Huawei P20 Pro review: Worthy challenger to Samsung Galaxy S9, iPhone X The Huawei P20 Pro might be on the pricier side, but the smartphone impresses as an all-rounder on all parameters, including photography
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has had a sketchy presence in India: The previous Huawei-branded smartphone to come to India was the Huawei P9, launched in August 2016. Now, after more than a year and a half, the world’s third-largest smartphone brand has launched in the country its flagship Huawei P20 Pro at Rs 64,999, soon after the smartphone’s international unveiling in Paris on March 27. The Huawei P20 Pro boasts a tri-camera set-up on the rear, a modern notch-based screen on the front, premium glass and metal build, and system-wide artificial intelligence capabilities. The flagship smartphone has a lot in store for everyone, but the phone is primarily directed to the niche audience of shutterbugs.
On paper, the P20 Pro competes, even surpasses, the flagship Samsung Galaxy S9-series and Apple iPhone X. However, is this the device that can bring some fresh air to the premium flagship segment, dominated at present by Samsung and Apple? Let’s take a look: Huawei P20 Pro – Design The Huawei P20 Pro boasts a glass-metal-glass sandwich design, similar to the Galaxy S9series and iPhone X. The curved glass back in the P20 Pro shows different colour hues when looked at from different angles, unlike the bland single colour that competitors have. However, the protruding camera module and a glass prone to fingerprints, similar to the iPhone X, might not catch everyone’s fancy. ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S9 vs Apple iPhone X: From price to design, how they compare The front is dominated by a notch-based 18.7:9 aspect ratio fullHD+ AMOLED screen and a fingerprint scanner that also doubles up as a gesture-based navigation key. The addition of a fingerprint scanner on the front might not look appealing, but it makes unlocking the device or navigating more convenient, especially when the phone is placed on a flat surface like table. Huawei P20 Pro – Screen The Huawei P20 pro sports a 6.1-inch fullHD+ OLED screen with a notch on top to accommodate the selfie camera, earpiece-cum-secondary speaker and a host of sensors. While the notch-based screen set-up is still not optimised for immersive experience on the Android operating system, Huawei has customised the OS to best suit the screen format, so the screen automatically adapts to content and offers seamless transition from notch-based to without notch. Also, the notch can be enabled or disabled from settings, based on user preference. This gives the user complete control over the notch. That makes Huawei’s iteration of notch in the P20 Pro the most polished yet.