Huawei P20 – three models, triple cameras

Whoever said that “three’s a crowd” needs to get with the program. Huawei appears to be going triplet-crazy for their next flagship P20 smartphone range.

Huawei seems to be getting all set to launch three different versions of their upcoming P20 flagship smartphone. Furthermore, each will sport triple-lens rear cameras.

Huawei P20 three ways

We are expecting Huawei to launch its next flagship, named the P20, early this year.

There have already been rumours regarding its camera layout but now schematic drawings have been spotted and then kindly shared via Weibo.

P20? What happened to P11?

These sketches point to the Huawei P20, P20 Plus and P20 Pro. It was assumed that Huawei would call the next P-series flagship the P11, following the P8, P9 and P10 – makes sense, right? However, general consensus following a leak from China, is that it will in fact be called the P20.

Triple t(h)reat

No matter what they are calling them, all three phones feature a triple-lens camera. This is a feature that has previously been suggested following a series of leaked promotional posters by reliable leaker Evan Blass.

Is the next Huawei P-series going to be an imaging powerhouse? A digital artist at one of the company’s creative agencies added these “PCE Series” ads to their portfolio — claiming 40MP, 3 lens rear (5x hybrid zoom) + 24MP selfie, all Leica-co-developed. pic.twitter.com/t8w3VlL55L

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) 6 December 2017

As you can see above, Blass said at the beginning of December 2017 that the camera would be 40-megapixels and have a 5x hybrid zoom. It’s this camera that’s expected on all three P20 phones.

Put it there

While all three phones will sport the new lenses, the positioning will be different on each model. I can only suggest that this will be down to the size of the devices and what’s going on internally.

For instance, the P20 will get a horizontal array in the corner, whereas the Plus will sport a corner-positioned vertical array.

Finally,  the Pro will also have a vertical array but in the centre of the back panel.

You will also notice the fingerprint scanner underneath on the Pro.

The P20 and P20 Plus will have front-mounted fingerprint sensors.

More stuff

There’s additional bits to garner from these apparent leaks too. Such as the P20 Pro appears to have been given a notch much like the Apple iPhone X’s. The jury is out still as to just how handy that extra screen real estate is.

However, it’s possible that this notch will house a 3D depth-sensing camera.

So the Huawei P11 seems to be a Q1 2018 thing (again). We were just promised “exciting new products” with a focus on camera and AI for Q1 at a local german Huawei Xmas event. Could be MWC like the P10.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) December 15, 2017

This has been rumoured by another reliable leaker, Roland Quandt. It’s not clear if all three P20 phones will get the AI technology.

You can also add that the P20 and P20 Plus will be powered by Kirin 970 processors (just like the already announced Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro). The P20 Pro is likely to be fitted with the new and slightly more powerful Kirin 975 processor.

All three new handsets should offer 6 GB of RAM, and at least 64 GB of storage space.

I reckon we can expect an announcement from Huawei at MWC 2018 (February 26th – March 1st). It should prove very interesting.