40 Pro is Huawei‘s first smartphone with a high-refresh-rate screen – it now has a 6.58″ curved OLED with high-resolution of 1200p and 90Hz refresh rate. The elliptical punch-hole is quite the eyesore but packs a brand-new 32MP selfie camera with autofocus (finally!) and a ToF snapper. It seems that Huawei is making up for the lost pixels Huawei by putting the tech needed for 3D face unlock.
The main camera is what everyone will be talking about, of course. It has a new 50MP sensor with a RYYB filter that will spit 12MP photos. Then comes the ultrawide shooter lifted straight from the Mate 30 Pro – a 40MP sensor with RGGB filter and autofocus. The zoom camera seems to have an identical periscope lens for 5x optical zoom as seen on the P30 Pro’s – but gets a new 12MP sensor with RYYB filter and will allow more light at nighttime. And finally, there is another ToF camera for portraits and autofocus assistance.
The new Kirin 990 5G is at the helm of the P40 Pro. At 4,200 mAh, the battery capacity has remained unchanged since the P30 Pro but charging should be faster.
Huawei P40 Pro specs
Body: Glass front and back, aluminum frame; IP68-rated for dust and water resistance.
Security: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical), 3D face recognition.
Connectivity: 5G/4G/3G/GSM; Dual SIM, Wi-Fi 6+, Dual-band GPS, Bluetooth 5.1 + LE, NFC, USB Type-C.
Misc: IR blaster, acoustic display acts as earpiece, bottom-firing loudspeaker.
The Huawei P40 Pro seems to be lacking so little but the elephant in the room – the absence of Google Mobile Services – is something that raises many questions. And you will get those answered if you stick for a while with us.
Unboxing the Huawei P40 Pro
There are no surprises within the P40 Pro retail box – its contents are worthy of a flagship. Inside you will find the 40W power brick and the enhanced USB-C cable that goes with it.
Huawei is also throwing a pair of its wired earbuds ending on a USB-C plug. Those have the same shape as Huawei’s FreeBuds 3, they are just not so free.
Some markets may be getting a silicone case with the P40 Pro, but our box did not offer one.
Wrap-up
If someone thought Huawei was done after Google cut them off – they were wrong. The Mate 30 and the P40 series are here to prove that there is a life after Google, and it’s not as bad as you might think initially.
Google’s absence is still obvious and while we are pretty sure the Play Services will find their way on to the P40 phones, one way or another, the third-party stores are getting better and stronger, and you are never left without options. The Amazon AppStore and APKPure are perfectly capable to keep most of your apps up to date.
The hardware package is mightily impressive though, and this is where everyone should be focused, not on the Google stuff. The P40 Pro has an excellent screen with top-notch resolution and high refresh rate. The new Kirin 990 5G is one of the best on the market, with solid thermal properties.
But the new Leica camera on both ends are the attention grabbers. Huawei has kept the same arrangement on the back as on the P30 Pro, but has improved the sensors, lenses, and the processing algorithms. New video options are available, too. Meanwhile, at the front, the selfie shooter has finally gotten an autofocus, while with the help of the ToF camera you will get some amazing portrait shots.
With the right price position, stimuli (the pre-orders get FreeBuds 3), and most important – marketing push – the Huawei P40 Pro has every chance of not only surviving but beating the odds.
The competition
Well, we can’t start this chapter without mentioning one great alternative sold at nearly half the P40 Pro price. Huawei P30 Pro figure was slashed numerous times post the USA vs. Huawei war, and it is currently a hot deal pretty much everywhere. The previous generation flagship offers a similar experience in terms of performance and camera (read great). Sure, you will lose the 90Hz refresh rate and the top-notch ultrawide camera, but the P30 Pro almost €500 cheaper! Oh, and it has all Google services on board and already runs on Android 10 + EMUI 10.
Huawei P40 Pro next to the P30 Pro
The Galaxy S20+ is your next option. Its price is a close match to the P40 Pro, but it’s Dynamic AMOLED is larger and of higher resolution. The screen also supports HDR10+, and you can enjoy high-definition content from all popular streaming services thanks to the entirety of Google’s package. The camera experience and quality are similar even if the optical zoom has a shorter range. The Galaxy also offers stereo speakers, 120Hz refresh rate instead of 90Hz, 8K video capturing, and a bit faster performance.
Oppo Find X2 is an interesting alternative to consider if available in your region. It’s a great flagship ran by the Snapdragon 865 and uses a 6.7″ 120Hz Quad HD AMOLED screen. It has high-res wide and ultrawide snappers and a 13MP cam witha periscope lens for 5x optical zoom. Stereo speakers, Android 10, and 65W fast charging complete the flagship bundle.
Finally, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro will be launching soon, and it will cost as much as the Huawei. We know it will have a 6.67″ 90Hz AMOLED of 1080p resolution and the newest Snapdragon 865 chip. The quad-camera at the back is quite peculiar – a 108MP primary, a 20MP ultrawide, an 8MP telephoto for 10x hybrid zoom, and a 12MP portrait camera with 2x optical zoom. 8K capturing is available on its main camera, stereo speaker setup is present, Android 10 as well, and the Mi 10 supports 50W fast charging.
Huawei P30 Pro • Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus • Oppo Find X2 Pro • Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
The verdict
The Huawei P40 Pro is the right kind of a flagship – it offers cutting-edge tech across the board. The OLED screen is both high-resolution and with a high refresh rate, the performance is brilliant and yet won’t suffer from throttling from heating, and then the battery is relatively large and very fast to recharge.
Photography is what the P40 Pro is all about, and the phone excels in that even if there were some hiccups along the way. We are sure Huawei will fix the minor issues we observed with an update, and we already like its plans for EMUI’s expansion.
The fate of the brand lies in its supporters, but we are seeing no reason why you should stay away from it. The P40 Pro is an excellent flagship specimen worth experiencing, be it with Google functions or not.
Pros
Eye-catchy curved design, water-proof body.
Excellent high-res 90Hz OLED screen.
Flagship-grade sustained performance.
Dependable battery life, blazing-fast charging.
Excellent photo quality day and night across all cameras.
Top-notch selfies.
Great video quality at 30fps across the board, excellent stabilization.
All-round connectivity, though no 3.5mm jack
Cons
Only takes NV cards for memory expansion.
No Google Mobile Services means some apps and games will never work no matter what.
A Mate 20 before the real Mate 20s are out that’s lighter on your wallet but not light on features – it’s the Huawei Mate 20 lite. While waiting for the big boys, we figured we’d give this midranger a go.
As with previous Huawei Lites, the Mate 20 edition packs one of the company’s mid-tier chipsets, but this time it’s a new one – instead of the ubiquitous 659, it’s now the 12nm Kirin 710 that swaps out 4 of the Cortex-A53 cores in its CPU for the more powerful A73 variety; a new GPU is also part of the 710 bundle.
The Mate 20 comes with a 20MP f/1.8 primary cam instead of the 16MP f/2.2 unit found in the latest Lite, the P20. On the front, we now see a 24MP f/2.0 camera for selfies, as opposed to the P20 lite’s 16MP f/2.2 module. Each of the Mate’s high-res shooters is paired with an extra 2MP unit for depth detection too.
Like the true Mates, the 20 lite has a large display – in this case a 6.3-inch FullHD-ish panel in a 19.5:9 aspect, complete with the mandatory notch. Mandatory for a Mate, this Lite one has a generous 3,750mAh battery – couple that with the 12nm SoC and we’re in for some pretty good endurance.
Huawei Mate 20 lite specs
Body: Aluminum frame, glass back, 158.3 x 75.3 x 7.6 mm, 172g.
It’s looking like a solid midrange package the Mate 20 lite, but let’s first check out what’s in the actual package.
Huawei Mate 20 lite unboxing
The Mate 20 lite comes in an understated black box with the name of the phone printed on top and on the sides of the lid. The phone’s on top and underneath it there’s a paper sleeve containing one of the thickest quick start guides we’ve seen lately (it’s in a lot of languages), but also a screen protector.
Remove that and you’ll see the charger labeled Huawei Quick Charge. That’s not to be confused with the Huawei Super Charge adapters that you’ll find bundled with the company’s proper high-end models, but it’s still rated at 9V/2A, so there is some form of rapid charging involved. There’s also a USB-A to USB-C cable and in a separate compartment you’ll find a pair of basic earbuds to get yourself started.
Competition
Huawei‘s huge smartphone portfolio inevitably means there are a ton of options within the company’s own lineup. The Honor Play we reviewed recently immediately comes to mind offering the soon-to-be-replaced flagship Kirin 970 chipset which is substantially more powerful than the Mate 20 lite‘s Kirin 710. The Mate wins the stills camera battle, but you may want the Honor’s 4K video. The Honor is substantially cheaper making things extra difficult.
Honor Play • Huawei P20 lite • Nokia 7 plus • Galaxy A6 Plus (2018) • Xiaomi Mi 8 SE • Xperia XA2 Plus
The P20 lite has a weaker chip than the Mate 20 lite, and shorter battery life, but is even more affordable than the Honor Play. You’ll be sacrificing some of the camera prowess, but you’ll also be getting a more compact package.
Once you’ve got your Huawei‘s all sorted out, you should probably have a look at the Nokia 7 Plus. Its Snapdragon 660 is at least as powerful as the Mate 20 lite’s Kirin 710 and battery life is almost as good. It’s got a telephoto camera, however, and can also record 4K video, which the Mate doesn’t. The Android One on the Nokia will please purists and the slightly lower price will please… well, everyone.
