Huawei Mate 20 Pro Smartphone Review

[Redaktion]

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro's spec sheet is littered with flagship level hardware including the new Kirin 980 SoC, the currently fastest LTE modem in a consumer smartphone, reverse wireless charging and a fingerprint sensor underneath its display. This review will be putting all this new hardware and more through its paces to determine whether the Mate 20 Pro's technical prowess translates into real-world performance.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Huawei-Mate-20-Pro-Smartphone-Review.338680.0.html

[S.Yu]

1. Imaging should be compared to P20P as the hardware is most similar.
2. I advise removing "GPU Turbo 2.0" from the specs, Huawei admitted to very limited support to only a few games, and any further support requires additional specific effort on Huawei's side. It shouldn't be part of the specs because of its very limited applicability, also any additional benefits are very doubtful from Huawei's shocking advertising trickery for version 1.
3. I see many mistakes in this version of the review, for example in many benchmarks either the Mate 20P is missing or it's incorrectly labeled Mate 10P.

[genoveffo]

Looks like the results on Geekbench are a bit embarrassing. On single core is almost 50% slower and also slower than S9 plus. Multi core looks like it's one year (10%) lagging behind the iPhone. I admit I was expecting more, given the boisterous claims.

[renjieah]

I hope notebookcheck can test the screen as soon as possible. The screen comes from Beijing Oriental, which is the first large-scale use of the amoled, so many friends are looking forward to the actual performance of the screen.

[renjieah]

I hope notebookcheck can test the screen as soon as possible. The screen comes from Beijing Oriental, which is the first large-scale use of the amoled, so many friends are looking forward to the actual performance of the screen.

Because of the translation used, there have been some errors, Beijing Oriental→BOE

[Ian]

The camera snaps look pretty good, wonder how it will compare to the galaxy s10. For now, the kirin is unmatched in performance, but in 5 months we will see wether samsung exynos can be on top.

[Darren Cheng]

The 1733 WIFI speed is based on 160MHz, normal router has only up to 80MHz supported, in order to reach the maximun speed of it, you need an 160MHz supported router (eg. Netgear R7800/R9000). Linksys EA8500 has the ability to run 160MHz too but it required user to manually switch on, and reviews showed the 160MHz in this model nearly broken, so it will be kinda waste of time to run the test

[S.Yu]

Another review without confirmation of whether the 960fps video is real or 240fps interpolated...
Night performance has definitely regressed, in line with my initial impressions looking at GSMA's samples.

[Sliderpro]

Whatis wrong with this incompetent review?

Display section. However, a look at the sub-pixel array highlights that Huawei has equipped the Mate 20 Pro with a PenTile matrix panel, which is not as sharp as their RGB counterparts
Excuse me, WTF did I just read? We do have AMOLED displays WITHOUT pentile? Please show me at least 3 flagship device which have AMOLED, but dont have pentile - as of recent years. Otherwise, fire whoever wrote this idiocity, as it makes no sense except throwing dirt at Huawei, making them look like they put some horrible display tech.
---
Again, here.
Samsung has also been using PenTile matrix panels in its cheaper smartphones because its displays have high pixel densities.
Pentile is being used in cheaper phones....? And it has higher pixel densities? O rly? Care to give examples? Pentile pixel array is being exclusively used in OLED screens, because it allows the splitting of green subpixel which otherwise burns out really quickly due to OLED technology imperfections - which was the reason for RGBG matrix in the first place. And it has been this way since galaxy s3 or galaxy s4.
Again, this is some serious level of incompetence and trying to make Huawei look bad, saying that they use same tech as Samsung cheap phones. And this is outright lying.
---
Again here in display selection.
However, our comparison devices like the Xperia XZ2 Premium not only have UHD displays but also double the number of sub-pixels that the Mate 20 Pro has. Please keep in mind that you must manually switch the Xperia XZ2 Premium to enjoy its maximum resolution permanently as the device automatically alters its resolution according to what is onscreen.
You write this and there is NOT.A.SINGLE.WORD about Huawei having REVOLUTIONARY new pentile matrix which has COMPLETELY different pixel layout than ANY other OLED screen. This new pixel layout is as UNIQUE as it can get, yet, the author of the review ignores this fact and writes about Sony XZ2P being better, sharper, greater? What is that supposed to mean? Were you paid by Sony to talk trash? This is unacceptable. Why didn't you write about LG G7 display being brighter? I demand that to be included in the review - or else this is not fair to both LG G7 and M20P. Now you should start writing about XZ2P screen being sharper in every new review for consistency sake. Just to make sure to remind readers that Huawei not only uses cheap phone tech, but Sony is better.
---
Another thing.
1) The Mate 20 Pro is a comparatively hot device. Surface temperatures average over 31.7 °C when our test device is idling, which then rose to an average of 40.3 ° C when we subjected the device to sustained load. Moreover, the area to the left of the rear-facing cameras reached a toasty 44.5 ° C.
2) Please note that we conducted our battery tests with "Performance" mode activated and our test device's display set its maximum resolution.

