Huawei Mate 20 Review

• Overview
• Design and Build Quality
• Display
• Performance
• Software and User Interface
• Camera
• Battery Life
• Connectivity and Networking
• Additional Features
• Comparison with Other Related Phones
• Pros and Cons
• Conclusion

Overview

The Huawei Mate 20 is a flagship smartphone that offers a powerful performance and stunning features. With its impressive Kirin 980 processor, the Mate 20 delivers exceptional speed and efficiency. The phone boasts a triple camera setup, co-engineered with Leica, providing stunning photo quality and a wide range of shooting modes. The Mate 20 also features a beautiful LCD display and a stylish design with a textured glass back. It comes with a large battery capacity and fast charging capabilities. Priced competitively, the Mate 20 offers great value for its price. Overall, it is a top-notch device that leaves no compromises.

Design and Build Quality

The Huawei Mate 20 boasts an aesthetically pleasing design with its sleek and modern appearance. Its physical appearance showcases a teardrop notch design, which is smaller and more visually appealing compared to the larger notch on the Mate 20 Pro. The phone comes in different finishes, including a twilight gradient and glossy black, adding to its premium look and feel. It features a glass back with a textured surface, providing a comfortable grip and making it less slippery. The construction of the Mate 20 is robust, ensuring durability and sturdiness. The materials used in its build quality are of high quality, contributing to its overall premium construction. The device has a metal frame and a back panel that perfectly fit together, showcasing excellent fit and finish. The buttons and controls are well-placed and offer a satisfying tactile feedback. The phone has minimized bezels, allowing for a larger display area and providing a more immersive viewing experience. With its form factor, the Mate 20 is portable and can be comfortably used with one hand. Overall, the Huawei Mate 20 impresses with its sleek design, premium look and feel, robustness, and ergonomic build, making it a visually appealing and comfortable device to use.

Display

The Huawei Mate 20 features a large flat IPS LCD display with a screen size of 6.53 inches. It offers a Full HD+ resolution of 2244 x 1080 pixels, providing sharp and clear visuals. The aspect ratio of the display is 18.7:9, offering a more immersive viewing experience.

While the Mate 20 does not have the high-end OLED technology found in the Mate 20 Pro, it still delivers good color accuracy and vibrancy. The display offers bright and vivid colors, making media and images look vibrant and appealing. The brightness levels are sufficient for comfortable viewing even under direct sunlight, and the outdoor visibility is generally good.

The touch responsiveness of the display is excellent, providing smooth and accurate touch input. The display is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass, ensuring durability and resistance against scratches and accidental drops. The pixel density of the Mate 20's display is around 381 pixels per inch, resulting in clear and detailed visuals.

Although the Mate 20 does not support HDR or wide color gamut like its Pro counterpart, the viewing angles are wide and the colors remain consistent even when viewed from different angles. The display also features an anti-reflective coating, reducing glare and improving visibility in bright environments.

In terms of design, the Mate 20 has a teardrop notch at the top of the display, minimizing the intrusion and maximizing the screen-to-body ratio. The bezels around the display are relatively slim, contributing to a more bezel-less look.

Additionally, the Mate 20 offers features like an always-on display, blue light filter, and adaptive brightness, enhancing the overall user experience and convenience. The display can also be calibrated to suit individual preferences.

Performance

The performance of the Huawei Mate 20 is powered by its flagship Kirin 980 chipset, which delivers impressive results in terms of speed and efficiency. The CPU benchmarks and processor performance showcase the device's ability to handle demanding tasks with ease. Multitasking performance is smooth, allowing users to switch between apps seamlessly. App loading speeds are fast, ensuring a lag-free experience. The system optimization and thermal management contribute to the overall efficiency of the device, enhancing its performance even during extended usage.

In terms of gaming capabilities, the Huawei Mate 20 excels. The GPU benchmarks and gaming performance are impressive, providing a smooth and immersive gaming experience. The graphics scores highlight the device's ability to handle graphically intensive games without any noticeable lag or frame drops. Gaming benchmarks reinforce the Mate 20's prowess in delivering high-quality gaming performance.

Benchmark tests and scores further support the Mate 20's performance analysis. Synthetic benchmarks showcase the device's capabilities across various parameters, including processing power, graphics rendering, and overall system performance. The performance metrics reflect the Mate 20's ability to perform at a high level across different usage scenarios.

The processor efficiency and GPU efficiency of the Kirin 980 chipset contribute to the Mate 20's overall performance. The device efficiently manages power consumption, ensuring a longer battery life without compromising performance. This makes the Mate 20 a reliable choice for users who rely on their devices for extended periods.

Overall, the Huawei Mate 20 offers exceptional performance across different aspects. Its powerful chipset, smooth user experience, and impressive gaming capabilities make it a top contender in the market. Whether it's handling demanding tasks, multitasking, or delivering an immersive gaming experience, the Mate 20 showcases its prowess through its benchmark scores and real-world performance.

Software and User Interface

The Huawei Mate 20 runs on Huawei's EMUI software, which is based on the Android 9.0 Pie operating system. The software offers a highly customizable experience, allowing users to tweak various settings and personalize their device. EMUI has a clean and intuitive interface, making it easy for users to navigate through menus and access their desired apps and features. The Mate 20 comes with a range of pre-installed apps, including Huawei's own apps like the AppGallery, Huawei Health, and HiCare. While some users may find these apps useful, others might consider them as bloatware. However, the good news is that most of these pre-installed apps can be uninstalled or disabled, giving users the freedom to choose which apps they want to keep on their device. Overall, the software on the Huawei Mate 20 is user-friendly and offers a smooth and enjoyable user experience.

