Honor 8X preview: Big, bold, and beautiful

The Honor 8X combines exquisite design with a large display and a capable chipset.

Honor’s budget phones are always well-regarded for the hardware on offer, but if there’s one thing that Honor improved considerably over the last two years, it’s the design. The Honor 9N is one of the best-looking budget phones in the market today, and the Honor 9 Lite is no different.

The Honor 8X is the company’s best-looking device yet in this segment. The phone features a Kirin 710 chipset and a large 6.5-inch Full HD+ display, dual cameras at the back, 6GB of RAM paired with 128GB of storage, and a 3750mAh battery.

Like all Honor phones in 2018, it’s the design that sets the Honor 8X apart — the phone has a distinctive “double texture aurora glass” finish that Honor says is an evolution of the Honor 10’s gradient back. The end result is that the Honor 8X looks like a phone that costs well over its $300 asking price.

There’s the same aurora glass finish as before, but the Honor 8X also has a vertical band running down the left that creates a two-tone finish. The effect is quite evocative, and gives the Honor 8X an edge in this segment. The phone is available in blue, red, and black color options, and while the black variant is muted, the blue and red options are striking.

The Honor 8X has one of the largest displays we’ve seen so far on a Honor device, sporting a 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD (2340 x 1080) panel. There is a notch at the top of the display — as is becoming the norm — but it is narrow enough that it isn’t annoying. Like the Honor 10, you get the option to hide the notch in the display settings.

The panel itself is quite decent, offering vibrant colors and great contrast levels. You get the usual features that are standard across all Honor devices — a blue light filter and ability to adjust the color temperature — and there’s also the option to reduce the resolution to 720p to conserve battery life.

The two-tone rear finish makes the Honor 8X one of the most evocative devices in this category.

There’s a considerably thinner bezel at the bottom this time around, and that’s mainly due to the fact that the fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of the device. The sensor is ideally located at the natural resting position of your index finger, and I had no issues with authentication.

Honor also offers a face unlock feature that works reliably in both well-lit and dark environments, and it’s just as fast as using the fingerprint sensor.

Elsewhere, you get a dual SIM card tray along with a dedicated MicroSD card slot, and Honor has retained the 3.5mm jack. What isn’t so great is the MicroUSB charging port, which just doesn’t mesh with the rest of the hardware. For a device in this category to feature a MicroUSB in late 2018 is inexcusable.

Coming to the hardware side of things, the Honor 8X is only the second device to feature HiSilicon’s Kirin 710 chipset. Huawei debuted the platform on the Nova 3i earlier this year, and I came away impressed after using that particular device back in August.

The Kirin 710 is manufactured on a 12nm node and has four Cortex A73 cores that go up to 2.2GHz along with four Cortex A53 cores at 1.7GHz. There’s a Mali-G51 MP4 GPU as well, and Honor is bringing its GPU Turbo feature to the 8X. As a refresher, the feature lets you sustain peak performance in visually-intensive titles like PUBG without the CPU being throttled.

The Kirin 710 is more than adequate to handle everyday tasks with ease, and as you’d imagine, EMUI is perfectly optimized for the chipset. There’s no lag anywhere, and while the GPU doesn’t deliver the best visuals in demanding titles, games run smooth in medium settings.

Honor is increasingly turning to the camera to differentiate its phones, and the Honor 8X has a dual 20MP + 2MP cameras at the back, with the secondary sensor adding depth information. I haven’t used the camera enough to share my thoughts on it yet, but at a first glance it seems to hold its own in this category.

There’s the obvious AI-assisted feature that’s now standard across all Honor phones, and you also get a Night Shot feature that lets you take better photos in low-light scenarios. Up front, there’s a 16MP shooter with the usual slate of beauty effects and filters.

On the software side of things, the Honor 8X comes with Android 8.1 Oreo based on EMUI 8.2. It’s a shame the device isn’t launching with the Pie-based EMUI 9.0, but like Samsung, Huawei likes to roll out the latest version of its custom skin on its flagship.

