Not everyone can afford the latest model when it arrives, so why not pick up the best Chinese smartphone from a previous generation? The Huawei Mate P20 Pro comes to mind. It isn’t terribly outdated (2019 release), and its CPU is particularly good at handling a wide variety of tasks, from day to day, to gaming. Want more variety? See our best smartphone reviews.
Why We Like It – Huawei Mate P20 Pro
The Huawei Mate P20 Pro offers a great deal: performance at a low price, excellent fast charging, and a good battery to boot. Its CPU, in particular, handles a variety of tasks, from daily chores to gaming.
- CPU handles a variety of tasks
- Excellent fast charging performance
- Good battery life
- Lacks wireless charging
- Lacks a headphone jack
Overall Performance
Handling the backend is a Kirin 970(10nm) chipset and 6GB of RAM. Putting that into perspective, it does well handling titles like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile. Its main camera handles 40MP, while the front camera is 24MP. The OnePlus 8 Pro, for comparison, has 48MP to work with. Its ultra wide angle lens takes colorful pictures with plenty of saturation, but ultimately outclassed by the OnePlus 8 Pro. Find even more great features by reading our Huawei Mate 20 Pro review.
Battery Life
Charging your Huawei Mate P20 Pro is done via USB C, a forward-thinking design that most smartphones adopt these days. It does support fast charging, capable of fully charging within 1.5 hours, and lasting 10 hours. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have wireless charging.
Display
First off, the Face Unlock and Fingerprint Sensor are snappy in their response, reacting almost immediately. You’re then greeted to a colorful 1080×2244 resolution AMOLED display. Its pixel count isn’t quite as populated as a Samsung Galaxy S9, but does well enough. Its colors are what matter, and there’s plenty of color profiles to choose from, with blacks being exceptionally dark and detailed. If you want another phone of this brand, then you need to read our Huawei Mate P30 Pro review.
Durability
Encased in emerald green, Huawei P20 Pro Mobile Phones have good durability. Aluminum lines the sides of the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, and a scratch-free frame. Its water-resistant rating is IP67, handling a bit of rain and 30 minutes under a meter of water, whereas the Ulefone Armor is IP68 and handles much more thrown at it.
Value
At this point, the Huawei Mate P20 Pro has been circumvented by the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which outclasses it in every way. Is that a bad thing? Not at all; in fact, the P20 Pro got a price drop! That means if you’ve held onto a weak device for awhile, the P20’s $475 price is tantalizing.
Huawei Mate P20 Pro Wrap Up
The Huawei Mate P20 Pro may not be the latest and greatest smartphone, but it isn’t far off, and its performance is right in line with its price. The CPU is what really sells its overall performance. On top of that, it fast charges like a beast, along with a good battery life.
