Mate 20 Pro The Best Mobile of 2018? Not Quite...
Chris a with a phone that doesn't really need an intro it's had so much coverage, and rightly so they mate 20 pro from, Huawei is a top, Android flagship phone it has to be in the top five it has a six point three nine inch OLED, screen, with a resolution of thirty one twenty by 1440p. My. Version has eight gigabytes of RAM and 128, gigabytes. Of superfast, storage, that breaks 900. Megabyte reads, that's, really quick in fact the fastest I have seen the, build looks a lot like, my Samsung Galaxy S 9 plus but, I would have to say that it actually feels in hand a little, bit more refined and the building ever, so slightly bitter the same goes for the screen there now, those cameras on the rear we have a three, times optical, zoom sensor. Which, is a two megapixels, and it takes a good photo it's great for getting in close very, handy, just like the two times optical I have on my samsung galaxy s 9 plus a 40, megapixel, main sensor, and then, we have a also. Very handy, wide. Lens. On there which is 20, megapixels. Now the cameras, as a package, when you look at it as a package, factoring, in focus. Video. Bitrate. And audio. Quite. Disappointing. In terms of video quality as you see later on in this review I feel that's a massive letdown, one of the weaknesses of WoW, is mate 20 Pro so what do you get in the box you get their super charger this is rated with a maximum output of 40, watts, which is massive, for this charges the phone in just one hour in 10 minutes in my testing, from completely. Flat in 30, minutes you get around 68. Percent, so that's exceptionally. Quick, you're gonna instructionally, fit there that one's all in Chinese because I have the Chinese version you, get a clear case some. In-ear. Headphones. And of. Course the type C charger, cable. And then. A type C 2 3.5, millimeter, adapter mate. 20 Pro comes out to be eight point six millimeters thin, and weighs 190. Grams but that's not bad considering, it has a 4200. Milliamp hour battery so. We do have a little bit of a top bezel and of course we have that wide, notch, now this notch is not as ridiculous as the Google pixels threes notch which I laughed, at when I first saw install but here we've got a 24, megapixel. Camera the, earpiece there, is a bunch of other sensors on here so there's a dot projector, and everything else they need for, that 3d, face unlocking, and of, course if you really hate that knotch then you can hide it because it's got an OLED screen the blacks look very dark and it looks pretty, much like the, top bezel you get on the samsung galaxy s 9 plus as you can see up.
The Top you will find an IR transmitter great, to have this on here two antenna lines and then one of three microphones, this is use the course for noise cancellation and. In video and our, buttons these are on the right side so we have a red power button in the volume up and down they are both made out of metal they, have a good feel to them and they don't rattle around not. On the bottom you will see the two distinct, and tenor lines which as I mentioned look a lot like Samsung's, and then, we have a type C port with a speaker behind it, Allisyn tray which will house two nano, Sims or one, nano sim and their, micro, SD card, but it's not actually a micro SD it's their own format, from Huawei. So. It's a glass covered back and I have the silver, version here which is very prone, to finger prints very slippery as well but if you go for say the midnight blue and has, those lines, on it which gives it a little bit of texture tiny a little bit more grip and resists, fingerprints, a little better and here's. What the case looks like on the phone so it is going to protect the cameras only just you can see is about a millimeter difference between where the cases and then that camera module which sticks out a little bit it offers protection for the buttons as well and the, screen if you do place it and face down will not actually be touching, the table here for example so. The bill quality is premium, and compared. To the samsung galaxy s 9 Plus on the left it feels ever, so slightly better because, it's a little bit more narrow and I, find that it's just easier to get access to the button and not only that the. Edges the way they've done the inches on them 820 Pro they're just a little bit more rounded. Off a little bit smoother feel better in hand and overall. It just gives it a slightly, better, feel to. The s9 plus, here, face. Unlocking, is also, much quicker than my use loan plus as I'll demonstrate now tap the button. Very. Quick do, that again. Most. Of the time it is quick just, as you've seen taking. A look now at the end screen fingerprint, reader so you tap the screen first that'll wake it up you see the little icon here hopefully that's not going to get burnt into the screen I'll, place my thumb on there which was a bit awkward for me and you, can see it unlocks so how long did that take it's about one to, two seconds, it can be a little bit slower at times now, sometimes, you don't get the position a hundred percent correct and it. Will not work every, single time so speak tit to work maybe, eight. Out of ten, times, and. Here it seems to be working for me quite well overall. I don't have any real issues with it it's just not as fast as those rare fingerprint, readers from, the likes of SATA one plus six, I'll. Take a look now at the screen in details so I know there's been something going around with glue gate there's been a problem with the glue, between the glass. And then the OLED panel below luckily. For me with this unit it's perfectly, fine, now you're gonna get this right here you can see that the edge screen is exactly the same as my Samsung Super AMOLED panel, that's in the explain plus you, get that discoloration, you get the color shifting, out now that's just a trait there of the screen it's, not really too much of an issue but if you're really fussy about your screens then that may bother, you now light leakage, bleeding. And things like that I'm not seeing a problem here not like the some of the IPS panels that I look at that often have like a dark shadow ring, around the knotch that, is not happening here now you will sometimes see this shimmering, happing see those lines going, across like pulse, width, modulation flicker, this, is only happening, on camera, it's, like whenever I records, OLED. Screens or Samsung AMOLED panels this happens, you. Can see that this green is flickering away here at the moment but again this is only on camera so we've got our color, temperature, mode and your, white balance that you can see it so out of the box it's on vivid, to, me which is that's, not really that accurate normal, is probably, the best the more accurate, the white balance is more, correct there and we, also have eye comfort mode so that's a blue light filter, so, you know you don't keep yourself awake at night the, other useful option here too is the text and display slider. So you can slide this up so if you find that it's too small you can increase it you find it allowed to decrease it and also the display size this is very handy to have now, the gamma is one, this screen is completely off no matter what sitting I use here it should. Be 2.2. Or closer to 2.2, but it's miles off here hovering around, 1.4.