There’s no shortage of phones in this segment, from the mighty POCO F1 to the Vivo V11 Pro, Xiaomi Mi A2, Honor Play, and many more. The design of the Honor 8X certainly allows it to stand out in this category, and the all-day battery life coupled with the capable Kirin 710 make it one of the best sub-$300 phones in 2018.

The Honor 8X is now up for sale in the UK for £229 ($300) for the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and the phone is also available in India from Amazon for just ₹14,999 ($200). Right now, there’s no word on whether the phone will be available in the U.S., but we’ll let you know should that change in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on the Honor 8X?

See at Honor

UK Deal: Take advantage of all-time low pricing on Philips Hue Starter Kits

Take your lights into the future!

If for some reason you haven’t already invested in some Philips Hue lighting for your house, this may be the deal that changes that. Right now you can pick up this Philips Hue White and Colour Ambience Starter Kit for just £120 at Amazon. This is a new all-time low price and a saving of £20 off the average price for this kit with three white and colour bulbs, the hub required for them to work, and a dimmer switch that you can use to control them in your home.

If you don’t need the colour-changing option, you can get the White Ambience Starter Kit — with three dimmable white bulbs, hub and dimmer — for a record low price of £82.59. You can also opt for the regular two colour bulb Starter Kit for £92.96, which is a discount of a few quid, or the two white bulb Starter Kit with £9 off right now.

If you want to get the most out of these lights, be sure to add an Echo Dot as well so you can then control them with your voice. You’ll also want to consider checking out the rest of the Hue range and picking up some extra bulbs because — trust me — you’ll want all of your lights to be smart after using these!

For more UK deals coverage, be sure to keep an eye on Thrifter UK, sign up for the UK newsletter and follow the team on Twitter.

See at Amazon UK

Sony WH1000XM3 vs. Bose QC35 II: Which should you buy?

We’re a virtual company made up of tech experts from across the globe. While Android is our passion, we also know that a great pair of headphones is the perfect companion to any phone.

Sony WH1000XM3

Our pick

$348 at Amazon

Pros

• Excellent sound quality
• “Only Music, Nothing Else” noise canceling
• Up to 30 hours of battery
• Fast charging via USB Type-C

Cons

• Heavier and larger than the QC35 II

The WH1000XM3 are Sony’s latest and greatest headphones ever. Along with excellent sound, noise-cancelation, and the same design of the WH1000X2, you’ve also got 30 hours of battery life and a newer USB-C port for charging.

Bose QC35 II

Smart headphones

$349 at Amazon

Pros

• Bose’s top-notch sound
• Customizable noise canceling
• Up to 20 hours of playback
• Google Assistant + Alexa built-in

Cons

• Charges with older microUSB port

Bose’s QC35s sound great and have one of the best designs in the business. You’ll find around 20 hours of playback per charge and have access to the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built right into the headphones.

If you don’t care about having the Google Assistant or Alexa built into your headphones, the Sony WH1000XM3 take the cake with better sound, noise-canceling, and battery life. Also, finally having a USB-C port for charging is a godsend.

Why the Sony headphones win this fight

When it comes to noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones, the Bose QC35 II have long been considered as the unstoppable king. The QC35 IIs offer a winning formula of fantastic design, great, balanced sound, jaw-dropping active noise canceling, and stupendous battery life.

The QC35 IIs are still phenomenal headphones and are absolutely worthy of your attention, but Sony’s recently released WH1000XM3 offer a few serious upgrades that make them the overall better purchase.

While the Bose QC35 II offer great sound quality and noise canceling, the WH1000X3 are even better. The sound is more powerful and customizable and Sony’s active noise canceling is simply magical. Also, while battery life on the QC35 II is already great at 20 hours of use, the WH1000X3 go a step further with a 30-hour rating.

When it eventually comes time to charge up, the QC35 II do so with the older microUSB standard. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, microUSB is becoming a bit long in the tooth in 2018. With the Sony WH1000X3, charging is handled with the newer USB Type-C port and provides five hours of playback after just 10 minutes of charging.

