Huawei Mate 20 X review

29 January 2019
Arriving a few months after the rest of the Mate 20 series phones, but considered by many as the best phone in the family, the Mate 20 X is finally stepping in by offering all the screen real estate you could possibly want in a phone.

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ScottsoNJ, 03 Feb 2019I don't see how the screen was better on the Mate 20 but ok... moreThe X's screen is too big for it's resolution. Even the Honor Magic 2 is really on the borderline of what's acceptable. Had it been IPS it would have been different.

As an example I am today switching from a massive Xiaomi Mi Max that is 6.4" in 16:9 to Mi Mix 3 that is 6,39" in 19.5:9 (the ladder being pretty much identical to the above mentoined Honor Magic 2 screen wise). They are both 1080p screens and both about 6.4".

However, the width of the Max's screen is 8cm. The width of the Mix's screen is 6.8cm

On paper the Mix 3 therefore has a much higher PPI of 403 vs the Max's 342, and yet I've never had any visible pixelation issue with normal use with the Max. The second the Mix 3 was booted up I could see the pentile effect and rough edges and lines. And trust me, it's not "just visible on text". It's visible on just about any UI element. Only complex pictures and videoes without strong edges and line hide it.

So why is 403 PPI AMOLED less sharp than 342 PPI IPS? Well, because the 403 PPI is a bit fake. In actuality it is more equivalent to 268 PPI.

The same is true for the Mate 20 X, only it's worse because its "fake" PPI is 346, it's equivalent PPI is 230. This whilst the Mate 20 actually has a 381 PPI screen, even though it's not a standard RGB sub pixel layout, but a RGB-RGW, still three sub pixels per pixel. It is miles sharper, it also has a higher maximum brightness both in manual and auto mode. And they both produce decent colors in "Normal" mode.

It would have been better if Huawei switched the tech on the two. AMOLED on the smaller Mate 20, and IPS on the bigger Mate 20 X. Price wise, it would have been even better if the Mate 20 X had a 1440p AMOLED display. Giving it a "fake" 477 PPI and a more realistic 318 PPI, which would have been sharp enough to avoid the pentile pixelation effect.

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    • AnonD-731363
    • SH3
    • 06 Feb 2019

    The most and only important thing is when this device comes for sales to the europe. Anything else is not essential.

      Mate 20X can be superior to many others, but it is way too big IMO. And the lack of wireless charging and IP rating also hurts, at least to me.

        • J
        • JKM85
        • NRA
        • 06 Feb 2019

        ScottsoNJ, 03 Feb 2019I don't see how the screen was better on the Mate 20 but ok... moreIt looks much crisper and the colors were more vivid. I wouldn't have thought that would be the case before I owned them both. I used them side by side for a good amount of time and trust me, the screen on the Mate 20 is sharper and looked better. I also own a Note 9 and a S9+ and love amoled screens, but wasn't impressed with the X. Unless you've used them both, it's hard to judge.

          • R
          • Ron999
          • jdt
          • 05 Feb 2019

          Currently, there is no way to unlock bootloader and get root on this phone. No root = don't buy (for me).

            • R
            • Ron999
            • jdt
            • 05 Feb 2019

            Gandalfdenvite, 30 Jan 2019"Loudness remained well above average", for me the problem ... morePowerAmp music player allows you to set the number of volume steps. I think Gravity Box does as well but that requires root.

              Anonymous, 02 Feb 2019"Phone" I guess if you are Andre the giant (and in ge... moreI of course respect your private opinion.
              But guidelines says its a phone, no matter what you and i and anybody else says, thats my opinion to... The end.

                Anonymous, 02 Feb 2019"Phone" I guess if you are Andre the giant (and in ge... moreIf its under 9 inches and pocketable its a phone

                  Anonymous, 30 Jan 2019Man read your post again :DDDdid I say something wrong in my post?

                    JKM85, 30 Jan 2019I have owned both the Mate 20 and the Mate 20 X. I ended up... moreI don't see how the screen was better on the Mate 20 but okay. And the cameras are better on the 20 pro. Battery life I could see with 1 an LCD and 1 amoled

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • U2T
                      • 02 Feb 2019

                      terce, 31 Jan 2019Huawei is rubbish, i had bought P10 after 6 month using i f... morei had a ZTE people had a hard time hrearing me in calls useless

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • pVN
                        • 02 Feb 2019

                        LG Superfan, 31 Jan 2019Imo best phone of the year"Phone"

                        I guess if you are Andre the giant

                        (and in general we should stop calling them phones. Phones died around 2013-2014. Those are play computers that need both hand to operate. Mini tablets that make calls. The end.)

                          Don Hrle, 02 Feb 2019And now you can scam yourself manually in even more apps th... moreI don't see that happening on Honor View 20, a phone that uses the same Kirin 980 chipset as Mate 20 X but has much smaller body to dissipate the heat. Looking at Anandtech's analysis the difference between peak performance and sustained performance is very small, smaller than most other devices they tested. And this was done in Performance Mode on.

                          https://www.anandtech.com/show/13886/honor-launches-the-view20-a-48mp-camera-handson/3

                            Don Hrle, 02 Feb 2019Yes but in emui 8 it unlocked full potential just for bench... moreAnd that doesn't apply to EMUI 9.0, the current version of Huawei's Android skin. I'm not defending what they have done in the past, but rather I'm talking about what's happening right now.

                              Nick Tagataka, 02 Feb 2019"Performance Mode" is not the same as automatic benchmark b... moreAnd now you can scam yourself manually in even more apps than before.....for first few minutes till phone gets got like Tahiti and throttles like lumberjack

                                Nick Tagataka, 02 Feb 2019"Performance Mode" is not the same as automatic benchmark b... moreYes but in emui 8 it unlocked full potential just for benchmarks thus scamming the customers.

                                  Don Hrle, 02 Feb 2019I'm making sense,they made cheat option available for custo... more"Performance Mode" is not the same as automatic benchmark boost(though calling it "boost" is also inaccurate way to say it), it unlocks the SoC's full potential by allowing CPU and GPU to reach its maximum clock speed when necessary. And this works on any processor-intensive apps including games and photo editors, unlike what they had on K970 devices that only gets triggered in certain benchmark apps. They had this option in the battery settings menu since EMUI 1.6 and decided to remove it in EMUI 5.0, but it made a return in EMUI 9.0.

                                    Nick Tagataka, 01 Feb 2019Learn how to make sense then talk.I'm making sense,they made cheat option available for customers now. Before it was automatically triggered to boost scores in benchmarks when run thus scamming the customer.

                                      • B
                                      • Borh
                                      • FHg
                                      • 01 Feb 2019

                                      Does the European version have band 28 ?

                                        Don Hrle, 31 Jan 2019And you can cheat manually nowLearn how to make sense then talk.

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