Huawei P20 review

GSMArena team, 17 April 2018.

Performance

Huawei and its HiSilicon silicon branch, in particular, seem to currently be a few months behind the curve on chipset development. It's a release cycle issue, more than anything else, since news of the Kirin 980 and its most likely ambassador - the Mate 20, is already surfacing. In the meantime, however, the Huawei P20 is stuck with the Kirin 970. Don't get us wrong, while slightly dated, it still has plenty of power to go around. So, we can't really complain about the chipset choice.

Huawei P20 review

That's if you don't count how abnormally hot the P20 got during our benchmark run. So hot, in fact, that it was actually uncomfortable to the touch, especially around the top frame of the unit.

The situation actually got so bad that we were forced to whip out our special peltier-based cooling setup and re-run the benchmarks with active cooling applied to the back of the unit. Examining the performance numbers in more detail reveals that the four 2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 and other four 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 units inside the Kirin 970 actually favoured quite well, even with the intensive heat.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone X
    10215
  • Apple iPhone 8
    10214
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    8883
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    8487
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    8349
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    6759
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    6739
  • Huawei P20
    6722
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    6679
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    6656
  • HTC U11+
    6654
  • Huawei Mate 10
    6625
  • Nokia 8
    6568
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    6428
  • LG V30
    6365
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    3535

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone X
    4256
  • Apple iPhone 8
    4234
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    3771
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    2446
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    2199
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    1991
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    1974
  • HTC U11+
    1939
  • Nokia 8
    1925
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    1915
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    1907
  • LG V30
    1901
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    1900
  • Huawei P20
    1897
  • Huawei Mate 10
    1882
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    904

GeekBench reports scores quite similar to those of a Huawei Mate 10 and easily comparable to the previous generation of competing chips, like the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895. So, about what we expected.

AnTuTu scores seem mostly unaffected by the heat overall, although we are still seeing consistently lower numbers than the Mate 10. It is also worth noting that we ran AnTuTu 5 as well and saw noticeably bigger difference.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    265326
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    264044
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    246660
  • Huawei Mate 10
    214037
  • Nokia 8
    210323
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    209884
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    207072
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    207016
  • Huawei P20
    206906
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    203119
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    199022
  • LG V30
    182374
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    67636

Other compound benchmarks, like BaseMark OS 2.0 are less kind to a smouldering Huawei P20 and clearly showcase the adverse effects on performance.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone X
    4708
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    4196
  • Apple iPhone 8
    3934
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    3681
  • Nokia 8
    3503
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    3487
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    3458
  • Huawei Mate 10
    3415
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    3379
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    3376
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    3354
  • Huawei P20
    3338
  • HTC U11+
    3257
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    3252
  • LG V30
    2705
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    1398

The CPU might be fine, but the Mali-G72 MP12 GPU, not so much.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone 8
    85
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    83
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    82
  • Apple iPhone X
    81
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    74
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    66
  • Huawei Mate 10
    65
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    65
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    61
  • LG V30
    60
  • Nokia 8
    57
  • HTC U11+
    56
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    56
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    50
  • Huawei P20
    47
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone 8
    60
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    59
  • Apple iPhone X
    59
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    56
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    55
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    51
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    50
  • Huawei P20
    46
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    45
  • Huawei Mate 10
    43
  • HTC U11+
    36
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    36
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    36
  • LG V30
    35
  • Nokia 8
    33
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    8.3

The difference in frame rate is clearly there in both off-screen and on-screen scenarios. The GPU clearly thermal-throttles, which can also be observed by monitoring the GPU core frequencies during tests.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    35
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    35
  • Nokia 8
    32
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    28
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    26
  • HTC U11+
    25
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    25
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    25
  • LG V30
    24
  • Huawei P20
    23
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    23
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    23
  • Huawei Mate 10
    21
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    2.8

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    33
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    24
  • Huawei P20
    23
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    23
  • Huawei P20 Pro
    21
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    20
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    14
  • Huawei Mate 10
    13
  • LG V30
    13
  • HTC U11+
    13
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    13
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    13
  • Nokia 8
    12
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    2.8

Higher version OpenGL GFXBench tests report smaller, or even entirely non-existent scores, regardless of temperature state. The GPU's is clearly hitting some unrelated limitation that causes the fps cap.

But, believe us when we say, the adverse effects are still there. Take Basemark ES 3.1, for instance. Not only does it take into consideration a total rendered frame count, but it is also a very lengthy test to run, leaving the Mali-G72 MP12 plenty of time to get all toasty.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone X
    1854
  • Apple iPhone 8
    1690
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    1481
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    1189
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    1177
  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    1174
  • Huawei Mate 10
    1142
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    874
  • LG V30
    860
  • Nokia 8
    855
  • HTC U11+
    851
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    829
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    699
  • Huawei P20
    538

Basemark X paints the exact same picture.

Basemark X

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
    44058
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
    44013
  • Samsung Galaxy S8
    42370
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+
    42134
  • Huawei Mate 10
    40809
  • Google Pixel 2 XL
    39143
  • HTC U11+
    38315
  • OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
    38248
  • Huawei P20 (cooled)
    37659
  • Nokia 8
    37593
  • LG V30
    36704
  • Huawei P20
    26842
  • Huawei Honor 7X
    8616

All that being said, in real world terms, you are quite unlikely to notice any slow-downs, even in the most demanding game titles. Modern engines are simply too good at adjusting to deliver the best possible experience. Playing games for extended periods of time didn't result in the colossal heat build-up which we observed while benchmarking.

Reader comments

  • Itdontdoit
  • 05 Oct 2023
  • n5y

Had this phone for 3 years now, all of a sudden, on YouTube when you try type a comment the keypad freezes, which is ridiculous. Tried soft resetting it. Doesn't solve the problem..wouldn't recommend this shit phone

  • Ziga
  • 15 Jan 2022
  • puk

Same here. After 3 years and one battery change it's an amazing device.

  • Happyernest
  • 09 Apr 2021
  • nc%

I own this phone for almost 3 years now. Its incredible Im really bummed Huawei got blocked from Google services because i really wanna buy only Huawei phones from now, its durable, doesn't lag, battery charges incredibly fast, haven't ha...