That’s not to say the Bose QC35 II should be completely forgotten, however. Sony’s headphones do offer some serious improvements, but only Bose’s offering comes with the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built right in. Furthermore, the design of the QC35 II is still more comfy and lightweight than the WH1000X3 — a big win for people that frequently have their headphones on for long stretches of time at once.If you want that smart capability, this is a pair for you.

Sony WH1000XM3

Our pick

$348 at Amazon

Best all-around package.

Sony’s WH1000XM3 are among the very best headphones you can buy right now. The sound is amazing, noise canceling is fantastic, and you get outstanding battery life with charging taking place over USB-C.

Bose QC35 II

Smart headphones

Built-in assistants are a nice touch.

$349 at Amazon

The WH1000X3 are newer and better than the QC35 II, but thanks to the lightweight + ultra-comfy design and your choice of two built-in voice assistants, Bose’s headphones are still worth a look.

LG Stylo 4 review: Beauty on a budget

No matter your budget, the LG Stylo 4 is worth considering.

While most people focus on the flagship G and V series, LG has been a big player in the low and midrange for as long as they’ve been making phones. These may not have some of the whizbang features that their more expensive cousins do, but these are still great phones that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Among these is the Stylo line, which is also famous for including an integrated stylus similar to the much more expensive Galaxy Note. In the United States, the Stylo 4 is available on T-Mobile and Metro, or the one I’ve been using: the Amazon Prime Exclusive version.

Stylish stylus

LG Stylo 4: Prime Exclusive

• $250 from Amazon
• $250 at T-Mobile

Almost everything you want on a great price

If you want a great, carrier-unlocked phone with a decent stylus, the LG Stylo 4 is for you.

The Good

• Carrier unlocked
• USB-C for charging
• Works with all four U.S. carriers
• Good performance
• The stylus has a few great features

The Bad

• No NFC on the Amazon version
• Lots and lots of Amazon apps

I — Tom Westrick — have been using the Amazon Prime Exclusive LG Stylo 4 as my main phone for the past three weeks. I used Mint Mobile for my cellular service in and around Indianapolis, Indiana. Amazon provided the phone for review.

LG Stylo 4 Different models

As mentioned, the Stylo 4 is also available from T-Mobile and Metro, and if you use either of those carriers, it’s worth considering that model. You get 2GB of RAM instead of 3GB, but that model has NFC for mobile payments and better radio support for the magenta network.

LG Stylo 4 What I Like

The best thing the Stylo 4 has going for it is the performance at the price. Mid range phones have been getting better and better as hardware improvements trickle down to the lower prices, and the Stylo 4 continues that trend. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 and 3GB of RAM power the phone well, and I had no issues with most apps slowing down. The Facebook app — which is installed out of the box — was slow as molasses, but I’m willing to blame that on Facebook instead of LG.

I’m used to the vanilla software that Google ships on the Pixel line, but I do appreciate some of the additions LG has made. I’m one of those monsters that likes having the back button on the right side, so I’m glad I can rearrange the navigation buttons. Better yet, I’m glad that I can hide the buttons when I’m in an app, so I get more usable screen real estate. The software itself is Android 8.1 Oreo with the June 2018 security patch. You get 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded with a micro-SD card.

I genuinely like most of LG’s software additions.

That screen is a 6.2-inch (15.75 cm) 18:9, 2180×1080 panel. The display gets bright enough for comfortable daytime viewing, and dim enough that I’m not straining my eyes late at night. I’ve always typed on phones with both of my thumbs, and I had no problems adjusting to typing on this screen.

The phone is well built, though the glossy plastic back picks up smudges easier than I’d like. The buttons are all nice and clicky, though the volume buttons are a bit higher than I’d prefer.

This price point is about what components manufacturers can do away with without harming the experience too much, and the Stylo 4 has most of what you get on a flagship phone. There’s a USB-C port for charging, so you may be able to use the same charger that you would with your Chromebook. You also get a fingerprint sensor for secure unlocks, and it’s nice and fast. You also get something most flagships lack: a 3.5mm headphone jack. I transitioned to Bluetooth headphones a few years ago, but it’s still nice to be able to plug in my gaming headset when I have an important phone call to make and want to make sure the other party can hear me clearly.

