HandSet
TT Correspondent | 19 Apr 2018Huawei unveiled the P20 and P20 Pro last month in Paris, and the flagships are set to make their way to India next week. Huawei India is sending out invites to the media for an event on April 24 in New Delhi, where the company is expected to launch the P20 and the P20 Pro in the country.
The P20 Pro has a triple-rear camera setup as its highlight, while the P20 is its smaller variant with dual rear cameras.
There’s not much to gather from the invite, which does not include details such as the timing and venue details of the launch event. India pricing of the two smartphones will be announced at the unveiling. The company had previously only said the phones will be released in India “soon”. The Huawei P20 price has been set at EUR 649 (roughly Rs. 52,200), while the P20 Pro price has been set at EUR 899 (roughly Rs. 72,300).
Huawei P20, P20 Pro specifications and features
Both the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro are dual-SIM smartphones that run EMUI 8.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. They also support Google ARCore and a deeply customised Google Assistant. Both smartphones are also powered by the octa-core Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC (four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.36GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8GHz) complete with a dedicated NPU (neural processing unit). It also offers AI-based noise removal on call.
The Huawei P20 has 4GB of RAM, while the P20 Pro has 6GB RAM. Both have 128GB of inbuilt storage. Both phones come with a 360-degree Face Unlock feature, said to unlock the smartphones in as little as 0.6 seconds.
The Huawei Share 2.0 feature was also launched, for easy sharing between phones and even PCs (Windows and Mac) with up to 96Mbps transfer speeds over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Another new feature is the Huawei Phone Clone app, that helps users migrate between smartphones. Also new is the Huawei Health app, which features TruScreen heart rate monitoring, TruSleep technology, and secured fitness data cloud storage.
Finally, the P20 and P20 Pro come with wireless Hi-Fi audio, with HWA (Hi-Res Wireless Audio), providing 990Kbps bandwidth over Bluetooth. The company has partnered with audio device manufacturers such as Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, and Onkyo to build the HWA ecosystem. Both smartphones also feature stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos and Dolby AC-4 audio.
The Huawei P20 sports a 5.8-inch full-HD+ (1080x2244 pixels) RGBW Full View display, with the W standing for White, and meant to provide better sunlight legibility. The display is said to have a peak brightness of 770 nits, which Huawei says is 23 percent brighter than iPhone X.
The Huawei P20 Pro sports a 6.1-inch full-HD+ (1080x2240 pixels) OLED Full View display, said to have a 1:1,000,000 contrast ratio and a 105 percent colour gamut. Both smartphones are said to have 'natural tone displays', comfortable for all light conditions. It otherwise bears the same home button, bezel, and notch design as the P20.
Huawei says the P20 has an IP53 rating for dust and water resistance. It runs on a 3400mAh battery, despite being just 7.65mm thick, the company said, providing up to 75 hours of continuous music playback. The Huawei P20 Pro on the other hand has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, and is powered by a 4000mAh battery despite being just 7.8mm thick, providing up to 89 hours of music playback. Both batteries support Huawei SuperCharge fast charging that is said to deliver 58 percent in just 30 minutes. It is also said to be a safe fast charging method.
The Huawei P20 has dual rear camera setup with large 1.55-micron pixels, featuring a 12-megapixel RGB 1/2.3-inch sensor coupled with an f/1.8 aperture and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor coupled with an f/1.6 aperture (VARIO-SUMMILUX-H 1:1.6/27 ASPH). On the front, the Huawei P20 sports a 24.8-megapixel camera. The company is touting front camera features that help take better selfies.
Coming to the highlight of the launch, is the triple rear camera setup of the Huawei P20 Pro. The topmost lens bears an 8-megapixel sensor with 3x optical zoom thanks to its Leica telephoto lens (VARIO-SUMMILUX-H 1:1.6-2.4/27-80ASPH). The second, bears a 40-megapixel RGB 1/1.7-inch sensor, while the third bears a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor. Between the larger lenses, lie a laser transmitter and receiver, for quicker autofocus, as well as a Leica colour temperature sensor.
Both the P20 and P20 Pro offer 4D Predictive Focus, said to provide instant focus with motion prediction, providing nearly 'zero shutter lag', Huawei said. The smartphones support 6-axis stabilisation and 960fps super slow motion video recording. The company has also ensured that you can get to the camera as fast as possible, going from "screen-off to shoot" in as little as 0.3 seconds. Both phones also offer 'Master AI' scene recognition, with the company boasting of recognition for over 500 scenarios in 19 categories. There is also AI-Assisted Composition, to help with things like alignment and framing.