The Huawei P20 Series shocked the industry not only with their beautiful twilight color that offers a sexy and stunning color but also its camera that changed the way we looked at smartphone cameras. In our review of the Huawei P20, we were shocked by its camera prowess as the night mode of the smartphone was really amazing. But how about the other things about the Huawei P20 Pro? Check it out on our review below.

Design and Hardware

The Huawei P20 Pro is a beautifully crafted device. At the front, we got here a neat and small notch on the display along with the navigation button below. As expected, the chin of the smartphone isn’t that thick and the navigation button can also serve as the home button of the smartphone.

Since we’re getting the fingerprint scanner of the smartphone at the front, the back of the smartphone is clean, elegant, and beautiful. Thankfully, we got the twilight color and the gradient color finish of this smartphone is just really beautiful. Not only that, the 3D glass panel of the smartphone adds to the stunning beauty of the smartphone. The curvature of the smartphone also helps to have a good grip on the smartphone despite its glass construction.

But in case you’re worried about the glass panel, well, you don’t have to really worry about it being a fingerprint magnet and prone to breakage because the smartphone will come with a free jelly case. The smartphone is also rated IP67 which means that the smartphone is water and dust resistant but I’ll still suggest that you should avoid dipping the smartphone in the water.

As expected, the Huawei P20 Pro features a USB-C port that supports Huawei’s Quick Charge and just like the Mate 10 Pro and the Huawei P20, the smartphone loses the headphone jack in favor of the dongle. It’s a little bit annoying for some people who are charging and also using the headphone jack, especially when playing games. But it’s not really a biggie for me as I do have a lot of Bluetooth headphones and they’re quite cheap in the market right now.

The smartphone also comes with a dual sim card tray but unfortunately, the smartphone’s storage isn’t expandable. But don’t worry because the 128GB internal storage is probably more than enough for most consumers.

Display

One of the biggest changes that Huawei has made in their smartphone is the inclusion of the notched display on the smartphone. Some people might hate the notch on the smartphone but thankfully, you can turn it off. Again, there’s a fairly large 6.1-inch OLED display with Full HD+ resolution and of course a 19:9 display aspect ratio.

I’ve used both the Huawei P20 and the P20 Pro and I can see the difference between the two. The OLED display of the Huawei P20 Pro has a richer and more vivid color compared to the Huawei P20. This is why I love playing games on the Huawei P20 Pro because I have a wider display and of course, better colors so I can see my enemies on Battle Royale games easier.

The resolution of the display might only be at Full HD+ but it still does look well. Below the smartphone is the fingerprint scanner that you will probably barely notice. There’s nothing to worry about the notch since the smartphone will automatically go to an 18:9 look in case the apps or games don’t support the 19:9 display aspect ratio. Overall, I really had no problems with the notched display of the Huawei P20 Pro.

Software & Performance

One of the things that you got to love on the smartphone is the Kirin 970 Processor and also a 6GB of RAM which means that the smartphone can handle more apps and games simultaneously compared to the Huawei P20 since that one only has a 4GB of RAM. But first things first, let’s talk about the UI of the smartphone. The Huawei P20 Pro is running on Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1. Is it the cleanest UI? Probably not for some but thankfully, you can customize the smartphone’s theme.

Most of the elements of the smartphone are user-friendly and I really didn’t have any problems with it. Navigating on the smartphone is a breeze and you can actually choose between having an app drawer or having the home screen of the smartphone as your app drawer.

Again, the Kirin 970 with NPU is powering this device. It might be the same processor that was used on the Huawei Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro and yes, the AI is very useful on this smartphone. I didn’t experience any lags on the smartphone despite installing a lot of applications and when it comes to gaming, it was fun and responsive.

In Antutu, I got a pretty high score of 207039 which defeated 95% of Antutu users and when it comes to gaming, I could play all games without problems and at high settings. The smartphone does get warm when it comes to gaming but hey, the Kirin 970 is pretty powerful and again, I really got no problems with it.

Battery Life

One of the best things about this smartphone is its battery. The Huawei P20 Pro got a decent 4000mAh battery inside which is bigger than most flagship smartphones. This made sure that the smartphone can get a whole work day of usage without asking for a powerbank.

In my average use of gaming and browsing my social media accounts, I can get a whole work day in a single charge. In my case, I used the smartphone from 7 AM to 10 PM and I still got around 10% of juice. It’s pretty decent since a lot of my smartphones doesn’t really last a day of battery life for me.

Camera

The most intriguing and its best feature is the camera. Again, the Huawei P20 Pro features a triple lens camera that can do amazing shots. And yes, I’m really confident of saying it to you right now that the Huawei P20 Pro is a smartphone that has an amazing camera that can replace your Micro 4/3 cameras or your DSLRs.

Just to give you a refresher, the Huawei P20 Pro features a triple lens camera in which one of it is a 40-megapixel sensor that allows the smartphone to do 10x zooming. And yes, the smartphone really shines in the camera segment because THIS IS THE BEST CAMERA SMARTPHONE THAT YOU CAN GET RIGHT NOW.

One of the reasons why the camera is great on this smartphone is because of the Master AI. Yes, artificial intelligence is changing the game when it comes to cameras. The smartphones can now detect objects and also the sceneries to give you the best shots for the smartphone. For example, if you’re taking photos of the sky, it will give you the blue sky mode in where the blues are really vivid. If you’re taking a photo of a portrait of someone then it will give you the portrait mode which will give you a bokeh shot.

Speaking of bokeh, the Huawei P20 Pro is the best one to get if you love taking portrait shots on a smartphone. Again, we have an RGB sensor + Monochrome sensor on this one which gives you the best contrasts and also the best portrait photos which is why most bokeh shots on the smartphone are almost perfect. Monochrome shots are also superior compared to other smartphones as the Huawei P20 Pro has a dedicated lens for that.

The best part of this one? The night mode. It’s the first time that my jaw really dropped on a camera smartphone because thanks to the Master AI and AI Image Stabilization of the smartphone, you can do handheld 4-second night shots of the smartphone and still take good night shots without blur. Yep, 4-second handheld shots and you still have no traces of blur. You know what, just check out the shots that I took using the smartphone below and get ready to be amazed.

The 10x hybrid zoom of the smartphone is amazing. Despite shooting at this rate, the smartphone still managed to capture the details and the sharpness of the image compared to other competitors at its price range.

The selfie camera of the smartphone is a 24-megapixel front-facing camera and it does look soft sometimes but I’m still satisfied with the results that I got on the smartphone.

Slo-mo shot using the #HuaweiP20Pro #SeeMore

A post shared by Jam Ancheta (@jamancheta) on Jul 3, 2018 at 5:27am PDT

If you love taking videos then you might love the Huawei P20 Pro’s Slo-mo feature in where the smartphone can capture up to 960fps video recording and damn, it was good despite shooting at lowlight. According to Huawei, an update will improve the slo-mo even more.

Verdict

This is the best flagship smartphone that you can get right now in the market. Why? You get a beautiful and sexy design special thanks to the twilight color, a camera that really changes the game especially in night mode, a powerful hardware inside, and a battery that can really last a whole day of usage.

Some of you might not be fond of the notched display and also the Full HD+ resolution but c’mon, the OLED display of the smartphone still looks good and it is still good whether you’re playing a game or just checking out photos. Unfortunately, some people might be turned off with the lack of the 3.5mm headphone jack but thankfully, the smartphone does include a USB Type-C Dongle for your headphones.

The Huawei P20 Pro is now available for Php44,990.