The Stylo 4 has almost everything you’d expect in a modern phone.

Speaking of phone calls, I had no problems making and receiving calls when I was in good coverage areas. The cameras also worked well in daytime conditions, and did okay at night. The camera launches quickly, so you shouldn’t miss that precious shot. You can double press the volume down button to launch the camera if the screen is off or if you’re on the lockscreen, but there isn’t any shortcut if you already have the phone unlocked.

On the topic of unlocking things, the Stylo 4 comes carrier unlocked, and works with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint in the United States. The stylus is easy to get out of its silo on the bottom edge, and when you pop it out, you get quick shortcuts to the stylus tools. You can jot down a quick memo, annotate a screenshot, or just use the stylus for swipe typing. The pen isn’t nearly as advanced as the Galaxy Note’s, but the basics are all covered well.

LG Stylo 4 What I don’t like

While the phone works with T-Mobile, it’s missing some of the antenna bands that the version sold by T-Mobile has. In reality, this translates to much lower data speeds than the phone should have. This is the only real bottleneck that comes when I use this phone, so it’s a shame that Amazon and LG couldn’t have supported more radios.

While this is standard for Prime Exclusive phones, it’s worth noting just how many Amazon apps come on the phone. You get:

• Amazon Alexa
• Amazon Assistant
• Amazon Drive
• Amazon Kindle
• Amazon Music
• Amazon Photos
• Amazon Shopping
• Amazon Widget
• Audible
• Goodreads
• IMDb
• Prime Video
• Prime Now

How many of those are useful will come down to the individual, and I admit I use a few of those on my other phones anyway. But it’s a lot to stick a user with when getting the phone set up for the first time. Fortunately, all those apps can be disabled so you never have to be bothered by them again.

While running Oreo isn’t terrible, if we look at the history of the Stylo line, there’s not much hope for this phone ever getting updated to Pie. Being four months behind on security patches is also bad, no matter what price point the phone is selling at.

The single speaker is just okay, with a good bit of distortion at higher volumes. It’s also really easy to muffle the speaker with your finger or palm, especially if you watch a YouTube video in landscape. Finally, the Prime Exclusive version of the Stylo 4 doesn’t include an NFC for Google Pay.

LG Stylo 4 Should you buy it?

Maybe. Despite my minor complaints, this is a fantastic phone at $250, and a good phone overall regardless of price. Choose which exact version you get wisely if you’re on T-Mobile, but even with some of the tradeoffs — no NFC, extra applications — the Amazon Prime version is a great phone in its own right.

4
out of 5

The only hangup I have is the slow security updates and the lack of OS updates for previous Stylo phones. If those aren’t deal breakers, buy away.

$250 at Amazon
$250 at T-Mobile

What do you consider to be the phone of the year for 2018?

This has been a great year for smartphones.

Even though 2018 isn’t over quite yet, we’ve already seen a plethora of excellent handsets released throughout the year. Samsung came in swinging early with the Galaxy S9 series, LG’s had a couple surprise hits with the G7 and V40, and Google’s all-new Pixel 3 + Pixel 3 XL are easily two of the best Android phones you can buy right now.

With so many quality phones out in the market, is it possible to name one as phone of the year?

Some of our AC forum members appear to think so. Here’s what they have to say.

DMP89145
10-15-2018 07:03 PM

“

I say yes OR close 2nd. I think the regular Pixel 3 for sure, but closer for the 3XL. Camera and software dig out the win for the top spot, I say.

Outside of the Note, which to me is in a category by itself, what else comes close? XS..? maybe.. 9/9+ nah …

Reply

rahool360
10-15-2018 09:32 PM

“

My vote is for Note 9 though !!!

Reply

swarlos
10-15-2018 09:58 PM

“

Since I’m an iPhone user, X🅂 max but I’d say the Note 9 would be a heavy contender then possibly the One Plus 6 or 6T heck even the Razer Phone 2 offers more than the Pixel.

Reply

chezm
10-15-2018 10:03 PM

“

Im buying a Pixel 3, its my phone of the year (if it wasn’t I wouldn’t buy it) but I wouldn’t expect it to be on many others. I can see why iPhone XS Max or Note 9 would win it, even though I wouldn’t prefer either theyre geared to mass market appeal.

