Huawei P20 Review – Notch Your Average Phone

The P20 is one of the latest smartphones that Huawei had released alongside with the better 3-eyed version, the P20 Pro. Though the P20 sits below the P20 Pro, it still packs a ton of power with the Kirin 970 processor and has a keen eye with Leica’s dual lens camera at 20MP and 12MP. One of things I loved about it is the color on the glass back which emits a warm twilight glow whenever light touches it. We’ve had a fiddle with it thanks to Huawei so here’s our review.

The Design

Like most phones that are being released by other manufacturers, the Huawei P20 is also not a stranger to the “notch” design. The notch design was first seen on the iPhone X and it has given the screen a whole new look even though it’s just a small notch that gave way to some screen space. However that did change a lot of what it can do in terms of design and actual visual space.

So it’s understandable why the Huawei P20 would adopt the same look. With a 5.8″ display and rounded edges on the sides of the screen, it gives a smooth look with a classy touch of a glass back. It may heat up occasionally if you are running heavy applications but otherwise the glass back is really cool to look at with its twilight glow which comes in two color designs which are Twilight (black and petrol blue) and Pink Gold (pink and gold, of course).

The Tech

The P20 may look like a premium phone but does it have the guts to perform like a premium phone? To answer that question, we’ll look at what the phone is equipped with. Coming in smaller than the P20 Pro at 5.8″, it offers a FullView screen, powered by a Kirin 970 processor and comes with a 128GB internal storage with 4GB RAM. However instead of the AMOLED that they had on the P20 Pro, they have replaced it with a IPS LCD which is not as pretty as the latter.

Featuring dual Leica lenses with 20MP monochrome sensor as the primary camera and a 12MP colour sensor as the secondary camera, it can still take great pictures but incomparable with what the P20 Pro can do with its innovative triple cameras. While the front camera boasts 24MP which can record up to 720p.

Equipped with an octa-core Kirin 970 processor and 4GB RAM, it’s less than the average 6GB RAM but it still runs smoothly and fast. With 128GB internal storage, it should be enough for an average user, unless you are an avid photographer and do not clear your gallery often enough. Since there’s no card slot, it’s advisable to clear them often to maintain the phone’s optimal performance.

Unlike the P20 Pro, it has a slightly smaller battery capacity at 3,400mAh. It’s actually a pretty high capacity looking at how small the P20 is at 7.5mm. The battery will be able to last an average user of 1 full charge per day depending on the user.

Can it game?

Running with the Mali-G72 MP12 mobile GPU, it can play some pretty graphic intense games. However the phone will get hot due to the processing power it needs to run. With the glass back, it doesn’t dissipate heat as well as an aluminium back. We were able to run a couple of games like Arena of Valor, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, Identity V and PUBG Mobile as seen below.

Check out our unboxing video:

The Verdict

The P20 has the looks and the touch of a premium phone. The specifications may not rival the higher end phones but it still does the trick for its size. Huawei has also improved on their EMUI software which is an improvement from the previous versions. With the smart new artificial intelligence image stabilisation, it helps to take great pictures even if your hands are shaky. If you are an avid mobile photographer, the P20 is a great companion to have at a price of RM 2,599.

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