Huawei unveiled the Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 today. The Pro model sets a benchmark in camera and charging technologies, but even the base Mate 20 enjoys the power of Android’s first 7nm chipset and a revamped Leica camera. Huawei Mate 20 Pro The Huawei Mate 20 Pro stands apart from its sibling with a more advanced screen and camera. We start with the 6.39” curved OLED display with 1,440p resolution and HDR support. The triple camera here is descended from the P20 Pro camera. It combines a 40MP Quad Bayer sensor with f/1.8 wide-angle lens, a 20MP sensor with f/2.2 ultra-wide lens and an 8MP 80mm f/2.2 telephoto camera. The Mate 20 Pro can do macro shots from just 2.5cm / 1in. Video gets a helping hand from AI Cinema Mode, which can adjust the color tint, saturation and brightness of a clip to enhance the mood. Selective desaturation can render people in full color upon a black & white background. Speaking of AI, Huawei’s new chipset (more on it in a bit) is powerful enough to bypass the cloud. It can, for example, detect similar videos and extract sections of them to make a 10-second highlights reel. Back to the camera department, the front features a 24MP selfie camera (f/2.0) and a 3D face scanner. Additionally, there’s an in-display fingerprint reader that’s also pressure sensitive. The Pro is the first Huawei to feature the new SuperCharge tech. It pushes a whopping 40W of power and can fill 70% of the 4,200mAh battery in just half an hour (that’s about 2,940mAh). TUV Rheinland has certified that the tech is safe. Then there’s 15W Wireless Quick Charge, which gets the battery from 0% to 30% in half an hour (1,300mAh). And here’s a unique trick - Wireless Reverse Charging can share the phone’s juice with other devices. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro boasts stereo speakers with an interesting design choice – there’s no grille on the bottom, instead the hole for the USB-C port is used. We don’t know if this helped or not, but the Pro now has IP68 waterproofing (the P20 Pro had IP67). Interesting tidbits from the connectivity section include Dual band GPS and Dual VoLTE. But wait until you hear about the memory card (spoiler: it’s not microSD). Huawei Mate 20 The Huawei Mate 20 has a very different screen – a 6.53” flat LCD with 1080p resolution. Another change is the triple camera. It’s still ultra-wide, wide and tele, but with different sensors and lenses. The main shooter has a 12MP sensor behind an f/1.8 lens. It’s joined by a 16MP camera with an f/2.2 ultra-wide lens and an 8MP 52mm f/2.4 telephoto cam. The 2.5cm / 1in macro mode and the AI features are available here as well. The 24MP selfie camera lives in a teardrop notch, but that one has no room for the advanced 3D face scanner. The fingerprint reader is on the back, below the triple camera. The Mate 20 has a 4,000mAh battery and uses the older 22.5W SuperCharge. There’s no wireless charging here in either direction. Charging is done over USB-C and, unlike the Pro, there’s a classic 3.5mm headphone jack. Also unlike the Pro, there are no stereo speakers here and no waterproofing. Kirin 980 Huawei’s new flagships are introducing the Kirin 980 chipset. It’s the first 7nm chip for Android phones and also the first to use ARM’s new Cortex-A76 cores. All together, the new chipset is made up of 6.9 billion transistors, 60% more than its predecessor. Part of the increase is due to the larger A76 cores. They promise a 75% boost in performance and 58% improved power efficiency over the A73 cores in the Kirin 970. The CPU in the Kirin 980 is a three tier design – two A76 as the big cores, two more A76 as medium cores and, finally, four small A55 cores. The new phones will run EMUI 9.0 out of the box, which is based on Android 9.0 Pie. The chipset features a dual NPU for all the AI tasks, part of which are memory optimizations to ensure a smooth performance. Storage and RAM The Huawei Mate 20 is available today with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. The Mate 20 Pro comes only in 6/128GB configuration. You can find more about the pricing and availability of Mate 20 phones here. Huawei partnered with Toshiba to introduce a new nano memory card format. They are hoping to get the backing of the SD Alliance and make this a global standard, but that sounds like it may take a substantial amount of time to materialize. For now, these cards can expand the phone’s storage by up to 256GB.