Huawei Mate 20
As we draw even closer to the end of the year 2018, smartphone companies are on toes releasing and announcing new smartphones by the day. In October 2018 the giant Chinese company Huawei announced three smartphones. One of them is this Huawei Mate 20 which was made public along with Huawei Mate 20 after an earlier Huawei Mate 20 Lite.
All three smartphones have separate reviews at www.phoneplacekenya.com. Check them out as well as models from other smartphones a well. Below is a list of the key features of Huawei Mate 20 as provided by Huawei.
Key features
- GSM (2G), HSPA (3G) and LTE (4G) network technology
- Front/back glass & aluminum frame
- Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
- IP53 dust and splash protection
- IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
- 6.53 inches, 107.5 cm2 (~88.0% screen-to-body ratio)
- 1080 x 2244 pixels, 18.7:9 ratio (~381 ppi density) resolution
- Corning Gorilla Glass protection
- EMUI 9.0
- Android 9.0 (Pie)
- Octa-core (2×2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55) CPU
HiSilicon Kirin 980 (7 nm) Chipset - Mali-G76 MP10 GPU
- 128 GB, 4/6 GB RAM
- NM card, up to 256GB (uses SIM 2)
- Main camera: 12 MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/2.3″
- 16 MP, f/2.2, 17mm (ultrawide)
- 8 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto)
- Video 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS), 720p@960fps
- Selfie camera 24 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide)
- Video 1080p@30fps
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
- Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, aptX HD, LE
- GPS with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
- NFC
- Infrared port
- USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
- Fingerprint (rear-mounted)
- Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh battery
- – Fast battery charging 4.5V/5A (58% in 30 min)
- Available in colors Midnight Blue, Twilight and Black
These are my thoughts about the Huawei Mate 20.
Design and build
Let me start by saying this, the design and build of this phone is great. It is a good looking phone that I must note and it takes doesn’t come with that boring look we expect on smartphones these days. I actually love that Huawei were daring enough to try out something new, and that is how it should be. The back of this phone has a square tile with houses all three cameras at each corner the forth corner has the LED flash. And by the way, to tell the Mate 20 from Mate 20 Pro isn’t difficult at all.
For example, the back of the Mate 20 has a fingerprint scanner while the Mate 20 Pro doesn’t and the LED placement is also different in both as you will notice. Away from that, the back and the front of this phone are of glass build while the frame is aluminum. No plastic on board whatsoever. Another was to differentiate the two is that the Mate 20 has a dew drop (as Huawei calls it) notch while the 20 Pro has a normal notch. Every other design detail of these two remains constant I presume with both having a red power button below the volume rocker. There is a3.5mm jack here by the way. It measures 158.2 x 77.2 x 8.3 mm, weighs about 188 grams and has IP53 dust and splash protection.
Display and camera
Display
Here I can report that its 6.53 inches display panel is an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen that has multi touch feature, corning gorilla glass protection and 16M colors support. Also, it has (~88.0% screen-to-body ratio and comes in 1080 x 2244 pixels, 18.7:9 ratio (~381 ppi density) resolution. This a bright display mostly and in outdoor condition you will easily be able to see its content.
I would have wished for and AMOLED panel though, since the Mate 20 Pro does come with AMOLED. But really it is no deal breaker. An okay display, not the best in the market at this price range okay, but fine.
Camera
We get three cameras on the back of this phone (primary camera). A 12 MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide) lens, a 16 MP, f/2.2, 17mm (ultrawide) lens and an 8 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto) lens. Video recording is high end at 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS), 720p@960fps and some of the features available here include Leica optics, dual-LED dual-tone flash, panorama, HDR.
The selfie camera is a 24 MP, f/2.0, 26mm wide lens and it shoots videos with 1080p@30fps quality. Camera performance on the Huawei Mate 20 is very impressive that I have to say. Huawei included AI features on these cameras (the primary camera) as you will lean along while you interact with it.
Performance and memory
Platform
Say hello to Android 9.0 (Pie) with EMUI 9.0 of course. Yes the Mate 20 runs Android 9.0 straight out of its packaging with an Octa-core (2×2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55) CPU, Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 980 (7 nm) Chipset and a Mali-G76 MP10 GPU. There is a promise of your phone carrying out tasks without any lag for the first 18 months of after purchase from Huawei.
Memory
Here we get 128 GB, 4/6 GB RAM and internal storage can be expanded using NM card, up to 256GB (uses SIM 2). We are very familiar with SD card than an NM card. But this is what we get here. 4 or 6 GB of RAM is okay really, I have no complains about either.
Battery
One of the features of this phone that I love is its battery performance. It packs a sealed with in Li-Po 4000 mAh battery which on paper may look like a small package. It does hold up quite okay to be honest. With it you get up to a whole day of usage until next charge. And speaking of charge, there is Fast battery charging 4.5V/5A which with you go from 0 – 58% in just 30 min.
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This is a smartphone I would recommend. Get it in Midnight Blue, Twilight or Black at Phone Place Kenya.
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