Huawei P20 Pro review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

The Huawei P20 Pro's best selling point is its exceptional camera, making it the phone to buy for keen mobile photographers.

Huawei's P-series phones have always been its "style" play, where the Mate phones occupy the more serious space. As the flagship phone for Huawei for 2018, at least until the Mate 10 Pro's successor arrives, the Huawei P20 Pro has some serious competition in front of it.

Design

• Twilight design really stands out.
• Lacks microSD card slot and headphone jack.

• Read our full review of the Huawei P20 Pro's design

  Huawei will produce the Huawei P20 Pro in a range of colours internationally, but here in Australia we'll only see two variants: Black or Twilight.

  Black, which is the colour of the phone I tested, is exactly what you might think it is, while Twilight has a lovely rippled effect on the back that moves across a range of colours depending on the ambient light. Depending on your preferences, it's either going to be the greatest thing ever or simply the gaudiest. It's certainly not the finish for introverts, but it's lovely to have at least some choice because so often we only end up with one colour in Australia.

  At the front, Huawei pops the Huawei P20 Pro's 6.1-inch, 1080x2240 pixel display in with a "notch" at the top, in very similar style to the iPhone X, LG G7 ThinQ and OnePlus 6, to name but a few phones that use that feature.

  Notches, it seems, are set to become 2018's premium style point of note and your tolerance of them may vary. Huawei's EMUI launcher does make it simple enough to obscure the notch with a display toggle. Its use of an OLED panel means that this mostly works if you hate the look of a notch.

  The Huawei P20 Pro uses a front-facing fingerprint sensor and like its recent offerings, this can also act as a home, back and app button when accessed with specific gestures.

  It's long been one of my favourite features of Huawei's phones and rather forward-thinking, given that it's also a software feature of the upcoming Android P update. You can alternatively opt for traditional software buttons if you don't like swiping.

  The Huawei P20 Pro features just two buttons on the right side, with a power button and volume rocker sitting high on the phone. The left-hand side houses a dual SIM card tray, both of which are 4G-capable and CAT18 speed rated, which is a nice touch.

  Dual 4G doesn't quite make up for the fact that Huawei's gone down the Google Pixel 2 route by omitting a microSD card slot of any type on the Huawei P20 Pro. If you want expandable storage, you'll have to look elsewhere. It's easily the worst omission from the Huawei P20 Pro's playbook, if only for the quantity of photos you're likely to take with this phone.

  The headphone jack is also sorely missed, although Huawei did rather flag that it was going down that route with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro last year. You're in a Bluetooth or USB-C only world if you buy the Huawei P20 Pro.

  Measuring in at 155 x 73.9 x 7.8mm with a carrying weight of 180g, the Huawei P20 Pro is a little heavier than some of its competitors, but at least until we start seeing proper folding-screen phones, there's no way around the size of a 6.1-inch phone. Huawei's reportedly got a folding phone in the works for later in the year, although the timing of that device would tend to suggest it'll be Mate-branded instead.

  The Huawei P20 Pro has a glass back and this does make it a little slippery in the hand. The inclusion of three cameras means that it has two camera bumps, although you can't really notice the smaller one. It does mean that there's no way for the Huawei P20 Pro to sit flat on a table without the use of a case.

  A case is always a decent idea and it's especially true for the Huawei P20 Pro, simply because it's a serious fingerprint magnet. I found myself constantly polishing the Huawei P20 Pro during testing because it's honestly disturbing having a phone that looks like it was just rubbed over a deep-dish pizza all the time.

  I predominantly polished the Huawei P20 Pro, but I could have washed it, thanks to the inclusion of IP67 water resistance onboard. Huawei's been somewhat slow to join the ranks of water resistance smartphones with its P-series handsets, so it's great to see it finally taking hold.

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Camera

• Triple camera gives immense photographic possibilities.
• Great low-light performance.

• See sample photos and read our full review of the Huawei P20 Pro's camera

  The Huawei P20 Pro's main selling point is its camera, or to be precise, its four cameras in total. At the front, there's a highly capable 24MP f/2.0 sensor for taking selfies, but it's around the back where the real excitement lives.

  The Huawei P20 Pro is the first consumer smartphone to feature three rear-facing cameras, matching up a 40MP f/1.8 RGB sensor with a 20Mp f/1.6 monochrome sensor, alongside an 8MP f/2.4 3x optical zoom lens.

  Before you get too excited, you're rarely going to be using all three at once and indeed that 40MP primary sensor is mostly going to see action by downsampling its captures to just 10MP. But then, it's been a long time since mobile photography was a pure numbers game anyway.

  What's exciting here is how Huawei anticipates this since the Huawei P20 Pro is a camera that has appeal both for the keen amateur who just wants "better" pictures and pro shooters who know what they want and how to get it.

