Huawei P20 Pro, P20 Lite launch set for April 24; to go on sale via Amazon

Amazon-exclusive Huawei P20 Pro and P20 Lite smartphones are to be launched in India on April 24. Here are details of the Huawei P20 Pro and P20 Lite specifications, features and price in India

Huawei, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, will launch the Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Lite smartphones in India on April 24. These devices will go on sale exclusively through Amazon India and the e-commerce platform has already put up a promotional page listing both the smartphones.

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 P20 Lite, on the other hand, is a trimmed-down version, featuring a design theme similar to the premium P20 Pro, but with midrange specifications, a smaller screen and dual rear cameras on the back.

Here are the key features of the Huawei P20 Pro and P20 Lite:

Huawei P20 Pro

The Huawei P20 Pro sports a 40-megapixel wide-angle lens with f/1.6 aperture, 20MP monochrome lens with f/1.8 aperture, and an 8MP telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture, optimised by imaging experts at Leica, on the rear. The unique tri-camera enables 3x lossless optical zoom and 5x hybrid zoom capabilities.

The phone is powered by Huawei Kirin 970 system-on-chip (SoC), which features a dedicated AI engine known as neural processing unit (NPU). The phone boots Android 8.1-based EMUI 8.1 operating system. It sports a 6.1-inch 18.7:9 aspect ratio screen with a notch on top accommodating a 24MP front camera, earpiece and sensors. The Huawei P20 Pro features a 4,000 mAh battery, backed by an AI-powered battery management.

The Huawei P20 Pro supports a six-axis optical image stabilisation and 960fps super-slow motion. With ultra-snapshot mode, the device is capable of capturing an image in 0.3 seconds by just double-clicking the down volume button, even when the screen is off.

Powered by the Kirin 970 processor, the Huawei P20 Pro relies on in-built neural processing unit to identify more than 500 scenes from 19 categories and optimises camera settings to deliver enhanced shots. In addition, the Huawei AI-stabilisation (AIS) feature helps in taking stable long-exposure shots during low-light conditions without a tripod. The Huawei P20 Pro selfie camera features AI beautification and 3D portrait lighting, similar to the one found in the Apple iPhone X.

Huawei P20 Lite

The Huawei P20 Lite has a 16-megapixel primary lens, coupled with a 2MP secondary lens on the back. It is powered by Huawei Kirin 659 system-on-chip (SoC), which is the same processor that powers the Honor 9 Lite. The phone boots Android 8.1-based EMUI 8.1 operating system. It sports a smaller 5.84-inch FHD+ 18.7:9 aspect ratio screen with a notch on top accommodating a 16MP front camera, earpiece and sensors. The phone features a 3,000 mAh battery, backed by an AI-powered battery management.

Huawei P20 Pro camera

In a camera benchmarks by DxOMark ranking, the Huawei P20 Pro scored 109 points, making it the best camera smartphone among the current flagships.

Huawei P20-series vs Honor 10

The Huawei P20-series smartphone would be the second P-series devices -- the first since the Huawei P9 -- to officially launch in India. 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.

Recently, the Huawei’s online subsidiary Honor also unveiled the Honor 10, a cost-effective proposition built on the blueprints of Huawei P20-series. The Honor 10 features a colour-shifting glass body and the same Kirin 970 chip, paired with 6GB of RAM – similar to the Huawei P20 Pro. However, the phone sports Huawei P20-inspired dual camera set-up on the back – 16MP primary and 24MP monochrome lens – and a 24MP selfie camera on the front. The phone is powered by 3,400mAh battery and features fingerprint reader on the front.

Huawei's market share

Huawei, the world’s third largest smartphone brand, posted a 28 percent rise in 2017 net profit, driven by cost controls and a solid performance in its home market – according to a news report by Reuters. The Shenzhen-based company saw 2017 net profit rising to $7.3 billion, a big rebound from last year's 0.4 percent increase. Revenue of the company grew 15.7 per cent to 603.6 billion yuan, in line with what the company had earlier flagged, marking its slowest growth in four years.

Huawei has vowed to focus on improving profit after posting the slowest profit growth in five years in 2016 as its thin-margin smartphone business weighed down profit growth.

Competitors

OnePlus, another Chinese mid-range flagship manufacturer, is also gearing up to launch the OnePlus 6 in India sometime next month. Recently, in a form of tweet, the company indirectly hinted that the smartphone would bear an ingress protection (IP) rating, which would make it the first OnePlus device to sport water resistance capabilities.

In another event, the OnePlus CEO Pete Lau shared half a dozen of pictures captured using the OnePlus 6 on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The images were taken in broad daylight conditions and, therefore, show good amount of details. One of the images also shows the portrait mode capabilities, but fails to reveal the true prowess of the dual camera set-up.

Recently, in a leak shared by Chinese technology portal GizmoChina, the OnePlus 6's purported colour variants have also been shared, confirming that the phone would be available in multiple colour options -- black, white and blue.

Talking about the leak, the phone case maker brand Olixar recently uploaded its upcoming portfolio of cases for the OnePlus 6. The portfolio not only showcased the cases but also revealed the phone’s front completely.

In terms of specifications, nothing much has been officially confirmed, except that the OnePlus 6 would be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC) and the top-end variant would get an 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. However, the recent wireless certification also hints at the 64GB and 128GB internal storage variants with 6GB and 8GB RAM configurations.

As for the price, the OnePlus 6 would be the costliest smartphone from the stable of the Chinese smartphone maker. The OnePlus 6 with 64GB internal storage is reportedly going to cost between Rs 33,999 and Rs 36,999, while the 128GB storage variant may cost between Rs 38,999 and Rs 42,999, and the premium variant with 256GB storage between Rs 44,999 and Rs 48,999.