While Huawei is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons at the moment, you can't fault the company's efforts in the smartphone arena when it comes to pure effort. Not so long ago the name Huawei meant nothing to western buyers, but now the firm is one of the top phone makers on the planet and its 2018 offerings are so good they're seriously challenging the likes of Apple, Samsung and LG.
The Huawei P20 Pro may seem like it's playing second fiddle to the high-profile Huawei Mate 20 Pro, but it feels like a flagship phone without any shadow of a doubt, and the fact that the company is capable of putting out two such potent handsets shows how far it has come. But is the P20 Pro really worth a look when its sibling – which boasts four cameras – is on the market at the same time? Let's find out.
Huawei P20 Pro Review: Design & Display
One area where Huawei has really stepped up its game this year is design; the P20 Pro really is a stunner, with the glossy blue variant exhibiting a two-tone colour scheme that changes before your eyes as you move the phone. It looks seriously swish, and the more muted black variant is a little disappointed in comparison. No matter which version you get, you can rest assured that you're getting a handsome phone.
There are some unique design traits here, too. This is one of the few flagship phones in 2018 to have a fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone, and it's an odd sensation to say the least – most Android phones place the scanner on the back of the device, which means you can't unlock them when they're lying face-up on a table. You naturally don't have this problem with the P20 Pro, but it does mean that the screen doesn't quite fill the entire front of the device; there's a massive 'chin' at the bottom where the scanner resides.
This results in a phone which looks a little lop-sided from the front; while you have an iPhone X-style notch at the top of the display, the chin at the bottom robs the P20 Pro of its 'all-screen' appeal. To be honest, you get used to this faster than you might expect, and we're not sure we'd be any happier if Huawei had placed the scanner on the back and given the phone a larger screen.
Speaking of the notch, it's smaller than the one on Apple's device, but it's packing a lot less cool stuff. There's just a speaker and camera, and no fancy 3D imaging array to facilitate secure face unlocking. The P20 Pro does feature a face unlock feature – and it's pretty fast and works well even in darkened environments – but it simply compares your face to a 2D image stored in memory, so it isn't as accurate or secure. We wouldn't rely on it totally, even if it is a quick way of unlocking the device.
The 1080 x 2240 AMOLED screen is a bit of an odd size but delivers bright colours and deep blacks. We couldn't fault it, even if it's not the highest resolution panel on an Android phone in 2018.
There's no 3.5mm jack, and the phone has IP67 certification. It also uses USB Type-C for charging.
Huawei P20 Pro Review: Performance
Raw processing power is perhaps the only area where the P20 Pro feels less than top-drawer. Unlike the Mate 20 Pro, which has the newer Kirin 980 CPU, the P20 Pro is packing the older 970 chipset. What this means (on paper, at least) is that this handset is slightly behind other 2018 flagships when it comes to pure power, but it's important to note that it has a slightly lower resolution screen than many other devices so it's pushing fewer pixels.
We put the P20 Pro through its paces with a wide range of tasks, apps and games and never found ourselves disappointed by its performance. 6GB of RAM helps keep things moving, and the phone seems to be pretty good at keeping apps in memory during busy periods.
Naturally, if you're keen to have the very best tech inside your phone then you might want to opt for the Mate 20 Pro, but in real-world terms, we can't imagine most users will even be able to tell there's a power difference between the two.
Huawei P20 Pro Review: Camera
When it comes to photography, Huawei is really pulling out all of the stops right now. The Mate 20 Pro (sorry we keep mentioning that one) has four cameras, but the P20 Pro is no slouch in this department either. While it only has three cameras on the back, the setup is perfect for taking some amazing shots.
What we've got here is a main 40-megapixel snapper with a secondary monochrome 20-megapixel sensor which essentially aids the main camera. This reduces image noise and basically results in better shots. The third camera offers x3 optical zoom. The promise of 40-megapixel photos might seem tantalising, but unless you're planning on zooming in and cropping photos you're better off using the standard 10-megapixel setting, which produces some incredible shots. The front camera is a 24-megapixel variant that is capable of snapping great selfies.
With a full suite of shooting modes and some brilliant AI-based capabilities, the P20 Pro is an excellent choice for mobile photographers. The icing on the cake is the amazing night mode, which rivals Google's market-leading Pixel 3 when it comes to taking shots in dim environments. We've often voiced the opinion that phones don't really need more than one rear camera, but Huawei robust approach makes us reconsider this stance; while it's not any better than the Pixel 3 in this regard, the phone uses this camera setup in an intelligent way, and we really like having x3 optical zoom.
Video options are also impressive; our favourite feature is super-slow motion recording, which captures at 960fps (32x speed), although footage is limited to 720p and ends up looking quite fuzzy, especially if you're not shooting in decent light.
Huawei P20 Pro Review: Battery Life & Storage
With its whopping 4,000mAh battery, the P20 Pro has more than enough stamina for most users, and we were consistently impressed by its ability to last an entire day without gasping for air. Even when we adopted a heavier-than-typical usage pattern – factoring in HD movies, music, 3D games and the like – the phone still had juice in the tank by the time we got home.
Even when you are in a pinch and need to top-up fast, it's not a massive issue as the P20 Pro has quick-charging that means you can fill it up rapidly. It takes just over an hour to totally charge the battery from zero, provided you use a suitable power supply. Sadly, wireless charging isn't included.
In terms of storage, our review unit came with a roomy 128GB of space – that's the base amount, which is quite generous when you consider that many phones start off with 64GB. A more expensive 256GB variant is also available, and this comes with 8GB of RAM instead of the usual 6GB. Picking the right amount of storage space is important because the P20 Pro lacks a MicroSD card slot.
Huawei P20 Pro Review: Verdict
While the Mate 20 Pro is going to be seen as Huawei's leading device this year, the P20 Pro has all the makings of a flagship phone at a price which should probably be considered mid-range. While it lacks wireless charging, runs a weaker processor and doesn't have the fancy four-camera setup seen on the Mate 20 Pro, it's arguably a better deal if you're concerned about spending £700 on a phone. Thanks to a great design, punchy screen, decent stamina and fantastic photographic setup, the P20 Pro is easy to recommend.
Thanks to Mobile Fun for supplying the Huawei P20 Pro used in this review.
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