Huawei p20 review in Spanish (complete analysis)

If we analyzed the P20 Lite a few weeks ago, today it is the turn of the Huawei P20, its older brother, although not the top range of the P20 series. So we find a terminal with very good specifications, which is somewhere between the other two models. The P series has always been characterized, despite everything, by having photographic sensors and software that scratch at high altitudes. As always, it is not the only important factor when buying a smartphone. In this review, in addition to seeing how the camera responds, we will see if the battery and the overall performance of the system are at the same height.

Huawei P20 Technical Features

Huawei bets on white to dress its box, a color that has always been associated with perfection. The box only has its minimalism altered with the logo, the company, the model name and some technical specifications. It is good to know that all this used ink is made ecologically with soy. Inside the packaging we find:

• Huawei P20. Type C microUSB cable. Power adapter. SIM tray extractor. Silicone case. In-ear headphones. 3.5mm audio jack to type C microUSB adapter. Quick start guide. Warranty card.

Design

The Huawei P20 truly features a unibody design that feels great in the hand thanks to its smooth, rounded edges. The glass on the back, on the other hand, ends up giving a quite nice polished touch. It has measures very similar to those of its younger brother, but with a slightly greater thickness of 0.3 mm. The concrete measurements are 70.8 x 149.1 x 7.7 mm. The total weight of 165 grams helps to increase those good feelings by holding it with its design.

The Huawei P20 has the fingerprint sensor on the bottom of the front. A position that is not bad, but which is difficult to get used to a bit since almost all terminals have that terminal at the rear. Continuing with the front, at the top is the notch, included, of course, within the screen that has a useful area of ​​80%. The small notch includes the speaker for calls, the proximity sensor, the notification LED and the front camera, for selfie or facial unlock.

The back is quite clear. In the upper left corner, the double camera is located vertically and just below them, the double focus sensor and immediately below the LED flash. The name of the company Leica and that of Huawei are also in this verticality.

The side edges, made of aluminum, have rounded corners that are very consistent with the overall design of the terminal.

At the edges we did not find many surprises. At the top is the microphone for noise cancellation and on the left edge, only the tray for two nanoSIMs, no space for microSD cards. The right edge houses a volume up and down button, and just below the on / off button. As a curiosity, this last button has a small slit in metallic red, which helps both tactually and visually.

Finally, on the lower edge we find the microphone for calls, the microUSB type C port and the speaker for multimedia content. Therefore, the audio jack is ignored.

Although the glass normally slips, well supported by the aluminum sides, we have found that the risk of slipping from your hand is very low. It is possible to minimize this risk using a silicone case, and coincidentally, with this model Huawei includes a case of this type. An inclusion that we had already seen in Chinese brands and we did not understand how the big brands could be ignored.

It can be found in colors: black, like ours , blue, gold, rose gold or turquoise.

screen

The Huawei P20 is accompanied by a 5.84-inch LTPDLCD IPS screen with FullHD + resolution of 1080 x 2244 pixels. As you can see, curiously it has 0.04 inches less than the Lite version. These data give us a density of 428 pixels per inch.

Entering to assess the quality of the screen, it shows that Huawei has put all the meat on the grill for the superior models. In this case, the screen offers very good colors and a range, in contrast to the contrast, which despite being quite good, does not finish reaching the usual in AMOLED panels. This defect can be slightly noticed if the option to hide the notch is activated. It is still the pending subject of this type of screens.

The viewing angles are kept within the normal range, without showing any unusual shade.

Brightness is another point where the Huawei P20's display stands out, and with good reason. The 477 lighting nits are good enough to enjoy the screen in almost any situation. In case you need an extra push, in situations with a lot of sun, the system automatically reaches the maximum 695 nits. Thus, it is practically impossible to run out of visibility.

In settings we have a mode called Color and reading mode, within it we can activate the automatic adjustment of the temperature, different options for the reading mode and finally, a mode where you can manually choose the temperature and screen color.

Sound

We are not facing a terminal that stands out for its sound quality. Playback through the speaker located on the bottom edge is not bad, you can't say the sound sounds canned or anything like that but it lacks clarity, the sound is not entirely crystalline. The power with maximum volume, on the other hand, without being quite powerful, is quite good.

In sound settings, the Dolby Atmos sound option is activated by default with the loudspeaker and it is true that it gives space to the sound but this does not end up helping its reproduction at all.

This system has much more potential in use with headphones. Luckily, Huawei includes in-ear headphones with a direct connection to microUSB type C. The quality with them is really good and the mentioned extra adjustments with Dolby Atmos make sense. You can choose between the modes: smart, movie and music. If we choose the latter, we can also select four default equalizations: Open, powerful, focused or none.

