It’s been a month since Huawei unveiled its newest flagship system. I’ve performed with this telephone for a number of weeks and it’s one of the fascinating Android telephones at present obtainable.
The P20 Professional is a stable successor to the P10 and a superb various to different flagship telephones, such because the iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy S9.
However it isn’t the proper telephone both. Some options are lacking for no obvious purpose. A few of Huawei’s selections are additionally questionable.
Searching for the proper Android telephone
Just a few years in the past, many Android telephones paled as compared with the newest iPhone. Most of them had been made out of plastic. And Android was just too clunky again then.
2018 is a very totally different story as you could have quite a lot of choices. Possibly you want Samsung units or the pure Android expertise of the Pixel 2. And possibly you’ve been taking a look at Huawei units from afar. However in case you reside within the U.S., you received’t have the ability to purchase the P20 Professional any time soon.
Let’s begin with the general design of the telephone. It encompasses a gigantic 6.1-inch OLED show with a now acquainted notch on the high. It’s not as outstanding because the one within the iPhone X, however it’s clear that Apple has began the following pattern in smartphone design.
The body of the design is made out of polished aluminium. It’s shiny and appears like chrome steel — however it’s lighter than metal. It feels good in your hand and is a superb indication of what an iPhone X Plus could possibly be.
The glass again is available in a number of colours. My evaluation system had the twilight again. It’s a pleasant gradient from purple to blue that makes the P20 Professional stand out from the gang. It’s way more distinctive than unified (boring) colours.
You may also use the P20 Professional as a conveyable mirror to repair your make-up or your hair whenever you’re on the subway. However the again of the system is so shiny that it was coated in fingerprints more often than not. That’s more and more the case when you could have a smartphone with a glass again.
Under the show, you’ll discover a good previous fingerprint sensor. In my expertise it really works properly and I like having it on the entrance of the system when my telephone is resting on a desk. Sadly, it makes the telephone fairly tall total.
Why cease at two when you’ll be able to have three cameras
All people laughed when smartphone producers began placing two digicam sensors in the back of their units. And but, many individuals improve their telephone to get a greater digicam. Some folks even select their subsequent telephone primarily based on the digicam completely.
And Huawei went a bit loopy on this entrance as the corporate built-in three cameras in the back of the system. There’s a 40 megapixels lens mixed with a 20 megapixels monochrome lens and an eight megapixels telephoto lens. And the telephone helps tremendous slow-motion movies at 960 frames per second.
On paper, it appears like a bit an excessive amount of. However it’s true that these three cameras are a very powerful and memorable characteristic of the P20 Professional.
I used each an iPhone X and the P20 Professional on my final trip to Cambodia. And right here’s a gallery of some pattern images:
Let’s be trustworthy, I’m not a fantastic photographer. So I wished to make use of the P20 Professional in probably the most regular use case. The P20 Professional has so many choices and handbook triggers that it feels a bit overwhelming for a traditional consumer. However Huawei retains saying that the P20 Professional is sensible and might routinely seize the most effective shot for you.
For those who use the traditional photograph mode, the digicam tries to detect the content material of the photograph and modify the settings routinely. As an illustration, in case you’re capturing a portrait of an individual, the P20 Professional routinely switches to Portrait mode. For those who’re capturing at night time, the telephone will take an evening mode photograph by capturing a number of under- and overexposed images and recompositioning the scene.
In my expertise, the digicam carried out extraordinarily properly. It was fairly onerous to get a blurry, unfocused shot. However it was additionally one thing utterly totally different from the iPhone X digicam.
Colours are oversaturated usually. It seems to be too vivid, too shiny and fairly removed from actuality. And that wasn’t simply the case on the smartphone itself (by default, the colour profile of the show is sort of saturated too). It was notably true with nature photographs. And I desire the extra pure tone of iPhone X images.
In relation to night time images, the P20 Professional is the most effective performing smartphone I’ve used. It carried out extremely properly and it’s fairly spectacular which you could shoot these images with a smartphone.
You possibly can really feel the sturdy character of the P20 Professional whenever you’re taking selfies too. The digicam app has a built-in beautifying impact that makes you look higher. It’s enabled by default, and you may’t disable it utterly. Even whenever you set it to zero, it’ll make your pores and skin smoother.
Total, I’m impressed with the P20 Professional digicam. However that doesn’t imply I prefer it higher than the iPhone X. In some methods, it feels too sophisticated to get the proper shot. In different methods, it corrects images with software program options that make them look a bit faux.
Many individuals will love the P20 Professional digicam. It simply will depend on what you’re on the lookout for.
Fantastic prints
Let’s undergo some miscellaneous gadgets. The P20 Professional doesn’t characteristic wi-fi charging. Whereas it’s not a dealbreaker, it’s onerous to return to plugging a cable in case you had been already utilizing wi-fi charging.
The system-on-a-chip is a Kirin 970 made by Huawei. As a substitute of boring you with benchmarks, let’s simply say that it was completely effective and I didn’t really feel restricted at any second. The P20 Professional is on par with different flagship Android units. However it was notably properly optimized for energy consumption. Battery life on the P20 Professional was excellent.
The P20 Professional doesn’t have a microSD slot, however comes with 128GB of inside storage by default. There’s a single USB Sort-C port (no headphone jack) and also you’ll discover each USB Sort-C earbuds and a USB Sort-C to headphone jack adapter.
My system had two SIM slots, however watch out in case you plan on shopping for the P20 Professional. Huawei mentioned that some variations of the system will solely have one SIM slot.
In relation to software program, the P20 Professional runs Android eight.1 with Huawei’s EMUI customized pores and skin. I’m not a fan of EMUI as the corporate repeatedly pushes you to create a Huawei account. The corporate has additionally developed its personal model of a lot of Google’s apps.
It may be complicated in case you’re simply on the lookout for Google’s personal apps. However that is comprehensible as all Google companies are nonetheless blocked in China. Chinese language customers want Huawei’s options.
Total, I used to be pleasantly shocked by the P20 Professional. It ticks all the precise containers to change into a robust Samsung Galaxy S9 contender.
However extra importantly, Huawei didn’t simply construct a protected telephone. The P20 Professional has a robust character and the corporate made some polarizing selections. You possibly can see it throughout the board, from the again of the system to the beautifying impact whenever you’re taking selfies.
Huawei has been utilizing the digicam as the principle factor of its promoting marketing campaign for the P20 Professional. The corporate is correct to brag about its digicam because it performs extremely properly. However software program correction and saturated colours typically go too far, relying in your style.
For years, most individuals appeared on the new Samsung Galaxy S telephone and the brand new iPhone to see what’s subsequent within the smartphone world. However Huawei is now additionally pushing the needle ahead with this telephone.
