Huawei P20 Pro Review

The P20 Pro is where the modern flagship camera was settled. Three lenses on the back: a 40 megapixel main sensor at 1/1.7 inch, a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor beside it for detail and dynamic range, and an 8 megapixel 3x telephoto with stabilisation. The trick everyone copied was Night mode, a handheld multi-second exposure stacked in software that turned a dark street into a usable photograph with no tripod, months before Google shipped Night Sight.

DxOMark put it at 109, clear of the Pixel 2 and the Galaxy S9 Plus, and for once the number matched the experience. The 4000 mAh cell and 22.5W SuperCharge gave it the best endurance of any flagship that year. The rest is good rather than great. The 6.1-inch OLED is 1080p with a notch, the Kirin 970 trails the Snapdragon 845 in games, and EMUI 8.1 as shipped was the ugliest software on any flagship, with background app killing that broke notifications until you dug through the battery settings.

Support was better than the interface: Android 9, then Android 10 with EMUI 10, and EMUI 12 as late as 2022. Because it launched a year before the May 2019 entity listing, Google's apps and Play services stayed on it for its whole life, which is not true of any Huawei that came later. Launched at 899 euros with no US release; the price here is that figure converted, about $1,100.