Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review: The droid king!

Huawei is not a brand thatrsquos well known in India Its offshoot Honor is more popular Starting with the P20 Pro earlier this year the company has put a strong foot down in the country trying to break into the premium market with quality phones The Mate 20 Pro is the latest device to further that pushThe first thing we notice while holding the phone is that it feels very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S9 Like it it doesnrsquot have a single hard edge We tested the Twilight coloured phone which has a plain glass back but was surprisingly not slippery However we find that the textured glass on the Emerald Green phone provides a much better gripThe phone does not have any sound grills at the bottom but manages to be loud using the USB charging port There is a tiny grill in the top notch that provides a good stereo effect too There is no discernable audio loss after the port is plugged in Other than hiding the speaker grill the notch on the screen also hides the infrared face detection system that can be used to unlock your phone including in pitch darkness There is an inscreen fingerprint sensor too but it is still significantly slower than face unlock and traditional fingerprint detectionThe software included with the phone is called EMUI or Emotion UI which is very fast and intuitive There is a good selection of themes and other customisations are availableGaming on the phone is sublime the Kirin 980 with its builtin MaliG76 GPU handles the load well and does not heat up too much The battery gets drained faster than usual but it manages to last through the day despite a threehour PUBG marathonThe phone charges faster than we have seen with other models and can approximately complete 80 per cent in around 30 minutes and full charge in less than an hour not to mention it has TUumlV safety compliance The phone supports wireless charging and can charge other phones wirelessly too though it is very slowThis modelrsquos crown jewel is undoubtedly the camera The rear threecamera setup and the software that goes with it are insanely good The builtin artificial intelligence detects scenarios and adds the appropriate effects to create the best picture However at times the AI can be frustrating to use While trying out Supermacro shots the AI fails to detect it so we keep adjusting the phone to trigger the mode There is no manual Supermacro mode so you have to use AI The night mode captures brilliant images even in lowlight and we find itrsquos useful in reducing harsh shadows during daylight Overall there is very little to fault this cameraHuawei Mate 20 Pro is aggressively priced in India and yet costs a whopping R69999 lower than it costs abroad For the price it is wellequipped with the latest technology This is a robust phone with a superb processor a huge battery capacity with a superfast charger and a camera that holds its own and even outperforms when pitted against other premium phones The issues here are few and easily ignored If you have the money this is the Android you want to buyProsSuperfast chargingThe camera is brilliantKirin 980 delivers on performanceConsSupermacro needs AI modeInscreen fingerprint is slow ExpensiveLOG ON TO httpbitlyhm20pspecs spec sheet httpbitlyhm20psamples camera sample httpbitlyhm20pbench benchmarksCamera 9510User Experience9510Design 9510Performance 1010Features 1010Software 9510Overall Score 9710Catch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates