Huawei P20 Pro first impressions: AI-powered masterpiece for shutterbugs

Priced at Rs 64,999, the camera-centric Huawei P20 Pro at smartphone will go on sale exclusively on Amazon India starting from May 3

Huawei, a Chinese telecommunication equipment manufacturer, on April 24 launched the Huawei P20 Pro at Rs 64,999. The camera-centric smartphone will go on sale exclusively on Amazon India starting from May 3.

Artificial Intelligence

Unveiled earlier this month, the Huawei P20 Pro features the world’s first Leica-branded tri-camera module assisted by an artificial intelligence engine developed in-house by the company. The AI-based camera support system is not new and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Asus, Oppo, Vivo, LG, etc. already have their personalised iteration of it featuring in their latest offering.

However, the AI technology used in the Huawei P20 Pro takes a different approach. The Chinese manufacturer’s, instead of relying on Qualcomm processors that most of the flagships boast, in-house developed the Kirin 970 system-on-chip, which features a dedicated neural processing unit that does the machine learning and AI jobs. As a result, Huawei P20 Pro offers system-wide AI utilities, especially to enhance the camera output, battery life and user interface. This is kind of a similar approach used by Samsung and Apple in their current flagship series. However, the actual utilisation of the AI system in Huawei P20 Pro is by far the most enhanced for the smartphones.

Camera

Speaking of the cameras, the Huawei P20 Pro tri-camera set-up sports a mammoth a 40-megapixel main shooter paired with a 20MP monochrome lens and an 8MP telephoto lens. There is also a 24MP selfie camera on the front. Leaving the megapixels aside, the camera module used in the P20 Pro seems to be a real imaging powerhouse, especially in low-light conditions. The primary camera works in tandem with monochrome lens and, therefore, gets ample light to brighten even the dull scene exponentially. In auto mode, the camera might not come close to Samsung’s latest offering. However, tweak setting a little in manual mode and the camera delivers unmatched output.

Screen

Coming on to the screen, the Huawei P20 pro sports a 6.1-inch fullHD+ OLED screen with a notch on top accommodating selfie camera, earpiece cum secondary speaker and host of sensors. The notch-based screen was first introduced in Apple anniversary edition iPhone X last year. However, most of the Android OEMs seems to have taken inspiration from the Cupertino-based technology giant to roll out their iteration of the notch-based screen in their latest offering.

However, the iteration adopted by Huawei in the P20 Pro seems to be the most polished yet. The notch in the P20 measures 1.7mm and the OLED screen puts it close to the iteration used in iPhone X. Some might say that the fullHD+ resolution in 18.7:9 aspect ratio is not enough, especially when the counterparts in the same segment offers quadHD resolution. But, it has been observed that the quadHD resolution hampers the battery efficiency to a large extent. Devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9+ or Galaxy S9 with quadHD resolution screen come set to a fullHD resolution. Although, these devices have an option to set the screen to quadHD resolution, it has been observed that the battery life takes a toll and therefore, in most cases, users stick with fullHD resolution as default.

One thing that is worth pointing out here is that the phone’s screen supports HDR10. However, the device is still not compatible with YouTube to play HRD10 content and therefore the utility is restricted to only viewing downloaded content via native app.

Multimedia

Speaking of multimedia, the Huawei P20 Pro sports stereo speakers set-up, similar to the one found in the Samsung Galaxy S9-series -- a dedicated bottom mounted speaker and an earpiece on the front that doubles as secondary speaker. However, Huawei’s stereo speaker set-up is tuned to work differently in portrait and landscape mode, which gives it an edge over Samsung Galaxy S9-series. The stereo speakers are backed by Dolby Atmos codecs and the sound output is on-par with Galaxy S9-series and Apple iPhone X.

First impressions

Overall, the Huawei P20 Pro seems to be a strong contender in the premium smartphone segment. However, the device also seems to be designed for a niche segment – photographers, videographers and content creators.

Competitors

Honor 10

The Huawei P20 is the second P-series devices to officially launch in India -- the first since the Huawei P9. The company has a history of launching affordable Honor-branded smartphones in India, as these offer flagship-inspired features and specifications at lower price tags. Talking about Honor devices, the Huawei’s sub-brand recently unveiled the Honor 10, which is a trimmed down version of the Huawei P20 Pro.

OnePlus 6

It is also important to note here that another Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus is gearing up for the launch of its fifth generation flagship device – the OnePlus 6. The midrange smartphone might not have a tri-camera set-up or the advanced AI technology employed by Huawei. But, based on previous OnePlus devices, it is expected that the OnePlus 6 would be addressed to masses, rather than to a niche segment.

Talking about the OnePlus 6, the upcoming flagship will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC) and have a 256GB storage variant paired with 8GB of RAM. Also, there would be an ingress protection (IP) rating for water and dust resistance, which would make it the first OnePlus device to feature this feature.

Recently, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that the smartphone will make a departure from the current trend of an aluminium build in favour of a glass body, but it would retain horizontal lines and curved design.

Asuz Zenfone 5-series

Taiwan-based smartphone maker Asus is also due to launch the Zenfone 5-series in India sometime soon. Just like Huawei P20 Pro and OnePlus 6, the Zenfone 5-series sports a notch-based screen with fullHD+ resolution. Asus has also been vocal about the system-wide AI integration. However, it is still to be seen if the Taiwanese giant can match the prowess of Huawei’s Kirin 970-backed AI module.