Please clarify. You did your battery life tests with performance mode - for what reason was that done? Do you test all your phones now with "high performance" mode active or is it just M20P to make it look bad?
You didnt test OP6T with "Performance mode" active. Nor did you test Asus Zenfone 5Z with high power mode active. Again, was THIS done to make Huawei Mate 20P look bad so that you can make this claim about The Mate 20 Pro has surprisingly high power consumption?
Again, this is unfair to M20P.


This level of trash talk is unacceptable. It has never been seen before on this website. I might be emailing Huawei so this M20P would be the last Huawei device you ever receive.

[patoka]

Whatis wrong with this incompetent review?

Display section. However, a look at the sub-pixel array highlights that Huawei has equipped the Mate 20 Pro with a PenTile matrix panel, which is not as sharp as their RGB counterparts
Excuse me, WTF did I just read? We do have AMOLED displays WITHOUT pentile? Please show me at least 3 flagship device which have AMOLED, but dont have pentile - as of recent years. Otherwise, fire whoever wrote this idiocity, as it makes no sense except throwing dirt at Huawei, making them look like they put some horrible display tech.
---
Again, here.
Samsung has also been using PenTile matrix panels in its cheaper smartphones because its displays have high pixel densities.
Pentile is being used in cheaper phones....? And it has higher pixel densities? O rly? Care to give examples? Pentile pixel array is being exclusively used in OLED screens, because it allows the splitting of green subpixel which otherwise burns out really quickly due to OLED technology imperfections - which was the reason for RGBG matrix in the first place. And it has been this way since galaxy s3 or galaxy s4.
Again, this is some serious level of incompetence and trying to make Huawei look bad, saying that they use same tech as Samsung cheap phones. And this is outright lying.
---
Again here in display selection.
However, our comparison devices like the Xperia XZ2 Premium not only have UHD displays but also double the number of sub-pixels that the Mate 20 Pro has. Please keep in mind that you must manually switch the Xperia XZ2 Premium to enjoy its maximum resolution permanently as the device automatically alters its resolution according to what is onscreen.
You write this and there is NOT.A.SINGLE.WORD about Huawei having REVOLUTIONARY new pentile matrix which has COMPLETELY different pixel layout than ANY other OLED screen. This new pixel layout is as UNIQUE as it can get, yet, the author of the review ignores this fact and writes about Sony XZ2P being better, sharper, greater? What is that supposed to mean? Were you paid by Sony to talk trash? This is unacceptable. Why didn't you write about LG G7 display being brighter? I demand that to be included in the review - or else this is not fair to both LG G7 and M20P. Now you should start writing about XZ2P screen being sharper in every new review for consistency sake. Just to make sure to remind readers that Huawei not only uses cheap phone tech, but Sony is better.
---
Another thing.
1) The Mate 20 Pro is a comparatively hot device. Surface temperatures average over 31.7 °C when our test device is idling, which then rose to an average of 40.3 ° C when we subjected the device to sustained load. Moreover, the area to the left of the rear-facing cameras reached a toasty 44.5 ° C.
2) Please note that we conducted our battery tests with "Performance" mode activated and our test device's display set its maximum resolution.

Please clarify. You did your battery life tests with performance mode - for what reason was that done? Do you test all your phones now with "high performance" mode active or is it just M20P to make it look bad?
You didnt test OP6T with "Performance mode" active. Nor did you test Asus Zenfone 5Z with high power mode active. Again, was THIS done to make Huawei Mate 20P look bad so that you can make this claim about The Mate 20 Pro has surprisingly high power consumption?
Again, this is unfair to M20P.


This level of trash talk is unacceptable. It has never been seen before on this website. I might be emailing Huawei so this M20P would be the last Huawei device you ever receive.

LOL You're acting like they've offended you personally. They might have confused a bit the pentile and rgb stuff, but they are still obly half wrong as the obly reason there aren't rgb AMOLED screen is the pixel life. I don't think it's a bad thing to wish for an RGB AMOLED screen even if might be few years until Samsung and other manufacturers will be able to make them again without the current issues. It is afact than rgb looks much sharper and that's why the good lcd screens nowadays look sharper than AMOLED.