Another in a list of more affordable alternatives, the Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018) will give you a better display and even longer battery life, but a significantly slower chip and a microUSB port (what year is it?).
No such issues with the Mi 8 SE, whose Snapdragon 710 outperforms the Kirin 710 in the Mate 20 lite, and it can do the number crunching for 4K recording too. Battery life is in the Mate’s favor overall, though not by much, and the Mi’s lack of a headphone jack is a bummer, especially in this class.
The Xperia XA2 Plus has all the right ports and jacks, so no advantage over the Mate on this front. It does match it in battery life, and sells for almost the same money, but is lacking depth cams on either side. Its otherwise not as potent Snapdragon 630 can record 4K video nonetheless.
Verdict
Having the flagship’s name is good and all, but Huawei‘s priced the Mate 20 lite without accounting for the ‘lite’ bit too much, and we’re not liking the numbers. It’s a good overall package, with excellent battery life, decent display and good image quality from its two (real) cameras. But other phones offer those too, some even outperform the Mate in key areas, and often at a lower price. Carrier subsidies could sway things in any direction, but at full retail (north of €400)р we find the Mate 20 tough to recommend.
Pros
Light, without feeling cheap
Battery life to spare
Good all-round camera experience with some creative options
Cons
Expensive for the hardware
Derivative design
No 4K video recording, poor quality 1080p/60fps (though not bad 1080p/30fps)
[Music] hello guys it’s glenn from sydney cbd repair center and today we’re gonna fix this huawei p30 with this orange [Music] stuff so this huawei p30 comes to us in the shop with a broken display and we’re gonna fix it by replacing the entire screen and it’s not even turning on first step.
we’re gonna do is to remove the back cover.
the back cover is fairly good in good condition so we have to take good care and take our time
as you can see this is the real time
we’re gonna fast forward to it see how tedious this process begins
and if you want to try this on your own without proper training or tools you might even damage the device even just by doing this first step
so as you can see here we’re fast forwarding it and it’s gonna take some time
this is the adhesives that are making the back cover stick to the main assembly
and you have to be very careful
this is the real speed real-time speed
and even at this part we have to be very careful
and also the our technicians also know the components some of the components can even be attached to the back cover
so you have to be very careful and watch out for that one
and now we have the back cover taken off
we’re gonna remove all the screws that are covering the motherboard
and we’re gonna take off the shroud
and of course the wireless charging or the nfc component
and as you can see it’s exposing the camera systems camera lenses
and of course the connectors so first off before we proceed
we have to test the new screen by attaching it at the back with this connector just to make sure that it’s working
and it works so apparently the phone is turning on but nothing displays on the screen when we first tested it
so it’s just a screen problem so we’re going to proceed knowing that we only have to fix the screen
and the entire phone is okay including the battery and the motherboard
let’s take off the battery with these adhesives and huawei seems to have these labeled pretty nicely where you have to pull to remove the battery and not destroy it
and then we’re gonna proceed by removing the broken screen which is fairly the same with how we remove the back plate
but this time you can just take a bit of force
but you still have to be very careful not to damage the main assembly so we have to remove the old adhesives that we have here you have to clean this up
so that when we apply the new screen assembly
we have a clean surface to attach the adhesives
so at this point we’re not going to install it
we’re just going to test fit
if it fits nicely some of the main assemblies of smartphones
when they you drop it you have dents and when you attach the new screen they can’t fit
so you might want to bend it back or make the shape conform to the new display
so this is a fresh adhesive that we apply
there’s no other way to attach a new screen here some you can have an adhesive strip for a specific uh model
but sometimes you just can’t have that and we opt to have our own adhesives to cater to more models
so we’re not limited to just a certain type of smartphone or brand
so we have to reverse what we have done and attach the battery you can reuse the adhesives that comes with it put back the shroud and the connectors make sure you put them all back in
because sometimes you have you can forget one component and it will not work so you have to make sure that all the connectors are intact and properly installed
so before we close this up we have to test and there we go it’s working [Music]
so the client doesn’t want us to open the smartphone
so we’re just gonna test the uh power button volume button and of course the touch screen make sure that it’s working and even the speakers or the camera
so once we confirm that it’s all working
we can just close it up
we have a new adhesive for the back cover so nothing to worry there
and it looks brand new again
so if you have a problem with your huawei p30, rog phone, iphones, smart watches and apple watch specifically just head over to sydney cbd repair centre
so in this time of lockdown in sydney
we are still open since we’re rendering repair services to people which is an essential service apparently
thanks for joining guys till next time [Music] cheers
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you
The stable version of Android 11 was released a few months ago, and while it isn’t the most revolutionary update we’ve ever seen, there are plenty of reasons to get excited about it. Whether you’re looking forward to the new conversation notifications, chat bubbles for messaging apps, or the upgraded permission handling, it may be a while before you can actually start messing around with all of these software goodies.
The update is available for the Pixels and selects OnePlus phones, while the Galaxy S20 and Note 20 lineups have also received their One UI 3.0 update which is based on Android 11. We’ve rounded up all of the current info to help give you a better idea of when Android 11 will arrive on your device.
The timelines change based on manufacturer and region, but the list below should give you a broad overview of if and when you will get the Android 11 update on your phone.
The phrase “fast Android updates” is usually an oxymoron, but Google‘s lineup of Pixel phones is the exception to that rule. Whenever a new update or security patch is released, Pixels are the first-in-line for that software — making this one of the biggest benefits of owning a Pixel in the first place.
The Android 11 stable update is now available to download on all Pixels starting with the Pixel 2 series. Here’s the full list:
Samsung used to be one of those manufacturers that you couldn’t rely on for good software support, but within the last year, it’s improved significantly. Samsung announced that it’s now committed to three years of major OS updates for all of its flagship phones, starting with the Galaxy S10 series.
The company has been on a tear as of late, releasing the final version of One UI 3.0 (based on Android 11) to the likes of the Galaxy S20, Note 20, and even the Galaxy Z Flip 5G. A few other devices are seeing the update as well that weren’t exactly expected as soon as they have arrived.
We can look forward to all of the following phones to get an Android 11 update:
Galaxy S10
Galaxy S10+
Galaxy S10e
Galaxy S10 Lite
Galaxy S20
Galaxy S20+
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Galaxy S20 FE
Galaxy S21
Galaxy S21+
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Galaxy Note 10 Lite
Galaxy Note 10
Galaxy Note 10+
Galaxy Note 20
Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Galaxy Fold
Galaxy Z Fold 2
Galaxy Z Flip 5G
Galaxy A52 / A52 5G
Galaxy A72 / A72 5G
Galaxy A32 5G
Galaxy A71
Galaxy A51
Galaxy M21
Galaxy M31 / M31s
Galaxy M42
The Galaxy S9 series should be able to run Android 11, but Samsung revealed its roadmap for which devices would see the update. Sadly, the S9 was not on the list. However, the company did commit to bringing security updates to these devices for at least the next year.
As for the speed at which Samsung will roll out Android 11 to its phones, we’re anticipating the update to drop within a few months of the initial launch. Google introduced Android 10 on September 3, 2019. The Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S9 got the update in December and January, and Samsung has been following the same trajectory with Android 11 for its enormous lineup of smartphones, with many devices being updated in late December 2020 or throughout January and into February 2021.
What started out as a small enthusiast brand has transformed itself into a mainstream player in the U.S. smartphone space. OnePlus kicks out some of the best Android phones, and thankfully, it’s quite good when it comes to updating them to new software builds.
OnePlus is rolling out the Android 11 stable update to the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro. There’s a new visual layout in OxygenOS 11, along with a host of exciting features.
Despite seeing a few issues with the official OxygenOS 11 rollout for the OnePlus Nord, it seems that everything is back on track.
Here are the OnePlus devices that will make the switch to Android 11:
OnePlus 9
OnePlus 9 Pro
OnePlus 9R
OnePlus 8T
OnePlus 8 Pro
OnePlus 8
OnePlus Nord
OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition
OnePlus 7T Pro
OnePlus 7T
OnePlus 7 Pro 5G
OnePlus 7 Pro
OnePlus 7
OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition
OnePlus 6T
OnePlus 6
With the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro making their arrival, that adds a couple of more devices that are running Android 11. Plus, both of those devices will see the update to Android 12 and at least Android 13. Which is more than we can say about the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 which are slated for only one major Android release. Meanwhile, those are still running Android 10, and the company has not given any indication as to when Android 11 will come to the budget-friendly handsets.
OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T owners who have been waiting patiently for the arrival of Android 11 will have to keep waiting a little bit longer. The company has confirmed that the Android 11 update won’t be arriving until after the release of Android 12, which is currently slated to launch this fall.
Xiaomi is one of the world’s largest phone manufacturers, and the brand has turned its attention to Western markets in the last two years. Xiaomi sells phones from $100 all the way to $1,200, and it has made a name for itself as the go-to player for value.
The company has already pushed the Android 11 update live for owners of the Xiaomi Mi 10 and has turned its focus onto the Mi 10T and Mi 10T Pro. A new beta program has opened for these devices, as Xiaomi continues to bring the latest version of Android to its vast lineup of smartphones.
Based on a post that showed up on Xiaomi‘s MIUI community forums, the Android 11 update will be going out to 30 models across Xiaomi, POCO, and Redmi product lines. More phones will be added to the list, but for now, these are the Xiaomi phones that will be updated to Android 11:
OPPO is also turning its attention to Western markets. The Chinese manufacturer made a lot of changes to its ColorOS interface over the last 12 months, making it more palatable to a global audience.
