The Mate 20 & Mate 20 Pro Review: Kirin 980 Powering Two Contrasting Devices
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 16, 2018 8:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Huawei
- Mobile
- Kirin 980
- Mate 20
- Mate 20 Pro
Camera Video Recording
Video recording have traditionally been a great weakness for Huawei, and the Mate 20’s feature the same type of issue that also plagued past Mate and P-series phones: the lack of OIS on the main camera modules. Furthermore, I was surprised to see that the video encoding block of the Kirin 980 caps out at 4K30, far lower than the competition from Qualcomm and Samsung.
Because the Mate 20’s feature wide-angle camera modules, this essentially doubles the amount of video samples we have to analyse. In terms of recording modes Huawei offers a slew of resolution from 720p to 4K30 – we’ll be limiting ourselves to the more popular 1080p30, 1080p60 and 4K30 modes. Video recording can be done either in H264, or H265, and the phone defaults to H264 for better file compatibility.
Mate 20 Pro:
Mate 20:
On both the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, the one thing that immediately stands out from past Huawei devices is that the video is a lot more stable. Both in 1080p30 and 4K30 (in which previously EIS wasn’t available on the Kirin 970), we see some really good results considering the fact that the phones don’t have OIS. Here Huawei and HiSilicon are obviously using a different EIS algorithm that is much more performant, and the phone actually this time around doesn’t let you disable it. What is interesting to see is that here and there there’s still a jutter in the image, and when this happens we see the very edges of the video sometime warp for a few frames. This is an indication that the EIS algorithm is quite lax in following the camera frame, and in sudden movements tries to compensate and stabilize the recorded video frame by warping the existing camera frame along the edges when necessary. The only real negative of this implementation is that the actual video recording is delayed by a split second, something that plainly visible when panning around – in practical terms this shouldn’t be an issue.
Where things break down is in the 60fps mode: Here there’s no stabilisation and the result is what you’d expect from a non-OIS phone. I do find it weird that Huawei stabilises 4K30, but not 1080p60, as the larger resolution mode should in theory represent a more difficult workload. Here it’s likely that the new EIS is latency rather than throughput bound at some point in the pipeline, either by the sensors, or maybe even on the SoC side.
Video recording in 60fps is also not optimal, here I think Huawei was far too conservative in terms of video encoding bitrate as the resulting video is of much less quality than the 1080p30 mode. Also weird is that in 60fps mode, the phone will now do to the telephoto lens, only allowing digital zoom. However, switching over to the wide angle lens works.
4K30 is of great quality on both phones: This is an immense upgrade compared to the previous generation Huawei devices, and although it doesn’t quite match the quality of say the recent iPhone XS’, video recording is no longer a thorn in the side of the phones.
Recording video on the wide angle lenses is a great experience: It feels a bit less stable than o the primary lens (The EIS has more actual distance to compensate), but overall this is something that I’ve been a great fan of in LG phones, and should be definitely something that I recommend many users to try out.
Exposure and dynamic range is good on both phones and both modules, again something that’s seen immense upgrades compared to past Kirin 970 devices. It’s only when switching between the modules that it seems like it’s necessary to readjust the exposure sometimes. In terms of switching between the modules, Huawei is still a bit slow in this regard. Apple and other Snapdragon devices are able to do this almost instantly, however it still takes a few seconds for the Mate 20’s, especially switching to the zoom modules.
Overall, Huawei’s video recording quality on the Mate 20’s has seen a significant jump. The most glaring issues of stabilisation and lack of dynamic range (HDR recording) have been mostly fixed, and while it’s still not quite the best of the best, the end result is now no longer a big negative for the phones.
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Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
Nothing on the nanoSD, I don't even have any way to test it. As for storage, again I'm not posting any results in the review because the tools are broken/misleading. If it's any worth, both phones are leading in terms of Androbench performance.Chitti - Saturday, November 24, 2018 - link
Andrei, its almost 10 days.U didn't upload it yet 😓.
s.yu - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
Samsung's body + Apple's notch, a popular opinion on the net.For the record Huawei's always "taking note" of somebody's design, they copied Sony's Omnibalance back with the P8, especially with that power button, moving on they've been closely following Samsung's design (S6,S7,S8) until the P20, in which they copied Apple, with the latest Mate20Pro, it's both, altogether.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
I don't really agree with this (Beyond the P20's looking similar to the iPhone X), Huawei always had quite distinct designs in its phones, especially on the Mate series.s.yu - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
Well for the P8 Huawei's own slide mentioning a "balanced design" following Sony's use of "Omnibalance" as well as the obvious resemblance in design did give them away, Huawei's Mate 9 Pro's a facelift of the S6/S7, and their subsequent so-called "Porsche Design" versions as well as the corresponding "Pro" versions all suspiciously follow Samsung's move in design philosophy from the S7 onwards. Then Apple's IPX and all...levizx - Saturday, November 17, 2018 - link
Well, that's quite a bold regarding P8, P8 looks nothing like SONY. By your logic, any phone that claims "slim" or "premium" would be clones.How else would you design a phone with 16:9 curved display with 3 years old technology, I'd like to see you try.
You have to be very stupid to think Mate 10/P20 series looks anything like S7/S8/iPhone being non-curved with front/back fingerprint readers.
So your logic is essentially - curved display: copying Samsung, non-curved display: copying Samsung, notch with fingerprint reader and triple camera: copying iPhone.
s.yu - Saturday, November 17, 2018 - link
That's some weak trolling.Let me tell you now how exactly the P8 looks like Sony's Xperia Z released earlier:
1. It's very boxy for its release date, compared to its peers only Sony of that era used such a design philosophy though Sony stuck to it for the many years to come while Huawei went on to copy Samsung the subsequent generation starting from Mate 9 Pro.
2. Sony's machine-milled power button was iconic in their Xperia Z and Z1, then Huawei came over, slightly changed the shape and stuck it onto an equally boxy body with suspiciously similarly named design philosophy.
How else would *I* design? That's not my problem, I'm not a team of engineers paid to innovate on a smartphone design after all, but HTC and Samsung both had unique solutions at the time, especially Samsung's S6 was an ingenious generational leap which pioneered the trend of glass-sandwich-metal bodies until this day.
When Huawei wasn't so obviously copying, well of course you know what happened, the unsightly Mate S, Mate 8 and Mate 9.
The Mate 9 Pro's screen was curved, together with the home button it's a straight Samsung S6E/S7E ripoff under a façade of "Porsche Design". At least get your basic facts straight before you troll.
I didn't say that the Mate 10 was a Samsung/Apple copy, you put that in my mouth. Not every Huawei is a copy, just that they copy somebody almost every generation, which also shows from their highly inconsistent, rapidly shifting design language, because they "borrow" from different opponents each year.
The P20 is a thorough IPX clone, up there with the Mi8, there's no doubt about that.
Quantumz0d - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
Agreed.Press don't care unfortunately and that makes the marketing work. How else Huawei could gather all that. Look at Pixel 3XL its the best android phone according to press. Less features is more nowadays and you should pay more for the super cloned designs and submitting your ownership as well.
And it's China and their famous pro local IP theft game, no one can win there except their own.
levizx - Saturday, November 17, 2018 - link
What a stupid and racist troll. So in your mind Pixel XL is not a clone, but all Huawei phones are?Mate 10 Pro looks more like LG V30 than anything else, and they are only 2 months apart, no chance of copying at all.
s.yu - Saturday, November 17, 2018 - link
Look at you grasping at straws like that, the Mate 10 Pro may not be a copy, but Mate RS was a clear Samsung copy.