  The heart of what makes the Huawei P20 Pro special is Huawei's camera app. The default "Photo" setting is for automatic shooting, using the Kirin 970's neural processing unit (NPU) to automatically detect a scene and apply what it thinks are the most favourable settings to it.

  It's a trick that Huawei first debuted on the Huawei Mate 10 and slightly refined for the Huawei P20 Pro. You can detect food and get a push in colour vibrancy to make your Instagram food shots really stand out, or detect either cats or dogs and get greater clarity on their fur.

  It doesn't always get the detection right first time and you can't apply other photography settings for it to detect, but that's a problem more for pro photographers. If your needs are more modest, you'll find it easily makes your shots more impressive:

  

  The Huawei P20 Pro helpfully tells me that this is a cat.Mind you, it thinks this is a dog, so further AI work is required.Move outside the photo mode and the fun can really commence. While much of what Huawei's done with the Huawei P20 Pro isn't new, given we've had options like portrait lighting in the iPhone X and slow-motion video in the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and Samsung Galaxy S9, the way it integrates and works inspires creativity.

  

  The Huawei P20 Pro's light trails mode also remind me that it's not wise to hit 88mph on the open road.I test a lot of mobile phone cameras and honestly, it's sometimes a chore. The differences can be subtle. Some cameras are just downright dreadful and the apps can often stifle creativity.

  The Huawei P20 Pro is the exact opposite of that because it's made photography fun for me again. The combination of lenses makes it easy to take impressive-looking snapshots if you're in a hurry, but it's when you start to play with the Pro mode that you can really unlock its potential.

  Just as one example, the Huawei P20 Pro can push ISO up to 6400 in Pro mode and even further in full auto, up to 102400. Huawei's promise is that it'll unlock that in a future firmware upgrade for the true low-light shooters, which even means that there's potential for the Huawei P20 Pro's camera to get even better.

  In the premium camera space, you should expect premium results. The reality for most daylight shooting is that any premium camera should deliver top-notch results. If the light is decent and you're not juggling the camera around like it's sitting on a paint mixer, good pictures can be assumed.

  However, low light is where there's still plenty of space for improvement. To test that out, I took the Huawei P20 Pro out for a little low-light night shooting in my suburb, alongside the Apple iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9+ and the Google Pixel 2 XL. The Pixel 2 XL was running the Android P beta, but I had no noticeable issues with its camera software to report.

  Here's a night shot taken with each camera in turn:

  iPhone X

  

  Pixel 2 XL

  

  Samsung Galaxy S9+

  

  Huawei P20 Pro

  

  There are always elements of personal taste and choice when it comes to photography, but for me, it pretty quickly came down to the Huawei P20 Pro and Samsung's exceptional Galaxy S9+ for getting the best out of a low-light image. Taking matters to an illogical extreme, I headed for a local park to take some shots in near-darkness, just to see what each camera would do.

  iPhone X

  

  Pixel 2 XL

  

  Samsung Galaxy S9+

  

  Huawei P20 Pro

  

  Again the Galaxy S9+ and Huawei P20 Pro stood out for detail, although you do need to be careful with the P20 Pro's night mode, which can sometimes overexpose subjects. You can opt to save in RAW for further post-processing enhancements if that's your style.

  The Huawei P20 Pro is somewhat less expensive than the Galaxy S9+ and much more flexible in terms of photographic possibilities, given you can also shoot in full monochrome or use the optical lens combined with the 40MP RGB lens for up to 5x optical zoom any time you like. It'll also do portrait shots in a similar style to the iPhone X, although predictably if you use the stage lighting, it can get a little uneven for picking out edge detail. However, for regular portrait shots, it performs admirably:

  

  Here are some more photo samples from the Huawei P20 Pro:

  Huawei P20 Pro Sample Photos

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Performance

• NPU doesn't make an apparent difference to app performance.
• EMUI's styling won't appeal to all.

• View test results and read our full review of the Huawei P20 Pro's performance

  The camera is clearly the prime selling point of the Huawei P20 Pro, but a smartphone needs to be more than just a camera interface. Internally, there's not a huge difference between the Huawei P20 Pro and last year's Huawei Mate 10 Pro. They both feature 6GB of internal RAM and they both run on Huawei's own Kirin 970 SoC rather than the more common Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 or Snapdragon 835.

  Huawei's contention is that the Kirin 970 is in a class of its own thanks to the inclusion of the neural processing unit that gives it additional machine-learning smarts. That's definitely on display in the camera app, but so far there's not much evidence of app developers particularly leveraging the Kirin 970's NPU. That could change in the future, but for now, all I can assess is what the Huawei P20 Pro can do at launch.

  Not that it's a slouch to speak of, holding well in the pack of phones in benchmark terms. Here's how it compares using Geekbench 4's CPU test:

  And here's how it compares for 3D visuals using 3DMark's Slingshot Extreme test:

  Using the Huawei P20 Pro side by side with the Galaxy S9+, Pixel 2 XL and iPhone X showed it holding its own against the other flagships for most tasks, although as noted there's not much in it and I can't see any sign of the much-lauded NPU making any difference just yet.

