Huawei Mate 20 Pro review: Stuffed with genuine, full-on innovation

The world's second-largest smartphone maker launched the new device with the tagline: 'A higher intelligence is coming'

Chinese manufacturer Huawei has been on the brink of the big time for some years now, gently edging up the list of most popular phone manufacturers and, earlier this year, overtook Apple to the number two position, with only Samsung ranking above it.

Much of that was down to the Huawei P20 Pro, released in the Spring and chiefly noticeable for an astonishing photographic capability thanks to three rear cameras, all made in conjunction with Leica.

Today, the company revealed its latest phone, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Huawei's timetable sees two main releases a year, with the bigger-screen Mate Series taking the autumn slot. So, what's new?

Quite a lot actually, and while some manufacturers seem to offer incremental upgrades every six or 12 months, the Mate 20 Pro is stuffed to the gills with innovation, including a super-cool reverse wireless charging feature. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Design

The new phone is clearly related to the industrial design of the P20 Pro but has a significantly more elegant finish. Every corner and surface is gently curved, making for a phone that is far from small but still manages to fit the hand very comfortably.

The glass finish on the rear of the phone has a subtly ridged finish, and if you run your fingers across it you can hear a slight squeak as your nail crosses the ridges. But to the flat of your finger it feels entirely smooth.

Huawei says this should make the phone grippier and less prone to fingerprints and calls it a 'hyperoptical' pattern.

The glass has been treated to have a shimmering, colour-changing effect depending on how you hold it. Most attractive of these is midnight blue which looks classy and businesslike without being dull. Emerald green has a similar shimmer and there's also pink gold and twilight black.

The screen stretches almost to the bottom of the phone. It's not quite to the base but unlike the P20 Pro, there's no fingerprint sensor at the base of the phone, which we'll come back to in a moment.

There is a notch at the top of the display, with front-facing camera for facial recognition and, inevitably, for selfies.

The rear of the phone is dominated by a three-camera set-up, like the P20 Pro. But, here, Huawei has placed the three cameras and flash in a square arrangement which is strikingly different from rivals. And the company has gone to a lot of trouble with the design here, too. The square in which the cameras sit is edged with four rounded corners which perfectly match the curved corners of the phone itself.

The camera square is the only detail on the back of the phone, apart from the company name down towards the bottom. It means there's a spare, strong look to the design.

And this phone is waterproof to a level of IP68, which means it can sit in 2 metres of water for half an hour safely.

Security

So, you'll have noticed there's no fingerprint sensor on the rear of the phone, nor at the base of the display. You can unlock the handset with facial recognition, which works reasonably quickly.

But there's a much cooler way to do it.

The Mate 20 Pro has a fingerprint sensor built right into the display, buried in the middle of the screen. When you lift the phone, the lock screen has a fingerprint icon which shows you where to press. Not only does it work well and very quickly, it's amazingly satisfying to use.

Huawei has put this technology into a phone before, and rumours suggest other handsets will have it, and soon, but in any event, it's a great feature that could almost be enough to tempt you on its own.

Reverse Wireless Charging

Which brings us to the coolest feature of all, and a genuine full-on innovation. This phone is capable of wireless charging, as many others are. A charging coil in the back of the phone receives the power from a wireless charging pad.

But Huawei has somehow managed to create a phone which can give as well as take. If your phone is capable of wireless charging and you are running out of battery power, well, I can help. By pressing your phone against the back of mine, the Huawei charges your handset. A haptic buzz confirms the connection and it feels little short of magic.

Because Qi wireless charging is an open standard, you're not restricted to other Huawei Mate 20s, when it comes to sharing your battery. I've tested this against an iPhone XS Max and it works perfectly.

Sure, it's not as fast as a plugged-in charger, but it's pretty amazing. It requires a flick of a setting to turn it on, and if you don't charge it, the feature switches off after three minutes.

At best, this will lead to a future full of generous battery sharing and at worst, well, there must be a cheesy chat-up line or two to be had out of all this, no?

Performance

The phone will charge fast through regular wireless charging, Huawei says, and very fast through a wired charge – the company says it will go from flat to 70 per cent in 30 minutes, an increase over the P20 Pro which would reach 58 per cent in the same time.

The battery is big, by the way, clocking in at 4200mAh, so it should run a full day with ease.

The Mate 20 Pro boasts a 7nm processor (nm means nanometre). This is quite an achievement. Apple has a 7nm processor in its latest phones but, Huawei points out, it was the first to announce it, even if the phone is coming to market a little later.

The benefits of a 7nm processor? Well, it promises to be faster and more power-efficient.

Camera

This was what set the P20 Pro apart from pretty much every other cameraphone. Leica's involvement was crucial to this. It included a sensor with a whopping 40MP resolution, a black-and-white sensor to grab detail quickly even in low light and a separate 8MP sensor which effectively offered 3x optical zoom.

This time, the monochrome sensor has been replaced by an ultra-wide-angle 20MP colour one. Huawei says the sensors are now so fast, there's no need for the monochrome, though I suspect it means that if you want to shoot in black-and-white, you'll get images which are decent rather than, as before, outstanding. Mind you, black-and-white isn't a priority for most people.

The Mate 20 Pro is unveiled at an event in London on 16 October (Screenshot)

The 8MP sensor remains at a focal length which gives an effective 3x optical zoom and the Ultra-wide is a 20MP camera which is 0.6x the zoom of the wide-angle lens. This lens is also exceptional for close-up shots, Huawei says, allowing you to get as close as 2.5cm from your subject.

All these make for a potentially very powerful camera, and that's before we've talked about AI.

Huawei uses artificial intelligence heavily in its cameras, using scene settings to improve the photographic results. So, if it's a dog you’re photographing, it fluffs up Fido's fur, but if it's a cat, Tibbles' eyes will be enhanced.

This use of AI should mean you can trust to the automatic settings of the camera and concentrate on capturing the moment and framing your shot.

The front-facing camera is a 24MP model capable of wider selfies than some, so you can all squeeze in.

First thoughts

There's a lot to like in the Mate 20 Pro, from the snazzy cameras to attention-grabbing features like the in-screen fingerprint sensor and the brilliant reverse wireless charging.

Huawei's special version of Android software hasn't always met with positive reaction, though this version certainly looks better, and it remains to be seen how effective the AI turns out to be, beyond improving the photos, but there's no doubt this is an imaginative and innovative handset. The phone is out soon and costs £899.