How to Charge Huawei P20 Pro

This spring, Huawei introduced its latest smartphones from the flagship line. the P20 and P20 Pro. The international presentation of the updated line took place in the French capital, the city of Paris. The P20 and P20 Pro are the continuation of the P10 and P10 Plus smartphones, and this time there are much more differences from previous models than before. Perhaps the P20 and P20 Pro can be called the “new generation” without any discounts. What is the unusual triple camera installed in the Huawei P20 Pro! It is truly unique, and today we will analyze in detail both its capabilities and everything else that the most powerful Huawei smartphone is capable of.

Key Features of Huawei P20 Pro (Model CLT-L29)

• SoC HiSilicon Kirin 970, 8 cores (4 × Cortex A73 @ 2.36 GHz 4 × Cortex A53 @ 1.8 GHz)
• GPU Mali-G72 (MP12)
• Operating System Android 8.0, EMUI 8.1
• Touchscreen OLED 6.1 ″, 2240 × 1080 (18.7: 9), 408 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 6 GB, internal memory 128 GB
• Support Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
• There is no microSD support!
• GSM / GPRS / EDGE networks (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• WCDMA / HSPA Networks (850/900/1900/2100 MHz)
• Networks LTE Cat.12 / 13 FDD (Band 1–9, 12, 17–20, 26, 28), TD (Band 34, 38–41)
• Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac (2.4 and 5 GHz)
• Bluetooth 4.2, BLE, A2DP
• Nfc
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• USB Type-C 2.0, USB OTG
• Main camera 40 20 8 MP, f / 1.6, f / 1.8 and f / 2.4, 4K
• Front camera 24 MP, f / 2.0
• Proximity and lighting sensors, magnetic field, accelerometer, gyroscope, step counter
• The fingerprint scanner
• Infrared port
• 4000 mAh battery
• Dimensions 155 × 74 × 7.8 mm
• Weight 186 g

Appearance and usability

Even in terms of design, the new models of the P20 series are noticeably different from their predecessors. Any dullness has completely disappeared, all surfaces are now smooth and shiny. The side rim is made of metal polished to a mirror state, it looks like real steel and pleasantly cools the hand.

The front and rear panels are glass, and the back wall has such an expressive backing that the entire back part glistens in the sun, you can see your own reflection in it, as if in a mirror.

There is no need to explain that the listed surfaces are the most slippery of possible. A rather heavy smartphone with such smooth surfaces and streamlined shapes clearly needs a protective case, especially considering its high cost and the likelihood of slipping out of your hands at any time.

At the top of the screen there is the notorious “bang”, famously adopted by all manufacturers from Apple literally overnight. The screen itself has very rounded corners, and the protective glass has sloping edges. An LED indicator of events is installed above the screen. this microscopic point in the “monobrow” area is barely visible, but it is present.

Below the screen there is no row of hardware touch buttons, but there is a fingerprint scanner, made in the form of an oval non-pressable touch pad. This site can also play the role of a navigation button that supports gesture control. Of course, there is the opportunity to bring the familiar panel of navigation buttons to the screen. here everyone will be able to choose what he likes.

Side keys are installed on the right side, the buttons are smooth, the touch is the same. They have a soft stroke, but quite elastic and clear. The power and lock button is beautifully decorated with an additional red stripe, all together against the background of polished metal frame looks very solid, expensive and stylish.

On the opposite side is a slot for cards, and here is an unpleasant surprise: this is not a familiar hybrid slot. It can only accept two SIM cards (both Nano-SIM formats), but is not designed for memory cards. The rubberized gasket on the connector cover indicates that the case received protection from dust and moisture, but for some reason there is no official information on this topic.

At the upper end you can find a small hole in the auxiliary microphone and the eye of the IR transmitter for emulating the remote control. a very useful functionality.

The main loudspeaker is brought to the lower end, the opening of the earpiece microphone and the USB Type-C connector are also located there. The 3.5 mm headphone audio output, of course, was not installed.

A lot of talk causes the color of the Huawei P20 Pro. The model was presented in two solid soft blue colors: one is just dark blue, and the second is with a gradient from blue to purple. This color was allegedly developed in conjunction with the world famous company Pantone, it was called “Twilight”. Other colors may have other colors, but these two will be officially delivered to Russia.

Screen

Smartphone Huawei P20 Pro is equipped with an OLED display, covered with 2.5D-glass with sloping edges. The physical dimensions of the screen are 67 × 140 mm with a diagonal of 6.1 inches, the aspect ratio is approximately 19: 9. Screen resolution. 2240 × 1080 with a pixel density of about 408 ppi. The frame around the screen has a thickness of 3 mm on the sides, about 1 cm on the bottom and top, and if you do not count the “bangs”, then only 4 mm on top.

