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

27 March 2018
Huawei wasn't the first maker to use a dual-camera setup with the P9, but that's what became the spark of the multiple-camera revolution. The P10 series lost some of that momentum by focusing on experience instead of features, but with the P20 Huawei is back leading the camera race.

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  • D
  • AnonD-139449
  • v$D
  • 30 Mar 2018

No matter how much advance cam phone do you have, your images will still appear as limited quality resolution as any social hub site will let you upload!

    • n
    • nick
    • pWY
    • 30 Mar 2018

    Regular P20 won't be available in Twilight in the EU.

      • D
      • AnonD-743635
      • LEy
      • 30 Mar 2018

      zodiacfml, 30 Mar 2018I don't like Huawei but that large 1/1.7" main camera senso... more1.7" is 30% more surface than 2.3", a little more than a mm wider and 1 mm taller. Enough however to make a quality difference in the image.
      The problem is if you cram too many pixels in there, and a small lens. The 40MP jpg photos of the P20 come out without any processing, almost raw, and you see noise, chroma aberration,barrel distortion, and blurred edges. The 10MP processed photos are something totally different.

        Impressive main camera samples. Is it shot with HDR?

          I don't like Huawei but that large 1/1.7" main camera sensor is something! I'd be happy with that single camera on a smartphone. It doesn't look bulky too.
          I thought the practical size limit is 1/2.3" , found in Sony and Google smartphones.

            • N
            • Nick
            • vmF
            • 30 Mar 2018

            Anonymous, 29 Mar 2018... which is EXACTLY how Nokia did it with it's +40MP Nokia... moreWell, actually Huawei's hybrid zoom is quite a bit different from what Nokia does with 808PV.
            From 3x zoom, P20 Pro activates 3rd telephoto camera and combine the information from it with the one from the main 40MP camera, which makes it a lot better than just crop-and-stretch that 808 does. In fact P20 Pro is capable of zooming losslessly up to 5x with 12MP resolution while 808 is only capable of zooming in that far in 5MP.
            Also, if you don't like the notch, you can always hide it in settings.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • pWQ
              • 30 Mar 2018

              The looks are a direct copy, which is bad. But nonetheless, I'd get the P20 Pro in that beautiful blue color if I had to buy a new phone soon.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • ypY
                • 30 Mar 2018

                Back is copy of old Lenovo vibe shot. Front is iPhone X... is that called Porsche design??

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • pr3
                  • 30 Mar 2018

                  huawei will be like htc soon.the prices are going up and they are not competitive

                    • D
                    • AnonD-743635
                    • LEy
                    • 29 Mar 2018

                    Awaiting for a p20 pro teardown, to see who makes the camera module

                      • D
                      • AnonD-580901
                      • gCv
                      • 29 Mar 2018

                      Anonymous, 27 Mar 2018Samsung does invention, Apple does Innovation... Huawei is... moreSony does innovation. Sorry

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • FXM
                        • 29 Mar 2018

                        No shame of copy from others

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • mTn
                          • 29 Mar 2018

                          AnonD-122899, 29 Mar 2018I urge you to zoom into the eyes of the model of both photo... moreOogway: didn't they write in the review that they had trouble with autofocus using the front camera?

                          So obviously if the sample you'd linked to are made with the front camera than probably every phone will beat the P20pro.

                          That IPX photo was really good though. Natural colours and great details (without the typical sharpening of cellphones). The other image looked like an old typical cellphone waterpainted image of years gone by. (At a time when the Nokia 808 indeed WAS the king of the imaging ;-)

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • mTn
                            • 29 Mar 2018

                            Anonymous, 29 Mar 201840MP is used for down sampling.. the 40MP photos will be re... more... which is EXACTLY how Nokia did it with it's +40MP Nokia 808 Pureview 6 years ago.

                            This is nothing new or exotic. It's literally stolen from Nokia. Even the 5x zoom (which is nothing more than a crop from the 40MP-image). Bad Leica.