OPPO has introduced ColorOS 11 based on Android 11 in closed beta for the Find X2 series and the Reno 3 Pro series, with a stable update slated to arrive before the end of the year.
We have a tentative timeline for when OPPO phones will get the ColorOS 11 beta based on Android 11. These are the OPPO devices that have already received the update to ColorOS 11:
A94 5G
A93 5G
A74 / A74 5G
A54 5G
Find X2 / X2 Pro
Find X3 Pro
Ace2
A9
Reno 2 F
Reno3
Reno3 Pro
Reno 4 5G
Reno 4 Pro 4G / Pro 5G
Reno 5 Lite
Reno 5 Pro+
Reno 5 Pro 5G
Reno 5 Z
F15
F17 Pro
F19
Note that these are the expected timelines for the beta builds and not the stable update:
From October: Reno 4 Pro 5G
From November: Reno 4 5G, Reno 4 Pro 4G
From December: Reno 4 4G, F11, F11 Pro, F11 Pro Avengers Edition, A9, A92, A72, A52, Find X2 Pro Automobili Lamborghini Edition
From Q1 2021: Reno 10x Zoom, Reno 2, Reno 2F, Reno 2Z, Reno 3 Pro 5G, A91, F15
From Q2 2021: Reno, Reno Z, A5 2020, A9 2020
When will my Realme phone get Android 11?
Realme is also doing a closed Android 11 beta based on Realme UI 2.0 for the X50 Pro. Realme UI 2.0 comes with a host of new features, but at this moment, there’s no indication of when the stable build will be made available.
We don’t know how many Realme phones will be updated to Android 11, but most devices released in the last 18 months should qualify for the update. Here’s the list:
Although Huawei phones aren’t very common/popular in the United States, the manufacturer gets a lot of attention in other parts of the world.
Huawei‘s Android 11 update will take the form of EMUI 11, and the company has finally shared its roadmap for what devices will receive this update. The list is surprisingly long, with even some tablets getting in on the Android 11 action.
There are a lot of Huawei phones we expect to get Android 11/EMUI 11, including:
Huawei Mate 40 series
Huawei P40 series
Huawei P30 series
Huawei Mate 30 series
Huawei Mate 20 series
Huawei Mate X/Xs
Huawei Nova 5T
Regarding how fast those updates will be pushed out, you’ll likely have to wait a few months. The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro received Android 10 in mid-November, shortly followed by the Mate 20 series.
This past year has been an exciting one for Motorola. The company is still churning out high-quality budget devices, and alongside those, we’re seeing Moto‘s return to the flagship space. However, it’s still straggling behind in an area that’s been a pain point for years — software updates.
After staying mum for a little while, Motorola finally revealed which of its latest devices will be receiving an update to Android 11, and the list is as follows:
Motorola Edge+
Motorola Edge
Motorola RAZR / RAZR 5G
Moto G Stylus
Moto G Power
Moto G Fast
Moto G 5G / 5G Plus
Moto G Pro
Motorola One Fusion / Fusion+
Motorola One Hyper
Motorola One Zoom
Motorola One Action
Motorola One Macro
Motorola One 5G
Moto G8
Moto G8 Plus
Moto G8 Power
Moto G10
Moto G40 Fusion
Moto G50
Moto G60
Moto G100
Moto G9
Moto G9 Play
Moto G9 Plus
Moto G9 Power
Lenovo K12 Note
That’s a solid list at first glance, but it comes with a big caveat. For every phone but the Edge+ and RAZR, Android 11 is the one and only software update they’ll receive. There’s also the fact that Motorola took its time with the Android 10 update, with the platform version not coming to the Moto G7 until May 11, 2020.
Keeping with the theme of manufacturers that often drop the ball for software updates, we have LG. With no update roadmap in place, here are the devices we think will get Android 11:
LG Wing
LG Velvet
LG G8
LG G8X
LG V60
LG V50
LG V50S
Android 10 was made available for the LG G8 in December 2019, with the LG V50 starting its Android 10 update in February 2020. We don’t consider that to be a fast turnaround time, but it is better than what we usually see from LG.
Our fingers are crossed that LG gets even faster with rolling out Android 11, but we’ll have to wait and see if that pans out.
Nokia has announced its Android 11 update schedule, with the first slate of devices set to receive the update by the end of 2020. While Nokia’s devices fall under the Android One initiative, phones like the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 9 PureView won’t get the Android 11 update until Q2 2021.
After officially rolling out Android 11 to the Nokia 8.3 5G, the company’s Chief Product Officer took to Twitter, suggesting that the rollout would be coming much quicker than expected for the rest of Nokia’s devices. Only time will tell if that’s to be believed, but Nokia seems to be sticking to its timeline that was laid out late in 2020.
Huawei has officially announced HarmonyOS, the operating system it was rumored to be developing to replace its reliance on Android. In China, the software will be known as Hongmeng. The company says the operating system, a microkernel-based distributed OS, can be used in everything from smartphones to smart speakers, wearables, and in-vehicle systems to create a shared ecosystem across devices. The operating system will be released as an open-source platform worldwide to encourage adoption.
There’s been a lot of speculation about Huawei’s in-house operating system ever since Google suspended the company’s Android license back in May, following the US government’s decision to put Huawei on the Entity List. Huawei has made no secret of the fact that it’s been working on its own OS, but the extent to which it would be able to act as a substitute for Android is unclear.
Interestingly enough, the list includes the Honor V40, Huawei nova 8 and Huawei nova 8 Pro phones despite these now even being officially announced yet.
HarmonyOS eligible Huawei devices:
– Huawei Mate 40
– Huawei Mate 40 Pro
– Huawei Mate 40 Pro+
– Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design
– Huawei Mate X
– Huawei Mate Xs
– Huawei P40
– Huawei P40 Pro
– Huawei P40 Pro+
– Huawei Mate 30 4G
– Huawei Mate 30 Pro 4G
– Huawei Mate 30 5G
– Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G
– Huawei Mate 30 RS Porsche Design
– Huawei Nova 8 (Upcoming)
– Huawei Nova 8 Pro (Upcoming)
– Huawei Nova 7 Pro 5G
– Huawei Nova 7 5G
– Huawei Nova 7 SE
– Huawei P30
– Huawei P30 Pro
– Huawei Mate 20
– Huawei Mate 20 Pro
– Huawei Mate 20 X 4G
– Huawei Mate 20 X 5G
– Huawei Mate 20 RS
– Huawei Nova 6 SE
– Huawei Nova 6 5G
HarmonyOS eligible Honor devices:
– Honor V40 (Upcoming)
– Honor 30 Pro
– Honor 30 Pro+
– Honor V30
– Honor V30 Pro
– Honor Play 4 Pro
– Honor X10 5G
– Honor 30
– Honor 30S
– Honor X10 5G
– Honor 20 Pro
– Honor 20
– Honor 9X Pro
– Honor 9X
HarmonyOS eligible wearables:
– Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro (pre-installed – Chinese version)
– Huawei Watch GT 2e
– Huawei Watch GT 2
HarmonyOS eligible tablets:
– Huawei MatePad Pro
– Huawei MatePad Pro 5G
– Honor Tablet V6
While HC itself confirmed these three phones are incoming and not officially confirmed in any way, the Huawei-centric website rarely is giving misleading information. Nevertheless, the website compiled all the Huawei and Honor devices through various leaks and the interesting thing is only nova, P, and Mate series devices are in line for Harmony OS 2.0 – no mention of the Enjoy/Y lineup.
Looking at the Honor devices, the brand is doing a similar thing – no entry-level phones in line, not the Honor 9 series, nor the Honor 30i or Honor 30 Youth. It looks like all devices with GMS are not switching and Huawei is slowly going to phase them out.
The list of eligible devices also includes three watches and three tablets by Huawei. Interestingly enough, the GT 2 Pro is going to arrive with Harmony OS pre-installed – the wearable runs Lite OS currently
Huawei plans to launch HarmonyOS on “smart screen products” later this year, before expanding it to work on other devices, like wearables, over the next three years. The first of these products will be the Honor Smart Screen, which is due to be unveiled on Saturday. Huawei has yet to explicitly say what constitutes a “smart screen” device, but Reuters previously reported that the OS would appear on a range of Honor smart TVs. The focus for the operating system will be products for the Chinese market at first, before Huawei expands it to other markets.
In a statement, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu, says that HarmonyOS is “completely different from Android and iOS” because of its ability to scale across different kinds of devices. “You can develop your apps once, then flexibly deploy them across a range of different devices,” the CEO says.
Previously, it’s been unclear whether HarmonyOS would be an operating system for smartphones or for Internet of Things devices. It now appears that it’s designed to power both, similar to Google’s experimental Fuchsia operating system, which is designed to run on various form-factors.
Although the OS will come to more devices over the next three years, in a follow-up press release, Huawei said that “for the time being” it intends to continue using Android on its phones. Whether it can continue to do so is another matter. CNBC reports that in a press conference following the launch, Yu said that the situation was “unclear” as to whether Huawei can still use Android, and that the company is “waiting on an update” to find out.
Since placing Huawei on the Entity List, the Trump administration has indicated that it’s willing to ease the restrictions on the company. In July, senior officials said that the administration would grant licenses to deal with Huawei in instances where national security wouldn’t be impacted. However, yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the White House is delaying its decision about issuing these licenses in the wake of China’s decision to halt purchases of US farming goods. It’s yet another suggestion that the Huawei restrictions have as much to do with the US-China trade war as they do with protecting national security.
