Huawei P20 debuts with notched screen, P20 Pro adds Leica Triple Camera

Earlier today, Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro premiered at a special event in Paris, France. This new flagship duo features an array of hardware and software features which set them up at the forefront of camera smartphones. The Huawei P20 Pro sports a Leica triple camera, becoming the first mainstream phone that has triple camera’s. This sets up a new arms race in the Android ecosystem.  Also, the notched displays, stereo speakers and dual-color gradient paint schemes of the devices are more features that make the P20 and P20 Pro standout.

Modern Design and Colour

You will not fail to notice in the smooth curves and the glass back of the device. These features makes the phone trendy and it should be comfortable to hold. The camera module, the Leica-branded label, and a simple Huawei logo are vertically aligned on the left side of the phone, leaving the back clear for the striking color scheme.

The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro come with an entirely new colour scheme, which is a blend of purple and blue named “Twilight.” Though Twilight is the most striking color option, but there is also Pink Gold, as well as the more conventional black, midnight blue, and champagne gold.

Display

The Huawei P20, which is the smaller of the two devices, sports a 5.8″ LCD with a notch and resolution of 1,080 x 2,244 pixels. The matrix behind the glass is PenTile RGBW – the same as on the Mate 10. Below the screen sits an always-on fingerprint reader, doubling as a multi-purpose control key just like iPhone X.

The P20 Pro is has a slightly bigger 6.1″ OLED screen with the same 18.7:9 aspect and notch, and 1,080 x 2,244-pixel resolution. The fingerprint sensor is also at the front with the same feature as that in P20.

Software

The P20 runs on the Kirin 970 chipset with an octa-core processor (4x A73 + 4x A53), Mali-G72MP12, and 4GB RAM. It has a 64GB storage that is expandable if the second SIM is left off. The chip also has machine learning acceleration property, which is from the Huawei NPU feature.

The P20 Pro is also powered by the Kirin 970 with the same octa-core CPU (4x A73 + 4x A53) and Mali-G72MP12 GPU. It comes with a 6GB RAM and 128GB expandable storage. Both run on Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 which comes with an extra feature that allows the user to darken the top and make the screen behave as it had no notch.

Camera

The upgraded Leica Dual Camera in P20 comes with a new larger 1/2.3″ 12MP RGB sensor, OIS, f/1.6 lens and 1.55µm pixels. The second camera is a 20MP monochrome shooter behind f/1.6 lens.
The camera on the P20 does come with 4-way autofocus (PDAF, laser, contrast, and depth detection). There is also a dual-tone LED flash.

It has a 24MP front camera which is behind f/2.0 lens. It can do bokeh and studio-lightning effects and enables Face Unlock.

P20 Pro’s Leica Triple Camera which is a new and “never seen before” addition in smartphones is surely the most important and interesting feature here. The separated sensor starting from top to bottom, you get an 8MP color one with f/2.4 telephoto lens, a 40MP large 1/1.7″ color sensor with f/1.8 lens and OIS, and a 20MP monochrome one behind f/1.6 lens.

The multiple sensors make possible features like a high-quality hybrid 5X zoom, 3X optical zoom, improved low-light sensitivity, portrait mode and 960fps slow motion also relying heavily on AI for lots of new features and effects.

P20 Pro’s front camera have the exact same features as P20 and it can be used for Face Unlock via 2D mapping. This amazing new setup can instant autofocus on anything that’s as close as 3 meters and a screen off-to-shoot time of 0.3s.

Both phones’ front and rear cameras is controlled by Huawei’s AI-enabled camera app, which should select the best settings depending on the scene.

Battery

Huawei P20 is powered by a 3,400 mAh non-removable battery while the Huawei P20 Pro is powered by a larger 4,000-mAh battery which is also non-removable.

Huawei claims its Face Unlock is 2x faster compared to the iPhone X. The P20 and P20 Pro will light up their screens if you are in a dark room for the feature to work.

Well, that is all you need to know about these latest Huawei phones to either love or hate them. What do you think about these devices? Share your thoughts in the comment box below