Reply

What about you? What do you think is 2018’s smartphone of the year?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Infographic showcases RED Hydrogen One specs, design, and features

Here’s everything that’s packed inside RED’s first smartphone.

It’s been well over a year since the RED Hydrogen One was first announced, and since then, details on the phone have been few and far between. We’re still not entirely sure when the handset will actually launch, but thanks to the eagle eyes of one AC reader, we’ve now got a fancy infographic that highlights all of the Hydrogen One’s key details.

The camera package is easily one of the biggest selling points for the phone, and around back, we’re looking at a dual rear camera setup that consists of two 12.3MP sensors with an LED flash to accompany them. Up front is dual 8.3MP cameras.

Also confirmed here are the 4,500 mAh battery, 6GB RAM, and 128GB of internal storage that can be expanded via a microSD card slot.

The infographic goes on to highlight three of the Hydrogen One’s key technologies, including its H4V holographic video and still image capturing, Leia holographic 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 H4V display, and A3D spatial surround sound.

In late September, RED announced that it was delaying the titanium version of the Hydrogen One due to a disastrous first production run. The company’s making it up to its customers by offering them a free aluminum version of the phone while they wait, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when that version will ship.

Are you still interested in the RED Hydrogen One?

Three reasons the RED Hydrogen One could be the most interesting phone of 2018

How to set up Gameshare on your PlayStation 4

Games are expensive, and not everyone can afford to purchase multiple titles a year at $60 a pop. Since digital media is taking over it’s becoming rarer that we simply lend friends or family physical copies of our games. If you’re looking to share your digital library of games, there is a way to do so on PlayStation 4.

Products used in this guide

• Best Buy: PlayStation 4 Pro ($400)

How to set up gameshare on your PlayStation 4

Log in to your account on the PlayStation 4 console that your friend or family member uses.
Go to Settings.
Select Account Management.
Select Activate as Your Primary PS4.

Select Activate.

Once this is done, your friend or family member can download any games from your library to their console. They can then access these on their own accounts, even if you are not logged in on their console at the time.

Though you can do this process with an unlimited amount of people, only two people can be playing the same game simultaneously, meaning you can’t share your library with several other friends and all hop into the same online game with each other.

Why bother gamesharing?

Gamesharing is the easiest, most pain-free way to save money on new games. Not everyone can go out and spend hundreds of dollars on multiple games each fall. When you don’t have a physical disc to loan out, this is the next best thing. Think of it like sharing your Netflix account.

Our pick

PlayStation 4 Pro

$400 at Best Buy

The best Sony offers

If you want the best performance possible when gamesharing, the PlayStation 4 Pro is the way to go. It offers 4K resolution support, 60FPS on select games, and generally makes for an overall better experience when playing the most graphically demanding games.

Should you buy the Google Pixel 3?

Best answer: Most likely, yes! Unless you just got a new phone or you already have a Pixel 2, the Pixel 3 is one of the best Android phones around and is well worth picking up.

Amazon: Google Pixel 3 ($799)

Who does the Pixel 3 make sense for?

Google isn’t worried about packing the absolute top-of-the-line specs into its phone, nor is it concerned with supporting “legacy” hardware features anymore, and that could be a dealbreaker for some. There’s no headphone jack or microSD card slot on the Pixel 3, and it only has 4GB of RAM, which raises some concerns regarding future-proofing and longterm performance.

Instead, the Pixel 3 is for those who care about a clean software experience and timely updates above all else. If you’ve used a non-Google phone and found yourself irritated by unnecessary software add-ons or slow rollouts of new Android versions, the Pixel is an easy choice.

It’s also a fantastic option if you heavily value your phone’s camera. The Pixel 3 has one of the best photography experiences in mobile, combining a great sensor with Google’s intelligent software features to create stunning, DSLR-like images with each shot. There’s a new wide-angle front camera for taking group photos, and the rear camera has been improved over last year’s, offering better low light, zoom, and dynamic range.

Is it worth upgrading if I already bought a phone this year?