As You can see brightness. Tops out at 790. Lux which is a little bit lower than the, 830. I messaged, on the mate, 20 X dark. Colors, on the screen when you're showing them they do look very good because this is an OLED panel, of course and overall. It is a really nice screen a premium, screen that, only complaint there is the the gamma being quite off for some reason, when. You take a look at the touch performance, that is also excellent it goes with your finger there's no stuttering, it is very smooth, they seem to have it synced perfectly, with the refresh rate of the screen which, is great the, UI performance is, decent, now this UI comes, with a huge amount of, bloatware, I will just show you what I recorded, of how, much bloatware. Had had on here blow wet applications so you can see right here from the screenshot when I first got it then it actually has about 16, crappy. Applications, on there that you're not going to want you're gonna want to remove and even. Under top apps you'll find a lot, more so it takes a good 15 20 minutes to uninstall, all of those I did. Also receive, this firmware update, now this brings it up to Android, 9 security, patch level December, the 1st which is really good so it's up to date and it, may have possibly fixed. The, display, dimming, issues so when you went into certain applications. You're on a manual brightness, setting that, it would dim down the display, even though you don't want it to do that and that seems to be fixed because it's not happening to me now, if you do buy the Chinese, version beware. It will not have Google Play installed, but it is a very easy fix you go into the app gallery which is mostly all in Chinese in fact, a hundred percent Chinese, search, Google you'll find there in the Google Play Store it will then install that and you can see it's running fine I haven't had any problems with it it is very fast the performance there so, I have the full screen gestures, at the moment enabled, so you swipe up and hold. To get, your recent apps and. Go. Through and multitask, you just swipe up to go home and then. If you're in an application, for, example to go into gallery here and then, I swipe from the side that takes you back it's very easy to get used to and, prefer it over the on-screen. Menu, keys that you can use chrome, scrolling performance I, have found to be very, fast and smooth, in fact better than the, mate 20x. That, I just, finished, reviewing and that is probably aided by the fact that this version I have has, 8 gigabytes of RAM that model has the karin 980 but with the 6 gigabytes, so that 8 gigabytes, of RAM to me makes. It feel just ever, so slightly faster. And a little. Bit smoother. And that, is also reflected, in synthetic. Benchmarks. For example, this, is an - - and we're getting a score of almost. 270,000. Where I got about. 260,000, on the make 20x, with only 6 gigabytes of RAM and like, them 820 X that has superfast, ufs 2.1. Spec storage take, a look at the sequential reads here over 900, megabytes per second, that's going to be faster, than a lot of people's laptops if you're still using a set of 3 SSD, that's, almost double the, read speeds there that you'll be able to get sequential, writes also good and then, the random writes are impressive. For a mobile phone, GPS. Performance, is solid, no complaints, and only hovers around 4, meters of accuracy. And locks on to almost all of the satellites it sees with good signal strength if, you are purchasing the global version then you've got global, LTE, band coverage, and here in Spain it's working fine the Chinese version it's got, to even out eBay in 20 as well the, other people would need if you were gonna buy the Chinese version, although I wouldn't recommend it I'll go for the global one so good, 4G, speeds it's LTE plus there that it managed to lock on 4G plus it's.
Alright I mean not the fastest, of course but, that's my provider, and here, we have wireless performance so, no problems, here as well so the signal strength the range that, I'm getting is all, good it all checks out on. To battery life so it is very good this is way better than my samsung galaxy s 9 plus I've got 9 hours of screen on time I had 14 percent battery left, I could possibly, get 10 now I was using the screen set to 200. Lux and this, is my year so it was heavy use I did a bit of gaming so Pub G by, the way pub G I don't know if it's because of the turbo boost but, it burns through the battery very, quick pub G YouTube. Streaming prime video as well I was watching that, Play services was using a little bit of battery chrome and general, use overall the battery holds up really well it's going to be a two day mobile phone for most people and maybe even three, now. If you're gonna buy the Chinese version you need to be aware of this if you want to use a third-party launcher and that is Nova, Launcher for example, okay, it's running oh that's, great, swipes. Up you can see all your apps performance, is. Really good but what happens when you go home. It. Brings back huawei's, launcher. There, emui. You can't, override. It because they will not let you sit nova. Launcher as the default launcher or any third-party launcher I have. Some good news for those of you out there that like to use netflix, on your mobile phone that drm, info, tells us that has security, level, with Widevine level. One what. That jargon, translates, into is netflix, will run in HD. Full, HD it's not gonna be stuck and standard definition, and it works really well and for, those wondering about a notification LED there, is one that is up here but as far as I can tell it's not, a multicolored, one definitely not as good as the one on my samsung galaxy s 9 plus now, your notifications, you can have the icons as you can see right now or you can actually change it over to numbers, if you want so you can see how many you have now. On to gaming performance so as expected it, performs really well this, is on the ultra frame rate on HD. And you, don't notice really, any performance, dips at all until, it gets hot after gaming for it about 30. Minutes or so. When. You go in with the scope that's all very fluid, and smooth. Overall. Excellent, top performance, from, the keren 980 here, so. This phone like mini flagships has dual loudspeakers because the earpiece doubles, as a loudspeaker, we've, got the type C speaker. Placement which is a little bit awkward but. When you have a cable plugged in as you will hear just now then.