HarmonyOS now has an official name, but it still has some major hurdles to overcome. Huawei is expecting developers to recompile their apps for this new operating system, with the ability to code once and deploy across multiple devices with different screen layouts, interactions, and more. Huawei says developers can compile a range of languages into machine code in a single environment, but it’s unclear exactly how easy that will be for developers. There are a lot of big promises here, but it’s going to be an even bigger challenge to build an app ecosystem to rival both Android and Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
Added Huawei confirmation that the Honor Smart Screen will be the first product running HarmonyOS, and the company intends to continue using Android for the time being. Comments from Huawei’s consumer CEO noting that the company’s situation with Android is still “unclear” were also added.
At Huawei Developer Conference (HDC) 2020 (Together), Huawei launched its latest EMUI version, EMUI 11. This new mobile skin brings new changes in the user interface to make the system experience easier.
The new features of EMUI 11 include the artistic Always on Display designs and clock themes, improved multi-window mode, smoother UI animations, better multi-screen collaboration, and more.
Huawei announced EMUI 11 during its Developer Conference today and even though it’s not based on Android 11, the generational upgrade deserves its name. It brings some visual changes to the table, new animations, features and under the hood optimizations.
Huawei EMUI 11 based Android 10 first look :
One of the most notable changes in the new EMUI are the multi-window and split-screen functionalities. Both are now put in the center so the user can get more familiar with the features instead of tucking them somewhere in the menus. Now there’s a dedicated gesture to bring out the Smart Multi-Window sidebar. You can summon it in every app or menu. A small side window will open with your favorite apps and with a single drag-and-drop gesture you can start multi-tasking. Of course, the windows are free-form and can be adjusted in size.
The always-on screen gets a couple of new customization options as well. There are new styles and even animated always-on displays. Choosing a picture from your gallery is also an option and the system will convert it into an appropriate color palette.
The animations when navigating through the menus have been optimized for high-refresh-rate displays. Huawei says that it poured hours of research into how the user perceives transition animations and where your eyes usually wander on the screen while navigating. Using the data, the company optimized the animations to look even smoother and also faster.
Multi-screen collaboration 3.0 is now part of EMUI 11 allowing you to control up to three Android apps from your PC once you sync your Huawei phone to the MateBook. Quite similar to Samsung and Microsoft’s Your Phone app.
There are other subtle improvements to the system apps and how the system handles permissions. One example would be the permission notification in the status bar. If an app on the foreground is using your microphone, GPS or camera, a status bar icon will let you know.
You can check the full changelog for more details.
EMUI 11 refines the user experience and brings vivid, dynamic visual elements for the Always On Display (AOD). AOD now allows you to customize your screen and showcase your personal style with text and images even when the screen is off.
Multi-Window allows you to open apps in a floating window for multitasking. You can relocate the floating window to the desired location or minimize it to a floating bubble for easier access later.
The brand new, intuitive animations throughout EMUI 11 create a smoother, more unified, and visually pleasing user experience when touching items or sliding on the screen.
Whether you’re toggling switches on or off, subtle effects have been enhanced throughout the OS for greater visual satisfaction.
This is a special feature that enables your devices to work together to achieve their full potential. You can mirror your phone to your laptop’s screen to improve your productivity with multiple app windows readily available. (This feature requires a Huawei laptop with PC Manager of version 11.0 or later.)
When you project your phone onto an external display, messages and incoming calls are displayed only on your phone screen, both protecting your privacy and ensuring the continuity of screen projection
Notepad now supports editing notes simultaneously from multiple Huawei devices. For example, you can insert a photo from your phone to the note being edited on your tablet.
You can now quickly identify and extract text from images or documents, edit the text, and then export and share it. Creating a digital version of a paper document has never been easier.
EMUI 11 will be pre-installed on all new Huawei phones from now on while the final version of the software will hit P40 and Mate 30-series pretty soon. The Android 11-based iteration, however, will be delayed because of the ongoing trade ban. Since Huaweididn’t have early access to Android 11‘s source code, the company has had that for only a couple of days since Google released its latest OS just the other day.
EMUI 10 was announced at Huawei Developer Conference 2019 (HDC). Following this release, Huawei announced the EMUI 10 beta rollouts for the Huawei P30 series devices.
Compared to its predecessor, EMUI 10 delivers faster performance, new UX design including Magazine Style UI layout, Morandi Colors, Dark Mode, Golden Icons, New Animations, New dark mode as well as improved privacy features.
Early 2020, Huawei unveiled Huawei P40 series, pre-installed with EMUI 10.1, a step-up version of EMUI 10 with added new features. EMUI 10.1 comes with new features such as multi-window multi-tasking, multi-device collaboration, multi-device browsing, new smart features, and more.
On September 10, 2020, at HDC 2020 Huawei launched EMUI 11, it brings new smart Always on Display, improved multi-window mode, smoother animations, better multi-screen collaboration, and more.
Which device will get the EMUI 11? Here are some of them. Most of the devices in this list are identical to EMUI 10 and 10.1 and it’s based on their OS upgrades cycles. As usual, the company will remove the devices that have completed their updates cycle.
Arriving a few months after the rest of the Mate 20 series phones, but considered by many as the best phone in the family, the Mate 20 X is finally stepping in by offering all the screen real estate you could possibly want in a phone.
Better late than never, as the old saying goes. The Mate 20 X was among the most interesting Mate 20 phones, but it never really saw the light of day outside of a few Southeast Asian countries. Not until recently, that is.
The Mate 20 X has now launched in a few European markets and while the chances are that the P30 is already around the corner, the Mate 20 X has niche of its own.
The 20 X is indeed the most memorable device of the Mate quartet – it has the largest of screens, the best of cameras, the fastest of processors, and the beefiest of batteries. It supports a Huwaei’s M-Pen stylus and the gigantic OLED screen has the smallest of them notches.
The Full HD resolution isn’t what we’d call exactly ‘best’, but it is the one to have if you are a gamer. And among other things, the Mate 20 X was indeed praised for its potential gaming prowess. You can even opt for a special hardware controller for a more immersive gaming experience.
We were eager to get this beast of a phone for a spin since its announcement, and here it is – finally in our hands. But before we dig into its productivity, gaming and photography skills, let’s take a closer look at its specs.
Huawei Mate 20 X specs
Body: dual-glass with metal frame; IP53-rated for dust and splash resistance
Camera features: 1/1.7″ 40MP sensor, up to ISO 102,400, 5x optical zoom, OIS + EIS, Variable Aperture, Portrait Mode, can shoot long-exposure without a tripod
Selfie cam: 24MP, f/2.0 Leica lens, Portrait Mode with live bokeh effects
Battery: 5,000mAh; Super Charge 22.5W
Security: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)
Connectivity: Dual SIM, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5 + LE, NFC, USB Type-C
Misc: IR blaster, stereo speakers, M-Pen support
What a specs sheet – but that goes without saying as it’s shaering the Mate 20 Pro’s DNA through and through! The Huawei Mate 20 X enjoys a large AMOLED, larger than the Huawei Mate 20 Pro but has a more game-friendly resolution and notch size. Then, it also has the same Kirin chipset, the same triple-camera with 3x optical zoom, and a massive 5,000 mAh battery with Super Charge. What’s not to like, right?
Well, the lack of water-proofing might be an issue, but the Mate 20 X does have proper stereo speakers and an audio jack.
But before we dig into any of that, let’s do some unboxing.
Unboxing the Huawei Mate 20 X
The Mate 20 X, just like the star of the series – the Mate 20 Pro – comes packed within a black paper box. Inside you’d find the 22.5W charging brick, the special USB Type-C cable you’d need to fast charge the X, and a pair of earbuds.
The box also contains a transparent rubber case in some regions outside the EU, but we didn’t get one along with ours. There was a factory preapplied screen protector, though.
We have never been keen on Huawei‘s flagship fragmentation and it’s getting worse with each new series. While we could get behind the release of a normal and Pro model for the P series, the Mate versions never really made sense. And the Mate 20 lineup is not an exception, on the contrary.
The Mate 20 Pro is the model intended for the global market, but the mere presence of this Pro moniker hints for other options. And if a customer wants to see them, well, they are not available to him. This just doesn’t make sense, at all.
Mate 20 X between the Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20
But it is what it is, and the Mate 20 X is finally available for purchase outside China. It took four months for Huawei to begin selling this in Europe, and it’s only official in a couple of markets, but that’s a huge step in the right direction. On top of that, various online retailers are shipping the Mate 20 X across the world, so pretty much anybody can get it now.
The Mate 20 X was shaping as the best Mate 20 phone owing to its massive screen, gaming skills, class-leading camera, S-Pen-like stylus, and huge battery, but Huawei never really meant to push its sales. While it could have been the Pro model, the maker instead considered it more of a limited fan edition, rather than a full-fledged package.
Here is hoping the Mate 20 X does sell well and Huawei reconsiders what the Mate 30 series should look like next fall.
The Competition
The Mate 20 X has the largest screen in a smartphone so far, flagship camera, chipset and all, and this is quite enough to leave it without competition.
The only phone to come close to Huawei‘s behemoth is the Xiaomi’s Mi Max 3 with a 6.9″ 1080p LCD screen. The Mi Max 3 is a mid-ranger with a Snapdragon 636 chipset, but other than that, it offers one very good 12MP camera with large pixels, a massive 5,500 mAh battery, and is super cheap at about €250.
