Huawei Mate 20 Series launch + hands-on: Kirin 980 Debut, Double NPU

We’re at ExCel by London’s docklands today for the launch of the ‘other’ Huawei premium handsets, Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. Coming just 6 months after the celebrated Huawei P20 Pro, the new Mate 20s have a tough act to follow. We are focusing on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro – the sole handset from the series available in Ireland.

Unsurprisingly, the reverse wireless charging is the biggest hit

Dat AI Camera Do’

Image quality was one area in which Huawei P20 Pro truly succeeded in capturing the public imagination. The triple-sensor, Leica-branded lenses still made for the best smartphone on the market; until today when its crown is in doubt.

Huawei have rearranged the triple lens setup; dropping the monochrome sensor in favour of a wide-angle lensed RGB. Like the P20 Pro, the AI does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to point’n’click shots. Mate 20 Pro aims to improve upon this two Neural Processing Units and a wider range of object recognition. Huawei have also added some easily marketable features like super macro and real-time video colour splash.

Über Macro

The new macro standard is stunning. From 2.5cm distant from the object, Mate 20 series take an incredibly sharp image. Something that friend and über macro-skilled Noel Campion will surely appreciate.

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Leaf insect getting a little bigger now. Incredible creatures. #macro #macros #insects #leafinsect #macroworld #sonyalpha #sonya7ii #naturalworld #creepycrawly #sel9028macro #closeupphotography #photography #naturephotography #photodaily #photooftheday #macromania #macro_world #macro_delight

A post shared by Noel Campion (@campionnoel) on Oct 15, 2018 at 12:46am PDT

Another piece of camera trickery that is sure to impress the masses is the application of ‘colour splash’ to video. ‘Colour splash’ takes a high-contrast and highly detailed monochrome shot and preserves colour for one object. The effect is striking when used in stills but the tech to carry a video in this aesthetic style is impressive.

Gigantic Battery, Charging Other Devices, New Security Options

A 4,200 mAh battery is quite the capacity. When combined with the enhanced efficiency of the new 7-nano chipset, Huawei are promising an all-day experience, even for power users. The device also takes advantage of Huawei’s new SuperCharge 40W wired charging – from 0-70% takes about 30 minutes.

Richard Yu and a 3D panda scanned live on stage were another huge hit

Users can take advantage of 15W wireless Qi charging for an impressive 0-30% in 30 minutes. This wireless throughput will also be useful to charge other devices – using the Huawei Mate 20 Pro as a wireless charger is novel but will be useful.

Users have a choice of face-unlock or fingerprint scanner. Face-unlock has been refined to have an unlock speed of 600ms and a false-positive rate of one in a million. Ten pressure levels offer in-screen fingerprint sensing that is 30% faster than previous dedicated scanners.

NM card is a fast but proprietatry storage card from Huawei. NM is the same size as Nano-Sim and sits in the same slot as the SIM2.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Specifications:

Chipset: Kirin 980; 8-core CPU, Cortex A-57 & A-55

Memory: 64/128GB/256GB Storage, 6/8GB RAM

Display: Fullscreen 6.4″ 3,120 x 1,440 19.5:9, DCI-OLED

Rear Camera: 40MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, OIS, PDAF/Laser AF + 20MP B/W, f/1.6, 27mm (wide), 1/2.7″, OIS, PDAF/Laser AF + 8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4″, 3x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF/Laser AF

Front Camera: dual-LED dual-tone flash, panorama, HDR

Video Capture: 4K@30, 1080p120, 1080p60, 1080p30, 720p240, 720p60, 720p30

OS Version: EMUI 9.0 (on top of Android Pie 9.0.0)

Connectivity: LTE (1.2Gbps download), USB-C, Wi-Fi 802.11 2×2 MIMO a/b/g/n/ac 5GHz, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 + LE

Battery: 4,200 mAh

Dimensions: 157.8×72.3×8.6mm

Colours Available: Black, White, Emerald Green, Pink Gold, Twilight