What is the Huawei P20?
The Huawei P20 is the basic element of the new P20 range, which is under the P20 Pro triple camera and above the economic P20 Lite. But do not let your middle position discourage you; The Huawei P20 is still a fantastic smartphone that is worth the hard earned money, even if it is not marketed as the company's flagship.
And it's because it's almost the same as the P20 Pro, which ships with a 5.8-inch FullView display, a Kirin 970 processor and 128 GB of internal storage. The only drawbacks are that Huawei has removed the additional camera sensor, reduced the RAM and changed the OLED for a not so impressive LCD.
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Huawei P20 – Design
The Huawei P20 has an almost identical design to the Huawei P20 Pro, although there is a main difference: the first has a dual camera configuration, while the latter It is equipped with the new tri-chamber configuration of the firm. However, both were designed jointly by the German optic titan Leica.
The P20 is also smaller, in part due to its smaller 5.8-inch FullView LCD screen. The P20 Pro, for comparison, features a 6.1-inch FullView OLED screen. However, do not get too excited. It is still equipped with a cut, called a "notch", on the top that is used to house vital components, such as the 24MP selfies trigger.
Like the standard P20, there is a capacitive start button enclosed in the small edge at the bottom of the screen, which can also function as a fingerprint reader if the face recognition of the phone does not tickle your fantasy, although it's worth considering that the two authentication methods can be used in unison.
But placing the Start button below the screen, where a set of customizable navigation keys resides on the screen, was a bad decision. And that's because, as I noticed in my P20 Pro review, I often found myself pressing the Capacitive and Start buttons at the same time, and so I launched the Google Assistant.
There is a single speaker on the bottom, located to the left of the USB-C slot, which sounds fantastic, providing clear and rich audio, even when the volume is at maximum. However, I found myself covering the speaker when I held the unit with one hand, which makes otherwise clear audio not audible.
You will find the volume button and the power button, which are manufactured with what I can only describe as cheap plastic, on the right side of the phone frame. As in the P20 Pro, playing any of the keys is not only unsatisfactory compared to the iPhone X and Galaxy S9, but also sounds poor.
Otherwise, the build quality is on par with the P20 Pro, in the sense that it is the best I've seen in a high-end smartphone to date. It is constructed with a mixture of Gorilla Glass and aluminum, with the first occupying the front and rear of the unit, and the latter forms the durable frame that holds everything in place.
The Huawei P20 took a small fall from a bedside table on the hardwood floor after a week with the device (sorry, Huawei!) And escaped unharmed, so I have nothing but confidence in saying that the Metal and glass construction also ensures adequate protection against strange bumps, bumps, scrape and release.
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