HUAWEI Mate 20 review: Packing premium performance for a high price

In the last few years, I’ve mainly used Samsung’s Galaxy phones. I also have an iPhone X on hand for a tasty iOS vs Android comparison. The new Mate 20 is my first hands-on experience with a HUAWEI device outside a trade show.

Honestly, I really like this phone. It’s a breath of fresh air in a crowded smartphone market and a great entry point if you’re new to the Android platform. But it doesn’t come cheap, with a starting price of 700 pounds ($876). We dig into HUAWEI’s Mate 20 to see if it’s worth the big bucks.

HUAWEI provided us with a review unit for testing, model HMA-L29. It included 6GB of system memory, 128GB of storage, dual-SIM connectivity and EMUI 9.0 (build C432E10R1P16) running with Android’s October 2018 security patch. I used the device mostly on my home network along with AT&T outside the house.