Cheers, Mate!

It’s been a little over a year since we were in Berlin to cover the launch of the Huawei Mate 10 series and, today, we find ourselves at the ExCel Exhibition Center in the United Kingdom for the release of the next generation of these devices—the Huawei Mate 20 and Huawei Mate 20 Pro. With everything the company has been doing in the industry so far and the many jabs its taken with the recent releases of other mobile giants, we were definitely curious to see what they have to offer.

What is the Huawei Mate 20 Pro?

As mentioned above and somewhat a trend when Huawei launches a new flagship device, they typically have two variants. While the base model of the Mate 20 series is already quite impressive, the Pro variant definitely takes the cake in with a little more icing on top to sweeten the deal. Of course, it comes with a heftier price tag but we’ll talk about that later.

How Does It Look and Feel?

Well, in terms of flagship standards, it fits right into the segment’s wheelhouse and doesn’t look out of place compared to what other brands have been doing. This is something that Huawei has always gotten right with their flagship devices, not to mention its mid-range line as well, especially in the last couple of years. It feels great in the hands with just the right amount of heft to give you something to grasp on to without being cumbersome.

After the stunning twilight, gradient finish that Huawei introduced with the P20 Pro, the company is again introducing a new kind of treatment for the rear of their new flagship. Dubbed the “Hyper Optical Pattern”, it’s basically a subtle texture that gives the phone a very distinct visual flair that also makes it smudge and slip resistant.

The Mate 20’s glass back isn’t just for looks either – Huawei has included fast wireless charging in their new flagship, something that was omitted in the P20 Pro. To make up for that, the Mate 20 doesn’t just charge itself wirelessly: it can also charge other wireless devices on its back using reverse wireless charging via the Qi Wireless standard.

Going with the Curve

Up front, you’ve got a Quad HD+ OLED display that measures in at 6.39-inches with what the company is calling Natural Tone for more true-to-life colors and, so far, everything looks up to snuff. The major change to the display on the Mate 20 Pro, however, is that the sides are now curved, which we’re pretty sure will draw major comparisons to Samsung’s Infinity Display. That’s something for another time but we will say that it does help out in terms of ergonomics.

The display has an integrated fingerprint scanner in its gorgeous display, and the notch, while bigger than usual houses the selfie camera as well as the sensors that power Huawei’s own take on iPhone’s Face ID.

Two NPUs are Better than One

Headlining their spec sheet is their newest flagship SoC—the HiSilicon Kirin 980—that was announced during IFA 2018. Huawei’s best homegrown processor got even better with its so-called HiAI architecture; made with a 7nm process. It’s now equipped with two Neural Processing Units (NPUs) to make the device even smarter than before because, as the saying goes, two heads are better than one. John has written a deep dive into the Kirin 980 if you want to know more. This is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of expandable storage via a Nano-Memory Card expansion slot on the device.

The Mate 20 series runs on Android Pie 9.0 with EMUI 9.0. The company says they’ve taken steps to make sure that their UI overlay is simpler than before and we’re pretty sure that the GPU Boost 2.0 feature will tickle the fancy of all you mobile gamers out there.

Three Cams with a Purpose

One of the most discernable ways you can see these NPUs and Huawei’s new AI magic at play is definitely in its shooters, which have also gotten a significant upgrade over the last iteration of this device but, just like the Mate 10 series, the Mate 20 Pro’s cameras are oriented towards the middle of the phone; the array forming a square with its LED flash.

Like the P20 Pro, this phone has three cameras consisting of a 40-megapixel main shooter at an aperture of f/1.7, a 20-megapixel telephoto lens at f/2.4, and an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera. This gives you a ton of shooting options for taking photos with friends, the scenery when you’re in the great outdoors, or make it seem like you’re a little closer to your favorite artist at a concert.

For taking selfies, you’ve got a 24-megapixel front camera that’s equipped with 3D facial enhancement, which helps with fun features like stickers and the company’s QMoji’s but also lends a helping hand to make your device a little more secure with facial recognition as well.

The addition of two NPUs allows the AI part of the camera to work smarter and harder. Huawei’s AI scene detection technology now recognizes nuance in scenes. Previously shots with a bunch of people and a clear, blue sky would previously trigger the AI scene detection to bump contrast and saturation to make the sky pop, which pretty much guaranteed that the rest of the photo would look weird and oversaturated. With the dual NPUs on the Mate 20, the AI in the phone is now smart enough to recognize which parts of the image are people, which are scenery and which are segments of the blue yonder and apply the appropriate tweaks to each for a really breath-taking photo.

These AI tricks also has benefits on the video front, with Huawei adding a bunch of cool new video filters that take advantage of the phone’s dual NPUs. A monochrome-only mode allows you to shoot the background in black and white, with only the people in color. Right now it’s not perfect of course, as it gets overwhelmed when there’s a bunch of subjects walking around but previously you’d have to have a good mastery of Adobe Premier (or your video editing software of choice) before you could even attempt such a complicated shot.

The cameras are admittedly the main draw for us when it comes to Huawei devices to make sure you check back for some initial shots with this phone.

More Juice than Before

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is juiced up by a 4200mAh battery that should definitely give it notable lasting power; especially when you combine it with the 7nm architecture of the Kirin 980. While each purchase of this device will come with the company’s SuperCharger, Huawei has finally opened up the avenue for wireless charging solutions on the Mate 20 as well.

How Much Is It?

The price for the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has been set at €1079 or somewhere around the Php 67,500 mark but, before you blow your lids, remember that we get a significant price cut when these devices hit out shores so we’re hoping that the same can be said for the entire Mate 20 line. We’ve got our fingers crossed but it wouldn’t hurt if you joined us.