  In regular app performance terms, the Huawei P20 Pro works well, running most apps with ease and rarely displaying lag, at least during my review period. Again that should be expected for a premium smartphone at this price point, although it's not quite as slick as the Pixel 2 XL running the Android P beta.

  Benchmarks are a decent comparative measure, but then there's the way that each manufacturer approaches its mobile environment. The Huawei P20 Pro is an Android 8.1 ("Oreo") phone, but while we've seen other makers tend towards stock Android, Huawei has continued to offer its own EMUI launcher with numerous tweaks and modifications.

  There are parts of EMUI, such as the touch-based home button gestures, that I adore, but mostly EMUI still feels like an inconsistent kludge compared to stock Android and a gaudy one at that. If you're used to regular Android, there's a learning curve here and it can't help but feel like an imposed one.

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Battery life

• 4,000 mAh battery depletes faster than you might think.
• Wireless charging is also MIA.

• View test results and read our full review of the Huawei P20 Pro's battery life

  The Huawei P20 Pro incorporates a hefty 4,000mAh battery within its frame and when you combine that with an OLED display, you should be sitting in the top tier of mobile phone battery performance.

  You should be, but the picture for the Huawei P20 Pro is a little more complicated than just admiring that 4,000mAh number. Here, for example, is how the Huawei P20 Pro compared using Geekbench 4's linear battery test:

  Geekbench 4's battery test is a notably tough customer. It represents a steady workflow for as long as a battery can manage it, which isn't always going to be representative of how you use a phone in real-world situations. Still, based on the size of its battery, the Huawei P20 Pro didn't quite hit the heights I'd hoped for.

  I was keen to see how it performed in real-world usage and here I got more insight into why it delivered its battery score above. The camera on the Huawei P20 Pro really is exceptional, as you might have already gathered, but it's also a solid battery hog.

  In that context, we can be thankful there's a 4,000mAh battery in there because while it does give enough power to last a day, there's no way with steady use you'd get through two days. For most users, that will be enough.

  The Huawei P20 does support Huawei's own rapid charging solution, but it's notable among 2018 flagships for omitting wireless charging. It's not that Huawei doesn't know how to incorporate Qi into a glass-backed phone like its competitors do.

  Indeed, the even higher-priced Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, which is basically a P20 Pro with more storage and an insanely high price tag, manages Qi charging natively. However, unless you're part of the 1%, forget about the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS. That sadly means forgetting about wireless charging. Maybe next year, Huawei?

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Verdict

• That amazing camera is the reason you'd buy the P20 Pro.
• Good price for a premium handset, but still plenty of room for improvement.

• Read our full Huawei P20 Pro verdict

  The Huawei P20 Pro is a genuinely exciting phone, but it's not quite perfect. If you want a headphone jack, or clean Android, or expandable storage or wireless charging, you've got to look elsewhere.

  If those features don't matter to you and especially if you're keen on mobile phone photography, there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this is the phone to buy right now. It's a solid kick in the rear for every other phone manufacturer that touts the quality of its cameras and a decent flagship phone at a very competitive price point.

  Huawei P20 Pro: Alternatives

  At its $1099 price point, the Huawei P20 Pro is very aggressively priced against its competition, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't carefully compare, especially given the features it doesn't have.

  The most obvious competitor would be Samsung's exceptional Samsung Galaxy S9+, which features wireless charging, a headphone jack and expandable storage, alongside a very capable dual camera array. The pain point there is that it's priced at a higher level than the Huawei P20 Pro.

  The same is true (and even more so) for Apple's iPhone X, although it's a good pick if the size of the Huawei P20 Pro is a problem for you.

  If you're not a fan of EMUI, then Google's Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL may be a good pick for you. We're seeing more bargain Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones offered by direct resellers right now, so it's a solid option to consider.

  Huawei P20 Pro: What the other reviewers say

  Site	Comment	Score
  TechRadar	"Great battery life, top specs and the most compelling use of computational photography seen in a phone yet make the Huawei P20 Pro one of the most interesting phones available."	4.5/5
  Trusted Reviews	"The end result is a great smartphone that’s sure to delight photographers."	4/5
  Alphr	"The Huawei P20 Pro oozes quality all round."	4/5
  Engadget	"It's not just ambitious, it's audacious."	87/100

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Pricing and availability

Huawei P20 Pro

A premium phone for camera lovers

The Huawei P20 Pro features three stunning rear cameras, helping you take your mobile photography to the next level.

Buy Now

• The Huawei P20 Pro is available in Australia for outright purchase at a suggested price of $1,099.
• The Huawei P20 Pro is also available on contract through Telechoice.