Huawei Mate 20 Pro Is A Complete Flagship, And Gives Google Pixel 3 XL's Camera A Big Scare

Ever since Google Pixel 3 XL's Night Shot debuted, I've been floored by the level of detail smartphone cameras can capture and reproduce. Even now, in early 2019, I think it's the best camera smartphone you can buy.

That's until the Huawei Mate 20 Pro came along. It really gives the Google Pixel 3 XL a huge scare in the camera department, in some cases even outperforming the Pixel 3 XL's camera. And that's no mean feat!

the triple camera assembly on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a top notch camera

In many ways, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has an ideal combination of lenses on its rear camera panel - telephoto lens with 5x zoom, monochrome lens, and an RGB ultra-wide lens. The optics of the phone has been approved and built in collaboration with Leica, no less.

Portrait shots

The Mate 20 Pro is a sharp shooter, capturing beautiful and detailed memories where you point its camera. The resulting pictures from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro -- in a variety of scenes and light conditions -- are as good as or even slightly better than the Pixel 3 XL's performance. Portrait shots have very good edge separation and bokeh effect.

wide photo from huawei mate 20 pro

office desk on huawei mate 20 pro

Whether it's capturing wide vistas with a human subject in frame or a tight shot of lunch on the office desk, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro's camera lenses do a fantastic job of capturing near true to source slightly warm images that look great on its 6.39-inch OLED display.

And even in near dark conditions, where most phones would struggle to capture anything but a dark frame, like the Google Pixel 3 XL's Night Shot the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a Night Mode, that lets you capture pretty good photos.

Night Mode on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Night Mode on Huawei Mate 20 Pro

The street below at dawn shows a lot more in the picture than what I could see with my own naked eye at the time, and it's the same with the steering wheel -- the Huawei Mate 20 Pro not only shows LED dials and signs but also does a fairly decent job of capturing the scene outside from the car's windshield, despite a challenging light environment.

From suburban dawn to chasing the Mumbai sun in a speeding car...
1) Night Mode. 2, 3, 4) Auto. On the #HuaweiMate20Pro pic.twitter.com/tVGWdy0lKF

¡ª Jayesh Shinde (@jshinde) November 29, 2018

With a 40MP clicker on the rear, and a 24MP selfie camera, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro ensures it takes images that give the best in the business -- Google Pixel 3 XL, Apple iPhone XR, Samsung Galaxy Note 9 -- a huge run for their money. And this is only about the Mate 20 Pro's camera prowess, when you examine the complete package, the phone starts to appear as a jack of all trades.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a bunch of innovative features

Where smartphones are getting largely boring with very little innovation to brag about, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is like a breath of fresh air.

huawei mate 20 pro has an iPhone XR like notch

The Mate 20 Pro is perhaps the only phone available on the market that can wirelessly reverse charge other phones. Yeah. Not only does the Mate 20 Pro support wireless charge itself, it can also wirelessly charge other phones. I tried this on the iPhone XR and Pixel 3 XL and it totally works, even if the charging rate isn't great -- but it can still save you in a spot of bother.

Another great feature hidden into the Huawei Mate 20 Pro's camera is its ability to recognize stuff. You can point the camera to a food item and it recognizes it and also shows its calorie value, it has auto-translation built in to translate foreign language instantly, and the ability to shop any item it detects with a click of a button. It's an AI feature, obviously, but transforms the camera's applicability to much more than just taking photos.

AI is actually pretty helpful on the Mate 20 Pro

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is also the only other smartphone to have a 7nm chip powering it under the hood -- the three iPhones Apple launched in 2018 are the only other smartphones that have a 7nm chip in them. The Kirin 980 is Huawei's fastest chip till date, and does a great job handling whatever you through at the Mate 20 Pro. Watching streaming video, listening to music, clicking pictures or gaming on the Mate 20 Pro is just a pleasant experience. No complaints whatsoever.

In terms of looks, the Mate 20 Pro has a beautiful curved display like the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, but a unique rear panel which has a stunning three-colour gradient (black, purple, blue). It has a notch on the front much like on the iPhone XR, but the Huawei Mate 20 Pro's "face unlock" works faster than both iPhone XR's or OnePlus 6T's which is quite impressive.

What holds the Mate 20 Pro back?

Nothing at a hardware level, I must say, that holds the Huawei Mate 20 Pro back. But its EMUI -- a skin on top of Google's Android operating system -- can be a bit overwhelming at times for users to navigate. It's a subjective thing, people who like tons of details and features will love it, but others who want a slightly more layered approach may be ticked off. Also, in terms of look and feel, the EMUI doesn't feel as polished or attractive as iOS or vanilla Android. Not a deal breaker, but minor gripes that Huawei needs to iron out to maximise the Mate 20 Pro's appeal.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro

One handed use still remains an issue not only with Huawei Mate 20 Pro but all phones that are above 5.7-inch in screen size. You can't hold the phone in your palm and swipe down from the top any more. Maybe foldable screen displays will solve this when they become popular, but no respite until then.

Should you buy the Mate 20 Pro?

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro tries to be a jack of all trades in a ¨¹ber competitive, ultra crowded smartphone space, and largely succeeds. It ticks just the right amount of boxes, driving a sweet spot in terms of attractive look, overall performance and asking price (Rs 69,990 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage version).

The Google Pixel 3 XL is unmatched in camera prowess, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is unmatched in terms of look and feel, and the iPhone XR remains an aspirational flagship for many phone buyers. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro intelligently combines the strong points of all these three stalwarts, and offers its own original thought on what a smartphone should do, and it's definitely a great buy if you feel adventurous and innovative yourself.