The Huawei P20 Pro came to our stores in spring 2018 – a year and a half ago. The successor Huawei p20 pro dual sim– a really good device – and numerous competitors with partly better equipment have appeared. I’ll tell you why too.
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It looks good
The Huawei P20 Pro still looks good with its high-gloss finish and the triple camera on the back. Although it has no drop notch (notch for the camera) or an in-display fingerprint sensor, the trend towards quad cameras or 90 Hz displays also passed the P20 Pro. But I think it has a compact, classic design and feels good in the hand. The fingerprint sensor is below the display and works reliably.
The performance is right and it gets Android 10
Inside the Huawei P20 Pro, Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 970 works, a processor with a so-called NPU (“Neural Processing Unit”), i.e. artificial intelligence that detects objects in front of the camera and selects the right settings for taking photos. There is also 6 GB of RAM, which is still great today. Apple still packs no more than 4 GB of RAM in its iPhones.
In comparison with the new processors, the Kirin 980 (Huawei P30 Pro) or even the Kirin 990 (Mate 30 Pro), the heart of the Huawei P20 Pro naturally has to admit defeat. Since the new Huawei smartphones currently have to do without Google services, they are still of no interest to local customers. And to be honest: In everyday life you will rarely miss the more performance of newer processors. Whether gaming, streaming or photography, the P20 Pro’s performance is sufficient. Thanks to the 6 GB of RAM, the gem also manages multitasking without grumbling, and switching between apps is smooth enough. The only thing I find annoying is how Huawei restricts apps in the background in the standard settings.
It takes good photos
The camera setup of the Huawei P20 Pro is still above average today. Huawei is working with Leica on this. Three sensors are installed on the back:
- RGB sensor with 40 megapixels resolution and an aperture of 1.8
- RGB sensor with 8 megapixels resolution and an aperture of 2.4
- Monochrome sensor with 20 megapixels and an aperture of 1.6
There is also an optical 3x zoom, a hybrid 5x zoom (digital help is provided here), image stabilization (supported by the AI) and a two-color LED for flashing. The camera setup allows you to take macro, night and black and white photos in addition to the usual modes. The AI supports you in taking photos. In the DxO benchmark, the P20 Pro scores 109 points, the iPhone XS Max, incidentally, has 106 points. What I miss a bit is a wide-angle lens and in the basic setting photos are not taken at 40MP, but I can adjust that manually.
Sustainability
In my opinion, you shouldn’t sideline your P20 Pro because it harms the environment and your wallet. Did you know, for example, over 100 million old devices are just lying around unused in some drawer at home? That’s a lot of electronic waste, and the manufacture of new smartphones uses new resources and releases CO2 into the atmosphere.
