Huawei P20 Unboxing, Quick Review: One Camera Down Still Plenty Impressive

Another Member of the Family Arrives!

We’ve seen two out of three members of the new P20 family from Huawei and the middle child of the bunch has finally arrived at Unbox HQ. The brand has always been one of the top contenders in mobile photography but they’ve really outdone themselves with the P20 Pro and its third camera, can the P20 equally impress? While it’ll take a couple more days to answer that question and put the device through its paces, let’s give you a quick overview of the phone and see what’s inside its packaging first.

Huawei P20 Specs

2.4GHz HiSilicon Kirin 970 octa-core processor
Mali-G72 M12 GPU
4GB of RAM
5.8-inch Full HD+ LTPS IPS display, 2240 x 1080, 429 pixels per inch
128GB of internal storage
12-megapixel RGB camera at f/1.8 + 20-megapixel monochrome camera f/1.6 Leica cameras with PDAF, OIS,
24-megapixel front camera. f/2.0 aperture
Dual SIM
WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
A-GPS, GLONASS
Fingerprint scanner
3400mAh battery with SuperCharge
Android 8.1 Oreo w/ EMUI 8

What’s Inside the Box?

Huawei has always done a great job with its packaging and the same can be said about the retail box of the P20, which a simple and clean white box with just the device’s name on it plus a little reminder of its history with Leica.

Open it up and you’ve got the phone itself and we were really hoping to get the Twilight Purple colored variant of the phone but it is quite elegant in Black. Dig a little deeper and you’ve got the usual slew of accessories, which include: a SIM tray ejector, a USB C cable, the charger, and a pair of headphones that plug into the USB C port but there is an adapter in case you want to use your own cans.

We were kinda hoping for a case out of the box as well but no such luck here.

Initial Impressions: One Camera Down But Still Impressive

Just like its big brother, the P20 is sandwiched by glass panels that give it that premium look and feel. It’s a gorgeous looking device that’s guaranteed to pique your friends’ interest but it is a bit of fingerprint magnet. Keep a cleaning cloth handy at all times so you can wipe away those smears and smudges. The frame is made out of stainless steel that has gentle curves to match the 2.5D panels on the front and back of the phone to give you better ergonomics. The taller aspect ratio of the screen already gives it a narrow silhouette but the device is rather thin as well; measuring in at 7.65mm plus it only weighs 165 grams as well.

Speaking of the display, you’ve got a 5.8-inch LTPS IPS display at a resolution of 2240 x 1080; giving it an overall pixel density of 429 pixels per inch. We’ve been a little spoiled by the OLED panel on the P20 Pro but the one on the P20 is still nice and vibrant.

You also have a notch on top of the screen, like most devices coming out in the market now, but it is quite small plus you do have the ability to camouflage it with black bars if you find them unsightly. Below the display is the petite fingerprint scanner of the P20 and it’ll take awhile to adjust to it since we’ve pretty much gotten used to it being on the back of most phones coming out in recent weeks.

Let’s take a tour of the rest of the button and port layout for this device, starting with the right side where you’ll find the power button and volume rocker.

The left houses the SIM tray, which can take two SIM cards and, sadly, doesn’t have space for microSD expansion.

Last but not the least is the bottom of the phone where you’ll find the USB C port and the speaker grille.

Under the hood of the Huawei P20 is a 2.4GHz Hisilicon Kirin 970 processor that’s paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. We first saw this chipset on the Mate 10 Pro and it’s still more than capable of taking on day-to-day tasks and the heaviest gaming titles as well. You’ve got a laundry list of AI functionalities that come along with this chipset but, like its brother, you’ll most likely be seeing this with the cameras on the P20.

The device runs on Android Oreo 8.1 with the company’s UI overlay EMUI 8.

Fans of the brand will be familiar with the dual camera setup of the P20, which consists of a 12-megapixel RGB sensor plus a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor that work in tandem to take really great photos. Pair it up with the AI Stabilization and AI Scene Detection mode and we’re pretty sure that these cameras will churn out really awesome images. You’ve also got a pair of fast lenses on the P20 with the RGB camera sporting an f-stop of f/1.8 and the dedicated monochrome shooter having an opening of F/1.6 for some really great low-light performance and great depth-of-field without the software-assisted bokeh.

For the front camera, you’ve got a 24-megapixel front shooter with an aperture of f/2.0.

The phone is juiced up by a 3400mAh battery, which should last you the whole day plus the device has support for the company’s SuperCharge in case you need to top up in a hurry.

That’s pretty much it for our unboxing and the quick peek of the Huawei P20. Pricing for the P20 family has recently been revealed by the company, which has the P20 priced at Php 34,990. The launch is set to happen in a little over a week and, given the buzz that the phones have been drawing lately, you might seriously want to consider pre-ordering the device if you’ve got the budget for it.