It Doesn't actually muffle, it too much so to me it's not a deal breaker and the speaker sounds decent it has a nice level of base and the loudness as well as good but here's that sample. So. As you can hear from that that when you plug in a cable to charge it, and use that I'll speak at the same time it's not actually muffling it at all, much hardly, anything just a tiny little, bit now the 3.5, millimeter headphone output. When you use the type C adapter or type C headphones it's, good it's clean it is, loud, and overall, I like, it there's nothing really wrong with it at all you can't fault it a voice call quality as well as excellent. It's good no problems. Moving. Over to the cameras, now so there's still camera very good good performance, overall takes a very decent image and sometimes. The exposure is a little bit off but when you have a look at the video performance but I'm showing you now this is 4k with electronic. Image stabilization. You. Can see the stabilization, is OK, but I have noticed that you do get some shutters, in the video that. The electronic, image stabilization is not as good as other flagships. Quite disappointing, also. The bitrate with 4k. Not. As high as it could be it often offers around 30 megabits, per second, 33, I feel, a Chevy a bit high you do see some artifacts, and then, the audio quality from those microphones you often get like a reverb, or some sort of noise cancellation, effect that comes in which is quite distracting, and despawning. As well, now, if you do look at this video on, a 4k monitor on, a 4k TV you'll, notice compared to again other flagships, that. The quality, is a little bit soft. It's not so sharp, now you can swap over to the other lenses, this. Is now the wide lens I'll show you but, when you pan around with, this one you'll. Notice it will start to drop frames and the, video performance it's quite choppy I mean. The lens probably ideally is not set up really for a video and then. When you move over to the 3 times zoom, well, it's great to zoom in you, can see the quality, really does drop off and is quite disappointing. Now, let's have a look now at the front-facing, camera. So. This is the front-facing camera it has electronic, image stabilisation and because it is using that it has to crop the image it's, 1080p and right, now I've got to push my arm right, out to get it now what I would call like a reasonable kinda normal thing that you would get facing. Camera you can see the electronic, image stabilization, works, reasonably, well it's, keeping which didn't and good to have those flagship cameras. Phones. Mobile's, should all have image, stabilization with, the front-facing cameras a lot of them still don't and when, I walk along you can see it's, doing a good job here, overall, a standing out the image I find, that the front-facing camera can be a little bit soft at times and it, is focusing and keeping my face in, exposure which is good when you can see the background, there with the Sun it's, very bright but it's mean to do it's not going to override this of course if I tap the screen then it's, now focused onto the background, and that is adjusted, the exposure and, everything, yeah now you'll notice that their mic sometimes, they have this funny kind of effect to them like almost like noise cancellation. Or a bit, of reverb or, something like that because the way I'm holding up perhaps blocking, the mics a little on the end is why, this happens. So. Video performance, in low, light you can see now is not good, at all it's actually, very poor look at the grain look at the artifacts, it's, dropping frames now if you swap over to the three times then. You'll see what I mean there look how bad that is it's all washed out we're losing a lot of detail and indoors. Low light you can see now the front-facing camera has a lot more grain, to it the electronic, image stabilization also, doesn't work as well but of course this is to be expected in these difficult conditions. All. Right now quickly recapping, so bill quality's great great battery life, excellent, performance it's right up there it's, very very good really. Good screen on it the build quality I think is actually slightly better than my Samsung Galaxy S 9 plus that's, all great now the downsides. To it are very minor well there's a couple of minor ones in one big one so, the minor ones would to be the fingerprint reader so it's sometimes, a little bit hard to find so at night when you go to find it and then it's only going to work about seven to, eight times out, of ten, which is a little, bit disappointing, and it takes about two seconds so it's not a big issue because we do have very good faced unlocking, which is 3d mapping face.
Unlocking, To with this so it's more secure the. UI, that it has okay so am UI, from, Huawei, has a lot, of bloatware that they've already pushed. On there a lot of silly applications. I counted about 16 applications of, junk on there and the, Chinese version will not let you use a third-party launcher, you, can run it but you can't set it as the default launcher. Which is the big issue they won't let you away for security reasons they say which is it's, just kind of wrong I wish they would let us over right there but that's why you go for the global version and to get no bloatware so. The cameras when you look at these cameras as a package, the. Whole package not just still images not just low-light I find. Them to be disappointing. Okay front-facing camera even though you disable all the beautifying effects so. You set all the sliders and everything to zero and off it, still looks like it's too soft it's got some beautifying there always that's. A little disappointing to me but. The biggest disappointment has. To be the video so video has low, Bret bit rate and average, focus, the focus is not really that good in it electronic. Image stabilization again. Not fantastic, dropped. Frames, it's. Not, very good and then the microphones, as well so it's like five things with video that are just wrong with this so very, poor video performance on this flagship. Expensive. Mobile phone so, if you're gonna be spending this kind of cash on this phone you'd. Expect to have really. Decent great, 4k. Video quality 1080p. 1080p. Is a lot better but 4k compared, to the other flagships, big, letdown so that's the reason not to go for the phone for everything else yes if you want the great performance, build, quality the screen. This, is one, of the ones to go for if you can afford. It that is of course and you're, not going to be shooting any video so, thank you so much for watching this lengthy, review and, if you haven't already do, check out my review of the larger. 7.2. Inch version of this phone which is the mate 20x.
2018-12-20 22:06
Nope. It's the note 9. Thank you
Thanks Chris again for this great review ..I'l skip the Mate 20 pro and wait for the next Huawei flagship. I had the P20 pro and was verry happy with the phone except the video quality that was not on par with other brands .So no Mate 20 pro for me you have helpt me decide .
Its cheaper than Apple XR!
do you pay customs taxes in europe if you buy from this site? Thank you
For my Mate 20 PRO EVR-L29 global version display gamma is between 2.4 and 2.6 my unit have BOE display
Good review as always , sadly Huawei without evidence have been given a bad wrap: America says china is bad yet still OnePlus is given the sweet treatment in the US Mkbhd did a blind camera test and people chose it's camera over everyone else People still say it's only because of payment as to why this phone gets attention... As if Samsung etc doesn't do the same and when Samsung gets phone of the year no one refutes it..