                            Anyways, I prefer the design o/t Mate RS over the stupid notched P-models. It even has a cute notification led. Great that unlike every other jackshit they kept that IR-blaster (that others released years ago with so much fanfare to be ditched in all silence 2 models later). But the lack of the jack is the ultimate dealbreaker!

                            No more Huawei/Honor phones for me. The Honor 8 was almost perfect. I still enjoy it today. But after that it all went downhill. Just as with any (Chinese) company that lacks vision.

                            Perhaps one of the next Nokia models includes both IR-blaster and audio-jack coupled with the rebirth of Pureview (probably not). Otherwise it's time to leave the platform.

                            I just can't stand those slippery glass tablets of soaps with that fugly Android of recent years. I had flat crap in the mid-80's, so I don't want it now!

                              The high ISO they pressented was the same high ISO Sony demonstrated a teaser in MWC with dual Cameras when unveiling XZ2 and now the real competition will start. Let us see what Apple and Samsung bring on the table

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • IV8
                                • 29 Mar 2018

                                VL, 28 Mar 2018Indeed 40MP looks quite bad, too much noise. 10MP is way be... more40MP is used for down sampling.. the 40MP photos will be regular quality but after down sampled to 10MP the photos will be superb quality and perfectly noise free.. Although from the sample the software is not yet up to the task yet especially in low light.. The details are all reduced to smudges

                                  • N
                                  • Nick
                                  • vmF
                                  • 29 Mar 2018

                                  Seems like AnandTech did the camera comparison between P20 Pro and S9, and here's what I can conclude for now:
                                  -DR of P20's camera in 10MP is on par with S9 in daytime, but P20 literally slaughters S9 at night, managing to salvage both shadows and highlights. S9's photo in contrast looks pale and dull in dim environments, shadows are dark and street lamps are losing their shape due to blown-up highlights and weird ghosting effects.
                                  -In terms of details, however, unless you're shooting in low-light, S9 has a definite edge here. Textures are preserved better and its sharpening isn't as aggressive as P20 Pro's... Colours are pretty similar on both devices, though.
                                  -When you start using optical zoom, however, you can clearly see that P20 Pro captures significant higher amount of details with less artifacts. Ironically, its main sensor performs better when cropped into smaller resolution... In fact 40MP jpeg images from P20 Pro is a pure garbage thanks to poor dynamic range, extremely high amount of noise and oddly soft details, so you'd better stick to 10MP mode to get the best image quality.

                                    • N
                                    • Nick
                                    • vmF
                                    • 29 Mar 2018

                                    AnonD-122899, 29 Mar 2018I urge you to zoom into the eyes of the model of both photo... moreThat might be because of Portrait Mode which adds extra contrast + saturation and applies tons NR to smooth out all the noises. Since many people who take selfies like smooth skin tone, this actually does make sense. If you hate how it unnaturally smoothen the details, you can always use Wide Aperture mode (which I believe is called "Aperture" on P20 Pro) which does exactly the same thing sans the beauty effect.

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-122899
                                      • Gfx
                                      • 29 Mar 2018

                                      anon4321, 28 Mar 2018isn't it amazing how DXO can take steady pictures with good... moreSeriously, I wouldn't trust DXO. GSMArena is trying the cameras as most other normal consumers will do. If I cannot see good results from this site, why would I trust DXO? BTW, having a score of over 100 mean nothing. Look at the individual test results at the bottom of DXO writeup and you will see P20 Pro camera scores are not much different from S9+.

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-122899
                                        • Gfx
                                        • 29 Mar 2018

                                        Anonymous, 28 Mar 2018It's not a fake camera you know nothing and quality is greatI urge you to zoom into the eyes of the model of both photos and see again. The IPX has much more sharper details than the P20 Pro.

                                        https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AppleiPhoneX_IMG_E5839-1.jpg

                                        https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/HuaweiP20Pro_IMG_20071109_134129.jpg

                                        Since they are selfie photos, having such bad quality is a big NO. DXO is trying to bull us again.