Also, aside from the weird pixel layout, there is nothing revolutionary about the mate 20 pro's screen. It's  not sharper or anything than Samsung or LG or anyone else. If anything the AMOLED screen on the Sony XZ3 is the best looking AMOLED screen and is kinda revolutionary as it is the  only 10-bit one. And they are also not wrong, the Sony xz2 premium screen makes the mate 20 pro screen look like SD despite it's resolution.

And as far as your comments about the "performance mode" go, they decided to keep the phone at it for performance's sake and thus kept it on for the battery test. You can't brag about how fast a phone is and how well it does at benchmarks and then turn off the "performance mode" and say that it lasts this or that amount of time when in fact it doesn't last the same amount of time if you want your phone to be as fast as the benchmarks say. That's the same as bragging about the screen resolution being 1440p and then turning it to 1080p for the battery test.

I'm not bashing on you of huawei - in fact I tested all of the new flagship phones last week and bought the mate 20 and love it, but you are really overreacting. If you love the mate 20 you don't need a tech site for confirmation about its merits.

[S.Yu]

Whatis wrong with this incompetent review?

Display section. However, a look at the sub-pixel array highlights that Huawei has equipped the Mate 20 Pro with a PenTile matrix panel, which is not as sharp as their RGB counterparts
Excuse me, WTF did I just read? We do have AMOLED displays WITHOUT pentile? Please show me at least 3 flagship device which have AMOLED, but dont have pentile - as of recent years. Otherwise, fire whoever wrote this idiocity, as it makes no sense except throwing dirt at Huawei, making them look like they put some horrible display tech.
---
Again, here.
Samsung has also been using PenTile matrix panels in its cheaper smartphones because its displays have high pixel densities.
Pentile is being used in cheaper phones....? And it has higher pixel densities? O rly? Care to give examples? Pentile pixel array is being exclusively used in OLED screens, because it allows the splitting of green subpixel which otherwise burns out really quickly due to OLED technology imperfections - which was the reason for RGBG matrix in the first place. And it has been this way since galaxy s3 or galaxy s4.
Again, this is some serious level of incompetence and trying to make Huawei look bad, saying that they use same tech as Samsung cheap phones. And this is outright lying.
---
Again here in display selection.
However, our comparison devices like the Xperia XZ2 Premium not only have UHD displays but also double the number of sub-pixels that the Mate 20 Pro has. Please keep in mind that you must manually switch the Xperia XZ2 Premium to enjoy its maximum resolution permanently as the device automatically alters its resolution according to what is onscreen.
You write this and there is NOT.A.SINGLE.WORD about Huawei having REVOLUTIONARY new pentile matrix which has COMPLETELY different pixel layout than ANY other OLED screen. This new pixel layout is as UNIQUE as it can get, yet, the author of the review ignores this fact and writes about Sony XZ2P being better, sharper, greater? What is that supposed to mean? Were you paid by Sony to talk trash? This is unacceptable. Why didn't you write about LG G7 display being brighter? I demand that to be included in the review - or else this is not fair to both LG G7 and M20P. Now you should start writing about XZ2P screen being sharper in every new review for consistency sake. Just to make sure to remind readers that Huawei not only uses cheap phone tech, but Sony is better.
---
Another thing.
1) The Mate 20 Pro is a comparatively hot device. Surface temperatures average over 31.7 °C when our test device is idling, which then rose to an average of 40.3 ° C when we subjected the device to sustained load. Moreover, the area to the left of the rear-facing cameras reached a toasty 44.5 ° C.
2) Please note that we conducted our battery tests with "Performance" mode activated and our test device's display set its maximum resolution.

Please clarify. You did your battery life tests with performance mode - for what reason was that done? Do you test all your phones now with "high performance" mode active or is it just M20P to make it look bad?
You didnt test OP6T with "Performance mode" active. Nor did you test Asus Zenfone 5Z with high power mode active. Again, was THIS done to make Huawei Mate 20P look bad so that you can make this claim about The Mate 20 Pro has surprisingly high power consumption?
Again, this is unfair to M20P.


This level of trash talk is unacceptable. It has never been seen before on this website. I might be emailing Huawei so this M20P would be the last Huawei device you ever receive.