It is possible to use automatic brightness adjustment based on the operation of the ambient light sensor. Multi-touch tests diagnose support for 10 simultaneous touches. Work with a gloved screen is supported, it is turned on in the settings.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. We give his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than that of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, we present a photo on which the white surface is reflected in the turned off screens (on the left. Nexus 7, on the right. Huawei P20 Pro, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Huawei P20 Pro is almost the same dark (brightness in photos 114 versus 113 for Nexus 7) and does not have a pronounced hue. The doubling of the reflected objects in the screen of the Huawei P20 Pro is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of boundaries (such as glass / air) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but repairing them in the case of a cracked outer glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen, the Huawei P20 Pro has a special oleophobic (grease repellent) coating (effective, noticeably better than the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily and appear at a slower rate than with ordinary glass.

When displaying a white field full screen and with manual brightness control, its maximum value was 410 cd / m² under normal conditions, in very bright light it rises to 580 cd / m². In this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the brighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the indicated values. As a result, the readability of the screen in the afternoon in the sun should be at a good level. The minimum brightness value is 2.4 cd / m², that is, a reduced brightness level without problems allows you to use the device even in complete darkness. Automatic brightness control by light sensor works (it is located in the center of the cutout in the screen). The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider; the user may try to set the desired brightness level under the current conditions. If you set the slider to about 50% in office conditions, then in complete darkness the auto brightness function reduces the brightness to 6 cd / m² (dark), in an office lit by artificial light (about 550 lux) it sets to 220 cd / m² (normal), in very bright environment (corresponds to illumination on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight. 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 580 cd / m² (to the maximum, this is necessary). The result didn’t quite suit us, so in total darkness we slightly increased the brightness, getting as a result, for the three conditions mentioned above, the following values: 20, 180-230, 580 cd / m² (ideal combination). In automatic mode, the brightness increases and decreases during transitions from full darkness to lighting in the office and vice versa, but for some reason it does not decrease after exposure to bright light. or rather, it decreases, but only after a cycle of turning off / on the screen, and even then for the responder in conditions of complete darkness, a decrease in brightness may require two such cycles. It turns out that the auto-brightness function works a little strange, but overall is adequate and allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements.

Only at a low level of brightness does significant modulation appear at a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time (horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum and medium brightness, the modulation amplitude is not very large, as a result, there is no visible flicker. However, at low brightness, a modulation with a large relative amplitude appears, its presence can already be seen in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on the individual sensitivity, such flickering can cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses the Super AMOLED matrix. an active matrix with organic LEDs. A full-color image is created using sub-pixels of three colors. red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but the red and blue sub-pixels are half as much, which can be designated as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a micrograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

On the fragment above, you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), while repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without tearing and overlapping. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer considers the screen resolution for green subpixels, for the other two it will be half as much. The arrangement and shape of the subpixels in this version is close to the case of the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and some other newer Samsung devices (and not only) with AMOLED screens. This PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and green sub-pixel stripes. However, some uneven contrasting borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to the very high resolution, they only have a minimal effect on image quality.

The screen is characterized by excellent viewing angles. The hue of white when the gaze deviates from the perpendicular to the screen changes slightly, and the black color remains just black at any angle. It is so black that the contrast parameter is not applicable in this case. For comparison, here are photos on which on the screens of Huawei P20 Pro (profile Colors → Normal) and the second participant in the comparison, identical images are displayed, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 200 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K.

We note a good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

And a test picture (profile Colors → Normal):

Color reproduction is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens varies slightly. Recall that the photograph can not serve as a reliable source of information about the color rendering quality and is provided only for conditional visual illustration. In particular, the pronounced reddish tint of white and gray fields that are present in the photos of the Huawei P20 Pro screen is not visually absent at a perpendicular view, which is confirmed by hardware tests using a spectrophotometer. The reason is that the spectral sensitivity of the camera’s matrix does not exactly match this characteristic of human vision.

The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Colors → Normal in the screen settings, there are only two of them:

Profile Colors → Vivid differs in the increased saturation:

Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile Colors → Normal)

The brightness at an angle of both screens decreased markedly (to avoid strong dimming, the shutter speed was increased compared to previous photos), but in the case of the Huawei P20 Pro, the brightness drop was much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the Huawei P20 Pro screen visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since you often have to look at the screen of a mobile device at least from a small angle.

And the test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the smartphone Huawei P20 Pro at an angle is much higher. Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but a step with a width of about 17 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz) may be present at the inclusion front. For example, it looks like the dependence of brightness on time during the transition from black to white and vice versa:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to loops reaching for moving objects. However, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high definition and even some “twitching” of movements.

Constructed at 32 points with an equal interval in the numerical value of the shade of gray, the gamma curve showed that there is no significant obstruction in the highlights or in the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.25, which is slightly more than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve almost does not deviate from the power dependence:

Recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image. it decreases slightly for light images in general. As a result, the obtained dependence of the brightness on the hue (gamma curve) most likely does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with the sequential output of shades of gray to almost the entire screen.

