Huawei P20, P20 Pro and Mate RS hands-on review

Shared features

Both P20 and P20 Pro rely on AI to boost the camera performance. For starters, the camera can detect various scenes and tune the settings accordingly. This works even in macro mode and the camera should recognize what exactly you are trying to shoot close-up.

Next come the portrait shots, which now feature various studio-like background blur and lighting effects. The most recent iPhones kicked off this trend, but it seems others are taking it a lot more seriously and expand on these effects.

Huawei P20 Pro samples

Probably the most notable advancements are when it comes to stabilization. Huawei says it managed to solve a 179-years old problem - the handshake during professional long-exposure shots. That's right - thanks to the new AI-driven software and optical stabilization you will no longer need a tripod for long-shutter shots. Huawei also promises the best video stabilization around. These are some bold claims and we can't wait to test them.

Finally, both devices come with a 24MP selfie camera with autofocus and f/2.0 lens. It supports background and studio-like lightning effects. Face Unlock is available via this camera and 2D mapping process and it will take just 0.5s for unlocking the phone. It will use the screen to illuminate your face if necessary, which may not be as pleasant and seamless as on the iPhone X.

Chipset

The Huawei P20 smartphones are utilizing the Kirin 970 chipset. The SoC was introduced at IFA in Belin last September and is the main ingredient of the Mate 10 phablets. The choice of the chip is hardly a surprise, as it's the latest available by the company.

Even though the Kirin 970 was released last Fall, it is still relevant. It has a very powerful processor with 4x2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 cores. Those two clusters can work together if needed.

The GPU is a 12-core Mali-G72 unit, and while it may not be as fast as the most recent Adreno 630, it doesn't need to be. Both P20 and P20 Pro have 1080p screens, which means we can expect superb performance in the next couple of years.

The NPU is here as well, of course, as its native acceleration for the AI tasks is what should be making some real difference in the camera.

It's not like we haven't benchmarked the 970 before, but just to make sure nothing has changed. The Huawei P20 Pro sits quietly in the lower part of the list, which includes only devices with the latest chips from Exynos, Qualcomm and HiSilicon. Keep in mind that the P20 Pro is still not officially on sale and Huawei has a bit more time for potential optimizations.

The CPU differences between the latest Exynos 9810 and Qualcomm 845 and the 6-months old Kirin 970 in the CPU tests are more pronounced, but the compound tests came out pretty close.

That would suggest that while no longer the most powerful around, the Huawei chip has aged well and the P20 duo is not likely to find itself out of its depth no matter how hard a task you will throw at it. Still, benchmarks are one thing and real life performance is often another, so we'll reserve any verdicts for when the reviews are complete.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  8830
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  8466
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  6783
• Huawei P20 Pro
  6679
• Huawei Mate 10
  6625

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  3759
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  2454
• Huawei P20 Pro
  1907
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  1902
• Huawei Mate 10
  1882

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  259244
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  250156
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  246660
• Huawei Mate 10
  214037
• Huawei P20 Pro
  209884

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  3859
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  3425
• Huawei Mate 10
  3415
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  3382
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3354
• Huawei P20 Pro
  3252

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  82
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  74
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  73
• Huawei P20 Pro
  66
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  65
• Huawei Mate 10
  65

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  59
• Huawei P20 Pro
  55
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  55
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  45
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  45
• Huawei Mate 10
  43

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  55
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  47
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  46
• Huawei P20 Pro
  40
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  38
• Huawei Mate 10
  38

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  51
• Huawei P20 Pro
  37
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S9
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  24
• Huawei Mate 10
  23