Huawei Mate 20, 20 Pro, and 20 X hands-on review

Kirin 980 premieres on the Mate 20 series

Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro are the first smartphones to utilize HiSicon's latest Kirin 980 chip. That the first chipset in an Android phone built on the 7nm manufacturing process promising plenty of power and efficiency gains over its predecessor and other 10nm chipsets.

The Kirin 980 uses an 8-core CPU design with 2x high-performance Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.6GHz and 2x Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 1.92GHz and 4x power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores that go up to 1.8GHz. The processor makes use of ARM's DynamIQ architecture, which is the evolution of big.LITTLE and allows any subset of cores (or all together) to work simultaneously depending on the workload.

Kirin 980 SoC uses a Mali-G76 MP10 (ten-core) GPU which was announced back in May 2018 offering tremendous performance and efficiency gains compared to its predecessor Mali-G72 in the Kirin 970. According to the press release, the GPU outperforms the previous generation by 46% and improves the power efficiency nearly twice. It can also take advantage of the new clock-boosting technology that recognizes when a demanding game is running and provides optimal gaming performance.

EMUI 9 supports GPU Turbo 2.0, which is supported by six games so far. It allows all of those games to run smoothly and steady at 60 fps at full resolution. GPU Turbo 2.0 is new, but Huawei is also working with game developers to enable it in even more popular games.

Huawei points out that the Kirin 980 outperforms the 10nm chips by 20% and it's 40% more efficient at the same time.

The 7nm manufacturing process isn't its only claim to fame. The chipset is also the first to support 2133MHz LPDDR4X memory and incorporates a dedicated dual NPU chip. Huawei calls the latter "Dual-Brain Power" and can help recognize up to 4,500 images per minute, which is around 120% faster than last year's single NPU chip on the Kirin 970 SoC.

Other notable features include 6.9 billion transistors crammed inside a 1cm² die (1.6 times more than its predecessor), 1.4Gbps Cat 21 LTE modem and blazing fast WiFi speeds of up to 1,732Mbps peak download/upload speeds.

Finally, the chipset comes with a new Image Signal Processor, which delivers a 46% increase in data throughput and better multi-camera support. It promises an improved HDR color reproduction, Multi-pass noise reduction that removes artifacts without hurting with the image details and better motion tracking.

Now off to some number-crunching. We start off with the GeekBench CPU test and the Mate 20 Pro easily comes on top of the pile, when it comes to multi-core performance. Its single core result came just short of the Mongoose cores of the Galaxy Note9.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  9882
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• LG V40 ThinQ
  8769
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  7712
• Huawei P20 Pro
  6679

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  3333
• LG V40 ThinQ
  2425
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  2363
• Huawei P20 Pro
  1907

The compound AnTuTu brought more reasons for Huawei to smile as its top dog once again came best of the bunch.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  271152
• LG V40 ThinQ
  270634
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  248823
• Huawei P20 Pro
  209884

The graphics performance was a tad less impressive. In terms of sheer power the Mate 20 Pro got a first, a second and a third places in the three tests despite facing the most elite of Android competition. However, it's taller screen and higher resolution meant it wasn't doing as hot in the onscreen tests.

Still, the GPUs of Kirin chipsets were miles behind the competition for years, so the fact that the Mate 20 Pro can now trade blows with the best out there is a win in itself.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  85
• LG V40 ThinQ
  79
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  75
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  72
• Huawei P20 Pro
  66

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei P20 Pro
  55
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  50
• LG V40 ThinQ
  47
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  46
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  39

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG V40 ThinQ
  59
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  53
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  45
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  44
• Huawei P20 Pro
  40

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei P20 Pro
  37
• LG V40 ThinQ
  30
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  25
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG V40 ThinQ
  35
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  28
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  28
• Huawei P20 Pro
  23

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei P20 Pro
  21
• LG V40 ThinQ
  18
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  12

EMUI 9

The Mate 20 duo will ship with Android Pie out of the box and it will feature EMUI 9.0. Huawei has cleaned up the general interface and the settings panel has been simplified by hiding rarely used settings under advanced in more categories. Huawei's built-in apps are also seeing updated navigation menus along the bottom of the screen to make them easier to reach.

The EMUI 9.0 brings GPU Turbo 2.0, quicker app starts and Password vault. The Mate 20 Pro supports app locking with face authorization.

Huawei Share can now do two more things wirelessly: share files with a PC and print documents. There is also a travel assistant by HiVision and in-house developed Digital balance app that tell you how much time you are spending on your phone and give you the option to limit yourself (the screen will go monochrome after the time is up).