Speaking of Xiaomi, its most current large phone is the flagship Mi Mix 3 slider, which has a notch-less 6.4″ 1080 AMOLED, Snapdragon 845 chip and great all-round camera experience. It’s cheaper than the Mate 20 X, but you’d be losing the extra camera skills.
The Galaxy Note9 with its 6.4″ QHD AMOLED screen is Samsung’s offer if you want a phablet, and it ships with an S-Pen and a dedicated slot for it within the Note’s body. It’s equally powerful, the screen doesn’t have a notch, and is now cheaper than the X, too.
Vivo’s NEX S has a 6.6″ AMOLED screen, notch-free as well, flagship-grade Snapdragon 845 chip, and a good-enough camera. It’s as limited as the Mate 20 X, if not more, but it might be cheaper where officially available. If you are after a smartphone with a large screen, you should check this one out. The pop-up selfie camera might not be your thing, though, so you have been warned.
Finally, Apple has the iPhone XS Max with a 6.5″ 1242p AMOLED screen and is probably best equipped to compete with the Mate 20 X despite the different operating system. The iPhone’s screen has an eyesore of a notch, sure, but is one of the largest screens around. Then Apple’s A12 Bionic chip is currently the fastest chipset in a smartphone. The XS Max is fully water-proofed, but while its camera is quite capable, it is not as versatile as the Mate’s and lacks Night Mode. The XS Max is a bit more expensive than the Mate 20 X.
And of course, if you want a Huawei like the Mate 20 X, but a bit smaller and cheaper, you can always go for the Mate 20 Pro or Mate 20.
Xiaomi Mi Max 3 • Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 • Samsung Galaxy Note9 • vivo NEX S • Apple iPhone XS Max
The Verdict
The Huawei Mate 20 X is not everyone’s cup of tea because of that giant 7.2″ screen. While it is a joy for gamers, it might be a nightmare as a daily driver because of that size. Then again, the Mate 20 Xis about 15-17mm taller than the most recent bunch of phablets – the Galaxy Note9, iPhone XS Max, Mi Mix 3 – so its footprint might be not so tough to stomach after all
And if size is what you are after, the rest is as flagship-grade as it can get right now. The Kirin 980 chipset is one of the best, the triple-camera on the back might be the most-skilled setups to date, and the battery life is pretty awesome. There are also some nice touches like the true stereo speakers, the audio jack, and the stylus support if you need one.
Overall, the Huawei Mate 20 X is one of the best flagships right now, even four months after its premiere. No other modern phone can match its screen size, and this alone could have won Huawei the whole phablet category. If only Huawei has thought this through last fall…
The Y9 Prime 2019. It comes with an attractive design, a sizeable sweet display, and that trendy pop-up front camera mechanism.
Design and Construction
Up front, the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 greets us with a full-screen display. Very slim bezels adorn the sides and the top of the Y9 Prime, and while there’s still a little bit of chin, it isn’t that distracting. The chin’s also there to pretty much ensure that the user’s fingers still have a bit of space to swipe up from. The notch-less full-screen display is made possible thanks to the Y9 Prime’s pop-up front camera mechanism.
Turning the device on its rear, we have the triple-camera setup and the fingerprint scanner. The smartphone employs a two-tone colorway, with the design slightly reminiscent of the Pixel’s design. The unit we have on hand here is in the Emerald Green color. While the rear is made of plastic, it gives off a glass-like look and feel upon the first touch. The polycarbonate material also allows the device to feel sturdy and premium when held.
At the right, there’s the power button and the volume rocker. As the phone is quite sizeable, you might need to stretch your thumb a little to reach the buttons, especially if you have small hands. Despite that, they’re both clicky and tactile. The left side of the device is bare without any buttons or the like.
At the top, next to the pop-up camera mechanism, one can find the hybrid dual SIM card tray and the noise-canceling mic.
Last but not least, there’s the 3.5mm audio jack, a USB-C port, a noise-canceling mic for regular calls, and the single-downward firing speaker, all located at the bottom of the device.
Display and Multimedia
The Y9 Prime comes equipped with a 6.59-inch FHD+ LTPS LCD, with a resolution of 2340 x 1080. Slapping a screen protector on the phone would be ideal as the Y9 Prime does not come with any display protection. The enormous display is incredible when it comes to consuming media. You do get an almost-full screen experience as there are no thick bezels nor a notch to obstruct the view; the viewing angles are great as well. The contrast could be more improved though, as well as the vibrancy of the colors.
When it comes to the speaker’s performance, the audio quality is a disappointment. The volume needs to be improved as it doesn’t get loud enough to fill an entire room, even at maximum volume. The lows aren’t exactly present with the volume turned up, resulting in a tinny sound.
OS, UI, and Apps
Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9 skinned on top runs as the Y9 Prime’s operating system. EMUI has a pretty straightforward UI, with tips popping up here and there if ever you’re a first-time user. A standard home screen will greet you out of the box, with the app icons arranged in different screens. This can be modified into a drawer-style arrangement if you’re into that. For navigation, you can also change it up to a gesture-based instead of the default three-button navigation.
Our unit here has 128GB of storage, with about 110GB of it usable. The usual Google apps come with the phone out of the box, as well as third-party apps like Facebook, Agoda, Netflix, and Camera360. The Y9 Prime also has a Party mode, a SIM Toolkit, HiCare, Health, FM Radio, Storage Cleaner, and the Huawei AppGallery.
Camera
A 16MP shooter sits in the Y9 Prime’s pop-up mechanism, while on a triple camera setup composed of the 16MP main + 8MP ultrawide + 2MP depth shooters sit on the rear.
When it comes to selfies, using the standard photo mode, the quality of the images is average enough to post on social media. A bit of a downside, however, is that some of the photos tend to look overexposed. As for portrait selfies, the subject-background separation is rather weak. The edges of the subject are slightly smudged and blurry as well, which shouldn’t be the case in portrait selfies.
As for the rear cameras, in the standard photo mode, the quality is pretty decent. There’s contrast, sharpness for details can be seen as well. When it comes to color, however, it’s not quite accurate, and it lacks vibrancy as some of the photos produced look washed-out. Portrait-mode with the rear cameras, again there’s the lack of a subject-background separation. Similar to the selfies, the edges of the subject are smudged and blurry as well. The Y9 Prime’s camera has a Night Mode, and it’s pretty good when compared to taking low-light shots with just the standard photo mode. In Night Mode, the images take on a brighter tone and get a tinge of color as well.
For video, the Y9 Prime can shoot up to 1080p at 30fps. Video quality is modest, especially in natural light. Check it out.
Performance and Benchmarks
Hisilicon Kirin 710F powers up the Y9 Prime, coupled with Mali-G51 MP4 GPU and 4GB of RAM. As always, we ran the smartphone through a couple of benchmarks, and here are the results:
Performance-wise, the Y9 Prime is pretty capable of multi-tasking, productivity, and gaming. We found the large, full-screen to be a big help when it comes to doing tasks such as reading documents, writing, jotting notes, and the like. Gaming-wise, we played Honkai Impact, Asphalt, and PUBG on it. The games were playable, but do note that we were either at the lowest or at the medium setting to be able to play them.
For biometrics, the Y9 Prime comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. It registered fingerprints pretty quick. Even with the quick registration, unlocking the device took about a second. It might be a tad slower than what we’re used to, but it’s still reliable.
Connectivity and Battery Life
Y9 Prime 2019 has the usual connectivity features like LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the like. Pinning locations and such on the map and Waze was also accurate. AR games are possible to play with this phone as it has a Gyroscope sensor.
For battery, the device comes equipped with a 4,000mAh battery. PC Mark’s battery test gave the Y9 Prime a total of 16 hours and 15 minutes. In our standard video loop test (50% brightness, 50% volume, airplane mode, headphones plugged in), the Y9 Prime ran for about 18 hours and 53 minutes.
Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 specs
6.59-inch FHD+ (2340 x 1080) LTPS display, 391ppi
HiSilicon Kirin 710 (12nm) 2.2GHz octa-core CPU
Mali-G51 MP4 GPU
4GB RAM
64GB, 128GB storage
microSD card support
16MP (main) + 8MP (ultrawide) + 2MP (depth) triple rear cameras
16MP FF pop-up front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
USB 2.0 Type-C
3.5mm audio jack
Fingerprint scanner
USB Type-C
4,000mAh battery
EMUI 9.0 (Android 9 Pie)
163.5 x 77.3 x 8.8 mm
196.8 g
Midnight Black, Emerald Green, Sapphire Blue
The alluring but always elusive gaming smartphone – many have tried to build it, even Razer, but no one did it perfectly. Now, Honor is also joining the gaming race but with a new concept. Instead of greatness, the new Honor Play is pursuing affordability. And that’s a very welcome turn of events.
The Honor Play looks like most of the smartphones today – a metal body, notched screen, and a dual-camera on the back. The Kirin 970 chip is what’s in charge of the gaming session and the Play has Huawei‘s GPU Turbo out of the box.
The Kirin 970 has been known as one of the most efficient pieces of hardware for mobile gaming – it doesn’t cost as much but offers stable and sustainable performance. And with GPU Turbo things can only get better.
The 6.3″ 1080p screen, notch or not, is enough for gaming purposes, there is a large battery, and you can have the Honor Play with either 4 or 6 gigs of RAM. And on that attractive price at launch – CNY 1,999, INR 19,999, £279, €329 – color us intrigued.
Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, single bottom-firing loudspeaker, 3.5mm audio port
Many omissions can be forgiven when a phone is as affordable as the Honor Play. Like the notch. And the hybrid SIM slot. And the missing FM radio.
Huawei will be launching the Kirin 980 chipset any moment now, which made possible to lower the Kirin 970 price even more and yet keep it valuable thanks to the recent GPU Turbo upgrades. Honor Play seems like a thoughtful addition to the otherwise crowded Honor series.
The phone is available in China and India already, while Europe is getting it just now. Will it game though? Let’s find out!
Unboxing the Honor Play
The white retail box of the Honor Play contains the phone itself, a white USB-C cable, and a white 18W charger. There are no headphones included, but an analogue audio port is available so feel free to plug your favorite pair.
There is a transparent soft case inside the paper compartment, which may not be as needed on a metal phone as it is on one with a glass back, but we still appreciate its presence.
Design
We admit we were delighted to handle the Honor Play – its metal body was a breath of fresh air after a series of glass and glossy devices. Once the aluminum unibody was the popular choice, but now only a few phones get to offer it and the Honor Play is one of those rarities.
The aluminum unibody of the Honor Play is designed the right way – flat back, curved sides with rounded corners, and the good old antenna lines running fashionably around the top and bottom. For some reason, Honor decided to paint those in a darker violet hue than the rest of the body.
The fingerprint reader is on the back, always-on as usual, and blazing-fast and accurate. That’s the experience we usually get with Huawei-made devices and we are happy this hasn’t changed a bit.
The dual-camera setup is humping around, too. There is a 16MP primary cam here and a secondary 2MP sensor for depth sensing. A single LED flash sits outside the camera deck.
Huawei, and its Honor subsidiary, like to brag with the AI prowess of the camera. Just like with the Honor 10, the Play model also gets AI CAMERA inscription on the back. We’re glad they haven’t started putting texts with the phone’s other features around the body, too.
The Honor Play looks modern and trendier at the front. That’s because it packs a large 6.3″ display with tiny bezels and the mother of all trends – the cutout! The notch houses the earpiece, the sensors, and the 16MP selfie snapper, while a tiny LED notification blinker is hidden beneath the earpiece grille.
A notched screen is one way to trim the bezels and while not a fan-favorite, we can’t be angry with makers opting to give us less bezels even if it’s at the expense of a notch.
Honor isn’t specifying the type of glass used to protect the screen, but the history has taught us that sooner or later it will turn out to be one of those tough to break Gorillas.
The Honor Play features all necessary ports – analogue audio and USB Type-C, while its SIM slot is of the hybrid kind – you can swap the second SIM for a microSD card.
Honor Play
The recent Honor Play global announcement introduced two special color options with some design elements imitating a PCB traces running along the back – Player Edition Red and Player Edition Black, the latter with red accents around the hardware keys, camera and fingerprint scanner. They round the tally up to five colors, including the standard Midnight Black, Navy Blue, and Ultra Violet (the one we are reviewing).
The Honor Play spreads at 157.9 x 74.3 x 7.5 mm and weighs 176 g – that’s just 2mm taller than the recently launched Pocophone with a smaller 6.18″ notched screen.
Finally, the Play’s metal unibody has a pleasant matte finish, which boosts the grip and balances the curvy frame which on the other hand is compromising it. The Honor feels secure enough in hand, though one-handed operations are rarely possible at this screen size.
Display
The Honor Play packs a 6.3″ IPS LCD display with a cutout on top. It has a resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels or 409ppi. This size and resolution make for one of the tallest screen aspect ratios on a smartphone – 19.5:9.
There is no information on the display glass, but most Huawei and Honor devices use Gorilla Glass, so we have no reason to believe the Honor Play didn’t get the same treatment.
The Honor Play has three different color temperature presets for its display – Default, Warm, and Cold. Each of those has Normal for accurate and Vivid option for punchy colors. By default, the Honor Play is set at Default + Vivid. This is also where the screen achieves the maximum brightness of 470 nits. Elsewhere the Honor Play screen won’t light up north of 440 nits.
Unfortunately, the black levels are far from stellar no matter the color mode, and this explains the average contrast ratio of 1100:1.
Display test
100% brightness
Black, cd/m2
White, cd/m2
Contrast ratio
Honor Play
0.414
470
1135
Honor 10 (Normal)
0.32
449
1403
Huawei Honor 7X
0.236
458
1941
Xiaomi Pocophone F1
0.314
461
1468
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
0
455
∞
Oppo F7
0.228
446
1956
Xiaomi Mi A2
0.277
420
1516
Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
0.385
488
1268
Huawei P20 Lite
0.27
482
1785
Meizu 15
0
444
∞
The Honor Play maximum brightness isn’t that impressive and there is no option to boost it outdoors. That’s why we got a good score for sunlight contrast, but nothing impressive. You would need the maximum brightness the screen can offer and then you’ll be able to use it hassle-free in those bright sunny days.
Now let’s talk about color accuracy. Having so many different screen modes is probably confusing, so we’d try to keep it short. We won’t comment on the Vivid options, as the colors are all over the board, as expected.
The Honor Play is set at Default + Normal out of the box. We measured an average deltaE of 4.5 for the DCI-P3 color space and maximum deviation of 7.2 at point white (leans toward violet). There is noticeable blue tint on the screen no matter what you are looking at.
But if you are all about color accuracy – then just pick Normal + Warm. With an average deltaE of 3.4 and a maximum deviation of 5 – the Honor Play will offer you reasonably accurate colors. The display may look a bit duller if you are coming from a punchy screen, but it’s better to have that option for a more accurate color rendition even if it’s not always on.
Battery life
The Honor Play is powered by a large 3,750 mAh battery. It offers Huawei‘s custom solution called QuickCharge, which is not to be mistaken with SuperCharge. It still requires using the provided 18W charger and special cable combo, which can be limiting. Those two pieces come bundled with the Honor Play, so at least you don’t have to go shopping.
The 9V/2A QuickCharge adapter can bring the Honor Play from 0% to about 35% in around 30 minutes, which is not terribly fast either.
The Honor Play scored an excellent result in our battery test with a 94-hour Endurance rating. It did a great job in all tested scenarios – video playback, calls, web browsing and even stand-by performance.
Loudspeaker
There is one speaker on the Honor Play, and it’s at the bottom. It scored a Good mark in our loudness test. The sound quality is excellent though with very deep sound, rich, and with deep bass for a tiny loudspeaker.
Speakerphone test
Voice, dB
Pink noise/ Music, dB
Ringing phone, dB
Overall score
Honor Play
68.3
73.8
75.8
Good
Huawei Honor 7X
66.4
71.1
85.1
Very Good
Oppo Realme 1
64.8
70.5
89.9
Very Good
Huawei P20
66.6
69.8
90.0
Very Good
Oppo F7
68.0
73.8
84.8
Very Good
Honor 10
69.3
72.6
87.3
Excellent
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
70.5
74.1
85.2
Excellent
Huawei P20 Pro
71.8
69.2
91.0
Excellent
Xiaomi Pocophone F1
72.8
74.7
86.6
Excellent
Xiaomi Mi A2
89.5
72.2
89.8
Excellent
Audio quality
The Honor Play delivered nicely accurate output with an external amplifier and its output was similarly excellent when headphones came into play. In fact the only reading to be affected was stereo crosstalk and that by a lower amount than usual.
Unfortunately, loudness wasn’t quite so impressive with the Honor Play being below average in both parts of the test. So those with a pair of high-impedance headphones might want to steer clear from that one. The rest should be perfectly happy with its performance.
Test
Frequency response
Noise level
Dynamic range
THD
IMD + Noise
Stereo crosstalk
Honor Play
+0.01, -0.03
-93.0
93.1
0.0037
0.0093
-92.9
Honor Play (headphones)
+0.12, -0.06
-92.3
92.5
0.0027
0.088
-65.7
Pocophone F1
+0.01, -0.02
-93.6
93.6
0.0010
0.0069
-93.8
Pocophone F1 (headphones)
+0.65, -0.08
-91.2
92.5
0.0082
0.359
-50.3
Oppo Find X
+0.03, -0.07
-93.4
93.9
0.0012
0.0063
-89.3
Oppo Find X (headphones)
+0.01, -0.58
-92.2
93.5
0.0088
0.330
-55.7
HTC U12+
+0.02, -0.15
-94.3
94.3
0.0021
0.0069
-94.3
HTC U12+ (headphones)
+0.18, -0.13
-93.7
93.6
0.0024
0.104
-52.7
Samsung Galaxy S9+
+0.01, -0.03
-92.6
92.5
0.0012
0.0076
-93.4
Samsung Galaxy S9+ (headphones)
+0.03, -0.03
-92.2
92.2
0.0017
0.042
-76.3
Android 8.1 with EMUI 8.2
Honor Play runs on Android 8.1 with EMUI 8.2 – a similar combination to what we saw on the Honor 10 a while ago. The EMUI is as custom as a launcher can get, so the Android purists may want to look elsewhere for a vanilla experience. The new v8.2 improves the Face Unlock and Gallery with machine learning, there are some new Gaming tricks, and a brand new Party Mode for music playback sync across different devices.
You can either embrace the notch, or you can opt to mask it with a black status bar that extends all the way down to the bottom edge of the notch. You should know, however, that hiding it doesn’t really work as well with an LCD panel as with it does with an AMOLED.