I still have a Huawei P9
3 times "optical" zoom. Yeah, riiiiiight :3 Sure Huawei :D I love how manufacturers call it optical zoom when in reality it's just a cropped high resolution sensor. Sure it zooms, the quality is kinda meh... Think of it as a 36MP sensor zoomed in 3x digitally. (after doing the math I came up with the 36MP, it should be 8MP after cropped for 3x zoom). I really hope they're doing it right though... I mean, if they are taking a realively large sensor, cutting it and placing the leftover behind the lens, then the image quality should not suffer. But judging from the photos using this sensor, i'd say they take a small smartphone sensor and cropping it. What I am trying to tell you here, is that the whole thing here is a gimmick! They could just put only the 36MP sensor and have it as the main camera, and then press the "zoom" button and have the same 3x "optical" (cough cough digital :3 ) zoom. JUst to be clear, optical zoom is the one achieved with a lens. This phone does NOT have optical zoom.
Is the mate 20 Pro prone to accidental touches on the edge screen? I feel like it's formed like the s8 which was also quite smooth on the edges. But Samsung made the edges a bit more rougher on the s9 to avoid accidental touches on the edge screens
Also, where do you live abouts in NZ? Looks absolutely stunning.
I'm back in Spain now, Denia. Med coat.
so indeed their UFS 2.1 implementation is superior to the competition, I wonder what others have missed...
In my country, the note 9 cost 600-700, really good for the price. There is no point to buy the mate 20 pro(800 here), but the non pro and x version is a better deal.
Overall top performance from the Kirin 980 here, but not my pubg skills
Video index: 01:21 - Box contents 01:53 - Thickness & weight 02:02 - Design & finish 03:50 - Build Vs Galaxy S9+ 04:18 - Face/fingerprint unlocking 05:09 - Screen in detail 07:16 - UI performance 09:23 - Benchmarks 10:42 - Battery life 11:19 - No 3rd party launchers 12:22 - Gaming performance 12:50 - Audio & sample 13:59 - Camera: Video samples 16:58 - Camera: Photo samples 18:27 - Recap with Pros & Cons
It's been getting lots of attention because they have been paying YouTube channels to advertise it. Thank you for being ethical and unbiased.
Sure payment helps but feature wise , spec wise don't you see anything else that might help with it getting attention?? Let's be real here
Rip off...
whenever i see your notification, i click on that notification and start searching for that like button on my screen, and then very proudly i click it.
Great video keep it up as always
Setting 3rd party launcher not as default launcher simply just ruined my charm for this phone and its also a biggest drawback of that superb device
It's only one the Chinese models
Can you please review the honor magic 2 and great video by the way
I switched from pixel 1 to mate20pro and my God, this phone is truly AWESOME
You are spending well for us these days, thanks Chris :)
On which software update is ur mate 20 pro running?
Reply Chris
X better than PRO
Not true about the 3rd party-launcher bit. I am a Huawei Mate 20 Pro user on the latest update but it can be changed if you go into the Apps>Default apps>Launcher. Thanks for the review anyways!
If you listen in the review I say it's the Chinese model only, international version (Like yours) it's fine.
You have the international version
Hiding notch does nothing to the screen those pixels are dead you can't see any notifications there so it's clear before you buy. Notch phone or no notch phone
the Vivo Nex 2 in-display fingerprint sensor, is already the 5th generation and works better. Probably next year lots of devices with thia new gen
another fail on the mics .. not as bad as the X but wow for a flagship I expect HAAC mics
I am able to change the default launcher from the app settings then default apos
That's good, Chinese version you can't
You are because you have the international version. Chris has got the Chinese one.
expensive. 1+6 8/128 for 350-370 € better =D
Best reviewer on the planet. Better than everyone. ❤
I'm not sure if you can do this on all Huawei phones but my honor 8 pro can set a different launcher. You need go to go settings -> apps & notification -> default apps and you should see the default launcher option. No harm trying :)
+Jeremar Legaspi Not with the Chinese version.
I think you can't do that with a chinese version, too bad. Tech reviewers should always get the international version
Any chance ur getting the zenfone max pro M2 chris?I heard its superb value in the India and here in Malaysia is even cheaper than mi A2 with that 5000mah,stock android and sd660
+crysisownz yes they are talking advantage of this being the only ones shipping it out.
+TechTablets.com woaahhh thats almost twice the price they are charging in Malaysia..its around $200 here
Not sure, the only place I've found one to buy is Ebay and they are charging like $400 for it!
Don't push hard on the finger print, more you use more is faster that appen with my Vivo nex s.
I find if you're hand it cold (Winter here) it has a real hard time reading. But for the most part it's good.
the best review as always :) and the Mate 20 is very good phone, better than pro, value for money its cost 640$ (official price) here in saudi arabia for 6GB 128GB version sure, its more cheaper in small stores thank you
+rlifeh can i have it in jidda
+usman abdulkadir 3299 SAR (880$) 6GB 128GB
Pls what about the pro version in saudia price
Great review. I'm rocking the Chinese rom mate 20x. Will look at your review now, but see that you probably have the global version. 5000m bettery does it for me... That's right, Bettery! Good work kiwi.
Companies should just send you phones to review them cuz you make the best reviews on yt
Companies only send phones to reviewers that do not show bad sides of their phones and this is where Chris shines, being super objective :)
9 hours screen on time!? Holy shit!
Yes it's very good. My S9+ under the same use would get about 6 hours SOT
Really looking forward to the Teclast X6 Pro review!