Give it up Huawei drone. BOE's panel is just OLED, AMOLED is Samsung's trademark, get your basic facts straight! Pentile has advanced over the years and so far Samsung's diamond matrix is doing very well. BOE changed the subpixel layout, so what? It's true that their layout has much fewer subpixels for a set PPI than other layouts, IIRC even fewer than the original Pentile. Yeah so they came up with a new layout to avoid patent issues, SO WHAT? What warrants the lavish praise you're pouring over this model? HOW IS IT BETTER?? There are reports of uneven patches of green appearing on the screen of this model when displaying grey too. And FYI there are RGB OLED screens! My old Walkman had one and most EVFs are RGB OLED!
"...with "high performance" mode active or is it just M20P to make it look bad?"  Huawei cheated by silently activating their so called "performance mode" automatically to look good in benchmarks for Kirin 970 models, now it comes to battery life and you expect to have that tested with that mode turned off?? What laughable trolling!
Yeah go on ahead email Huawei so we get retail units reviewed instead of Huawei's hand-picked review units!

[Sliderpro]

LOL You're acting like they've offended you personally.

This is my favorite review site. Yes, I found offensive that this particular review is outrageously incompetent.

They might have confused a bit the pentile and rgb stuff,

They are not bunch of kids talking about quantum physics. Incompetence is unacceptable, as is trash talk. AND they could edit the review if they though this is a mistake, but they didnt.

I don't think it's a bad thing to wish for an RGB AMOLED screen even if might be few years until Samsung and other manufacturers will be able to make them again without the current issues

Unlikely. Progress is not going anywhere. Nor green nor blue pixel lifespan has increased significantly.

It is afact than rgb looks much sharper and that's why the good lcd screens nowadays look sharper than AMOLED.

No, It is not true. 2K AMOLED pentile panel is way sharper then 1080p LCD RGB. Therefore, writing about "pentile is less sharp then LCD" is complete trash and garbage. Writing otherwise is unacceptable level of incompetence on notebookcheck part.

Also, aside from the weird pixel layout, there is nothing revolutionary about the mate 20 pro's screen. [/quote]
Well there is. A new pixel layout. Which may or may not be very different from Galaxy s9 with either perceivable or not perceivable pixels. It may or may not have that aliased look, which is normal for classic pentile and annoying for a lot of people. See? This is the thing to review. Reviewer did drop it completely.

And they are also not wrong, the Sony xz2 premium screen makes the mate 20 pro screen look like SD despite it's resolution.

And LG G7 screen makes any other phone look like dull gameboy color in comparison, going up to 1000 nits, so what? They made M20P looking like trash, trashing everything - the pentile matrix, amoled screen, 2K resolution - everything. And ignored new display tech. This has not been done in galaxy s9 review, this is trash talk at its maximum.

You can't brag about how fast a phone is and how well it does at benchmarks and then turn off the "performance mode"

Please read some more reviews on this websites and dont make wild assumptions.

I'm not bashing on you of huawei - in fact I tested all of the new flagship phones last week and bought the mate 20 and love it, but you are really overreacting. If you love the mate 20 you don't need a tech site for confirmation about its merits.

Another way "why do I care". Notebookcheck talks complete trash about M20P screen tech and is outright lying in the review.And is not fair in their battery test. And makes trash claims. Yeah, why do I care?!

[Sliderpro]

Huawei cheated by silently activating their so called "performance mode" automatically to look good in benchmarks for Kirin 970 models, now it comes to battery life and you expect to have that tested with that mode turned off?? What laughable trolling!
Yeah go on ahead email Huawei so we get retail units reviewed instead of Huawei's hand-picked review units!
[/quote]
How is Huawei Kirin 970 "cheating" in benchmarks connected to this particluar review and fair battery testing of M20P on Kirin 980? You wanted to look cool or something with that comment? We dont jerk off roosters here, please refrain from useless comments.   

[S.Yu]

Huawei cheated by silently activating their so called "performance mode" automatically to look good in benchmarks for Kirin 970 models, now it comes to battery life and you expect to have that tested with that mode turned off?? What laughable trolling!
Yeah go on ahead email Huawei so we get retail units reviewed instead of Huawei's hand-picked review units!

How is Huawei Kirin 970 "cheating" in benchmarks connected to this particluar review and fair battery testing of M20P on Kirin 980? You wanted to look cool or something with that comment? We dont jerk off roosters here, please refrain from useless comments.
[/quote]
Hard to find a comment here more useless than your vain whitewashing of Huawei. The fact here is that the majority of devices(discounting a few other cheaters) run benchmarks and battery life in the same mode, now you're shamelessly demanding the opposite, the equivalent of enabling Kirin 970's cheating, manually. I've already made myself very clear in the last post, if you don't understand then go have your head checked, or maybe your "rooster", in your case.

[nathan123]

This review is hypocritical. S9 + screen color is not as good as mate10pro? I thought it was a big joke. I would have believed you if I hadn't used mate1pro before