Huawei Mate P20 Pro Chip Test

Please notation: In September 2019, nosotros updated the DXOMARK Mobile test protocol to cover ultra-broad-angle performance and accept renamed the protocol DXOMARK Camera. Nosotros also expanded our low-low-cal testing and created the new Night sub-score, which incorporates the previous Flash score. Nosotros have retested this device using the new Wide and Night examination protocols and updated this review. The updated elements and scores are right at the top; you can still notice the original review farther down the page. For more information, please meet the articles about our new Wide and Night examination protocols.

Announced in October 2018, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro was the Chinese manufacturer'due south top-cease device for 2018, direct competing with the Apple iPhone XS Max, the Google Pixel 3 40, the Samsung Milky way Note 9, and other heavy-hitters at that time. The Mate 20 Pro comes with a Leica-branded triple-photographic camera setup with broad-angle and telephoto modules, offer a 35mm-equivalent focal length range from 16 to 80mm—the widest of all smartphone cameras at the time of launch.

Update summary

112

camera

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro was a super-telephone in every sense at its launch, and is still a very capable photographic camera almost one year later. Its triple-lens setup is capable of producing excellent epitome output in virtually situations, still securing the Mate 20 Pro i of the pinnacle spots in our DXOMARK Camera ranking. It is capable of capturing images and videos with pleasant colors, accurate exposure and decent detail, and thank you to the 3x optical zoom, it is yet a corking option for zoom shots as well. The Mate 20 Pro's results under our new Wide and Night test protocols are in line with its general photographic camera performance and thus don't accept any major impact on its position in the overall ranking.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro's ultra-wide bending camera comes with a 16mm-equivalent field of view. This is not every bit wide as some of the latest superlative-end devices—for example, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ at 12mm, but puts it on a level similar to many other competitors. Overall, when shooting with its ultra-wide camera, the Mate xx Pro delivers a functioning that puts it in the middle of the pack for our new Wide ranking. As long as you shoot at the default focal length and in bright atmospheric condition, image quality is decent; still, things get downhill when zooming in or when shooting in low lite.

The Mate 20 Pro is currently ane of the best devices we take tested using our new Night protocol, simply compared to images taken in bright lite, image quality is still pretty low. Generally speaking, when shooting in dim weather condition, the Mate twenty Pro is best used with the wink forced off. You'll take to live with some visible dissonance and color casts in this style, but exposure is very good, detail is rendered relatively well, and dynamic range is decent. The Mate 20 Pro also comes with a dedicated Nighttime mode, but the results are disappointing and the mode is best avoided.

Read the following in-depth sections for more information on the Huawei Mate 20's Wide and Night functioning.

Broad

At a 16mm equivalent the Huawei Mate twenty Pro doesn't offering the widest field of view at wide-angle settings, but it is all the same in line with many of its competitors. In terms of wide-angle image quality, it delivers a centre-of-the-road performance. Epitome quality is decent at its default focal length and in outdoor conditions, but drops somewhat when zooming in with the broad-angle camera and under typical indoor lighting.

At the default focal length, target exposure is good and dynamic range is wide. The level of captured item is not great, but comparable to competing devices. It does decrease every bit y'all zoom in, though, and we also found that it renders portrait details in a slightly unnatural fashion, equally you tin run into in the sample beneath.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, 16mm, unnatural rendering of face detail

Huawei Mate xx Pro, crop, unnatural rendering of face detail

Color is too decent at the default focal length but can go slightly desaturated at longer focal lengths. In terms of artifacts, a loss of sharpness in the field is very noticeable, equally is color fringing, especially in outdoor conditions.

Huawei Mate xx Pro, 16mm, color fringing

Huawei Mate twenty Pro, crop, color fringing

In indoor weather, the Mate 20 Pro's wide-angle camera loses points for white balance casts and dissonance, as well equally for very noticeable highlight clipping. The latter is conspicuously visible in the comparison below. The expanse around the light bulb is widely clipped in the Mate 20 Pro image, and there is also a noticeable hue shift around the clipped area. Huawei'south newer model P30 Pro is capable of capturing visibly better highlight particular, but does non come up shut to the LG G8'south wide-angle photographic camera , which displays fantabulous dynamic range and highlight rendering in this examination scene.

If you open the full-size view of the Huawei image, you'll too see a very obvious reduction of item towards the corner of the frame, for case on the meridian correct corner of the Styrofoam cake on the groundwork.

Huawei Mate xx Pro, 18mm, highlight rendering

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, crop, highlight rendering

LG G8, 18mm, highlight detail

LG G8, crop, highlight detail

Huawei P30 Pro, 18mm, highlight rendering

Huawei P30 Pro, ingather, highlight rendering

Night

The Mate 20 Pro occupies a top position in our new Night ranking. This said, the altitude to the elevation is pretty pocket-size, and there is still quite a bit work for the engineers to do to improve low-light prototype quality.

Results aren't totally repeatable when setting the flash to car manner, with the flash sometimes triggering for mural shots, which can cause very intrusive image noise and a lack of contrast. When the flash does not trigger, information technology accurately exposes images of the aforementioned scenes, though, and noise is much improve controlled. The level of captured detail is all the same depression, all the same, and some color casts are also visible.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, flash not triggered in wink machine manner

Huawei Mate xx Pro, flash triggered in flash auto fashion

In automobile mode, the flash does not always trigger even when it detects a face in the scene. When it does trigger, the dynamic range in the scene is quite express, with the background rendered very dark and some clipping actualization on peel tones. When it does not trigger, target exposure can exist slightly low on faces, and depending on the scene, highlight clipping tin can occur in the background, as tin can be see in the samples below.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, flash triggered in flash motorcar mode

Huawei Mate xx Pro, flash not triggered in flash car mode

With the flash switched off, the Mate 20 Pro is ane of the ameliorate devices for exposure that we accept tested so far, with highlight clipping well under control. It also shows insufficiently expert detail. However, a lot of noise is visible, especially in dark skies, and the white balance can turn yellow and green under sodium vapor illumination. Still, the wink-off pick is your best bet overall when using the Mate xx Pro in low light.

