Huawei P20 Pro hands-on review – we try out the first TRIPLE CAMERA smartphone and reveal all the key specs
Ready to kick your Instagram game up a notch? This epic camera-first smartphone could be the answer
FORGET Apple and Samsung – your new favourite smartphone for achieving Instagram glory might be built by Huawei.
The Chinese company has created a mobile phone with THREE cameras on the back – and we've tried it out.
Huawei launched three new phones today: the Huawei P20, the Huawei P20 Lite and the Huawei P20 Pro.
The latter is the real big-hitter, rocking an innovative triple-camera system built by Leica and powered by artificial intelligence.
There's one 8-megapixel telephoto lens that's great for photographing subjects at a distance.
It's then teamed up with 20-megapixel and 40-megapixel cameras to make a smartphone super-snapper.
Huawei says the big advantage of this is super-zoom.
Speaking at the launch, a Huawei spokesperson revealed that the phone can "zoom into a 5x distance without any...degradation at all".
But that's not the only top camera feature.
The camera boots up incredibly quickly. If you double tap the volume-down button, the camera instantly loads up and takes a photo.
Check out our round-up of the best Huawei P20 deals - here
Huawei claims the total screen-off to shoot time is just 0.3 seconds.
The phone also uses artificial intelligence to boost your photos.
It will work out what you're taking a photo of and then adjust your camera settings accordingly.
For example, Huawei teamed up with food photographers to work out the best settings for snapping grub.
And with artificial intelligence, the phone can even tell if you're eating a Chinese, or chowing down on some dessert.
There are loads of these "AI scenes", including: cat, food, group, natural colours, close up, night shot, text, greenery, portrait, dog, fireworks, blue sky, flowers, stage, document, sunset, snow, waterfall and beach.
Huawei P20 Pro specs – the hardware stats for geeks
Here's what you need to know...
- Screen: 6.1 inch AMOLED
- Display resolution: FullHD+ (2240 x 1080 pixels)
- Chipset: Huawei Kirin 970 processor
- Memory: 6 gigabytes
- Storage: 128 gigabytes
- Battery capacity: 4,000mAh
- Rear camera: 40MP Light Fusion | 20MP BW (f/1.8 + f/1.6) | 8MP Telephoto (f/2.4)
- Front camera: 24MP (f/2.0)
- Software: EMUI 8.1 (Android 8.1 Oreo)
- Waterproof: Yes (IP67)
- Charging: USB Type C
The Huawei P20 Pro also has a dedicated portrait mode that adds a bokeh effect – that's a blurred background that brings the subject into focus.
Probably the coolest camera feature is the night mode, however.
It's tricky to take great photos at night.
That's because the shutter needs to be open for a long time to take in lots of light. But the longer the shutter on your camera is open, the more likely your photo is to be blurry. That's because the any slight movements will throw off the stability of your snap.
Traditionally, you'd need to bring a tripod to take a cracking nighttime cityscape snap.
But the Huawei P20 Pro has an AI image stabilisation feature that lets you take handheld night shots.
We tried it out in an extremely dark room, and managed to capture some great shots of a model city – with zero blur, incredibly.
Huawei says there's "no need for a tripod any more", and we're inclined to agree.
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The bad news is that we're not yet privy to pricing or release date details.
But given Huawei's track record, it's likely that the Huawei P20 will be cheaper than both the £869 Samsung Galaxy S9+ and the £999 Apple iPhone X.
Would you like to own a phone with three cameras on the back? Let us know in the comments!
You can find our selection of the best deals for the Huawei P20 range here.
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