What’s Special About Huawei Mate 20 Pro?
- Design: The Mate 20 Pro has a curved, 6.39 inch, OLED screen and 19:5:9 screen-to-body ratio. The screen, though extended to incorporate the 3D camera, is smaller than that found on the iPhone XS range
- 3 rear facing cameras: On the back is a triple camera system using a 40 megapixel standard camera, an 8 megapixel telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom and new for this year is a 20 megapixel ultra-wide angle camera, replacing the monochrome sensor used on the P20 Pro.
- Security: As well as 3D facial recognition, the Mate 20 Pro comes with an in-screen fingerprint reader. Certain applications, like messaging apps, can also be set up so they can only be unlocked using facial unlock or fingerprint ID.
- Augmented Reality (AR): The devices allow users to turn any object into a 3D emoji which can be inserted into videos and other images.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro Release Date
- On Tuesday 16th October, at the ExCeL Centre in London, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group announced their new Mate 20 series of smartphones the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, to a live crowd of key media
- Arriving in five colour variants (Midnight Blue, Emerald Green, Black, Twilight and Pink Gold), both devices come pre-loaded with Android 9 Pie and EMUI 9
- The Mate Pro will be available to buy in UK around 26th October, whilst the Porsche variant expected to be available in December.
- The handsets feature a triple camera system, allowing users to isolate human subjects and de-saturate the colours around them in order to highlight them against their backgrounds. Machine-learning techniques are also used to automatically select the best lens for each shot
- The Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 both include a memory card slot that is the same size and shape as a Nano SIM card. The company said this new Nano memory card technology would allow users to use two SIM cards at once if desired
- In addition, both phones come with high capacity batteries: 4,000mAh in the Mate 20 and 4,200mAh in the Mate 20 Pro. The devices also include wireless projection, NAS backup, and an underwater photography mode with IP68 water resistance (in the Pro model)
- Another distinguishing feature of the Pro version is Wireless Reverse Charging – which allows its battery to be used to recharge other devices that share the Qi power-transfer standard. It also comes with fingerprint on display and a 3D facial scanner
- Also announced was the Porsche Design Mate 20 RS variant, the Mate 20 X, a gaming focused handset with a 7.2 inch OLED screen and Huawei Watch GT, a smartwatch that uses Huawei’s in-house operating system instead of Wear OS
- Guest speakers at the event included Bob Borchers, Google VP of Marketing, to talk about YouTube signature device certification and Android 9 Pie as well as Porsche CEO Jan Becker to discuss design.
- The overall sentiment of the launch was generally positive, with commentators praising innovative features such as the embedded fingerprint scanner, updated camera system and the wireless charging capabilities in particular.
- Some commentators criticised the presentation’s numerous references to Apple and Samsung when discussing screen size, imaging and charging; claiming that there was too much focus on the competition rather than what Huawei was doing.
How Much will Huawei Mate 20 Pro Cost?
- The pricing of the devices, which are available now, also drew some criticism from media and analysts alike (£699 / £749 for the Mate 20, £899 for the Mate 20 Pro and £1,499 for the Porsche Design Mate 20 RS)