Me too, but still hasn't shipped out. Seems there is a delay on it.
Kudos to @tradingshenzhen for loan unit for review!
It's a great idea to test big brands flagships from time to time, so you can have a point of comparison.
Yes and I'll try too. But still be covering cheaper tech. A mix of both.
The Phone especially designed for spies only eh!
Great review, but concerning the "gluegate" or green tint issue, does your version have a BOE or LG display? The problem only affects LG displays, as far as I know, and testing with a totally white screen isn't the way to go, put up a full black screen to see this issue.
White screen, grey, black I don't see anything of the short on my unit. So it must be a BOE
Best Spy Phone of 2018! :)
It's either iPhone xs or pixel 3
Why do they want to spy you? *just asking
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2771566/iPhone-It-s-spyphone-Apple-devices-record-movement.html iPhone? It's a spyphone: Apple devices can record your every movement
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/they-can-use-huawei-china-mocks-report-it-tapped-trump-s-iphone-20181026-p50c1q.html so either CIA/FBI is lying OR china can REALLY hack into any iphone - which is so NOT safe for anyone either. u dont hv to use a chinese-made smartfone to b spied on. i mean it is NOT safe for the president of the US of A is it, according to CIA or FBI?
the thing is this is too expensive in my country.
+TechTablets.com How much is minimum monthly salary in Spain Chris?
Here too it's around 899 euros
Same here, This cost around 1050 dollars,where my monthly income is about 120 dollars per month
Mine too, 1350 dollars for a phone where minimum monthly wage is 250 dollars (Turkey). It is crazy!
Really love your detailed video , keep up the good work,, XD..
Great video.
Forcing a proprietary standard for additional internal storage has never worked before not even for Nintendo. It won't work here but this phone is till a tech marvel.
For me personally the deal breaker is it's brand. Knowing Huawei is tightly tied to China's government is a big no no
Lol you fell for the bait
No. It's not. It has a notch and isn't in 16:9. Saved you 20 mins.
I'm jealous of your accent!!!!!
+TechTablets.com NZ accent is even better than UK! I really love it too! Perfect pronounce!
That's a first! I get comments all the time about my accent but not positive ones.
NZ rocks ;)
Already press like before rendering is finished
Dont like that big ugly notch on mate 20 pro. I love my Oppo K1. I paid £260 for it. It do same things like the ugly mate 20 pro does.
You have a really annoying accent
Great review, did you try open camera with this phone? You do that with the Xiaomi phones, and it seems to get better performance?
The fingerprint takes two seconds? Really? You started counting with "one"?
Hi there, Don't you feel the display colors are very washed out? I am coming from an S8+ and I'm finding the display to be super disappointing, I feel the S8 one was much better
i think you should not review the phone from zero, because there are lots of reviews, just make some points that are really important and talk about what you do not like. thank you.
Kirin 980 video encode is poor im afraid, 4K30 and not even 30 at that, meanwhile Exynos gets it at 120fps, c'mon huawei, this is hardly any better than the Kirin 970, which was poor when released also! Has to be at least one thing bad with a huawei phone.
Hello Tech Tablets. I am your regular Viewers/ Followers. Plz Suggest me a best buget laptop under $800 As I am civil engineering students.
can you try to go setting then apps then default apps for me emui 8 i can set nova launcher from their try it
Hi, your review is a little off. My mate 20 pro smashes over 300,000 on antutu and I only have 6gb ram. My UK bought phone has basically no bloatware. I've not really used it for video so you could be right about all that. The mi rophone reverb is very strange, I've never experienced that. I think you have turned performance mode off. This explains the low antutu. Also the reason you can't set nova launcher up is because you need to set it up in settings > apps > default apps > Launcher. Just set it to Nova and you are done.
How much better is it than the s9 plus?
surprising about the photos and video quality
Global Mate 20 X also not working properly with 3rd party launcher
Thanks For sharing Chris keep up the good work
Notch + those reflective curved edges + No 3.5 Jack? I'm out. btw good review as always
Thanks for your honest review!
i was surprised that you don`t mind the speaker being mounted in the usb type c other reviewer made it as the deal breaker but for me as you said the video recording is total crap
It's not a big deal as you hear from the sample, a cable plugged in only ever so slightly muffles it. Others are just making a huge deal out of it for nothing I feel. Yes for a flagship the video recording is so bad, like a budget phone.
I think if Huawei finally fix the video quality and mics in the next model P30 Pro? Then they will have an absolute winner.
Not on this one, but normally I have to pay tax if it's with an express courier.
Global version does not have bloatware. Just bookings.com application which one can consider bloat.
+TechTablets.com No idea but something similar happened with my LG V20 I bought Korean version and global version. Korean display was way colder. Just speculating to display Asian faces better(colder color)?
I wonder why the Chinese version is so off here
This phone has a telephoto lense. And a normal lense. And a ultrawide lense. Stop saying baseless things.
I haven't had any issues with that.
They put little chinese people inside the phone working very fast.
It's the most feature packed phone for the price you pay, I'm pretty sure it deserves the attention
I was most impressed by LG display on my unit,just amazing display on pair with any samsung amoled.
+Titus Good question, that's because it's the only model I could get ahold of.
+TechTablets.com why do a review with the Chinese model? The vast majority of people who watch your channel are not in China.
+TechTablets.com hopefully there will be more resellers to market that phone by next month or so then
Nah. Pro is the grail.
+rlifeh okay thanks alot bro
+usman abdulkadir sure, go to palestine street, you will found it there with good price.
Thanks, they don't and Huawei themselves back out of sending me this as they don't like how I mention possible cons and list the cons (with pros also) Companies prefer glowingly positive reviews that steer clear of mentioning issues.