Out of the box, there is no app drawer on the EMUI 8 – it’s a single tier interface like on the iPhone. However, if you miss the Android’s usual layout, you can enable it back in the Display settings. There is also a handy search feature, which can be accessed by flicking down on any empty area of the home screen.
EMUI has Magazine lock screen, as usual, which rotates through a bunch of wallpapers, so you see a different one every time you fire up the display.
Huawei‘s EMUI offers plenty of customization and features like (not so secure) face unlock, smart rotation, and lift to wake. The face unlock has been enhanced with machine learning (or as Honor likes to call it – AI Power) and will learn to recognize your face even with changes such as facial hair or sunglasses.
The notification shade is pretty much a standard affair. There’s a brightness bar with an Auto toggle – pull down again for more toggles.
Multitasking is pretty standard as well. Tap-holding the Recents key will let you activate split screen.
From the Phone Manager app, you can access shortcuts to storage cleanup, battery settings, blocked numbers, Virus scan powered by Avast, and mobile data usage.
Huawei‘s own Music app is here and offers a way to listen to stored MP3s. Huawei‘s Health app is also pre-installed. It offers Google Fit syncing and step counting. There’s a file manager app and a note-taking app. There is an abundance of replacements for these in the Play Store, however.
There is an improved AI-powered gallery with EMUI 8.2. The app now supports automatic sorting with highlights. The machine learning decides the sorting criteria – location, date, event, etc.
The Party Mode is a new feature courtesy of EMUI 8.2. It’s available from app of the same name and allows the user to connect to multiple phones to play the same song simultaneously.
Honor Play will be getting an updated Game Center with a firmware update very soon. It will enable the so-called 4G Smart Shock – dynamic vibrations similar to the ones on the PlayStation’s DualShock controller in compatible games. The first game to support this new feature will be PUBG Mobile. But what’s already available for games is the 3D Game Sound – this works in various games when using wired headphones and should emulate 3D sound.
Performance and benchmarks
The Kirin 970 chipset is what makes the Honor Play tick and the hardware behind all that gaming PR talk. It’s a year-old SoC that will soon be replaced by the new Kirin 980 launching on the Huawei Mate 20, but still one very potent piece of technology.
The Kirin 970 has an octa-core processor with 4 Cortex-A73 cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz and another 4 Cortex-A53 cores capped at 1.8GHz. The GPU is a twelve-core Mali-G72 MP12. There’s either 4 or 6 GB of RAM depending on the model you get.
Quite expectedly, the Honor Play scores on par with other Kirin 970-powered devices such as the P20, Honor 10 and View 10. Single-core performance in Geekbench is excellent but the latest Qualcomm chip is superior (Pocophone). All of the above applies equally well to the Honor Play‘s multi-core CPU performance.
Huawei recently unveiled an interesting software project to the public. It is called “GPU Turbo” and should provide great graphics performance improvements to most recent Huawei smartphones. The Honor Play comes with the GPU Turbo update out of the box, but this maybe misleading to the users.
GPU Turbo accelerates performance by optimizing system utilization of software and hardware resources. With GPU Turbo, graphics processing efficiency can be improved by up to 60 percent while overall SoC power consumption is saved by 30 percent. This is beneficial since graphically demanding operations typically consume battery quickly.
So, GPU Turbo is essentially an extra software optimization layer, sitting between the OS or a particular application and the Android graphics APIs, like OpenGL and the actual GPU drivers.
Even though GPU turbo sounds like it’s promising almost magical improvements, it is up to developers to actually optimize their apps to support the new rendering instructions and APIs. Huawei has promised that it will gradually work towards optimizing the EMUI launcher rendering. But given the way the Android UI is rendered, that’s unlikely to lend itself to major optimization.
Turbo GPU is realistically aimed at gamers and more importantly, game developers, who have to implement the tech inside their titles. Hopefully, Huawei can get enough game studios on board to allow GPU Turbo to lift off. Otherwise, it will just remain unused, sitting in the background. At launch, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile PUBG and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are the only two games that have support for Turbo GPU.
Huawei‘s GPU Turbo does not necessarily improve maximum frame rates. What it does, however, is significantly smooth out any major frame rate fluctuations and dips, and we were impressed by the perceptibly smoother gaming experience. As a bonus, the tech also provides battery life savings when gaming.
AnTuTu benchmark got us some pretty big and impressive numbers, bested only by the most current Snapdragon 845 chip in the Pocophone.
The Honor Play is not the most powerful smartphone today, but it sure is among the top 5. We are well familiar with the Kirin 970 capabilities and the chip is simply great for gaming. And with the GPU Turbo update it can only get better, live a second life if you will.
Performance-wise the Honor Play aces every task and its highly-praised chipset will live up to the expectations.
But since we know the Kirin 970, we are familiar with its heating and throttling specifics. The good news is that the Honor Play is all metal and its chassis helps dispersing heat much better than glass. Some throttling does occur in benchmarks after repeated runs, but only there – no throttling happens in games, even in long sessions.
The Honor Play does build some heat once we start running the benchmarks, but it takes a lot of time to get to the Play unpleasantly hot and, once again, it happens only in benchmarks.
So, before we call it a day here – the Honor Play and its Kirin 970 offers flagship punch no matter the task at hand, and the GPU will do for seamless gaming with sustainable top-notch performance.
A 16MP camera with depth sensor
The Honor Play has a dual-camera setup similar to what we saw on the Honor 7X. We’re looking at a 16MP sensor behind f/2.2 lens with phase-detection autofocus, accompanied by a 2MP cam for depth information, and a single LED flash.
There is no optical image stabilization for the Honor Play. But Honor promises to bring its proprietary AIS – Automatic Image Stabilization – via software update soon. It reduces blur and compensates for device shake while capturing photos and videos. It’s a software solution that works within 0.2 seconds to detect if the phone is handheld and automatically sets the exposure and framing using AI scene recognition. It’s supposed to be 98% accurate when it comes to figuring out whether you’re holding the handset in your hand.
The Honor Play, just like the Honor 10, stresses on its AI CAMERA. It recognizes in real time 22 different categories of subjects and shooting scenarios and adjusts shooting parameters accordingly.
The camera interface is as messy as before. First off, you have a mode selector on the bottom that you swipe left and right to change modes, but you can’t swipe on the viewfinder, just on the selector itself.
Swiping up and down doesn’t switch between front and rear camera either, you have a button for that (admittedly, on the bottom within easy reach). Basically, you’re wasting the viewfinder by not having gestures enabled on it, except for pinch to zoom.
It’s odd to have a manual HDR mode separately when the AI takes care of that – it’s like a dynamic range enhancement is On all the time.
You get manual (Pro) mode, too. There you can adjust parameters yourself – ISO (50 to 6400), shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s), exposure compensation (-4 to +4EV in 1/3 stop increments), and white balance (presets and light temperature). You can also choose the metering mode (matrix, center-weighted and spot), and the focus mode (single, continuous and manual). If the phone thinks you messed up the exposure, an icon will pop up to warn you.
Since artificially defocused backgrounds became all the rage, Huawei and Honor phones have had both a Portrait mode and an Aperture mode. In Aperture, you can choose the simulated aperture in the range from f/0.95 to f/16. Post shot, you can change the aperture and the focus point within the Gallery.
In Portrait mode you can enable and disable the background blur (why disable it, though), you can change the simulated lighting, and you can also add some beautification on a scale from 0 to 10.
Image quality
Honor’s implementation of the so-called AI is enabled by default. The AI toggle is accessible from the viewfinder, while the P20 phones have it hidden in settings. The algorithms are not as aggressive as Huawei‘s were, even though the AI pretty much works the same way and operates under the same scene presumptions. The camera recognizes the scene properly and most of the time turns on the right mode accordingly, its defaults for each scene do saturate the colors more than usual and the high contrast lowers the dynamic range, but nothing is as excessive as it was on the P20 series.
So, the AI pictures have more than enough detail, obviously saturated, yet pleasant colors, low noise levels, and superb contrast. Multi-frame stacking is often used with the AI scenes, so if HDR was required, it’s applied in real time, and you will always get the most from both shadows and lights.
The normal samples without AI are quite good, too. They have plenty of detail, very accurate colors, high contrast and even lower noise levels. The dynamic range is quite impressive, and we suspect some frame-stacking might be applied here as well.
The AI works for some magic on the low-light shots to improve the contrast and colors, but that’s about it. It’s not as smart and as capable as on the P20 phones and there is no tripod-free Night Mode available for the Honor Play. The samples are very noisy, way noisier than the regular ones you’ll see in a bit, but with brighter exposure and warmer colors, which worked for improved contrast and overall better look.
The regular low-light images are nothing special, too, but they have far less noise. They are quite soft as well, but the colors are true to reality, though the contrast is rather low. But the occasional low-light snaps will do fine for the social networks. And frankly – we’ve seen a lot worse. So, the regular snaps are nothing special, as we said, just alright.
There is a Night mode on the Honor Play but this shot requires a tripod and up to 30s of waiting. At first, we thought it will take a couple of shots and combine them. But this mode is actually closer to what the Light Trails does – basically, it takes one very low exposure photo and then begins to add lights. The phone almost succeeds into cutting out the light trails themselves, and the result is a photo with excellent exposure and contrast, detailed at that. The picture lack sharpness, but that’s alright – at least it’s well exposed.
When using the manual mode, you can select a shutter speed up to 32s with ISO up to 6400. The viewfinder image will change as the exposure develops, so if you figure you’ve gathered enough light you can stop at any time.
