One of the first camera phones I had was way back in the early noughties. It wasn’t even an in-built camera! You had to connect it to a lead that was plugged into your mobile phone, and then it managed to take photos at something like 0.35-megapixels. At the time I thought it was brilliant, now it just shows how old I am getting I guess.
These days the quality of phones cameras have soared, and a lot of people no longer own digital cameras because of the ease of taking photos, editing and sharing them all from one device that is usually kept at arm’s length away from being able to access on the move.
Today we wanted to take a closer look at Huawei, in particular the Huawei Mate 20 Pro which you can buy from Metrofone.
Over the last few years Huawei have made a real push in the mobile phone market to compete with front-runners, Apple and Samsung, who have both stood the test of time so far. So rather than focusing in on all the aspects of this new Chinese masterpiece (such as the capability of it being able to wirelessly charge other phones, and the in-display fingerprint scanner), we wanted to focus solely on its camera capabilities.
Three’s a Crowd So Let’s Make it Four!
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro boasts three cameras on the back, and one that is nicely paired with the in-display fingerprint sensor on the front. This front camera is a 24-megapixel 3D depth-sensing camera, used primarily for facial unlocking.
Flipping the phone over to show the back will highlight the set of 3 cameras. There is a 40-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel telephoto camera and finally a 20-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera.
The telephoto camera can be used for zooming in on objects, allowing a precise and higher quality capture from as near as 2.5cm away (I know, unbelievable right?). The ultra-wide camera, which is a new addition for the Mate 20 Pro replaces the outdated monochrome camera.
Now, even though it’s a 40-megapixel camera you will generally be taking 10-megapixel photos and this is down to how the phones camera works. The Huawei used something called ‘pixel binning’, which essentially brings together four sensor pixels to create one final image pixel. However, if you were to take photos on the 40-megapixel setting then you will see that the quality of this camera is unreal.
One other talking point that puts the Huawei camera above the rest is that you can take these photos within 4 seconds, as opposed to the 6-8 seconds you would normally need to create the exposure to result in top quality shots.
The detail that can be captured is seriously impressive and the Huawei Mate 20 Pro can handle any situation you throw at it…
…One of those curve balls being night time photography, and yes, Huawei can handle that by delivering crystal clear shots even in extremely low level lighting conditions that other cameras simply cannot get near to.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro vs Apple iPhone XS
Apple has been making serious waves in the camera department this year, and if you have read everything up until now you can see why they have had to make a move. Huawei and other competitors are putting in substantial time to improve camera quality.
It’s true that the recent iPhone launch saw the topic of conversation and selling point being very focused around its camera, but in truth the difference between the quality you get on the XS compared to the X are minimal.
As expected the image resolution on the Mate Pro 2 completely obliterates the iPhone XS with the Mate Pro 2 coming in at 7360 x 4912 pixels, compared to the iPhone XS’s 4000 x 3000 pixels. However the iPhone XS does have a BSI Sensor, optical Image stabilisation, along with a retina flash (as opposed to plain LED).
Huawei Mate 20 Pro – The Future is Bright
So in summary what do we think here at Tech On The Go? Well, it has taken a while to get to this position for Huawei, but we could be looking at a strong contender for Android Smartphone of the year, and easily best Smartphone camera of 2018. It wins hands down.
Craig Timmins is a blogger who enjoys to cover topics that encompass all things that are iOS and Android related. He can be found on Twitter most days, so if you have any questions – ask away!