Assuming you bought a flagship, probably not, unless you’re unhappy with your current phone. Whether you’re using a Galaxy S9, an LG G7, or a OnePlus 6, the Pixel 3 likely won’t be a dramatic upgrade in terms of specs or performance — at least not enough to warrant selling your device and spending another $800+ on a new one.

The Pixel 3 is for those who care about a clean software experience and timely updates above all else.

If you’re coming from a lower-end device, however, the Pixel 3 is worth considering over some of the aforementioned alternatives. While not everyone enjoys the barebones experience of stock Android, it’s certain to get updates faster than phones from other manufacturers, and just as importantly, it’ll get them more often — Google supports its Pixel devices years after they’re released.

What if I already have a Pixel 2?

It’s harder to recommend the Pixel 3 if you already own a Pixel 2. Both from a hardware and software perspective, there weren’t a whole lot of major changes made this year; each model has roughly the same design and a nearly identical build of Android 9 Pie.

Furthermore, many of the Pixel 3’s new features will be coming to the Pixel 2 soon via software updates, including call screening, Playground (Google’s AR stickers app), adjustable background blur in Portrait Mode, and Night Sight — which isn’t even available on the Pixel 3 just yet. While it’s not quite the same as getting a new phone, there are enough new features on the way to make your Pixel 2 feel like a new phone.

Of course, none of that is to say that there aren’t any new improvements, as only the Pixel 3 features many of the new camera enhancements like Top Shot, Super Res Zoom, Motion Auto Focus, and a wide-angle front camera. Pixel 2 owners may also appreciate the new model’s considerably larger display with roughly the same physical dimensions.

For some, those improvements will be worth upgrading, but unless you plan on taking a lot of group selfies or just can’t stand your 16:9 display any longer, you’re probably fine to hold off for now — maybe wait for next year’s Pixel refresh instead.

Our pick

Google Pixel 3

$799 at Google

Pure Android and stunning cameras

The Pixel 3 isn’t a dramatic upgrade over last year’s model, but it makes minor improvements that all add up to a more cohesive experience with clean, intuitive software and some of the best cameras in mobile.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro hands-on preview: The phone that does everything

Huawei’s bold new flagship aims for nothing less than being the best at everything.

Deciding which Android phone is the best is not a simple task. We should know— we regularly try to answer this question here at Android Central. For some of us, it’s the most beautiful design, the latest software, or the most powerful specs, or the most impressive camera, or the longest battery life.

These are all important pieces of the puzzle, and most of the big flagships we cover have at least one of these things going for them. But Huawei’s latest device tries to do all of them at once: This is the Mate 20 Pro, and it could be the most advanced Android phone of the year. It boasts a 7nm CPU with a laundry list of technical firsts, the latest Android 9 Pie software, the most advanced biometrics, a camera even better (on paper) than the current DxOMark champion, and a battery so big it’ll actually wirelessly charge other phones.

Oh, and it also looks pretty nice on the outside.

But first, a bit of housekeeping: There is also a regular Mate 20 version, which like last year is bigger, flatter and slightly lower-specced than the Pro model. The Mate 20 has the core experience, but the Pro adds the gravy — the extra technology and features that make it one of the year’s most exciting phones.

Huawei has been drifting away from the boxy aesthetic of phones like the Mate 9 for the past couple of years, and the Mate 20 Pro abandons this look altogether. It’s got curved glass on both sides, a comfortable rounded metal trim. Even the screen is slightly curved around the sides. It’s all very rounded and symmetrical, right down to the angles of the unique new squared-off camera protrusion around the back.

Huawei is known for taking the standard smartphone materials everyone else uses — metal and glass — and putting a unique twist on them, and that’s exactly what we have again in the Mate 20 series. There are traditional polished glass offerings in pink gold, black, and my personal favorite twilight gradient, which is a sort of reverse version of the same color in the P20. Where the company mixes things up is with its new “hyper-optic pattern,” which is available in midnight blue and emerald green.

A couple of the new colors add a grippiness to the glass that should make it much less slippery.