<doc-sep>Cameras on phones have gotten exponentially better in recent years, and Huawei has been one of the pioneers leading the charge. The P20 Pro was a camera king, making use of Leica-branded lenses. Alongside the Google Pixel 3, the P20 Pro remains the camera phone to beat — and that's exactly what Huawei hopes to do with the new Huawei Mate 20 Pro. And, boy, does it have fun trying — complete with a design that puts Samsung on notice, an in-display fingerprint sensor and a battery so big that you’ll have enough juice left over to wirelessly charge other phones. The news that the Mate 20 Pro won't be sold in the US is utterly disappointing. Nevertheless, if you can get your hands on this Android flagship, you'll have yourself one of the best smartphones money can buy. Update Nov. 14: The Mate 20 Pro is now available for sale on eBay for $899. Huawei Mate Pro Cheat Sheet The 6.39 inch AMOLED screen is lovely and bright, but the notch is one of the widest on a camera phone. AI camera modes are decent — unless you are a dedicated photographer, you won’t have to reach for the Pro mode too often. When you do, though, the control is fantastic. The ultrawide angle lens on the Mate 20 Pro takes shots with impact, but there is a little overprocessing of images and detail is sometimes lost. The monochrome lens included on the Huawei P20 Pro is missed on this phone. The Mate 20's battery life is superb and wireless charging is a big bonus. It's the fast charging that stands out, though — getting to 70 percent charged in 30 minutes is superb. Price and Availability The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is available from a variety of networks in the U.K., and it's priced at £899 (about $1,150). Huawei originally announced that the handset won't be available through any carriers in the U.S., but eBay has begun selling the device for a very reasonable $899.99. Design: Elegant and exceptional The Huawei Mate Pro 20 has a beautiful design. Yes, it has a notch, but this is the only blight on an otherwise stunning front display. The bezel at the top and the bottom of the device is barely noticeable. The curved sides of the OLED screen may add nothing but a pretty look, but they do that very well. Within the notch, Huawei includes a front-facing camera with a 24-MP (f/2.0) lens that can read RGB, a flood illuminator and the 3D depth-sensing camera. Oh, and there is a tiny LED light that glows when charging the device and for notifications. The very top of the Mate 20 Pro features an IR sensor. On the right-hand side, there's a volume rocker and an on/off button. That button on our Emerald Green handset is painted shiny red. (In addition to Emerald Green, the Mate 20 Pro comes in Black, Twilight and Pink Gold.) The left-hand side of the device is kept completely clear of buttons. The bottom of the device houses a USB-C input, a SIM-card tray (which can also take a bespoke NanoSD card, created by Huawei and sold separately). And that's it — there is no 3.5mm jack, unfortunately. But when you have the likes of OnePlus (once staunch advocates of the headphone jack) drifting away from this technology with the new OnePlus 6T, you know that its days are numbered. Huawei includes a dongle in the box to transform any cans into USB-C compatible headphones. The Mate 20 Pro measures just 6.2 x 2.8 x 0.33 inches (157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6 mm) and weighs 6.7 ounces (189 grams), which is lighter than the 7.1-ounce Samsung Galaxy Note 9. In the hand, the phone feels good. On the Midnight Blue and Emerald Blue models, you have the option to either get a smooth glass back or something called hyper optical pattern on the glass. Huawei bills this latter option as akin to vinyl. The groove is unfortunately a little too fine to be truly compared to a record, but there is a definite scratchy feel when you rub a fingernail across it — rub your finger over it, however, and it feels really smooth. The phone's glass back means wireless Qi charging is on board and along with it something quite special — the ability to reverse wireless charge from the device. This means that any Qi-friendly phone can charge off the Huawei Mate 20 Pro — even the iPhone X range. That is quite something. MORE: 6 Reasons You Should Skip the iPhone XS for iPhone XR Topping off the design specs is the fact that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is IP68 water resistant. That means that it can survive far more than a drop in a puddle. It can be placed in 2 meters of water for 30 minutes without fear it will stop working. Display: OLED-ing by example The Huawei Mate Pro 20 has a 6.39-inch AMOLED screen with a 3120 x 1440 resolution — this resolution is higher than the Google Pixel 3 XL and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (both 2960 x 1440). As you would expect, the display is stunning to look at. Images are crisp, and brightness is at a level that doesn’t hurt the eyes while still looking exceptional. You quickly get all the information you need, even if you are only glancing at the screen. As a default, Huawei doesn't prime the screen for full quality, opting for a default of FHD+ (2340 x 1080). To change this, go into the display settings and select image resolution to opt for either HD+ (1560 x 720) or WQHD+ (3120 x 1440) instead. But unless you're consuming rich media, you'll probably be perfectly happy with FHD+. Changing the resolution to WQHD+ does make a noticeable difference, though — to both the quality of the screen and the battery life. Watching movies on the device is a joy. Netflix pinged on the device. We watched a number of episodes of GLOW on Netflix and the '80s neon vibe was as vibrant as we hoped. MORE: What Is OLED? When it came to testing the Mate 20 Pro's screen in our lab, the phone registered a decent 190 percent of the sRGB color gamut. This beat the Pixel 3 XL's 170.2 percent and is much better than the iPhone XS Max (123 percent). The Galaxy Note 9 still rules with 224 percent, though. Color accuracy is a little off: The Mate 20 Pro's panel produced a Delta-E score of 1.06, compared with 0.35 for the Pixel 3 XL. (Numbers closer to zero are better.) Brightness is a relatively muted 393 nits. That beats the Pixel 3 XL (362 nits). But other flagship phones — notably, the iPhone XS (606 nits) and the Galaxy Note 9 (604 nits) — are much brighter. In-screen fingerprint sensor: touchy subject You won't find a fingerprint sensor on the back of the Mate 20 Pro. Instead, it's underneath the display panel. This takes a little time to set up (the phone needs to get a 3D imprint of your finger, so take a while to make sure it has all the data it needs and requires numerous prints for this), but the feature works really well. It's pretty speedy — with a press lasting for around a second to turn the screen on. This process could be speeded up, though, especially when you look at how fast the OnePlus 6T unlocks with its embedded fingerprint sensor. Using the Mate 20 Pro, there were a few times that I couldn't quite hit the right spot for the fingerprint to work, though, overall, it's pretty responsive. Audio: Sound choice but there are blips The Mate 20 Pro has no visible speaker grill. That's because the audio is piped through the USB-C slot. It's a design wonder that this not only works but works well. Sound is clear, but not booming when turned up — when there is a cable attached, sound is slightly dampened but there's nothing significant to note.<doc-sep>Huawei held an event in London today to announce its new Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro smartphones. We were fully expecting these handsets to be unveiled, but along with them, Huawei gave us a good surprise by announcing the Mate 20 X, too. Right off the bat, the Mate 20 X sounds amazing/ridiculous thanks to its 7.2-inch "Ultra Large Display." It's using an OLED panel and has a resolution of 2244 x 1080. Under the hood, you'll find the Kirin 980 processor with a vapor chamber and graphene film plus a 5,000 mAh battery that's rated to last up to 23 hours for video playback or 6.67 hours of gaming. That gaming aspect is a big focus for the phone, with Huawei also selling a new gaming accessory to go alongside it and even comparing it side by side with the Nintendo Switch onstage. If doodling is more your thing, it also comes with the M Pen stylus that has 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Other odds and ends include an IP53 dust and water resistance rating, 40MP cameras, and a fingerprint sensor on the back. The Huawei Mate 20 X goes on sale October 26 for €899 (around $1,041 in USD). Huawei Mate 20 + Mate 20 Pro hands-on preview: The phones that do everything<doc-sep>
