WHAT do Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common with Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Madonna and even Kim Kardashian?
They were all middle-born children, and each one of them had to overcome the “middle child syndrome.” Sandwiched in between the cherished first-born and the spoiled youngest child, middle children often get the short end of the stick.
Whereas the eldest is more prone to receiving privileges and responsibilities, and the youngest in the family more likely to be the favorite and receive indulgences, middle-children have to deal with never-ending comparisons about the milestones set by their older siblings and compete for attention with the baby of the family.
Such is the fate of the Huawei P20—overshadowed by the triple-rear camera setup of its bigger, more powerful sibling, the P20 Pro, and the more accessible price point of the P20 Lite, it has become the unlikely middle child of the P20 family.
While the P20 is undeniably a significant upgrade in nearly every aspect compared to last year’s P10, does it have enough to make it a viable choice, and, more important, can it satisfy your inner technivore?
DOUBLY BETTER THAN THE P10?
ONE of the questions I usually get from my readers, is whether it’s time for them to upgrade especially if they still have the previous year’s model. More often than not, I’d suggest an upgrade every two years as other brands usually offer incremental updates. But that isn’t the case with the P20.
From the P8 and then P9, followed by the P10, people were surprised that Huawei skipped several numbers and named their latest device the P20. Does it mean that it is also twice as better as its predecessor?
Place the two phones side by side and you’ll immediately notice a big visual change from the P10. The P20 now sports a glass back compared to its predecessor’s metal unibody. The new colors of the P20—especially the rainbow gradient Twilight and Pink Gold—are also far more eye-catching than the Dazzling Blue and Greenery options of the P10.
Apart from the design and color options, the P20 also has a bigger, higher resolution screen (the P20 has a 5.8-inch 2240 x 1080 and 18.7:9 aspect ratio while the P10 has a 5.1-inch 1080 x 1920 LCD 16:9 aspect ratio); a larger battery (3400mAh vs 3200mAh), more storage (128GB vs 64GB), a newer chipset with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit, and, of course, the latest version of Android and EMUI 8.1.
As for the cameras, despite offering superficially similar specs and the same dual camera setup (12MP RGB lens and a 20MP monochrome), the P20 boasts of cool new AI features (more of it later) and a higher 24MP front camera not only for taking selfies but portrait selfies.
So, if you have the P10 (or P9) and are still having second thoughts whether to upgrade to the P20, I suggest you stop thinking and just do it (as long as you have the budget). I assure you, the improvements are worth it.
Now on to our review:
DEVOUR
- Classy glass finish
- Unique color options, (Twilight and Pink Gold)
- Vibrant and crisp display
- Option to hide the notch
- Fantastic camera setup
- Handheld night mode
- Dependable performance
- Improved EMUI
DISLIKE
- Glass finish is prone to smudges and fingerprints
- No 3.5mm headphone jack
- IP53 rating only for moderate dust and light splash resistant
- No MicroSD card slot
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
LAST year the Huawei P10’s design didn’t generate very much enthusiasm, unlike the P20, which immediately had that “wow” effect and sparked renewed interest in the P series.
The Huawei P20 is a gorgeous phone and its smooth glass on the front and attractively colored glass back is truly eye-catching. If the triple camera setup of the P20 Pro made headlines, its the two-tone color gradient of Twilight and Pink Gold that definitely got everyone’s attention. Still, if you prefer a slightly less ostentatious look, there’s also the Midnight Blue and Black color options.
In front, the P20 has a 5.8-inch (RGBW) screen with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio and a FHD+ 1080 x 2244 resolution featuring Huawei Full View Display 2.0.
There is the now popular (or unpopular) notch on top of the display, similar to the iPhone and almost every other phone that launched recently. But unlike the others, Huawei gives users the option to hide the notch. I don’t actually mind the notch, but when you switch to full screen it sometimes crops the text (i.e. when adding/editing your Facebook Day photo).
As in the P10, the fingerprint sensor on the P20 is right below the screen. Again, the placement of the fingerprint sensor seems to be an unpopular choice, since it is a bit harder to reach when holding it with one hand and you have to be careful with your grip. I personally don’t mind where they put the sensor, because either way, it’s still one of the fastest, if not the fastest, in any smartphone. Besides unlocking your phone, the fingerprint sensor can also functions as the navigation dock. When you get used to the tap, swipe and hold gestures, to go back, return to home or view your recent apps, you’ll understand why its placed there. Hopefully, the P21 (or will it be P30?) would make use of gesture controls like the iPhoneX.
The power button and volume controls are on the right side, while the Dual SIM card slot is on the left. There’s a noise-canceling mic up top while the USB Type-C charging port, primary mic and speaker grille are at the bottom end.
