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
Battery Life - Contrasting Two Models
The Mate 20 comes with an LCD screen and a 4000mAh battery. The screen is slightly larger in area than that of the Mate 20 Pro, who in turn uses an OLED screen, but also features a slightly larger 4200mAh battery.
The Kirin 980 of both phones should provide great efficiency, although I have to note that my units of the Mate 20 Pro seemed to have a worse binned SoC, as active system power consumption (normalised for screen and idle) in SPEC was about 8-9% higher than on the Mate 20.
In the web browsing test, we see the regular Mate 20 post some new record battery life results, with a staggering runtime of 13.5h. Here we finally see Huawei replicate the results of the Mate 9, which similarly had a very efficient screen. The efficiency of the SoC also augments the phone above that of other devices.
On the Mate 20 Pro, we see the previously discovered screen panel issues come back to haunt it. Even though it has a larger battery and a smaller screen than the Mate 20, the more expensive phone fares worse off in the test. Unfortunately the large base power handicap of the phone along with slightly worse luminance efficiency is the main cause of the results.
In regards to the Mate 10 results: The actual battery life of devices on the stock firmware should be better, unfortunately I haven’t been able to get to get back to this version as my units have a variant that unlock the memory controller to its full speed (and reduces battery life).
In PCMark, we see a similar regression on the part of the Mate 20 Pro – the regular version is achieving excellent results. Here the test is favourable to OLED devices, as evidenced by the P20 Pro leading all our results, however again this increase base power consumption of the Mate 20 Pro costs it a lot of lifetime which ends up it having much reduced battery life compared to where the SoC and battery capacity should have been capable of.
Overall, there’s two conclusions here in regards to battery life:
The Mate 20 is just an outstanding device and is currently showcasing absolutely leading battery life. Most devices with such runtimes are lower or mid-range phones with large battery capacities. In the high end, the Mate 20 is essentially in a tier of its own as it achieves this excellent battery life result while also showcasing the best performance of an Android device.
The Mate 20 Pro’s result and conclusion is a bit more muted. Its battery life isn’t bad, but falls short of expectations. Here the 4200mAh battery serves as no more than to just compensate for the inefficient display.
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cha0z_ - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 - link
I don't like how the best phone samsung made this year is not here (the note 9). That phone has a lot bigger body vs s9 and 3 times bigger heatpipe that is also better (the body of the phone heats, but the SOC is not throttled. Actually note 9 in heavy use is hotter than the s9+ but sustains better ;) ) + it's tweaked not for peak performance, but sustained performance + samsung DID improve the kernel and the control of the exynos 9810. I am sure all the factors will lead to noticeable difference compared to the s9 exynos tests from the start of the year.I know that you are tired of the exynos 9810, we all know that chip is far worse than the rivals, but still it would be better to show it in it's best light instead of the all negativity. Comparing in a single table a phone twitce smaller than the other and drawing conclusions about the SOCs inside is plain wrong.
eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 - link
@Andrei:Any statement from Huawei on how long they will continue to provide OS updates for, and how quickly after Google releases them? With prices approaching 1000 dollars/euros/pounds, the old "release and abandon" would be a bit too much. Thanks!abufrejoval - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 - link
It doesn't get any better: Here you have all the hardware to turn into a credible workstation with sufficient compute, gaming and even inference power to do 90% of what normal PC users would need with UPS, storage and a high resolution touch screen included at pocket size and laptop budgets....But you simply cannot get the power onto a screen large enough to work with all day (Miracast is really doesn't have acceptable fidelity)
And they simply won't let you take control over what could be a very personal and very portable workstation, because they deny you control over the computer you purchased (no rooting).
All that power in a form factor that precludes putting it to work just drives me knocking my head into the wall!
whyamihere - Thursday, November 22, 2018 - link
If possible do you think you could look at the power consumption of a BOE screen on the Mate 20 pro. I'm wondering if the battery issues you saw on the pro model had to do with the LG screen, as LG screens on the pro model seem to have issues such as really bad green tint that gets worse over time.Jalk44 - Thursday, November 22, 2018 - link
A: it's not the first QHD phone by Huawei,that's was the mate 9 proB: it's also not the first phone with both front and back full curved glass, that would be the mate rs
MyFluxi - Thursday, November 22, 2018 - link
hey, can you do a screen battery test with the BOE screen and also a general review on the boe screen. some saying that the vibrancy is less on the BOE but the uniformity is betterballsystemlord - Friday, November 23, 2018 - link
Hi. Your local S+G corrector here. Todays mistake is an obvious one, the word "if" should be substituted by the word "is"."Here acceleration if facilitated through the HVX DSPs."
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"Here acceleration is facilitated through the HVX DSPs."
I lightly read the last 3 pages. I got tired of reading everything.
salbashi - Tuesday, November 27, 2018 - link
Did Anandtech notice any benchmark mode on Mate 20 or Mate 20 Pro this time around?Cause that would be Huawei caught cheating again right after P20 and P20 Pro.
Davidsic - Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - link
Hello, my first Mate 20 Pro had the same brightness anomaly you are talking about (LG screen) and my second one that i recieved yesterday have the same issue and it's a BOE screen !AlexTi - Sunday, March 17, 2019 - link
Mate 20 having Qi wireless charging possibility seems to be a mistake in specifications. The one I've just bought definitely lacks it (model number HMA-L29), and specs on Huawei website do not include this feature for non-Pro Mate 20.