We have had the good head to also include an audio jack to microUSB type C adapter, but both this option and the included headphones make it impossible for us to charge the terminal and listen to music at the same time. It is also not possible to throw by way of wireless charging because the Huawei P20 does not support it.

OS

We will find many news regarding the P20 Lite, in such an important model for the company the most recent version, Android 8.1 Oreo along with the EMUI 8.1 layer could not be missing.

This version of EMUI continues to maintain its marked differences with Android One and, since it is a minor update, the aesthetics do not vary slightly. Neither does bloatware, the company remains committed to including pre-installed applications. In this case they are: Amazon Assistant, Booking, Instagram, Ebay and Netflix. Certain that some of them may come in handy but it should be each user who decides what to install or not, not the company. On the other hand, Huawei's own tools are a separate case and luckily they are not very intrusive, something is something. It should be noted the app made with Microsoft to translate by writing, voice and photos in multiple languages ​​and which does not require an internet connection if you have the language downloaded in the system.

Where we do find news in this EMUI update 8.1 is in unlocking the camera without having to unlock the phone first, as Android already did from stock; now we can also press the volume button twice down to take a quick photo and the camera interface has been adapted to use it more comfortably with just one hand; and it has included different ways to navigate the system in addition to quick gestures with the knuckles.

A new option to share devices allows us to connect the P20 to a screen using Simple Projection mode, for which we will need an adapter not included, and we can also connect a keyboard and mouse to have an Android mini pc at a time. It is an option that is there but is not far from the function used in previous models with MHL technology.

The option to hide the notch is still present for those who want it, even if the notch of this model is really small. Among the settings we can customize how it will be seen with each specific application.

performance

If the Huawei P20 Lite already shared a processor with many mid-range models released in mid-2017, the Huawei P20 shares a processor both with its Pro version and with models from the end of 2017. We are talking about the eight-core Huawei Kirin 970, four ARM Cortex -A73 at 2.4 GHz and four other ARM Cortex-A53 at 1.8 GHz along with the Mali G72 MP12 GPU. This is accompanied by 4 or 6 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The result thrown by the benchmarks in our 4 GB RAM model is good, although without reaching very high positions, as expected. AnTuTu gives a score of 207201 and Geekbench in its synthetic test offers 1885 for single core and 6696 for multi-core.

On the performance in its daily use, it performs quite well in any application and even in demanding games, not having noticed any noticeable pull. Navigation through the system is also fluid in general, only on a couple of occasions did we experience a brief system freeze.

As for internal storage, we will have two options: 64 GB or 128 GB. Large amount of gigabytes, which is understood since there is no possibility of inserting microSD cards.

The fingerprint sensor works precisely and very quickly, but it can also be configured to navigate the system without having to use the digital controls on the screen and gain some extra space.

The huawei P20 also gets on the face unlock car, and it must be admitted that it does really well, through the big door. Once our face is quickly scanned, its effectiveness has pleasantly surprised me, it not only quickly recognizes the face, but it is not necessary to place the phone exactly in front of the face. If we activate the facial recognition function when lifting the terminal, almost halfway between the table and our face, the system is already unlocked. Not only does it work well, but even in low light or wearing glasses, the system is able to recognize you and unlock the device. Maybe sometimes it costs you a second more, but it succeeds and sometimes it is almost instantaneous. Very good work in this regard.

Camera

If the cameras of the P20 Lite were already good, the ones of this Huawei P20 had to be better and so it has been. The back houses a 12-megapixel main camera, with a 1.8 focal aperture and a 1, 250-micron pixel size with autofocus, 2X digital zoom, optical stabilization, and exposure compensation. For its part, the secondary camera has a monochrome sensor of 20 megapixels and 1.6 aperture with a 6-element lens that has laser autofocus and phase detection.

Both cameras have a very good performance, without a doubt. The main camera offers in almost all situations a very high quality of detail, quite good colors although a bit saturated at times, and adequate contrast in most situations, as also happened in the Lite model. The same situation is repeated as with this one, the HDR will not need to be used much except in some capture in which it is necessary to capture better shades of the sky or backlight situations. The software usually requires that after a photo you wait a few seconds to improve the photo.

In night scenes and in low light the result is still very good, the sensor continues to capture a great amount of detail and outline things, but it is necessary to have a little more patience and pulse for that to be the case or otherwise they can get slightly less sharp or blurry snapshots. At other times the AIS system avoids this kind of problem but not always. In this type of photos it is where the good focal aperture is appreciated and noted, since the use of light is noted.

The AI ​​of the main camera is usually effective and most of the times it is correct with regard to what is being focused, which does not mean that better pictures will be taken. It has the same defect as other companies, the detection is good but the applied effects are not satisfactory, sometimes resorting to excessively saturating colors and other factors that do not help to achieve a realistic image.

The monochrome camera has its greatest virtue in the quality of captured details and the good contrast that your photos possess. Sometimes achieving very attractive results.

The retouch or bokeh mode applied by both the rear and front cameras is very good, as long as it fits well. There is a more automatic effect and another that can be activated if you want to accentuate the effect. The former sometimes gives a poorer blur and the latter is more aggressive, sometimes excessive. It may depend on tastes, but since the background is blurred, I prefer to use the second mode. Be that as it may, the effect is always performed by very effectively separating the subject from the background, even in groups of people, few mistakes are usually made.

The front selfie camera has a 24 megapixel sensor with 2.0 focal length. Get quite acceptable and well-detailed photos like her other sisters. However, colors are sometimes slightly washed out, lacking some saturation and contrast. In low light scenes it does not reach the level of the main camera and begins to lose detail and noise appears.

There is a problem that the average user can find and it is not related at all to the quality of the sensors but to the design of the interface, and that is that not enough visibility is given to many of the possible modes and settings, among them the one to use the monochrome camera or the HDR. If it is true that once the interface is known there are a multitude of modes and effects as in the mate 10 ro: Portrait, panoramic, camera, fast, slow motion at 960 fps, monochrome, light paintings, time-lapse, 3D panorama.

As for video recording, it is possible to record at both FullHD 30fsp / 60fps and 4K at 30fps. In FullHD we can use stabilization only if we record at 30 fps. In both formats, the details and a good color are maintained, and it does not suffer from lack of fluidity. It is also worth noting the possibility of recording at FullHD with the front camera.

Battery

At first glance, the Huawei P20 includes a 3400 mAh lithium polymer battery that should provide great autonomy. During our tests we have used the phone in both standard and smart display and battery saving modes.

In standard mode and making use of social networks, web browsing and multimedia content playback, the maximum autonomy has been 1 day and 9 hours. A good but somewhat mediocre result if we pay attention to the screen usage time , close to 5 hours.

If power saving is activated and the smart screen adjustment to save battery life, the maximum autonomy reaches 1 day and 21 hours, while the active screen time approaches 8 hours. A somewhat better amount at the cost of limiting some visuals, syncs, and background apps.

The 5 Volt 4.5 Amp super fast charge takes only about 35 minutes to charge half the battery and about 1 hour and 40 minutes to achieve 100%.

Connectivity

Interestingly, the Bluetooth version of the Huawei P20 is the 4.2 low consumption instead of the recent version 5. Other supported connectivity options are NFC, VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a / ac / b / g / n / n 5GHz, A-GPS, GLONASS, GPS, 4 × 4 MIMO.

Conclusion and final words of the Huawei P20

It must be recognized that when talking about the Huawei P series, one already intuits what is going to be found, a series of cameras to match and that is still in force. The Huawei P20 continues to give what it promises, a quality of cameras that are at a great level, but it does not stop there, at the software level you can see the company's effort polishing and optimizing its system. We can talk about other sections that still without highlighting, do their job very well, such as the IPS FullHD + LCD screen and the good performance of the Kirin 970. Altogether they sit like a finger ring on this model. The same can be said about the design, the percentage of screen added to its small frames make the terminal feel small and light in the hand, although surprisingly, several people have agreed to choose other models with a greater frame and consistency.

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The Huawei P20 continues to suffer from the defect of its younger brother, autonomy, it is not really bad at all but it falls short. Only in battery saving mode it behaves better, but in that some aspects of the system such as notifications and data that are not viable should be sacrificed. Finally, although an attempt has been made to climb a step when it comes to sound and they have Dolby Atmos, the final quality is not as expected, at least not with the multimedia speaker.

Taking into account that the average price at which the terminal can be purchased is € 500, one can speak of a quality / price ratio that is not entirely bad but that would have been better with good autonomy.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ Very good quality of the cameras.	- The speaker sound is upgradeable.
+ Very good facial unlocking.	- It could have greater autonomy.
+ Includes case and headphones.	- It is not waterproof.
+ The Kirin 970 performs very well.	- It does not have an audio jack.
+ Great brightness of the screen outdoors.	- Camera AI recognizes well but does not apply good effects.

The Professional Review team awards you the gold medal and recommended product:

Huawei P20

DESIGN - 87%

PERFORMANCE - 87%

CAMERA - 89%

AUTONOMY - 73%

PRICE - 80%

83%