Huawei has launched the Huawei P20 Pro and P20 in France, Paris. And for the first time, the Huawei P20 Pro comes with triple lens that brings the mobile photography segment to another level. Kudos to Huawei and Leica on reinventing mobile photography.
The colors, availability and pricing of the Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro will be announced in early 2018. Here are the first look and my thoughts on them.
Surprisingly or not, the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro have a notch (there are a few leaks talking about it prior to the actual launch). Comparing to iPhone X, the notch is much smaller. It can be turned on/off via display settings.
Before looking at individual specs of the phones, here are the common ones:
- Processor: Kirin 970 (with Neural Processing Unit (NPU))(more details HERE)
- Shooting mode:
- Can shoot at 960 fps – super slow motion at 720P.
- AI-driven professional photography skill –> Master AI (AI determines the mode (e.g. waterfall, fireworks) and perform all the adjustment to get the optimum image automatically).
- Huawei AI Image stabilization – 4 secs Night Shot. This might be a game changer. It uses a variety of methods and utilizing different lens and algorithms to achieve it.
- Macro mode – Instead of the real macro, Huawei zooms into the object automatically when it detects that you are going to take a close shot. How the AI determines if it should zoom in or not is dependent on different conditions.
- Face Unlock: 0.3s in almost no light condition.
- Screen ratio:7:9
- Audio: 990Kpbs bandwidth
- Video stabilization: Crop (there is no lens stabilization)
- File format: RAW, DNG possible
- RAM: 4GB or 6GB depending on config
- Expansion slot: No
- Headphone Jack: No
- Wireless Charging: No
Huawei P20 Pro
- Screen Size: 6.1-inch
- Display: OLED
- Resolution: 2240 x 1080 pixels
- Pixels per inch: 420
- Thickness: 7.8mm
- Battery: 4,000mAh
- Colors: Black, Midnight Blue, Twilight, Champagne (Twilight is gradient color which can be identified easily under light source).
- Waterproof: Yes (IPX67)
- Weight: 180 grams
- Rear Camera:
- Tri-lens
- 8 MPX (f/2.4) (Tele)
- 40 MPX (f/1.8) (RGB – light infused 4 pixel => 1 pixel (2um))
- 20 MPX (f/1.6) (Mono)
- Low light performance: 1 Lux
- Lens: Vario-Summilux 27-80
- Zoom: 5x Hybrid Zoom (3x optical zoom)
- Sensor size: 1/1.7 inch sensor (that is super big! iPhone X: 1/2.8 inch, Samsung S9: 1/2.55 inch)
- ISO: Up to 102,400
- Focus: Supports autofocus (laser focus, deep focus, phase focus, contrast focus)
- Screen off to shoot in 0.3 s
- Front Camera: 24 MPX
- Sensor: Color temp sensor
Here are some shots of the Huawei P20 Pro
Front
On the front, you can barely see the notch and the front facing camera. On the bottom, it has the fingerprint sensor.
Back
On the back is the Triple Lens Rear Cameras (or tri-lens). Top lens is the 8 MPX Telephoto lens, Below it is the 40 MPX RGB lens. both are grouped together. the 20MPX Monochrome lens is the bottom one.
Here is a close-up.
Notice that the lenses are not flat.
Bottom
On the bottom, there is the USB-C port for charging and data transfer, and the speakers.
Top
It has the microphone but I am not sure about the other sensor.
Side
On this side, you can see the rocker volume button and the Power on/off button.
On this side, it has the SIM tray for the Micro-SIM card.
Huawei P20
- Screen size: 5.8-inch
- Display: LCD
- Resolution: 2244 x 1080 pixels
- Pixels per inch: 428
- Thickness: 7.65mm
- Battery: 3,400mAh
- Colors: Black, Midnight Blue, Pink Gold
- Waterproof: IP53
- Weight: 165 grams`
- Rear Camera: Dual Lens: 12 MPX (f/1.8)+20 MPX Monochrome (f/1.6)
- Front camera: 24MPX (f/2.0)
Here are some shots of the Huawei P20
Front
You can barely see the notch if the screen is not turned on. On the bottom is the fingerprint sensor.
Back
Here is the dual rear camera.
Close-up of the rear cameras.
Bottom
On the bottom, there is the USB-C port for charging and data transfer, and the speakers.
Top
On the top is the microphone.
Side
On this side, you can see the rocker volume button and the Power on/off button.
On this side, it has the SIM Tray slot.
Summary
Huawei has outshone the competition by bringing something new in the mobile photography segment. It is really a breath of fresh air in the saturated mobile phone market.
The usual standard photography skills are now taken over by AI (Artificial Intelligence). You no longer need to know photography to take great pictures (of course picture composition is still key).
Some of the features worth mentioning are:
- The triple lens systems that allow P20 Pro to have a hybrid zoom of 5x without losing quality.
- Multiple sensors for focusing in low light conditions which is where some brands failed to address.
- Large image sensor size which, in my opinion, catching up on compact cameras.
- Clever use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) which allows ease of mind on users. They started the AI journey on Huawei Mate 10 series and enhances it even more on the P20 series.
However, I hope that Huawei can take a close look at video capturing capabilities of their phones. Although it has video stabilization, it is done by software cropping. It is a good start but if they can have both software and hardware (OIS -> Optical Image Stabilization), it will be perfect.
And since it is already on a glass back, why not add in fast wireless charging? I am sure more people are enjoying the freedom of wireless charging.
Overall, a great phone for mobile photography with great partnership with Leica. There are more features but there is not enough time to share all in this first look.
Looking forward to having an in-depth review of the phone. Let me know in the comments what other things that you are interested to know.
PS: Huawei has also launched the third phone, the PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate RS. It will be available in Singapore from May 2018.