My unit have lg display, its so much better display then boe and its on pair with any samsung amoled.Its much brighter then boe and have better color reproduction. LG realy delivered amazing display.
Huawei did invent the Hybrid Dual Sim. Where you could either have two sims or one sim and one sd card. Soon everyone did the same. NanoSD makes sense for phones that don't want to use up extra physical space, and the patent is free to use by anyone and they're getting it certified for the SD association.
F-hell, 900 mb/s is almost NVMe-like storage. Holy shit. And i am still dwelling on my old seagate hdd
I still preferred Mate 20X. Great honest review Chris.
Great review Chris!
+TechTablets.com I own the phone and it never took more than one second to unlock.
up to 2 seconds I meant to say. It's about 1-2, it also doesn't always work perfectly. If you own the phone you'll understand what I mean. One day it's perfect, the next its miss reading, try again, try again then works. And if you're out in the cold with cold hands forget it.
Not on my unit no, but they use two different screens. BOE & LG
I have a set process I go through testing, but you can skip to the end recap for just that.
Mi Notebook Pro i5 8250U, often it's on sale for under $800
+TechTablets.com if they are limiting performance on the Chinese version do you think it has something to do with the bloatware? In default mode I just scored 272104 and on performance it was on 301700. But I'm pretty sure I got it higher than that before by fresh booting it and clearing out the ram. I think if you want to buy this phone you should consider the international version, its incredible for emulation BTW.
Could be because I have the Chinese version as explained I can't set the default launcher to Nova or any 3rd party. As for the Antutu score, I leave the phone as default. On performance, it's about 10k more for me, Not sure how you get 300k? But again could be on your international version.
Slightly better at everything but cameras
Sir please can you tell me how has been your overall experience with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro in general and EMUI in particular? Do you like EMUI? How is it compared to Stock Android? Thanks
Its not fifth gen, its only second gen.First was in vivo x21 ud-that same first gen was later implement in vivo nex.Now with vivo nex 2 you have second gen which is also in one plus 6t.
Absolutely spot on with my experience too, with both phones. This is a serious improvement (+50%)
Another dumb American. Wait...All americans are dumb, sorry
Camera disappointing??!
Most Ad moblile 2018.
all eyes on xiaomi mi mix 3
I upgraded to this phone from nexus 6p. Wanted the pixel 3 phone but they did not sell it here in Malaysia. Overall satisfied with this purchase. The battery life is AMAZING. I don't do much video recording so it's not an issue for me. As for the glue gate, I can see the green tint in dark environment when the screen is dark grey (Messaging or Twitter app). But it doesn't appear in normal usage so I'm still ok with it. I know some people have this issue even in bright lit area.
Your unit comes with LG or BOE display?
Heyy bro how to fix the green side effect issu??
It's almost the best. But nothing matches up to the note9. The s-pen & every premium feature to me makes the difference. My vote is for the note!
+TechTablets.com download hwinfo and see.
shit i want to get an upgrade ...still have my note 5
I actually like your hair cut
Agree with this review. The video capture compares to that of a 2012 phone. The stills are ok, but inconsistent and therefore unreliable. Most pictures of people for some reason come out looking like plastic dolls. The sharpening and noise reduction is the cause of this and is the downfall of the camera. Huawei are riding the wave of expensive flagships at £899 GBP, but it's just not worth it. You'd be better off with a OnePlus 6, not the 6t, but the 6. My mate 20 pro will be returned as the price is unjustified.
Other reviewers complained about that, I have small hands and have problems now and then however not really a major/common issue for me personally.
Thank you Brother
+Ayushman Singh Being using mine for a good two months now. Previously had an Android One device with a pure Android. I have not made my mind on the EMUI, meaning it is neither better or worse in my everyday experience so far beside some redundant Huawei apps with I moved all to the Top Apps group and forgot about. You can directly copy/synchronize all your Google account apps and data (from your old phone) from the cloud so you dont have to use the Huawei maps, drive, store etc apps. If you put a thick tempered glass protector on the display the fingerprint sensor is harder/slower to use which is annoying. Face scanner is not always working depending on angle. I found out using the Night mode for photos significantly improves the photo quality in many cases despite the added delay. Night photos are amazing, video is average. Overall a delightfully smooth and powerful device with 2 day battery life. Have no regrets despite the price.
Pear haha update no. ?
+Lelouch V Britannia EMUI 9.0 on top of Android 9.0 Pie
Quick summary. Insane hardware, poor software.
great video
The fingerprint scanner has worked 100% of the time for me. and you don't actually have to touch the screen to get the icon to reveal itself.
Great video, agreed with you the video like me down too, especially in 4K. Just hope Huawei can fix this on up coming firmware update.
Please review Nokia X7, Snapdragon 710
The best phone is the iPhone..., for americans
Qual o melhor display HUAWEI MATE 20 PRO OU S9PLUS?
Nice but i buy Xiaomi Mi8 6/128GB from China for 1/3 price in Global Version
Absolutely agree with your camera observations. It over-sharpens photos and has a weird water colour painting effect as well upon zooming. The HDR, which is weirdly a separate mode under "More" section doesn't work as well as the pixel's or the Samsung's.
The photos generally turn out either too dark or overexposed. The colours are also not balanced. Some portions of the photo is saturated while other areas dull.
Sounds like you just discovered the difference between optical and digital zoom... Nice explanation even though... This is not a dslr, its a phone.. Not gonna mount a massive zoom lens on it.. So the quality is fine.. For the phone as it is...
