SMARTPHONE enthusiasts looking forward to upcoming cutting-edge mobile models might be forgiven if they are keen to focus on the new technologies from upcoming models in the pipeline later this year.

As one of the leading players in the market, Huawei’s flagship model that was launched last October, the Mate 20 Pro still stands out with its technology that keeps pace with newer sets that are launching this year. Usually new phones debut a host of new features that will supercede their predecessors but the Mate 20 Pro has enough top attributes to keep it distinct, even from competitors.

At its core, this smartphone runs on the newly introduced 64-bit Kirin 980 chipset that performs on par with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855. Both chipsets incorporate the Arm Cortex-A76 and Arm Cortex-A55 CPU cores that enhance phones with next generation on-device AI capabilities and blazing fast in performance.

With the Kirin 980 chipset, the Mate 20 Pro can recognise specific faces and makes video highlights for each person with its Video AI Editor – making you a pro in editing videos.

It automatically recognises various scenes and objects, seamlessly adjusting settings automatically for that perfect shot with its Master AI 2.0. With that capability, it can recognise 1,500 scenarios across 25 categories, making fiddling with camera settings a thing of the past.

These AI capabilities also help the device allocate resources to maximise phone performance.

With the integration of AI that makes greater use for even better pictures and videos, the Mate 20 Pro configures its flash and three rear Leica lens cameras into a unique square block that makes it immediately recognisable from the back, as no other phone has that arrangement.

The cameras are a main 40 megapixels (MP) lens, a 20MP that captures ultra-wide angles, which received much praise from reviewers, and a 2.5cm Super Macro 8MP telephoto lens that gets you closer to your subject than any other camera phone.

Its 24MP f/2.0 front-facing camera is fitted with 3D-depth sensors, a flood illuminator and an RGB reader.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro’s 20MP ultra-wide angle camera received much praise from users.

Another feature is its charging: The Mate 20 Pro is fitted for 40W quick charging and is able to achieve 70% charged under half an hour. Also, if you are left in a lurch at, say, 5% battery power without any conventional power source at hand, you can team up with someone using a Qi-charging phone to reverse charge your phone wirelessly.

But saying that, such a scenario would rarely occur thanks to the Mate 20 Pro’s long battery life. At 4,200mAh, this Huawei phone can keep on going way more than a day on light usage. Even the occasional Netflix streaming or shooting out opponents on PUBG Mobile should be able to last you through till the end of the day.

In fact, gaming enthusiasts can also switch the phone’s battery to “maximum performance” for a more intense CPU utilisation when the need for speed arises, touting a 75% higher CPU performance with better power management.

The Mate 20 Pro comes with two live Nano SIM slots that function as both primary and secondary SIMs, giving the user more choices if he has two separate lines.

Since the Mate 20 Pro made it debut last year, this top-tier smartphone has consistently received positive remarks and generally high points from reviewers.

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As Huawei is ready to reveal more of its “Connecting the Future” plans tomorrow of bringing 5G to the world, the quietly impressive Mate 20 Pro stands as a benchmark of where this Chinese company might head towards next.