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HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro launched in India: Triple camera, beautiful design, and high-end specs
HUAWEI is in a very interesting position right now. Its flagship smartphones compete with the best in the business with each one going a step further in innovation while the sub-brand HONOR is capturing market share slowly but surely in markets like India.
For a long time, HUAWEI has let HONOR take them forward in India while skipping most HUAWEI flagship devices. But that’s changing now.
In a press conference in New Delhi today, the company announced the launch of its latest flagship smartphone, the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro, in India.
Stunning design
The HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro is one of the most attractive devices of 2018 – all-glass with an aluminum frame, with that eye-catching gradient color scheme in the Twilight variant.
The Emerald Green and Midnight Blue variants also feature a unique texture – “hyper-optical display pattern” – that helps make the phones more grippy and more resistant to fingerprints.
At the back, the three cameras and the flash module forms a four-point symmetrical design that the company says is inspired by the latest Porsche, the automobile brand that HUAWEI has partnered with for its limited-edition smartphones.
It comes with IP68 dust and water resistance, but the headphone jack is missing.
Top of the line specifications
The Mate series has always been about high-end specs, the Mate 20 Pro is no different. It sports a 6.39-inch curved OLED display with a 19.5:9 ratio, with a notch and a bumped-up Quad HD+ resolution.
The Mate 20 Pro is designed for power users. Under the hood, there’s HUAWEI’s new Kirin 980 chipset and the Mali-G72 GPU. The Kirin 980 SoC is built on a 7nm process, which means it should provide more speed and efficiency compared to similar chips built on a 10nm process. The Kirin 980 has a dual NPU (neural processing unit). One is designed for more methodical or logical elements of AI computing like image recognition, while the other is used for more difficult things like natural language processing and rendering video in real-time.
There’s also a large 4,200mAh battery with the company’s 40W Supercharge technology and support for 15W wireless charging. You can also use the Mate 20 Pro as a wireless charger to charge another phone. That’s a cool party trick, I guess.
The Mate 20 Pro is launching with Android 9 Pie and EMUI 9 out of the box.
| HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro | |
|---|---|
Display | 6.39-inch curved OLED 3,120 x 1,440 resolution 538 ppi 19.5:9 aspect ratio DCI-P3 |
Processor | HUAWEI Kirin 980 Octa-core CPU (2 @ 2.6GHz, 2 @ 1.92GHz, 4 @ 1.8GHz) Dual NPU |
GPU | Mali-G76 720MHz |
RAM | 6GB/8GB |
Storage | 128GB/256GB NM (nano memory) card slot |
Battery | 4,200mAh 40W HUAWEI Supercharge Can be used as a wireless charger for other Qi-enabled devices 15W wireless charging |
Cameras | Rear: Main: 40MP sensor, f/1.8 aperture Second: 8MP 3x telephoto sensor, OIS, f/2.4 aperture Third: 20MP ultra-wide sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 16mm focal length equivalent Front: 24MP RGB sensor |
Network | LYA-L29: Primary SIM card: 4G LTE TDD: B34 / B38 / B39 / B40 4G LTE FDD: B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B6 / B7 / B8 / B9 / B12 / B17 / B18 / B19 / B20 / B26 / B28 / B32 3G WCDMA: B1 / B2 / B4 / B5 / B6 (Japan) / B8 / B19 (Japan); 3G TD-SCDMA: B34 / B39 2G GSM: B2 / B3 / B5 / B8 (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) Secondary SIM card: 4G LTE TDD: B34 / B38 / B39 / B40 4G LTE FDD: B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B6 / B7 / B8 / B9 / B12 / B17 / B18 / B19 / B20 / B26 / B28 3G WCDMA: B1 / B2 / B4 / B5 / B6 / B8 / B19 2G GSM: B2 / B3 / B5 / B8 (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) LYA-L09: 4G LTE TDD: B34 / B38 / B39 / B40 4G LTE FDD: B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B6 / B7 / B8 / B9 / B12 / B17 / B18 / B19 / B20 / B26 / B28 / B32 3G WCDMA: B1 / B2 / B4 / B5 / B6 (Japan) / B8 / B19 (Japan); 3G TD-SCDMA: B34 / B39 2G GSM: B2 / B3 / B5 / B8 (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) |
Connectivity | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (wave2), 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Bluetooth 5.0, BLE, SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC and HWA Audio Type-C, USB 3.1 GEN1 Type-C earjack PC Data Synchronisation IR blaster GPS (L1 + L5 dual band) / AGPS / Glonass / BeiDou / Galileo (E1 + E5a dual band) / QZSS (L1 + L5 dual band) NFC |
Biometric security | In-display fingerprint sensor Dot projector, TOF proximity sensor, flood illuminator, and an IR camera for face-unlock |
Headphone jack | No |
Dimensions | 157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mm 189g |
IP rating | IP68 |
Software version | Android 9.0 Pie with EMUI 9.0 |
Colors | Pink Gold, Midnight Blue, Emerald Green, Twilight, Black |
Nano Memory expansion
The Mate 20 Pro uses Nano Memory for expansion up to 256GB. The problem is Nano Memory has no obvious benefits for consumers and one obvious disadvantage: you can only buy it from HUAWEI. While the company’s CEO told Android Authority that it wants to make Nano Memory an industry standard, no other company has pledged support for the same so far.
Triple camera, with AI smarts
The Mate 20 Pro features a 40MP standard lens with an f/1.8 aperture, 20MP ultra wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and an 8MP telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture and OIS. It’s arguably the most comprehensive camera setup on any flagship smartphone at the moment.
HUAWEI is big on AI, so it’s no surprise to see it present throughout the camera experience.
Master AI will actually auto-select the proper lens based on what you’re taking a photo of. So, if you’re trying to take a photo of a landscape, the Mate 20 Pro will switch to the wide-angle lens for you. You can, of course, manually change back at any time. Also, thanks to the dual NPU of Kirin 980, the phone is able to recognize over 1,500 scenes as opposed to the 500+ scenes on the Mate 10 series.
On the front, there’s a 24MP camera array with a dot projector, TOF proximity sensor, flood illuminator, and IR camera. This is all there to allow for a much more secure face unlock security option.
In-display fingerprint scanner
The HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor. The company claims that the fingerprint sensor unlock speed on this one has been improved by 20 percent from the Porsche Design Mate RS sensor.
The phone also comes with an on-device Password Vault (none of the passwords will be stored in the cloud) with on-device biometric security.
Pricing and availability
The HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro is sexy, it’s powerful, and it’s one of the best phones you can get right now. But it doesn’t come cheap.
In India, HUAWEI is only bringing the 6GB variant of the device (with 128GB internal storage) and it is priced at ₹69,990 ($987). The phone will go on sale on December 4, exclusively on Amazon.in. In India, only two color variants will be available – Emerald Green and Twilight.
What do you think of the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro and its pricing? Would you like to pick up HUAWEI’s latest flagship smartphone? Tell us in the comments!