A couple of things I’d like to point out before I continue. First, the speaker output is merely mono—cover up the right-hand grille with a finger and all the sound goes away, though it still has very good sound quality. Second, since the second speaker grill is useless anyway, I just wished they retained the 3.5 mm jack.
Made of eight layers of glass, Huawei used an advanced thermal coating combined with a gradient finish to create the beautiful 2.5D glass back of the P20.
The dual-camera module is flushed vertically near the top left corner with the dual-tone, dual-LED flash just below the camera lens. The new Huawei logo is at the bottom end, together with several labels and required markings. I prefer this new layout and camera placement because most of us probably take photos in landscape mode and hold our phones horizontally anyway.
Unlike the P20 Pro, the P20 only has IP53 dust and water resistance, which means the phone is protected from dust ingress but not submersion in water, only a light spray. So while you can use it in the rain, it won’t survive being dropped in a tub or pool. But even with IP67 protection, who does that anyway?
The quality of the screen is really good, despite being an IPS LCD panel compared to the P20 Pro’s OLED panel. It’s bright and colorful, and if it looks a bit too saturated, you can just adjust the color mode and temperature from vivid to normal. I, personally, prefer the screen of the P20 because of the better viewing angles and outdoor brightness.
SECOND-BEST CAMERA
WHEN it comes to camera, only a few other smartphone brands can go head to head with Huawei, especially since partnering with Leica.
This year it’s official. Based on the DxOMark scores, Huawei has the best smartphone cameras beating the Samsung S9+, Google Pixel 2 and the iPhone X. The P20 sits smugly in second place at the DxOMark leaderboard with a score 102, bested only by the P20 Pro’s score of 109.
It may still have a 12MP RGB and 20MP monochrome camera but Huawei has upgraded the sensor of the P20, specifically the aperture opening (f/1.8 RGB, f/1.6.monochrome) for better low-light performance. The big megapixel jump is on the front-facing camera, which is now 24MP compared to the measly 8MP of the P10. This results into better portrait selfies, and gives you the option to choose from six different kinds of lighting.
Huawei introduced AI features in the Mate 10 and further improves its implementation with the Master AI option in the P20 series. Master AI allows the camera to do all sorts of image awesomeness and recognize 19 different scenes automatically, adjusting photo parameters accordingly, presumably HDR in high-contrast scenes.
It knows whether you’re taking a photo of a cat or a dog or a flower, and makes the needed adjustments. The result—photos always come out looking sharp, with high dynamic range and excellent color reproduction. It also performs pretty well in dim scenarios.
Point it at the sky and it will suddenly become even more blue and make the clouds look a bit more detailed; focus it on your food and the colors will be more vivid to make whatever you are eating look more appetizing. It also automatically switches to portrait mode when you point your camera at a person. Other scenes include cat, dog, fireworks, flowers, greenery, sunset, waterfalls, snow, beach, macro, text, document, night shot and stage.
Since I cover a lot of events and concerts, I used to have trouble getting a good photo whenever there’s bright LED screen in the background. But with the P20’s “Stage Performance” scene, it automatically focuses and highlights the person/s or performer onstage. But my favorite has to be Night mode and with the improved AI camera of the P20, you can now shoot those night photos even without a tripod as you only need to stay still for four seconds. And just because its called Night mode, it doesn’t mean you can’t use it during the day. Experiment with it and you’re in for a surprise.
Thanks to the AI, I find myself doing less post-editing because the photos already look ready for social-media posting. My only problem with the Master AI is when there’s prominent text on the background (i.e. when someone is making a presentation or standing beside a poster), as it will sometimes switch to document scan and crop only the portion with the text. It can also be a bit fidgety sometimes, changing from one mode to another when there are different subjects in front of it, but you can always turn it off in the settings. Fans of the Monochrome mode will also be happy that it now has its own modes which you can access right on the viewfinder—Normal, Aperture, Portrait and Pro.
The P20 also shoots way better videos than before and record video up to 4K resolution at 30fps—there’s no 4K/60fps mode. There’s super slow-motion recording as well at 32x 720p/960fps, as well as “regular” slow-mo in 8x 720p/240 and 4x 1080p/120fps. The regular slow-mo clips are only limited in length by your free storage, but the super slow-mo clips last precisely 10 seconds—six seconds of slow-mo with two seconds of regular speed action on both ends which you cannot adjust. The trick to capture the best super slow-mo clip is to press the shutter right when the action starts and not before.
PERFORMANCE AND POWER
AS I mentioned, the P20 uses the same processor of the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro which, for some, is both good and bad. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is composed of a high-performance, quad-core ARM Cortex A73 processor running at a max speed of 2.36GHz and a power-efficient quad-core ARM Cortex A53 running at 1.8GHz. This is paired with a Mali G72-MP12 graphics processor and a dedicated Neural Processing Unit that handles AI-specific computational tasks.
