Huawei's 2018 smartphones have landed, complete with super-sized action.
On Tuesday, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei released its new flagship phone series, the Mate 20. Huawei overtook Apple this summer as the world's second largest smartphone vendor.
Similar to Apple’s latest iPhones, Huawei's new flagship series includes a premium phone, the Mate 20 Pro, and a more affordable but larger phone, the Mate 20. But that’s not all.
Huawei turned up the volume for this series, literally, with a truly massive phone with a 7.2-inch screen, called the Mate 20 X. That’s a whole different phablet-y world from the 6.39-inch Mate 20 Pro and 6.53-inch Mate 20, and bigger than the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max.
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And if you’re into it, there’s also a leather-clad Porsche-branded variant of the Mate 20, called the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS.
In addition to some eye-popping design, all models come with Huawei's signature ultra-fast performance thanks to an even more efficient CPU and GPU, Leica camera components, longer battery life, and improved AI capabilities thanks to the new Kirin 980 processor and Huawei’s version of Android, EMUI 9 OS. Plus they come in up to six solid, matte, or sleek ombre-esque colors.
Huawei is orienting the Mate 20 X as a gaming phone. It uses a graphene film and vapor chamber-based cooling system that the company says allows for extended periods of gameplay, without overheating, on the go. That is, if you have pockets big enough in which to bring your Mate 20 X around.
The other major edge-to-edge smartphone players in the the lineup look familiar. The Mate 20 Pro is the slightly smaller of the two, but with premium features like an OLED screen and iridescent glass back. It also comes with face unlock thanks to a front-facing 3D camera. It’s also spec’d for gigabit LTE and Wi-Fi.
The Mate 20 has the same Kirin 980 guts, but doesn’t get the same supercharged cellular and wireless capabilities. It has an LCD screen, and its glass back is ridged, making it feel more like a vinyl record than smooth glass. It is a bit bigger, which makes it similar to the iPhone XR.
The phones’ triple-lens Matrix camera system comes with a new 16mm ultra-wide angle lens. In a phone demo, Huawei focused on the Mate 20's new image-recognition and photo-editing features. The triple rear camera enables new features like Cinema Mode, which lets you take portrait-mode-esque videos.
That sounds impressive, but virtually every phone manufacturer plays up its supposedly superior camera capabilities. What actually might make a difference for Huawei is its fast wireless charging, a feature in the Pro and Porsche models. Huawei’s SuperCharge lets you power up to 70 percent in just 30 minutes. It also supports a wireless quick charge and a handy new mode called Reverse Charge, which lets you charge another person's phone via your own. Though Huawei has yet to release a list of supported devices, Huawei representatives said my battery-poor iPhone could actually charge just by going back-to-back with a Huawei Mate 20 Pro. That’s a neat trick.
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Huawei's Mate 20 phones have a lot of competition, even if you just restrict yourself to Android. Their design is pretty great, though, and its battery and charging abilities look impressive considering what’s out there. Just be sure your pockets can handle them.
Topics Huawei