Camera

The Huawei Mate 20 boasts a versatile camera setup that delivers impressive image quality across various shooting conditions. With its triple camera system, consisting of a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens, users can capture a wide range of subjects with different focal lengths and perspectives.

The camera's aperture ranges from f/1.8 to f/2.4, allowing for great control over depth of field and low-light performance. Combined with a large sensor size, the Mate 20 excels in capturing sharp and detailed images, even in challenging lighting situations. Dynamic range is also commendable, ensuring that both highlights and shadows are well-preserved.

During daylight photography, the camera produces vibrant and natural colors, with excellent sharpness and clarity. The AI scene recognition feature enhances the shooting experience by automatically detecting and optimizing settings for various scenes, such as landscapes, portraits, and food.

Indoors, the Mate 20's camera performs admirably, thanks to its low-light sensitivity and noise reduction capabilities. Users can expect well-exposed shots with minimal noise, even in dimly lit environments. Additionally, the camera's Night mode further enhances low-light performance, allowing for stunning night photography with improved clarity and reduced noise.

When it comes to video recording, the Mate 20 supports 4K video at 30fps, delivering crisp and detailed footage. Video stabilization ensures smooth and steady recordings, while slow-motion and time-lapse modes offer creative options for capturing unique moments. The Mate 20 supports a variety of video formats, providing flexibility for different editing and sharing needs.

Overall, the camera on the Huawei Mate 20 is a standout feature, delivering impressive image quality, versatile shooting options, and advanced features that cater to both photography and videography enthusiasts.

Battery Life

The Huawei Mate 20 boasts impressive battery life thanks to its 4,000mAh battery capacity. With this large battery, users can expect a long-lasting performance, allowing them to go through a full day of heavy usage without needing to recharge. The Mate 20 also supports SuperCharge technology, which enables the battery to charge from 0% to 80% in just 45 minutes. This fast charging capability ensures that users can quickly top up their battery when needed. While the Mate 20 does not support wireless charging, its efficient battery management system and optimization features help to maximize battery performance. Users can also take advantage of the battery saver mode to further extend battery life. Overall, the battery of the Huawei Mate 20 offers a great balance between capacity, charging speed, and power efficiency, providing users with a reliable and long-lasting battery experience.

Connectivity and Networking

The Huawei Mate 20 offers a wide range of connectivity options to ensure a seamless user experience. It supports 4G LTE network compatibility, allowing for fast data speeds and reliable connectivity. The device also has dual SIM capabilities, allowing users to easily switch between two different phone numbers or data plans.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Mate 20 supports Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, ensuring fast and stable internet connections. It also has Bluetooth version 5.0, which enables quick and efficient pairing with other Bluetooth devices. NFC (Near Field Communication) is also available on the Mate 20, allowing for convenient contactless payments and easy file transfers.

For wired connectivity, the Mate 20 features a USB-C port, which provides fast charging and data transfer speeds. However, it should be noted that the Mate 20 does not support wireless charging, unlike its Pro counterpart.

In terms of location services, the Mate 20 comes with GPS and GLONASS support, ensuring accurate and reliable navigation. It also has a mobile hotspot feature, allowing users to share their internet connection with other devices.

Overall, the Huawei Mate 20 offers a comprehensive range of connectivity options, including 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and USB-C. Its dual SIM capabilities and support for various network compatibility make it an ideal choice for users who require reliable and fast connectivity on the go.

Additional Features

Comparison with Other Related Phones

When comparing the Huawei Mate 20 to related gadgets in the market, it becomes clear that it offers a unique set of features and specifications. One of its main competitors is the Samsung Galaxy S9, which is known for its impressive camera capabilities and sleek design. While the Mate 20 also boasts a powerful camera with Leica-certified lenses, it sets itself apart with its larger battery capacity and longer battery life. This makes it a more reliable option for users who are often on the go and need their phone to last throughout the day.

Another competitor in the market is the iPhone XR, which is praised for its seamless performance and user-friendly interface. While the Mate 20 also delivers on performance with its Kirin 980 processor and 6GB of RAM, it offers a unique advantage with its expandable storage option. The Mate 20 allows users to add a microSD card, giving them the flexibility to store more photos, videos, and apps without worrying about running out of space.

In terms of pricing, the Mate 20 falls within the mid-range segment, making it a more cost-effective option compared to high-end flagship devices like the iPhone XS or the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. It offers excellent value for money with its impressive camera, long battery life, and powerful performance.

When it comes to the overall competitive landscape, the Huawei Mate 20 holds its own with its unique features, competitive pricing strategy, and strong market positioning. While it may not have the same level of brand recognition as its competitors, it differentiates itself with its innovative design, expandable storage, and reliable battery life.

In conclusion, the Huawei Mate 20 stands out among related gadgets in the market with its impressive camera capabilities, powerful performance, and cost-effectiveness. It offers a compelling alternative to its competitors, providing users with a unique set of features and specifications that cater to their needs.

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Huawei Mate 20 is a powerful and feature-packed phone that offers excellent value for its price. While it may not have all the bells and whistles of the Mate 20 Pro, it still delivers a top-notch user experience with its impressive camera, long-lasting battery life, and fast performance. The design is sleek and elegant, and the inclusion of a headphone jack is a bonus for those who prefer wired audio. Although it lacks wireless charging and an OLED screen, the Mate 20 compensates with its outstanding camera capabilities and overall solid performance. For those seeking a high-performance phone without breaking the bank, the Huawei Mate 20 is a fantastic choice.