Huawei Mate 20 full specs and UK pricing
Huawei officially announces the Mate 20 series of smartphones in London.
Huawei unveiled their Mate 20 Series yesterday at a huge event held in London’s ExCeL Centre. The Mate 20 is undoubtedly one of the most highly anticipated smartphone series of the year.
The new Mate series embodies the pinnacle of innovation. Designed with the industry’s most sophisticated process technology, the latest Huawei flagship devices set a new bar by which all 2018 smartphones will be measured.
Huawei Mate 20 summary
The Huawei Mate 20 Series is powered by the company’s highest performing system on chip (SoC) to date—the Kirin 980. Manufactured with the advanced 7nm process incorporating the powerful Cortex-A76-based CPU and Mali-G76 GPU, the SoC offers improved performance and unprecedented smooth user experience.
Check out our hands-on first impressions review
The new 40W SuperCharge, 15W Wireless Quick Charge and large batteries work in concert to provide the best battery life.
However, it’s the Matrix Camera System that features a Leica Ultra Wide Angle Lens that most people will be interested in. The new camera system enables you to not only see wider but also closer thanks to its new macro distance capability. The Matrix Camera System adopts what will most likely become an iconic Four-Point Design, giving the device a unique visual identity that is recognisable even at a distance.
Huawei Mate 20 details
Design
All the news devices carry a FullView display with a high screen-to-body ratio. Compactly engineered, every device in the series can be comfortably used with a single hand.
The Mate 20 Pro’s chassis is curved on all eight sides and feels great to handle.
Available in 6.53-inch, and 6.39-inch flavours, the Huawei Mate 20 Series is available in three devices: Huawei Mate 20, Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS.
The flagship series comes in a new Emerald Green colourway, which is as brilliant as its namesake gemstone.
Read our full Mate 20 Pro review
Also, the Hyper Optical Pattern on the glass back uses a complex hairline pattern to produce an iridescent effect that is not only highly durable but also makes the device easy to grip and fingerprint resistant. Huawei says that the devices retain a clean look even when they have been used extensively. However, I’ve still noticed fingerprint smudges but not as much as other phones.
The Mate 20 X is huge! Sporting a 7.2-inch display Huawei are gunning for the Samsung Note.
As well as a gaming pad for those moments of
Camera
Building on the foundation of the brand’s P20 Series’ camera system, Huawei augmented the Mate 20 with a powerful addition, namely a16mm Leica Ultra Wide Angle Lens.
The wider perspective creates a sense of spaciousness and a three-dimensional effect to the images. The new camera system also supports macro distance, producing crisp images of objects that are placed as close as 2.5cm from the lens.
The Mate 20 Pro is equipped with a 40MP main camera, a 20MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera. Together, the trio of lenses supports a wide range of focal lengths (equivalent to the performance of a 16-270mm zoom lens), enabling it to mimic the results from professional cameras.
The Mate 20 Series also features an AI Portrait Colour video mode. Using AI, the new phones can isolate human subjects and desaturate the colours around them to dramatically highlight the person. In short, keeping the main subject in colour with their surroundings in monochrome. AI Spotlight Reel identifies clips with a shared theme and auto-generates a montage, made entirely of highlights.
Furthermore, the Mate 20 is able to 3D your favourite soft toy, for example and bring it to life. We saw this in action at the keynote. However, I have yet to find the capability on the device so I am assuming it will be added later.
More Mate 20 tech
The Huawei Mate 20 Series is shipped with the highly customised Android P-based EMUI 9 operating system.
The Mate 20 Pro is the world’s first smartphone to support the 4.5G LTE Cat. 21 standard. The upshot of that is that you get download speeds of up to 1.4Gbps. Additionally, you get the world’s fastest Wi-Fi connection speeds which translates to 2GB footage just needing 10 seconds to download.
The top-end flagship also supports dual-band (L1+L5) GPS positioning technology. The AI GPS Satellite Selection technology enhances the positioning accuracy across a wide range of scenarios.
Also, keeping the lights on for the Mate 20 Pro is a high-density 4200mAh battery that supports 40W Huawei SuperCharge. Running low but in a rush? Well, your Mate 20 Pro can have a 70% charge in 30 minutes. The safety of the charging technology is certified by TÜV Rheinland.
Moreover, the phone also supports 15W Huawei Wireless Quick Charge, the industry’s fastest wireless charging solution. Why not share the love? Enable Wireless Reverse Charge and the Mate 20 works as a power bank for selected electronic devices supporting wireless charging.
Further features
Both the Mate 20 Pro and Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS both support 3D Face Unlock. The solution quickly and securely authenticates users within 0.6s at a false acceptance rate of below 1/1,000,000. Furthermore, it’s also the reason for the larger notch on these devices compared to the Mate 20.
Using the 3D Depth Sensing Camera System located at the front, the two devices can accurately read the facial features of a subject and recognise even small details. Moreover, besides user authentication, this suite of sensors also enables the portrait beautification effects to be realised more naturally and effectively.
Finally, Share 3.0 delivers an improvement in device interconnection, allowing users to transfer files between smartphones and PC. This Huawei-proprietary solution enables device interconnectivity. All you need to do is tap to establish a connection between a smartphone and a PC for easy and fast file sharing.
Price and Availability
The new Huawei Mate 20 Series, as well as Huawei Watch GT, Huawei Band 3 Pro will go on sale in the UK soon.
The Mate 20 Pro (6GB + 128GB configuration) is up for pre-order for £899 SIM-free.
The Mate 20 (4GB + 128GB configuration) will have an MSRP of EUR799, and the Mate 20 (6GB + 128GB configuration) will have an MSRP of EUR849 from 16th October 2018.
The PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 20 RS (8GB + 256GB configuration) will have an MSRP of EUR1695, and the PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 20 RS (8GB + 512GB configuration) will have an MSRP of EUR2095 from 16th November 2018.
Pricing varies between retailers. For more information, please visit: https://www.consumer.huawei.com