Someone might find it better and more appealing than note 9.. Overall for me its better phone as i wouldn't use s pen as much... And the battery life is the 1st thing to look at.. Plus running mate 1o pro as a daily lot more than 12 months.. Still like new, no lag, battery life superb... Meanwhile i can't say that for Samsung / Apple phone that i used.. Good in 1st 12 months, after that.. Sell it, buy something else.. So yeah, definitely not seeing your point valid as a choosing note 9 over mate20pro.. To be an easy decision even if it costs bit more... And the last thing, some people might find it bit more compact compared to Samsung... Even though the difference is really small
They re doing what everyone else is doing.. Dont know about you, but i see lots more stupid adds / advertisers for iPhone / pixel than this one...
Dead pixels = no pixels
Agree with you definitely... Most of the bigger brands are the same.. Thats why i say NO as well.. To Apple!
This is not recommended by me . The screen is not gorilla glass, it scratches really really easily. Its fragile also... and without gorilla glass it's weak. The phone looks good but need to be very well looked after. The sound isn't great The screen is ok .. but has issues with green screen lighting on edges in dark environment. Battery is good , reverse charge is awful. Camera is amazing . Overall coming from the mate 10 pro you'll. Be disappointed here....
Best phone of 2018
+MiGujack3 Thanks, this means the phone is still more than minimum wage of Spain, not by a long shot like Turkey but still it is
+Bloodin Not Chris, but here you can get around 710, on the safe side it can vary a lot from there. If you work weekends only, college student style, it's around 200-350 after tax.
compare the price performance, honor v20 is best phone. 450 usd(2998 rmb) included tax , for Kirin 980
Had this phone. Returned it because of the horrible blue light filter that just doesn't filter almost nothing. And the apps that do that are useless because they don't work well, example: when u pull down the notification or control center u get a light flash with blue light. Unusable at night. And in a 20 minute video no mention whatsoever about this bug.
Thank you for not bowing to the hype. I think it's very close to being a great phone though and I almost bought one. Possibly one day better than Samsung, Google and Apple but I might wait to see what happens with Huewai's ban issues and see if they address some of the issues with the video quality. Certainly it has the processor and camera, so it might just be a software fix.
The video performance of this phone is a joke, and the microphone even more so. The iPhone 7 steps all over it and that's SAD in tech time. The pictures are ok too, but for its price this phone should be good at everything, not just stills. The hardware is beautiful and the phone is really snappy but poor video performance, being stuck in EMUI and glue gate makes it a very hard purchase honestly. Unless you want a super pretty phone for social media, that is.
Thanks for the review
My own review for mate 20 pro after 2 month of using: - Pros: + Monster battery + Very good screen + Overally compact with loaded features + So fast performance + Exellent camera with various features and default editing capabilities - Cons: + No 3.5mm jack (my most regretable cons) + Not sure if the phone support well hard gaming + Bloatware and limited support from 3rd parties For emui, i litterally have no problem using it since I demand quite a basic flatform for working, travelling.
Feel sorry for S9+ Huawei just copy Samsung
man u just whined for 20 mins.grow up the world isnt perfect
samsung put effort how beautiful screen it can provide, but dont care how long you can use(maybe 4-6hours per day.) . apple will give you the best , but dont care if you have money to buy. huawei gives me cheaper and so-so screan, and best performance in android, and extreme excellent battery life(one charge for two days) i am heavy user, but not gamer.
+Heiko Huber Same.
+Viyus Avery Killed it hahah
+Simon C actual photos don't matter what matters is where they will be shared
Viyus Avery, need to take a grind of salt when looking at the MKbHD camera testing; those are just instragam photo, and actual photos may yield different result.
Ok..Since then what is the other alternatives of this phone ? I meant other brands that are better that can beat this phone in the (cons) .
My daily driver is s9+ and I tried out the mate 20 pro for a week, could not wait to get back to my Samsung. I use every brand of phone so I have no bias to Samsung. The UI on the huawei is probably 3 years behind Samsung, apple, oxygen etc. The phone build is great but the software is clunky and slow In comparison to any other phone I’ve used. I noticed you said in the video the huawei screen is better than the s9+ and I’m sorry but that is false, put them both side by side the Samsung is way more vibrant, the mate goes slightly brighter but looks washed out and looks TERRIBLE when the brightness is low at night. The Samsung screen also has the benefit of not having a notch, I’m not opposed to notches but the mates notch is too wide, you can barely have any notifications on the top. IMO Samsung are doing it the best at the moment, again, I love using every brand of phone, even iPhones, but Samsung are probably the most complete package phone you can buy on android atm. No notch, headphone jack, dual speakers, amazing design/screen, ip68 etc. The Samsung UI has came a long way since touchwiz. It’s smooth, fast and looks great, barely any bloat, huawei phones come with stupid amounts of bloat which puts me off massively. There’s also the privacy concerns with huawei which isn’t great press.
I returned my phone due to the light bleeding from the curved screen edges!!
Bad main speaker placement and proprietary memory card.
thx for this honest review, weighing in on the good and the bad. some reviewers' vids look more like an advertising clip. i wanna know how this phone is in real life use and your honest portrayal of the phone really helps buyers
Mate 20 Pro is the phone of 2018!!!
Hello, a very important question for me! Is it possible a firmware update to fix some of the issues with the video recording? Like the lag and stuttering in videos. It is really killing me. I have noticed that every 0,25 seconds or so there is a tiny lag that is absolutely disturbing. It is best noticed when you move the phone at a steady speed in left or right.
thanks for the honest camera review.. will stick to the s9+ for now
Wow mate, big respect for such an honest review! Not like many others just praising this phone because of being paid one way or another. Well done mate of being honest and reliable reviewer!
