Today is shaping up to be an exciting day because Huawei is finally revealing their new Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. Rather than the all-metal bodies that previous Mate versions utilized, the Huawei Mate 20 series now has a stunning all-glass body reminiscent of the flagship P20 and P20 Pro. But that’s just the beginning…
The Mate 20 Pro features a 6.39″ 2K+ curved OLED HDR display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Even though the Mate 20 Pro has a generously sized screen, the phone itself is comfortable to hold and feels surprisingly compact. The Mate 20 has slightly larger dimensions along with a 6.53″ LCD FHD HDR display with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio.
The front of the Mate 20 Pro has a much larger camera array, so the notch is wider. On the front of the Mate 20, you’ll notice what they are calling their “dewdrop display.”
The Mate 20 is the first phone to support LTE Cat 21 with speeds up to 1.4GB/second, and both Mate 20 devices are powered by Huawei’s best and fastest processor yet – the Kirin 980. Huawei says that the Kirin 980 “offers a 20% improvement when it comes to speed, and a 40% improvement when it comes to power efficiency.”
The Mate 20 has a 4,000 mAh battery. The Mate 20 Pro has a 4,200mAh beast of a battery complete with Huawei’s latest 40W SuperCharge technology — which can charge the phone from 0-70% in just 30 minutes! The Mate 20 Pro also includes 15W wireless quick charging (currently double the industry standard), but even more interestingly — the Mate 20 Pro can utilize wireless reverse charging — it can be used as a wireless charging pad in and of itself. In other words, you can use the Mate 20 Pro’s huge battery to charge yet another Qi-enabled device. Huawei is confirming that this is a world’s first.
Like the P20 Pro flagship phone, the Mate 20 series comes with Leica optics; a brand new Leica triple camera system is featured. The Mate 20 Pro’s Leica triple camera system is made up of a 27mm 40-megapixel wide-angle (f 1.8), a 17mm 20-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens (f2.2), and a 52mm 8-megapixel 2x telephoto lens (f2.4 OIS). You can get as close as 2.5cm from an object with the ultra-wide lens for clear closeup photos.
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is on the left; the Mate 20 is on the right.
The four-point camera array design on the back of both the Mate 20 and the Mate 20 Pro make them easy to spot from across the room; it’s easy to tell the Mate 20 from the Mate 20 Pro if you watch for the fingerprint reader on the back of the Mate 20.
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is on the left, and the Mate 20 (Twilight color) is on the left.
Huawei has led the way with AI-powered phones; the P20 and P20 Pro’s cameras have a “thinking lens” which is able to recognize objects as you point to them, and they will automatically optimize the photo’s settings according to the scene being captured. As of this writing, the AI-powered camera can recognize over 500 different types of scenes. This comes into play when filming videos, as well, because the camera is able to use AI 4D to automatically recognize when to focus on a particular object. A new Cinema Mode is able to render effects onto your video in real-time. One of the cool new effects (AI Portrait Color) resembles the way Sin City was shot — where most of the scene is in black and white — but the object you are focussing on is in color.
Beyond offering the typical black or blue phone versions, the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro will each come in solid pink, black, and twilight, as well as the hyper-optical emerald-green and midnight blue. Those latter two hyper-optical colors have a bit of a trick up their sleeve — when you scratch your finger against them, the effect is not unlike rubbing your finger against a record. You’ll feel the grooves that are helping to make the phone more fingerprint resistant than regular glass, yet when you hold the phone in your hand, it feels smooth. The Mate 20 Pro is IP68 dust and water-resistant, and the Mate 20 is IP52 dust and water-resistant.
The Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro will run Android Pie-based EMUI 9.0; EMUI 9.0 is more refined and intuitive, less complex, and easier to navigate — especially with one hand. The Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro are fast, too! System responsiveness is 47% faster than the Mate 10 Pro; starting an app is up to 51% faster, and apps in use are up to 42% smoother. Huawei says that EMUI 9.0 “is able to launch popular apps like Chromebook, Facebook and Google apps faster than any of the competition out there.” There is full-frame support for popular games, in fact, the whole gaming experience is more stable overall.
Worth noting is that the Mate 20 will be available with either 4 or 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, and the Mate 20 Pro will have 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. Each phone can add up to 256GB expandable memory in the form of a nanoSD card.
The Mate 20 Pro has a 3D depth-sensing camera, so when using Face Unlock, a new beard, glasses, or a hat won’t matter — the Mate 20 Pro will still be able to recognize you. But the thing that most excites me is the that the Mate 20 Pro has a new in-screen DPS (Dynamic Pressure Sensing) Technology fingerprint reader. This is some sci-fi stuff right here; as your finger approaches the screen, the screen will light up and direct you on where to place your finger for proper recognition and unlocking.
The Huawei Mate 20 series are bringing a host of exciting new features, and the Mate 20 Pro is truly a flagship contender; all of its features including the beautiful glass design, in-screen fingerprint reader, Leica triple-camera lens system, the extra-large battery, and ultra-fast charging make it a phone you’ll want to carry. Is it any wonder then, that in the 2nd quarter of 2018, Huawei overtook Apple to become the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in term of global shipments?
We’ll have a full review of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro coming soon. The Mate 20 will sell for €799 and €849; the Mate 20 Pro will sell for €1049 look for them after October 16th.
Huawei’s Watch GT
A major phone launch deserves a new wearable launch, don’t you think? Huawei agrees, and they are announcing the new Huawei Watch GT; one of its most impressive features is incredibly long battery life.
For the Watch GT, Huawei is breaking with tradition by going with their own in-house OS. According to Huawei, one big benefit of their Lite OS is above-average battery life. They are describing the battery life as “revolutionary” because the Watch GT can go for as long as 2 weeks with active use and continuous heart rate monitoring. Alternatively, it can last for 30 days while receiving calls and message alerts but with GPS and heart rate monitoring turned off, or it will last for 22 hours with all notifications on, GPS working, and continuous heart rate monitoring on.
The Huawei Watch GT has a stainless steel case with a diamond-like coating and dual crown display. At 10.6mm, the Watch GT is slim and classic; the front is a 1.39″ AMOLED display. The Watch GT uses 3 GPS modes; it is essentially always triangulating to provide you with a single, precise, location.
Heart monitoring is done using Huawei’s AI-driven Truseen 3.0 technology; AI is used to determine the position of your watch and what it’s doing at any given moment; the watch can recognize when it’s on a less accurate spot on your wrist and adjust accordingly.
The Huawei Watch GT has multiple tracking modes so it can properly track your indoor and outdoor activities. There is also a training mode with a built-in coaching system. The built-in health assistant tracks the quality and length of your sleep, and it adds the data to your Google Fit or Apple Health profile. The Watch GT is IP54 dust and water-resistant.
The Watch GT will be available in Q1 2019; The Sport version will be €199 and the dressier version will be €249.
Disclosure: Huawei paid for my travel, room, and most meals; there were no conditions or expectations made regarding what I chose to write about regarding my experience.