Profile color gamut Colors → Vivid very wide. almost equal to DCI-P3:

When choosing a profile Colors → Normal coverage is compressed to sRGB boundaries:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated (but some kind of mixing of the components is clearly present):

In case of profile Colors → Normal with maximum correction, the color components are already more mixed together:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut (without corresponding correction), the colors of ordinary images optimized for sRGB devices look unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation: in most cases, watching movies, photos and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Colors → Normal, and only if the photo or has DCI-P3 coverage, adopted in digital cinema and “native” for top-end Apple devices, it makes sense to switch the profile to Colors → Vivid.

In case of profile Colors → Vivid the balance of shades on the gray scale is acceptable, since the color temperature is noticeably higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the spectrum of the black body (ΔE) is below 10 units, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device (data signed as No correspondent. in the graphs below). over, the variation in color temperature and ΔE is not very large. this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (Dark areas of the gray scale can not be taken into account, since there the color balance does not matter much, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This device has the ability to adjust the color balance by adjusting the hue on the color wheel:

What we tried to do: the result is data signed as Corr. on the graphs above (note that when choosing a profile Ordinary the color temperature is already decreasing to about 6500 K, we have only slightly reduced ΔE). As a result, ΔE decreased even in light shades. At the same time, the maximum brightness decreased slightly. from 410 to 380 cd / m² (in the white field with manual brightness control). Thus, in order to get the right colors in the case of commonly encountered images, you must select the mode Ordinary and make a small correction of the color balance (as in the picture above, but you can do without the second step).

Function present Natural tone, which, if turned on, adjusts the color balance to environmental conditions.

For example, we activated it and placed the device under LED lights with a cool white light, resulting in a value of 2.6 for ΔE and 7150 K for color temperature. Under a halogen incandescent lamp (warm light), these values ​​are 2.5 and 5650 K, respectively, that is, the color temperature has become lower. The function works as expected. Note that the current standard is the calibration of display devices to a white point of 6500 K, but in principle, correction for the color temperature of external light can be useful if you want to achieve a better match of the image on the screen to what is visible on paper (or on any media where colors are formed by reflecting incident light) under current conditions.

There is now a fashionable function to reduce the intensity of the blue component:

In her description, of course, the traditional nonsense about harmful UV radiation and eye fatigue, but such a correction may be useful, as explained in our article on the iPad Pro 9.7. In any case, when having fun with a tablet or smartphone at night, it’s better to lower the screen brightness to a minimum, but still comfortable level, and then, to calm your own paranoia, turn the screen yellow with this setting (or better not turn yellow at all).

To summarize. The screen has a very high maximum brightness and has good anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a summer sunny day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable value. It is permissible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works, in principle, adequately, but with features. The advantages of the screen include effective oleophobic coating, as well as close to sRGB color gamut (when choosing the right profile) and good color balance. At the same time, we recall the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen) and a noticeably smaller drop in image brightness when viewed from an angle than that of an LCD. The disadvantages include modulation of the brightness of the screen. Users who are especially sensitive to flicker may experience increased fatigue due to this. However, overall the screen quality is very high.

Camera

The front camera of the Huawei P20 Pro received a sensor with a resolution of 24 megapixels. The lens has an f / 2.0 aperture and fixed focus. Naturally, there is a mode of decorating portraits with 10 degrees, the effect of blurring the background is also implemented. Note that the company again made Super Beauty on by default. If you are not a fan of porcelain faces without a texture on the skin, you will have to turn it off manually, although the logic should, of course, be the other way around. In general, of course, this is one of the most powerful front camera cameras in terms of capabilities and quality in mobile devices.

But the most interesting thing here is the Leica triple main camera. Two modules use the usual workflow for Huawei: the RGB module has a resolution of 40 megapixels on a 1 / 1.7 ″ matrix, it is complemented by a monochrome module with a resolution of 20 megapixels on a 1 / 2.7 ″ matrix without a Bayer filter. Accordingly, the second module, which is also equipped with a bright f / 1.6 lens, receives a lot of light and is responsible for detailing pictures and eliminating noise. In principle, when shooting on the main camera, you can also get 40-megapixel images, but this result is unlikely to please you: the sensor has a more complex quad Bayer filter than usual, the color resolution of the images is lower, and the resolution of the monochrome module is not enough to to qualitatively correct the situation. In a word, the 10-megapixel shooting mode was chosen by default not by chance.

In addition to the two mentioned, the smartphone also has an 8-megapixel module on a 1/4 ″ matrix with a telephoto lens, offering 3x optical zoom (using a combination of optical and digital zoom, you can get 5x hybrid zoom Zoom). The telephoto lens is darker: f / 2.4 versus f / 1.8 for the wide-angle lens of the main module. When taking a photo with a zoom, the information from the main module is already used as an auxiliary, therefore the resulting images have a resolution of 10 megapixels, and not 8 megapixels. Given that no other smartphone has such a high-quality approximation, the zoom functionality in the Huawei P20 Pro can be considered unique.