My fingerprint Reader works fine 9/10. You can disable or deinstall bloat ware Apps. I Use nova launcher without any Problems (dont know what you are doing). Front facing camera and Video are absolutely ok especially the 4k Video footage. The screen on time is phenomal. I dont have to worry if it is 7 pm and i want to go outside for a longer time with 30% left battery. Its a life saver. Besides that everything open up instantly. The camera is Boss, and face unlock works perfectly. Overall i love it
It blows away the competition, nothing comes close to the Mate 20 Pro.
+Simon C many is the minority unless your going debate the millions that use Instagram with compressed images
+Viyus Avery it matter to me, and many other people, if you look at the photo on a monitor or a TV screen, or if you want to see the true color/detail of the picture. The "winner " of MBKHD challenge are photo with heavily processed effect. Even Markus said it himself
+Chris GB bro. the oppo k1 is way below the mate 20 pro. can it do telephoto shots? can it do wide angle shots? does that have wireless projection?is it any means speedier? does its battery can outlast the m20 pro? does it have 40w super charge? does it have card slot? and so many other things. m20 pro is better when compared to oppo k1. if you had compared it to the likes of pixel 3, note 9, iphone xs max, then its acceptable.
Found the Aplle Fanboy
Green screen of death fuc** this phone
+André Felipe Not sure it could possibly be better with new camera sensors and set up
Do you think P30 Pro is going to beat Mate 20 Pro as Huawei flagship?
Note 9!
+Neil Breen a phone w/ a headphone jack. Most feature packed?
+HuntaKiller yes they are talking advantage of this being the only ones shipping it out.
what would you recommend for the best value for the dollar 4k video / and photos w EIS / OIS?
Very in-depth analysis of the phone. Great job
Does the Chinese Version come by with Google Play?
+First Name bro. the oppo k1 is way below the mate 20 pro. can it do telephoto shots? can it do wide angle shots? does that have wireless projection?is it any means speedier? does its battery can outlast the m20 pro? does it have 40w super charge? does it have card slot? and so many other things. m20 pro is better when compared to oppo k1. if you had compared it to the likes of pixel 3, note 9, iphone xs max, then its acceptable.
@First Name bro. the oppo k1 is way below the mate 20 pro. can it do telephoto shots? can it do wide angle shots? does that have wireless projection?is it any means speedier? does its battery can outlast the m20 pro? does it have 40w super charge? does it have card slot? and so many other things. m20 pro is better when compared to oppo k1. if you had compared it to the likes of pixel 3, note 9, iphone xs max, then its acceptable.
@Heiko Huber Same.
@TechTablets.com I own the phone and it never took more than one second to unlock.
@TechTablets.com if they are limiting performance on the Chinese version do you think it has something to do with the bloatware? In default mode I just scored 272104 and on performance it was on 301700. But I'm pretty sure I got it higher than that before by fresh booting it and clearing out the ram. I think if you want to buy this phone you should consider the international version, its incredible for emulation BTW.
@André Felipe Not sure it could possibly be better with new camera sensors and set up
@TechTablets.com No idea but something similar happened with my LG V20 I bought Korean version and global version. Korean display was way colder. Just speculating to display Asian faces better(colder color)?
@Simon C many is the minority unless your going debate the millions that use Instagram with compressed images
@Viyus Avery it matter to me, and many other people, if you look at the photo on a monitor or a TV screen, or if you want to see the true color/detail of the picture. The "winner " of MBKHD challenge are photo with heavily processed effect. Even Markus said it himself
@Viyus Avery Killed it hahah
@Simon C actual photos don't matter what matters is where they will be shared
@Neil Breen a phone w/ a headphone jack. Most feature packed?
@Ayushman Singh Being using mine for a good two months now. Previously had an Android One device with a pure Android. I have not made my mind on the EMUI, meaning it is neither better or worse in my everyday experience so far beside some redundant Huawei apps with I moved all to the Top Apps group and forgot about. You can directly copy/synchronize all your Google account apps and data (from your old phone) from the cloud so you dont have to use the Huawei maps, drive, store etc apps. If you put a thick tempered glass protector on the display the fingerprint sensor is harder/slower to use which is annoying. Face scanner is not always working depending on angle. I found out using the Night mode for photos significantly improves the photo quality in many cases despite the added delay. Night photos are amazing, video is average. Overall a delightfully smooth and powerful device with 2 day battery life. Have no regrets despite the price.
@Lelouch V Britannia EMUI 9.0 on top of Android 9.0 Pie
@Titus Good question, that's because it's the only model I could get ahold of.
@TechTablets.com why do a review with the Chinese model? The vast majority of people who watch your channel are not in China.
@Jeremar Legaspi Not with the Chinese version.
@TechTablets.com hopefully there will be more resellers to market that phone by next month or so then
@HuntaKiller yes they are talking advantage of this being the only ones shipping it out.
@TechTablets.com woaahhh thats almost twice the price they are charging in Malaysia..its around $200 here
@rlifeh okay thanks alot bro
@usman abdulkadir sure, go to palestine street, you will found it there with good price.
@rlifeh can i have it in jidda
@usman abdulkadir 3299 SAR (880$) 6GB 128GB
I want to know if you download Google camera is front camera not going to be soft or not ?
Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review. It sure has been getting a lot of attention, but is it the best Android phone of 2018? Almost. Where to buy: Trading Shenzhen: http://bit.ly/2QIglMX Video index: 01:21 - Box contents 01:53 - Thickness & weight 02:02 - Design & finish 03:50 - Build Vs Galaxy S9+ 04:18 - Face/fingerprint unlocking 05:09 - Screen in detail 07:16 - UI performance 09:23 - Benchmarks 10:42 - Battery life 11:19 - No 3rd party launchers 12:22 - Gaming performance 12:50 - Audio & sample 13:59 - Camera: Video samples 16:58 - Camera: Photo samples 18:27 - Recap with Pros & Cons Missing in pros: IP68 rating Missing in cons: it's very expensive!