And with this freedom, you just need a small tripod to get wonderful images. If you lock the ISO to 50 and use the longer shutter speeds, you can get some stunning long exposure shots come night-time.
Then there’s the Light painting mode, which includes four sub-modes: Car light trails, Light graffiti, Silky Water and Star track. You’d need to have the phone perched on stable support for shooting in these modes (a tripod or a beanbag) as these extremely long exposures can’t be done handheld without camera shake. These modes are nothing new so that we won’t go into too much detail here.
Video recording
The Honor Play offers 4K and 1080p video recording – the latter available in both 30 and 60 fps options. You can also choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs. EIS is available only for the 1080p at 30fps videos and it does an excellent job at stabilizing the picture.
The 4K footage at 30fps is nice and detailed, with pleasing colors, plenty of contrast, and steady framerate. The foliage could have been better, but that’s not a flagship phone, so let’s not be picky. The dynamic range is great, as are the colors. Notable is also the high-quality stereo sound captured with 192 kbps bitrate.
The 1080p clips shot at 30fps are also detailed, and impress with the same nice colors and contrast, and high dynamic range. But there is noticeable over-sharpening.
Finally, the 1080p samples shot at 60fps are always blurry and look out of focus. We tried quite a few different takes – each of those resulted in a blurry video. So, until that is fixed with an update (they weren’t so bad on the Honor 10), the 60fps footage is simply a no-go.
Finally, you can use our Video Compare Tool to see how the Honor Play stacks against the Honor 10 and Pocophone F1 when it comes to video capture.
The Competition
Honor Play aims at gamers, obviously, but instead of making it the best gaming phone on the planet, Honor chose to make it powerful and affordable with some extra gaming chops.
And it succeeded – the Honor Play is indeed impressively powerful and offers a seamless gaming experience. The trendy notched screen is large enough for games, while the camera department offers some nice tricks. Finally, the battery life is simply great for all purposes.
Xiaomi Pocophone F1 • Oppo F9 Pro • Xiaomi Mi 8 SE • LG G7 One
Xiaomi did the same thing with the Pocophone experiment and, well, it did it better. The Pocophone, where available, is cheaper, yet more powerful, has better all-around camera experience, and more features such as stereo speakers and FM radio.
The Oppo F9 has a new take on the notch, its design is cooler, but the GPU is far inferior to the Honor’s. The F9 has better looks and selfie camera, but for everything else – the Honor Play is the better device.
Xiaomi‘s Mi 8 SE is yet another notched device, but with an AMOLED panel. It’s among the first phones to pack the new Snapdragon 710 chip, which has an equally powerful processor to the Kirin 970 but lesser graphics punch. The Mi 8 SE does better when it comes to camera quality, but it sure isn’t on par with the Honor Play as far as gaming is concerned.
Finally, the LG G7 One was unveiled just recently and it looks quite intriguing. It’s able to match the Honor Play price, has a higher-res 1440p HDR screen, a powerful Snapdragon 835 chipset even if it won’t impress with any special camera skills. Still, with that screen and Android One software, the G7 One should be interesting enough to deserve a recommendation.
The Verdict
The Honor Play has one of the best bang-for-the-buck ratios, probably bested only by the Pocophone F1 by Xiaomi. The Play has quite an impressive hardware package and is wrapped in metal, which is a build we rarely see these days.
The Play delivers on its promise – it provides an excellent gaming performance with a twist on the cheap. And if those two factors are leading for you, the Honor Play should be on your shortlist of devices you must check before getting your next phone.
Pros
Metal unibody
Large screen with thin bezels and a notch
Top-notch performance
Great battery life
Good all-round camera experience with some creative options
A strange bird this Huawei P20 – a headliner without a spear. The omission of the triple camera is baffling, but as long as you give it a chance, you may be surprised. And if you don’t dwell on what didn’t make the cut, you should be able to see the P20 for what it is – one dazzling flagship.
The signature Twilight hue is among the things the P20 duo will be remembered for. It’s available on both devices if you are lucky enough to reside in a region which stocks it, but the similarities don’t end here. The notched screen is shared, as is the Kirin 970 chip which, even though is six-months-old already, is still relevant.
Now, the elephant in the room – the dual-instead-of-triple camera on the back. Yes, it’s a step down from the more prominent P20 Pro but, fret not, this is not the same dual-camera we left on the Huawei P10 and Mate 10 Pro either. The 12MP color sensor is brand new and has much bigger pixels and thus we can expect brighter low-light images and less noise.
The MasterAI is also a thing on the P20, improving the way we take pictures by allowing for some previously impossible tripod-free long-shutter pictures. You can use lossless telephoto zoom, record 960fps slow-mo videos, but you can also switch to monochrome and take some artsy shots downtown.
The 24MP selfie camera stays the same on both P20 phones, too. It may lack autofocus but can do Face Unlock and shoot portraits with blurred backgrounds in line with the current trends.
Huawei P20 specs
Body: dual-glass with metal frame, 7.7mm thick
Screen: 5.8″ LTPS IPS LCD, 1080 x 2240px resolution (429ppi);
Camera: 12MP f/1.8 OIS color + + 20MP f/1.6 monochrome; 4K video capture, 720@960fps slow-mo; Leica co-developed
Camera features: 1/2.3″ 12MP sensor, 2x optical zoom, OIS + EIS, can change focus and lighting in photos after they are taken, Variable Aperture, Portrait Mode, shoots long-exposure without a tripod
Selfie cam: 24MP, f/2.0 Leica lens, Portrait Mode with live bokeh effects; 2D Face Unlock
Battery: 3,400mAh; Super Charge
Security: Fingerprint reader (front), 0.4 seconds response time
Connectivity: Dual SIM, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2 + LE, NFC, USB Type-C
Misc:IR blaster, single speaker
Seeing that Huawei didn’t copy-paste its old dual-camera but instead came up with some notable improvements is enough for us to let the company off the hook here. We can even forgive the switch to IPS LCD screen which some might consider a downgrade from Pro’s OLED.
The crime we can’t let slide is the failing to secure the P20 body against water. It’s beyond us why Huawei made water-tight only the P20 Pro, but it’s not fair and puts even more pressure on the P20. The IP53 rating is not the best excuse for ditching the analog jack, and yet Huawei still opted for its retirement.
It’s clear we are starting on the wrong foot, so let’s pop this Huawei P20 out of its box and hopefully we get on the right one.
Unboxing the Huawei P20
Fancy is not what the Huawei P20‘s white cardboard box is. But the maker has an excellent track record for bundles and this one doesn’t disappoint.
Inside that box, you’ll find eye-catchy Huawei P20 packed with a 22.5W charging plug, an enhanced USB Type-C cable compatible with Huawei‘s Super Charge, a pair of headphones, and a must-have 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter.
Here is something you don’t see every day – a phone that’s instantly recognizable because of its style. We have seen a lot of notched screens and dual-cameras, but those catchy paint jobs are the P20‘s unforgettable trait and potentially the next big trend.
The flashy paint was a brilliant idea for an otherwise ordinary and conventional design. Dual-glass body reinforced with a metal frame is the popular choice this season, so if it weren’t for the paint’s charm, the P20 would have been just another notched glass phone.
Apple iPhone X and Huawei P20
The P20‘s design is an obvious departure from the P10. The metal unibody is gone for good, at least for now, and so are the screen bezels. Behind the screen glass sits a big but notched 5.8″ display, a massive jump from the 5.1″ unit on the P10, yet the growth in size is pretty negligible – just 4mm in height.
Huawei P10 and Huawei P20
The P20 is noticeably heavier, though, due to switch of materials – it has gained a good 20g over the P10 up to 165g.
And while we are comparing siblings, the other notable change is the camera orientation. It seems the iPhone X didn’t just kick off the notch trend, but the vertical camera configuration, too.
Huawei P10 and Huawei P20
Back to the Huawei P20. Both of its glass pieces are slightly curved, matching nicely with the frame’s chamfers. The metal frame is smooth and polished. Admittedly, this works well for the good looks, but hurts the grip – the P20 is as slippery as it looks.
Unlike the water-tight P20 Pro, the P20 is just IP53-rated for moderate dust and light-splash resistance. And while this fact was officially announced at the launch event, you won’t find this mentioned anywhere on the official P20 pages.
This omission is baffling, as the P20 phones have virtually identical bodies, slots, holes, and everything, and yet only the Pro got the ingress protection. The P20‘s case is not helped by the fact that all current flagships and premium mid-rangers are water-protected. What’s up with that, Huawei?
The missing audio jack doesn’t help the P20 either. While this could have been explained with the aqua-shielding on the Pro, it’s merely a missing feature on the P20.
The front-mounted fingerprint scanner is here to stay – it’s an always-on one and is used for system-wide navigation. On the opposite side of the screen is the notch housing a circular grille for the earpiece and the 24MP selfie camera. The earpiece is not centered, which may look odd to some. A tiny status LED is also around.
Comparing notches: iPhone X vs. P20
The vertically-oriented dual-camera is on the back occupying a small hump. It has kept the previous 12+20 MP specs but packs a new color sensor and new lenses. Next up are the dual-LED flash and the laser-AF sensors. The Leica logo is not as boisterous as before, but it’s there.
So, the Huawei P20 is a glass phone like any other. There is nothing special in its bill of materials, the credit for its coolness goes to the clever paint jobs. But that’s enough to make it one of the best-looking devices this season and the fashion-conscious might grab it just for that. Slippery and often smudgy, the Huawei P20 has to be polished and cleaned quite often to look its best, but beauty always comes at a price.
