Huawei has unveiled at an event in Paris its new flagship smartphone, the P20. The new phone will be available from 28 March for EUR 649, followed by a P20 Pro from 16 April for EUR 899. A 'Lite' version was introduced earlier to complete the range.
The Pro model offers the highest specifications, with a three-lens camera on the back and a larger, 6.1-inch screen with Full View display. The P20 comes with a 5.8-inch display, also with 18:9 display. Both include a notch at the top of the screen to house the camera, sensors and speaker.
The phones run Huawei's latest Kirin 970 octa-core processor with AI capabilities, which Huawei demonstrated at the recent Mobile World Congress. The P20 comes with 4 GB RAM, and the Pro model with 6 GB, and both include 128 GB of internal storage.
Huawei continues its partnership with Leica to offer the latest camera advances on the P20. The P20 Pro comes with three cameras on the back: a 40-megapixel RGB camera, a 20-megapixel monochrome camera and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens, with optics and colour temperature sensing from Leica and support for up to 5x hybrid zoom. The P20 upgrades the double rear camera on its predecessor the P10 to 12 and 20 megapixels with a pixel size as high as 1.55 μm. Both models come with a 24-megapixel front camera with 3D portrait enhancement features, and the Ultra Snapshot mode to capture an image in as little as 0.3 seconds by double clicking the down volume button, even from the off screen.
The cameras take advantage of artificial intelligence techniques to help the user focus foreground and background, identify subjects and enhance the quality of the images. The AI software can detect over 500 different situations to optimise the camera settings, including long-exposure photos in the lowest light and a predictive sensor for correcting for movement.
Other specifications include a 4,000 mAh battery on the Pro and 3,400 mAh on the standard P20, both with fast charging. The phones run on Android 8.1 Oreo and the Huawei EMUI 8.1 interface and include support for Google's ARCore platform for augmented reality apps. They will be available in a choice of black, midnight blue, twilight and pink gold colours.
Customers pre-ordering the Huawei P20 Pro will receive in selected markets a free Huawei EnVizion 360 camera worth EUR 199.
