The Huawei Mate 20 Pro launch in London.
Huawei finally unwrapped its latest smartphones — the Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro and the bigger Mate 20 X — at its launch event in London on Oct 16. Building upon everything the highly popular P20 Pro did right when it was launched earlier this year, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a step-up from its stablemates and more. Packed with a suite of technology upgrades, Huawei’s forthcoming flagship is the answer to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 and iPhone XS’s.
A quick specs overview of the the Mate 20 Pro: It has a huge 6.39in QHD + OLED screen, 4200mAh battery and powerful new Huawei Kirin 980 processor — the brand’s first to be introduced at 7 nanometres, matching Apple’s latest A12 chip in the 2018 iPhones. It also has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, perfect if you want to take underwater shots. The phone will also be the first Huawei phone with the latest EMUI9, based on Android 9 Pie, which is known to significantly speed up regular tasks.
Here are five more important features about this game-changer:
More superior camera with a triple camera in a square setup
The triple camera houses a 40-megapixel standard camera, a 8-megapixel telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom and new for this year, a 20-megapixel ultra-wide angle for better landscape photos, replacing the monochrome sensor used on the P20 pro. The bonus of this lens is that it offers a new macro mode, which allows you to zoom into objects — as close as 2.5cm — without losing detail and clarity.
There’s AI in video recording too
The AI Cinema Mode creates cinematic effets in real time. The coolest effect we’ve seen so far is the AI Portrait Colour, which enables you to capture the scene in monochrome, while a certain subject or object remains in vivid colour.
Better battery life
The Mate 20 Pro, with a whopping 4,000mAh battery, is equipped with 40 watt Supercharge fast charging. That means you can go from zero to 70% charge in half an hour. Since wireless charging is all the rage these days, Huawei has also implemented a much quicker 15-watt charging technology, doubling the speed of power transfer than most phones. That’s not the best part: You can charge other devices on the Mate P20 Pro — just place it against the back of another wireless charging-capable phone or tablet and the power transfer starts immediately.
3D live emoji augmented reality feature
Using Google’s AR Core technology, the feature allows real objects to be scanned and animated in a mixed reality environment. Once scanned, the result of the capture can be saved and shared on social media. The live emoji action is made possible with the Mate 20 Pro’s front-facing collection of cameras and sensors.
In-screen fingerprint scanner
You might be familiar with a fingerprint scanner on the exterior of the phone. But the Mate 20 Pro is the first mass-market smartphone to actually pull off an embedded fingerprint scanner in a phone display. The benefit of this feature? Eliminate a need of a physical button, enabling the display to take up almost the entire front of the handset.
The cheaper Mate 20, however, comes without face recognition and embedded fingerprint scanner. Apart from the phones, Huawei also launched a new fitness-focused smartwatch using its own brand LiteOS called the Huawei Watch GT, with a claim of two-week battery life.
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The prices for the latest Mate 20 series, which will be available in Malaysia from October 27 onwards, are as follows:
Huawei Mate 20: RM2,799; available in black and blue
Huawei Mate 20 Pro: RM 3,599; available in black, green and twilight
Huawei Mate 20 X: RM3,199; available in blue and phantom silver
From October 19 to 22, pre-order the phones here to get special bundles. The Mate 20 comes with a free Huawei Soundstone, while the Mate 20 Pro comes with a free wireless charger. Huawei is also launching its Matebook Series on October 27, featuring the Matebook X Pro and Matebook D. To view the physical units, head down to Pavilion KL on October 27 & 28 for the sales launch event where the first 1,000 customers of the Mate 20 series will receive a DJI Tello drone worth RM469 for free.
Stay tuned for more updates or check our Instagram for more coverage.