The good thing is that the Kirin 970 has proven itself to be an excellent SoC processor, offering very high performance and great energy efficiency. You will have no trouble opening multiple apps and switching between them, experiencing little to no lag when playing those graphically intensive games, or doing those large file transfers.
Thanks to the latest Android 8.1 and improved EMUI 8, animations and transitions are buttery smooth even if it only has 4GB of RAM (compared to 6GB for the P20 Pro). EMUI 8.1 also handles background task management very well, only causing a few apps to go into too deep of sleep if you are worried about missing those notifications.
I guess the only people who were a bit disappointed were those hoping that the P20 would also debut a new processor.
If you’re already a Huawei user, you know that battery life is never a problem. The P20 might not have wireless charging as many had hoped, but I’d choose SuperCharge over wireless anytime. The 3,400mAh battery will easily last you a day or two even on heavy use and you only have to plug it in for a few minutes to get it considerably juiced up again.
COMPARISON WITH IPHONE X AND SAMSUNG GALAXY S9
BOTH the P20 and P20 Pro have always been compared with the iPhone X and Galaxy S9/S9+, because and they are undoubtedly the best of the current flagships.
The iPhone X may be the only option for those used to the iOS ecosystem, but for those looking to switch to Android, I find the transition to the P20 a lot easier. You can even transfer all your iPhone’s contacts and photos to the P20 just by using the Phone Clone App.
As an alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S9, the P20 offers better pricing, dual cameras which take better photos, and a pretty good screen that wouldn’t make you miss the infinity display all that much. It has the same 4GB of RAM but the S9 has expandable memory. It may lack wireless charging but the SuperCharge feature is actually more practical if you need a quick charge.
FINAL WORD
ON paper, the Huawei P20 has a lot going for it. It’s been praised for its design and colors, has a really good camera with some unusual talents, and it also has a pretty tempting price tag that’s quite lower compared to the other flagship devices.
But is it good enough?
Despite lacking the third camera of the Pro, the P20 still lets you shoot “Leica Boss” and the AI improvements will definitely make your photos significantly better even if you know zilch about adjusting aperture and exposure levels. The LCD screen display looks just as good as the P20 Pro whether you are watching movies or playing games.
A lot will say that the P20 is the more affordable counterpart of the P20 Pro and they’re right, but the P20 is more than just an alternative. It has the best dual-camera setup in a smartphone, a powerful and dependable processor which doesn’t slow down over time, a bright and crisp display, and a battery that lasts and charges quickly.
The Huawei P20 is now available at an SRP of P34,990. You can also get it via Smart Giga X Plan for only P1,699 per month and includes 4.5GB for all apps and sites; 10GB for videos (YouTube, iFlix, Fox+, iWantTV); unlimited all-net text; 50 all-net call minutes; discounted calls to Smart and TNT. It comes with a free one-month Gadget Shield and Data Rollover For Globe subscribers the Huawei P20 Lite is available at ThePlan 1499 and comes with free Facebook (1GB data allocation per month for 24 months); 8 GB data; unli calls to Globe/TM; unli all-net text; Spotify Premium for three months for a 24 month-contract period.
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OPTICAL MEDIA BOARD SUPPORTS GLOBE’S #PLAYITRIGHT
THE Optical Media Board (OMB) expressed its full support to the #PlayItRight anti-piracy advocacy of Globe Telecom by helping educate the general public against malware, cybersecurity threats and access to illegal digital content and torrent sites. Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said that the support of OMB gives a big boost to the #PlayItRight campaign. “We are grateful to OMB for recognizing our advocacy on anti-piracy. Our partnership will reinforce our educational drive against the illegal distribution of copy-righted content to a greater reach,” Cu explained.
“The Internet has become the main source of almost all the copyright infringement content nowadays, and we need all the help we can get. We are encouraging the OMB to invite other stakeholders, as well, such as the cinemas to collaborate with our education drive to target the moviegoers,” Cu added.
OMB Chairman and CEO Atty. Anselmo B. Adriano said that the biggest problem of OMB is the big market for pirated videos out there because people don’t know why they should not buy pirated materials. “Inasmuch as we try to be creative in our enforcement and disrupt the distribution chain and the retail chain for pirated video, there is still a big market for it. This is why we need to target the market through education. This is the reason we are partnering with other organizations and companies like Globe to push for more education,” Adriano exclaimed.
The OMB will also actively participate in the Digital Thumbprint Program of Globe that teaches responsible use of the Internet to children in public schools by including illegal downloading of illegal content online in the training module.
Having partnered with global and local content creators and distributors for its content business, Globe has taken an active role in promoting legitimate sources of online content. In 2017 the company launched the #PlayItRight advocacy to help the entertainment industry curb piracy and protect intellectual-property rights.