This is a striped pattern etched into the surface of the glass itself, giving it a subtle ridged texture. If you’ve ever held a vinyl record, it feels a little like that, only softer. And in addition to catching the light a little differently than your standard glass-backed smartphone, it makes the Mate 20 Pro a bit grippier, and less prone to collecting fingerprints.

The display on the Mate 20 Pro is a gorgeous curved 2K OLED panel equal in quality to the other high-end phone displays. To my eyes, it looks on par with the Pixel 3 XL’s excellent panel, though Huawei isn’t making any bold claims around its colors or brightness. There’s a sizeable notch up top to house a camera array for 3D face unlock, which works similarly to the iPhone’s Face ID. Face enrolment is speedy, and unlocking speeds were significantly quicker than what I’ve experienced from the Galaxy Note 9.

That’s not the only way to unlock the Mate 20 Pro, though. Huawei’s shipping an in-screen fingerprint sensor in the Mate 20 Pro, and unlike its previous effort in the Porsche Design Mate RS, this one is actually good. There’s a tiny but perceptible delay when unlocking compared to the very fastest traditional fingerprint scanners, but it’s an enormous improvement upon the first generation optical sensors that shipped in some phones earlier in the year, thanks to a new DPS (dynamic pressure sensitivity) sensor.

As you’d expect from a Mate series phone, Huawei has crammed all its latest technology into the Mate 20 Pro. As a result, the spec sheet for this thing reads like a wish list of everything you could possibly want in a smartphone. (Except, possibly, a 3.5mm headphone jack.)

It’s all built around the Kirin 980 processor, which was announced back at the IFA conference in Berlin. There’s a ton of new stuff in the 980, but in brief: It’s the among the first 7nm smartphone chips (the only other one at present is Apple’s A12), the first to use ARM’s Cortex-A76 cores in its CPU, and the first with Mali-G76 GPU. All these firsts add up to a chip with more horsepower than pretty much anything in any other Android phone, while also being more power-efficient.

Is the 4,000mAh battery of earlier Huawei flagships not enough for you? How about a cheeky bump to 4,200mAh, plus 40W quick charging through Huawei’s new, second-gen Super Charge, which the company claims can get you from zero to 70% in 30 minutes.

The Mate 20 Pro can wirelessly charge other phones because its battery is so big. Your move, Samsung.

The Mate 20 Pro is also the first Huawei flagship to include Qi wireless charging — but not only to charge the Mate itself. Huawei has brought a reverse wireless charging feature to this device, so that 4,200mAh battery can actually charge other Qi-compatible phones. Doing this is probably going to be wildly impractical because of the shape and slipperiness of phones in general. (In a meeting ahead of the launch, I just about managed to balance a Note 9 on the back of it and get it charging; with smaller, curvier phones your mileage may vary.) Regardless, it’s a very clever bit of marketing. Huawei clearly wants Mate 20 Pro owners out there charging their friends’ flagging iPhone batteries.

Software has traditionally been one of the major weaknesses of Huawei phones, and the company’s EMUI interface has generally taken a bit of a beating in reviews. The new version, 9.0, still looks like EMUI, but offers improvements across multiple fronts. It’s based on the solid foundations of Android 9 Pie, with all the new features and benefits that brings. And Huawei has worked to make it its interface simpler, cleaner and more attractive. I feel like I’m repeating myself a little in saying that. The company has been moving, slowly, in this direction since its software stopped looking objectively terrible in 2016. But Huawei is a big ship to steer, so we’re still dealing with baby steps here.

Animations, in particular, feel a lot snappier, which is important since you can now use full-screen gesture navigation. (The old-style three-button setup is available as an option, but the newer Google Pixel-style gesture controls are not.) In other areas, Huawei has trimmed some of the cruft from its menus, made its apps lighter and more one-handable, with tabs and menu items down at the bottom. And fullscreen artwork is shown for incoming calls, alarms, as well as in some areas of Huawei’s bundled apps. (Though not all of this was ready in the early firmware we used.)

Yes, EMUI 9.0 still looks too much like iOS, but it’s also a much better experience for long-time Android users in general.

