Huawei Mate 20 Pro launches with in-screen fingerprint sensor

Today I'm sharing with you the specifications and design of new flagship device of Huawei Mate 20 Pro Let's Begin..

The 7nm Kirin 980 processor that Huawei announced at IFA in September is making its official debut in the Mate 20 Pro. It’s worth revisiting the full set of world firsts that Huawei claims with this chip, though the main takeaways for me are better performance and efficiency than the prevalent Snapdragon 845, faster LTE with a Cat.21 modem supporting speeds up to 1.4Gbps, and a ton of AI processing capabilities baked right into the design. Exactly as with Apple’s A12 Bionic in the iPhone XS, the Kirin 980 has 6.9 billion transistors and includes dedicated neural processing units to assist with AI tasks. The main uses of AI on Huawei’s phones include system optimizations to minimize the device’s performance degradation over time — a common complaint with Android phones — and to do scene detection and automatic image processing in the camera.

I say “the camera,” but it’s late 2018, so in literal terms that means multiple cameras. With the Mate 20 Pro, Huawei has ditched its monochrome sensor, which used to work in combination with the color sensor to provide sharper edge definition with less noise — Huawei says that its use of larger and better sensors makes the monochrome help unnecessary. Instead, the company is implementing three different focal lengths, with one 20-megapixel camera for super wide shots, one 40-megapixel shooter in a conventional wide-angle, and one 8-megapixel telephoto camera. The end result, which includes an adaptive dual-tone flash, is the distinctive quad-circle array on the back of the phone.

One of the cool evolutions in Huawei’s Master AI 2.0 image processing with the Mate 20 Pro is the ability to segment a photo into sections and treat each one differently. Previously, a phone like the P20 Pro would detect a blue sky in your photo and treat the whole image accordingly, resulting in exaggerated and unattractively artificial-looking lines in the scenery below. Now, the Mate 20 Pro is smart enough to recognize what part of the image is sky, process it accordingly, and to then identify the people, buildings, or objects under the sky and give them appropriate treatment. Alas, Huawei is still not offering an option to take a backup unprocessed image alongside its AI-processed ones, which means you’re still running the risk of having a photo ruined by over-aggressive AI tweaks.

In terms of physical design, the Mate 20 Pro is admirably lithe for a phone that combines a 6.4-inch screen, a substantial camera array, and a 4,200mAh battery. It is the same height as my Pixel 2 XL, which is the same height as practically every other Android flagship device of this year. Don’t let Huawei’s large screen spec scare you off: this is a phone that’s usable with one hand, and with its extra tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio, it’s also not as large as a squarer 6.4-inch device might be. The Mate 20 Pro also has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, so that provides an extra layer of reassurance.

Huawei is introducing a new ridged finish with its Mate 20 Pro, which the company calls Hyper Optical Pattern. In human terms, it’s just a subtle texture on the phone’s rear that makes it less fingerprint-prone and easier to grip. It reminds me of the finish Huawei offered on the P9, and I prefer it over the smooth glass option. Huawei will sell the Hyper Optical Pattern in midnight blue and emerald green alongside its twilight gradient look, a black option that’s reflective enough to be called silver, and a pink gold that I have yet to see for myself.