The Huawei Mate 20 features the flagship Kirin 980 SoC paired with 4 or 6 GB Of RAM. It sports an LCD display, a Leica branded triple camera setup and a hefty price tag.
Amidst the devices Huawei launched at its event in London, it would be safe to say that no one device was the “start of the show.” While there was the flagship Mate 20 Pro (First Impressions), there was also the Mate 20, a slightly watered-down version of the phone, but no slouch in its own right. We got to spend some time with the device during the launch and here are our first impressions.
Build and Design
The Huawei Mate 20 shares a striking design similarity to its more expensive sibling, the Mate 20 Pro. There’s the familiar glass on metal frame design and the unique colour schemes. In fact, if you look at the two phones from afar, it would be very difficult to tell the difference. However, there are a few cosmetic differences you could look out for. First, The Huawei Mate 20 has a slightly larger body to accommodate the 6.53-inch display. Then on the back, the camera housing it etched with a different lens-specification compared to what’s on the Mate 20 Pro. The Mate 20 also lacks an IP68 rating, which is a little disappointing. On the front, you can tell the Mate 20 and the Pro version apart thanks to the notch. On the Mate 20, we have a tear-drop notch since the phone doesn’t have any Face unlock hardware. You do get a fingerprint sensor on the back, which is good.
Specification and Features
The Huawei Mate 20 is powered by the same Kirin 980 chipset that powers the Mate 20 Pro. The Mate 20 will come in two variants, one with 4GB RAM and the other with 6GB RAM. Both the variants will have the same 128GB internal storage, which is good. The phone will support expandable storage but will provide the feature only through Huawei’s proprietary NM card.
Display
The Huawei Mate 20 features a 6.53-inch FHD+ IPS-LCD display with a tear-drop notch. The resolution on the panel is 2244×1080 with a pixel density of 381ppi. Again, the display supports the DCI-P3 colour space, but can only reproduce 16.7 million colours, meaning no HDR video playback. The teardrop notch combined with the fact that the Mate 20 has incredibly narrow bezels makes for a rather immersive viewing experience. There’s just enough bezel to keep ghost touch away, but at the same time, they’re narrow enough to basically melt away.
Camera
Once again, the highlight of the Huawei Mate 20 is the triple camera setup, but not all tri-camera units are made the same. The Mate 20’s camera assembly includes a 12-megapixel primary camera with a wide angle lens, a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera and an 8 megapixel 2x telephoto lens. You don’t get the behemoth 40-megapixel sensor here and neither do you get the 3x optical zoom. What you do get is the Leica branding, which means that all three camera units would have stellar lenses on them. We haven’t had the opportunity to test drive the camera on the Mate 20 and the little time we did manage to spend with it in the demo area was inconclusive of its performance.
Battery
The juice for all the goodness on the Mate 20 is provided by a 4000mAh battery with support for 22.5 Watt Super Charge. This battery won't charge as fast as the one on the Mate 20 Pro, but 22.5 Watts is still much faster than the 18Watt fast charge we’re used to seeing.
First Impressions
The Huawei Mate 20 feels like a significantly watered-down version of the Mate 20 Pro. While some trade-offs like the LCD display make sense, Huawei could have left in the 40Watt Super Charge and maybe even an IP rating. Especially when considering the steep price tag of €849 (Rs 72,000) for the base variant, the Huawei Mate 20 is going to have a hard time justifying its lack of features to support the price tag. Sure you still get a three-camera, Leica branded camera setup, but we’re not sure that is going to be enough.
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Swapnil Mathur
Swapnil was Digit's resident camera nerd, (un)official product photographer and the Reviews Editor. Swapnil has moved-on to newer challenges. For any communication related to his stories, please mail us using the email id given here. View Full Profile