EMUI 9 still looks a lot like iOS too, and that’s reflected in its approach to gestures. Like the iPhone X and XS, swipe up to go home, or swipe and hold for recent apps. To go back, swipe inwards from the left or right bezel. Mostly this works fine, but it can cause problems in apps with slide-out menus, like Gmail. Fortunately, you can escape back to the familiar territory of on-screen keys if you find the gestures unpalatable.

Huawei has also built its own version of Google’s Digital Wellbeing features, called Digital Balance, which can help you track screen usage and take a break from the flood of notifications on your off hours. We’ve only played with it for a limited time ahead of launch, but it seems to be a faithful recreation of Google’s app.

There’s a lot to see in EMUI 9, and we’ll take a much closer look in our full review.

The Leica triple camera was a central part of what made the P20 Pro great, and the Mate 20 Pro builds upon those foundations. Huawei takes the 40-megapixel main sensor and 8MP 3X telephoto of the P20 Pro and leaves them largely unchanged. Meanwhile, the monochrome sensor has been retired, and replaced with a new 20-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera.

What that means is you get standard and zoomed photos at least as good as the P20 Pro, with the added versatility of a wide-angle camera the likes of which I’ve loved using in LG’s phones over the years. Unlike LG, though, Huawei’s wide-angle has autofocus, so you can also capture some striking macro shots with it. Huawei’s Master AI will actually switch to the wide-angle lens when the camera is placed very close to its subject.

4K video recording is also supported across all three cameras, with AI stabilization enabled by default, which represents a serious improvement from previous generations of Huawei cameras. (The P20 series and earlier models maxed out at 1080p if you wanted to use that software stabilization.)

Speaking of AI, the new dual Neural Processing Unit in this phone now offers more advanced object and scene detection — more than 1500 scenes now, up from 500 on the previous gen. One area where this is apparent is pet photos. The Mate 20 Pro can recognize 27 different breeds of dogs. So, in theory, it can not just tell that “this is a dog and this is a cat,” but “this is a Great Dane and this is a Schnauzer.” That’s one small example of how Huawei’s hoping to make AI scene detection less of a blunt implement — by understanding granular detail in photos and videos, it can fine-tune camera settings for the best results in more situations.

Huawei already had the best low-light performance with its ridiculously impressive handheld night mode on the P20 — and arguably the best telephoto too, with 3X optical and 5X hybrid zoom. Adding a really great super-wide-angle into the equation is just the icing on the cake, and I can’t wait to see what these cameras are capable of.

Mate 20 vs Mate 20 Pro

The Mate 20 Pro is the real flagship here, but the standard Mate 20 offers similar features and the same core technology for what should be a lower price. A quick breakdown of the main differences between the two:

The standard Mate 20 has a smaller teardrop notch, but loses the fancy camera modules for 3D face unlock. And it has a plain old rear fingerprint scanner instead of the in-screen module. The screen is slightly larger, but lower-resolution, and uses a flat LCD panel with an RGBW configuration for extra brightness.

You’ll also have to deal with “only” a 4,000mAh battery, and the older-generation 22-watt Super Charging, plus no wireless charging. The rear cameras also take a small downgrade, specifically the regular and ultra-wide modules.

It’s clear Huawei wants to hit a lower price point with the standard Mate 20 for people who just want a large, high-performance smartphone without any of the extra-expensive goodies. As it has been for the past year or so, the Pro series is the real jewel in Huawei’s crown, and the far more interesting device for enthusiasts. Whether you value a high-quality, versatile camera setup, the biggest battery of any mainstream phone, the latest Android software, or being able to save your iPhone X-owning friends from battery anxiety, you’ll find Mate 20 Pro a formidable piece of technology.

And if you weren’t already, it’s also a big reason to start paying attention to Huawei.

See at Huawei

Huawei Mate 20 + Mate 20 Pro specifications

Huawei’s not pulling any punches this time around.

The Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro are official, and as expected, they’re the company’s two latest flagship smartphones to carry it through 2018. There’s a lot going on with each phone, and while they have a lot in common, there are also a few key differences that you’ll want to be aware of.

Without further ado, here are the full specs for the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro.