(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Apparently, Huawei isn't contented with a smartphone camera system with 'only' two lenses. So, why not add a third one for good measure?
That's exactly what the Chinese firm did with its newest monster, the Huawei P20 Pro . And we can't just dismiss it as another one of those come-on gimmicks; just like the AI-powered chip found in the most recent Mate 10, it has its purpose.
The P20 Pro is the first smartphone to have a triple-lens camera system. Huawei really wants to be a lens, er, step, ahead of the competition, considering the fact that some major names took a while to join the dual-lens party (Samsung Galaxy Note8 only last year, finally), while others still haven't belted out one in the market (though Sony Mobile, finally, is coming up with one: the coming-soon Xperia XZ2 Premium ).
In fact, a top Huawei official told me that this trick would give them a 'two-year advantage' over the competition. Plus, he stresses, they want us to see more than the human eye. Sounds so familiar.
So why not we immediately dig in to Huawei's latest eye-popping feature?
(Trivia: The phone that can be considered to have the first 'dual-lens' camera was the Samsung SCH-B710 , a Korea-only feature flip-phone, but its aim - unlike today's geeky stuff - was to humbly produce 3D shots. It was launched in April 2007 - a couple of months before the original iPhone.)
Each of the three Leica-powered lenses have their specific purpose: from top to bottom, they are an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x zoom, a 40MP RGB lens and 20MP monochrome lens - and their individual jobs combine to result in photos that are ready to rumble with the best of the rest. Matter of factly, the P20 Pro's camera is at No.1 on DxOMark's rating scale with a score of 109. Second is - surprise - the P20 with 102; both Huawei devices pip the Samsung Galaxy S9+ (99, third) and Apple iPhone X (97, joint-fifth). There Mate 10 Pro is Huawei's third entry in the top 10 (97, joint-fifth).
A good point here is what's called Hybrid Zoom (also found in previous Huawei phones) of up to 5x; basically, it combines the data from the 8MP and 40MP sensors and, simply put, allows you to zoom in at that rate before losing any obvious amount of quality.
I took the device to my eighth-floor flat's balcony at around 5pm and started snapping away, and there was no question about the device's capabilities in well-lit situations. So I decided to do some things worthwhile and came back at 11pm and found out that shots were still reasonably clear. When I zoomed in to a car on the street from that distance to its max of 10x, it did a better job than the one I took with the iPhone X (of course, expect that image to be smudgy with that zoom).
Circling back to the bright spots, the closest the P20 Pro can be compared with is another beast, the Galaxy S9+. They both stack up well and light up shots brightly, but I noticed that the latter gives a warmer tone to it. But when it comes to darker situations, the P20 Pro churns out brighter images. If we take a look at its aperture stats, the S9+. Comparing the shots of the P20 Pro to the iPhone X, they're definitely brighter with the former, though the latter gives out, as I've mentioned before, more natural, actual colours.
It does, though, help with better light. The three lenses above have apertures of f/2.4, f/1.8 and f/1.6, respectively. And while none beats the S9's industry-leading f/1.5 - lower aperture means it should collect more light - they blend well together to give that brighter shot in low light. Quite interesting to think how Huawei was able to stack all that geeky stuff in there.
The camera app has two additional functions that are also key: Pro mode, which has controls like a DSLR, and slow-motion video at 960fps, similar to what's in the Galaxy S9+ and the daddy of this tech, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. It's nice and silky-smooth, and makes for a good thing to mess with when you're trying to pass time.
The front camera has a really generous 24MP sensor, and also does well in dimly-lit situations. Compared to other top-tier phones, it results in better-lit photos with less smudge and noise.
Its face-recognition tech, meanwhile, reacts fast, even in dark situations. However, there are a few things that I noticed: in complete darkness, it does take a split-second longer for it to recognise my face, and even a bit longer when my hair covered parts of it. It does, though, have one advantage over the iPhone X's Face ID: the P20 Pro's can detect your face and unlock it even if you hold it in landscape or upside-down.
The display, meanwhile, clocks in at 6.1 inches in an 18.7:9 display ratio. But we can't really call this and edge-to-edge device: as with the Huawei nova 3e , there's a little notch on top, which is about 50 per cent less than the one on the iPhone X, and a rather thick bezel below that houses the home button slash fingerprint sensor. And if that notch is really annoying you, there's an option in Settings that can put even out the top part, as if there was another thick bezel there.
Battery is also impressive. Our standard one-hour YouTube video at full brightness test eliminated only 10 per cent of power - at par with the S9+'s - and I got through a day-and-a-half before I realised I didn't have a USB Type-C cable with me. And speaking of ports, Huawei decided to part ways with the ever-embattled 3.5mm audio jack. But fret not, fans of 'Jack', because there's a 3.5mm-to-USB Type-C converter coming with the box.
I didn't experience any lags while using it, nor any signs of it heating up. The latest version of Huawei's EMUI is pretty straightforward, and there's no app tray, so you can just swipe left or right a la-iPhone. And it's also IP67-rated, meaning it can withstand dust and water of up to 1 metre up to 30 minutes.
Are you looking for our usual 'Beef of the Review'? Well, honestly, there's nothing much to find here in that category, but we have to pick one: it's the fact that it doesn't have a microSD card. To be fair, it already has a generous 128GB of storage, which is quite a lot, but there are users who really stock things up in their smartphones. Quite a surprise, really. Meanwhile, it also doesn't support wireless charging; the future-proofing card is in play here, but I believe Huawei is still sizing up this innovation, trying to figure out when is the best time to actually place it on one of its devices.
And, well, there's another thing that irks me: the back cover. Although it's a nice metallic finish (we got the blue variant), it's an invitation to a fingerprint-smudging party. I found myself wiping it up all the time, really.
AND SO...
Beast. Monster. Insane. Call it what you want, but the Huawei P20 Pro is the company's best, not backing down from what Apple and Samsung have thrown into the arena before them. And all its technologies come at a rather reasonable price. It will be interesting to see how the rest respond to this shot fired by Huawei.
THE LOWDOWN
| Chipset | Hisilicon Kirin 970, octa-core + micro-core i7, 4 x 2.36GHz + 4 x 1.80GHz |
| Platform | Android 8.1 Oreo; EMUI 8.1 |
| Memory | RAM - 6GB; storage - 128GB, non-expandable |
| Display | 6.1" OLED, 18.7:9, 408ppi |
| Camera | Main - triple Leica 40MP RGB + 20MP monochrome + 8MP telephoto, 4K video; front - 24MP |
| Battery | 4000mAh |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, infrared, GPS; USB Type-C; dual nano SIM |
| Durability | IP67, dust-/water-resistant, up to 1 metre, 30 minutes |
| Price | Dh2,999 |
Goodies - Great camera especially in low light, silky-smooth performance
Baddies - No microSD slot, no wireless charging, the fingerprint party!
Editor Rating - 9.5/10
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