LONDON — Huawei loves to keep some things a secret when it launches new products. And while we heard plenty about the Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro prior to those phones’ debut today (Oct. 16), the Mate 20 X emerged without having all its secrets revealed through leaks. Taking a similar moniker to Huawei’s Huawei MateBook X laptop, the Mate 20 X is a big-screen sibling to the rest of the Mate 20 range. It boasts the same Kirin 980 chipset as the Mate 20 Pro, but its body is a whole lot bigger. This is a definite rival to the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Apple iPhone XS Max, thanks to its massive 7.2-inch OLED screen. In an unusual turn, Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro flagship has the smallest screen of this new trio of phones at 6.39 inches. The Mate 20 is close by with 6.53-inches of screen space while the Mate 20 X tops the lot with its 7.2-inch display. We’ve had a chance to hands on with the Mate 20 X at Huawei’s London launch event, and here are some early impressions of this super-sized smartphone. Huawei Mate 20 X cheat sheet The Huawei Mate 20 X has a huge 7.2-inch screen. Battery life should be decent, thanks to the 5,000 mAh battery inside. Huawei is pushing the gaming elements of the Mate 20 X hard, even offering Nintendo Switch-like accessories. The OLED screen features 1080p resolution. Price and Availability The Huawei Mate 20 X is available from October 26 for €899 (or around £790/$1,000). To put that price in context, the just-unveiled Razer Phone 2, which also has a focus on gaming, starts at $799. Huawei’s new phone will be available in both midnight blue and phantom silver. There’s no word as of yet whether this phone will come to the UK or US or if it’s just destined for the Chinese market. Screen: Big, like really big The 7.2-inch screen is as massive in the flesh as you would expect. This is definitely not a one-handed device, although it did feel nice and light when I picked it up. The Mate 20 X has the same dewdrop notch on its display as the Mate 20. (The Mate 20 Pro’s notch is a more conventional bar across the top of the display.) As it has this teardrop notch, the Mate 20 X doesn’t come with 3D face recognition as the Pro model does. You’ll also find a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, not underneath the display like on the Mate 20 Pro. Huawei Mate 20 X Specs Price €899 Display 7.2 inches AMOLED (2244 x 1080) OS Android Pie with EMUI 9.0 CPU Kirin 980 RAM 6GB Storage 128GB Rear Camera 40-MP main (f/1.8), 8-MP telephoto (f/2.4), 20-MP ultra-wide (f/2.2) Front Camera 24-MP (f/2.0) Battery 5,000 mAh Water Resistance IP53 Size 6.9 x 3.4 x 0.3 inches Weight 8.2 ounces Colors Midnight Blue, Phantom Silver Stylus and Gaming: A lot of power Given its large screen, the Mate 20 X cries out for a stylus, and that’s exactly what Huawei has given it with the Huawei M-Pen. Functionality includes 4096 levels of pressure and a pop-up menu as soon as you touch the phone’s screen with the M-Pen. This stylus isn’t part of the phone as such, though; it’s sold separately and doesn’t fit neatly into the chassis like what happens with the Note 9 and its S Pen. MORE: Best Android Games In addition to stylus functionality, gaming is very much the order of the day with the Mate 20 X. In fact, Huawei compares the Mate 20 X with the Nintendo Switch, reckoning its bigger screen and 1080p screen resolution makes it a better portable games machine. That’s a big claim we’re eager to test out, even if it seems unlikely. But Huawei does contend its Kirin 980 mobile processor will offer smoother frame rates than rival devices. Huawei even created an add-on gaming joypad, which should bolster the phone’s gaming capabilities once it’s released. It certainly makes the phone come alive as a gaming device when you add the joypad on to the left-hand of the Mate 20 X. I got to play a little bit of Fortnite and the graphics were smooth and the responsiveness of the controls (connected by Bluetooth) were impressive. That said, pitching the Mate 20 X as a Nintendo Switch replacement is something of a reach.