It’s no easy job to break into the elite club of which Apple and Samsung’s super smartphones are members, even if you’re the third largest phone company in the world. But Huawei has pushed right in with its P20 Pro, promptly declared the new camera champ by camera testers, DxOMark apparently beating the Pixel, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S9+ with its three-camera setup.

DxOMark conducts thousands of professional tests and comparisons which anyone else can barely replicate. We can but give you a user’s perspective of what’s so great about this smartphone.

Twilight beauty

The P20 Pso is first and foremost a lovely looking device. It’s got a glossy glassy back panel in various colours, two of which are unfortunately not being sold in many markets, including India. The Twilight and Pink Gold versions have a shading in the colour that is really unusual and pretty. The Twilight is particularly beautiful as it starts out with a greenish tone and ends with a shimmering purple. It’s an abject disappointment not to have the option of getting one’s hands on that beauty.

However, get your hands on any of them and you’ll leave a few smudges, all the more apparent because of the shiny surface - so the phone will just have to go into a case anyway, specially as it looks like it could scratch very easily. A transparent back case would do the trick though.

The build of the P20 Pro doesn’t quite match its beautiful looks. It’s a little lightweight and sounds hollow when you tap the back. Though the glass curves in nicely crafted way, it still seems a little vulnerable.

There are one or two other minor design issues that may bother a few people. The P20 Pro has its fingerprint sensor on the bottom in the Home button position, where people have begun to not expect it, as so many manufacturers now put in a natural reachable spot on the back. On this phone you have to have a slight deliberate reach for it.

Notch or not

The presence of the scanner on the bottom also means there’s a bit of a bigger edge there — bigger than the one on top, because that’s very thin and has the iPhone-like notch. A brigade of phones with notches are now making their way to the market, but if you’re someone who’s irritated by its presence, Huawei has a nice fix for you. From the settings, you can extend a black bar over the top of the phone - like a fake border - and then you mostly don’t see the notch. Neither the borders nor the notch bothered me in particular, so I just left it there.

But let’s get to the camera, which is the one big reason anyone should consider buying the P20 Pro.

Triple Leica camera

The P20 Pro’s primary camera has three Leica lenses: A 40-megapixel RGB lens with an f/1.8 aperture, a 20-megapixel monochrome lens with an f/1.6 aperture, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture. But photography, specially on mobile phones, isn’t really about numbers. Huawei has done quite a job of integrating optics with artificial intelligence and software enhancements to bring out an arrangement that works rather well for today’s phone photography. Most of all, it’s enjoyable to use.

In good light, the photos you get from the P20 Pro’s primary camera are really detailed and clear. I can’t see so well and I found myself enjoying using the camera to read signs and checking out details with a quick pic. One of the lenses is a telephoto lens. You can zoom in 3x, which is a big deal in phone cameras, and it works very well indeed. Beyond that, software takes over and you zoom in 5x, which is also usually pretty good.

Text, such as on a sign far away, is not only legible but totally clear. When you take the shot, the camera takes a moment to sharpen the image while you stand absolutely still. This unnerves people who you’ve just photographed and who feel strange having to just stand there frozen for a few moments. The pictures are sometimes a little too sharp for some. By default, the camera takes 40MP images but you can change this from the camera’s settings easily enough and drop to 10MP that look more natural. Images are remarkably noise-free.

In low light, the P20 Pro is a total champ. Here’s where it takes whatever light is available and lights up the scene around. Low light and indoor photography has been the one big struggle for phone cameras and different manufacturers have taken various approaches to improving images. Huawei’s is a step forward. The camera also has a Night mode that works wonders. It takes a moment to take in the information and process it while you have to stand quite still, but then cones up with a palatable image.

The cameras use a lot of AI to enhance scenes, making skies bluer and the grass greener and so on. You can actually see the phone ‘deciding’ as it quickly fades out of some scene to go to another. The final result, specially if you use any of the filters provided, is Instagram-ready images that are enjoyable to share. You can shoot through adjustable live filters of which the black and white is a photographer’s delight. You have plenty of modes and features including the Portrait mode and lighting styles that are borrowed straight from Apple.

The front camera and video shooting are not this phone’s strengths. The front camera over-exposes and does funny things with lighting apart from needlessly beautifying. I didn’t get a single satisfactory selfie - not that I really wanted one.

The P20 Pro is so much a camera centric phone that I run out of space for anything else. Briefly, specs are good, except the Kirin 970 processor which is considered a little last-year by those who expect more for the price. The battery is very good and ‘all is well’ to quote a phrase well known to Indian film goers.

 

Price: ₹64,999

Pros: Innovative camera with 40 MP lens and AI, distinctive design, good performance, Android 8.1 out of the box, water resistant

Cons: Absence of headphone jack maybother some, no memory slot, processornot equivalent of current flagships, screen dimming a little aggressive, front camera not great

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