Huawei Mate xx Pro, flash off

Huawei P30 Pro, flash off

With the flash forced on, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is capable of achieving very good wink results for a smartphone photographic camera. When using the flash in consummate darkness, images testify good target exposure and a decent compromise betwixt texture and noise. There is some colour shading and colour quantization visible on skin tones, even so, and we as well saw some slight focus inconsistencies between shots in a serial.

When mixed with low 5 lux tungsten light, wink images tend to show a slight yellow color cast too as color shading, along with noticeable lite autumn-off towards the edges of the frame. We besides observed a ruby-red-centre outcome in some images, but the camera captures good levels of item while keeping racket downwards.

The Huawei also features a defended night mode Night manner, but it's difficult to recommend using information technology. In very low lite, target exposure is really darker than in default way, which is peculiarly unhelpful for low-light portrait shots.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro camera review (originally published Jan 18, 2019)

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is the Chinese manufacturer's latest pinnacle-end device—one that is in directly contest with the Apple tree iPhone XS Max, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Samsung Galaxy Notation ix, and other heavy-hitters. Building on the P20 Pro'due south camera technology, the Mate 20 Pro comes with a Leica-branded triple-camera setup, but swaps its stable-mate's monochrome photographic camera for a super-wide-angle module, offering a 35mm-equivalent focal length range from 16 to 80mm—the widest of all current smartphone cameras. (This said, as with other smartphones with a like setup, nosotros did not examination the Mate 20 Pro'due south super-wide-bending module, and so it does non accept an impact on its DxOMark scores.)

Other components housed in the IP68-rated glass and metal trunk are all worthy of a premium device as well. Processing and other tasks are powered by Huawei'southward new Kirin 980 chipset, and users can compose and view images on a large 6.39-inch HDR OLED display with 1440 x 3120 pixel resolution. Read the full report to find out how the Mate 20 Pro performed in our camera tests.

Key photographic camera specifications:

Triple photographic camera
40Mp main photographic camera with 1/ane.seven″ sensor; f/one.eight-aperture, 27mm-equivalent lens
20Mp super-wide-bending with f/2.2-aperture, 16mm-equivalent lens
8MP tele with f/2.4 aperture, OIS, 80mm-equivalent lens
PDAF + laser AF
Dual-tone LED wink
4K video at 30fps (1080p/30fps at default settings)

Test summary

Mate 20 Pro images show good color rendering and a wide dynamic range.

Achieving an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 109 points, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro shares the number 1 spot in our DxOMark Mobile ranking with its cousin, the P20 Pro. Like the latter, it delivers an outstanding even so paradigm performance, resulting in a Photo score of 114 points. At 97 points, the Mate xx Pro's video score is only one point lower than the P20 Pro's, meaning that the latest Huawei flagship can provide acme-quality photo and video results in about any shooting situation.

In stills manner, the Mate twenty Pro's triple-camera captures images with good target exposure and a broad dynamic range, recording both expert highlight and shadow particular even in difficult high-dissimilarity situations. Racket levels are well under command downwards to low calorie-free levels, and the camera's white residue system and colour rendering settings produce a pleasant color response in almost all circumstances. Add together a fast and consistent autofocus and splendid zoom capabilities to the mix, and the Mate xx Pro is hard to vanquish for stills.

Despite the well-deserved praise, there is still some room for improvement, of class. When viewing images at pixel level, nosotros frequently found that the Mate twenty Pro rendered fine textures a piffling unnaturally, and we detected some ringing around hard edges. In images shot in bokeh simulation fashion, faces are frequently quite soft, with depression levels of detail; and the autofocus can be a little inconsistent when using the LED wink.

The camera captures good item, and nicely renders such fine textures every bit the grass in this prototype without any over-sharpening.

But the Mate 20 Pro is not only an outstanding smartphone for notwithstanding images. It's very close to the best for video as well, thanks to a fast and smooth autofocus system with practiced tracking performance, accurate white balance as well as pleasant color rendering, and low levels of noise, particularly in bright shooting conditions. Our testers also liked the exposure organisation's ability to accommodate chop-chop and smoothly to changes in illumination.

Video stabilization is efficient when recording while holding the camera still, but it could be ameliorate at keeping things steady while walking, peculiarly in lower low-cal conditions. Nosotros besides saw a judder effect while panning the camera and a loss of particular on some fine textures. None of these problems are particularly intrusive, though.

Portrait mode images have a nice bokeh shape, but details in the subject'due south confront are often soft.

The Mate 20 Pro is one of the few smartphones that tin produce usable images at long-range zoom distances.

Photo scores explained

With a total photo score of 114, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro ties the record-setting score of its cousin, the P20 Pro. The overall Photo score is calculated from sub-scores in tests that examine different aspects of its functioning nether different lighting weather condition. In this section, nosotros'll have a closer look at these image quality sub-scores.

Exposure (95)

The Huawei Mate twenty Pro camera achieves an outstanding score for exposure, cheers to very good target exposure in nearly all situations and a very wide dynamic range that ensures proficient highlight and shadow detail, even in difficult high-contrast scenes. In the loftier-contrast comparison scene below, all the cameras offer similar levels of highlight detail, but the Mate 20 Pro squeezes noticeably more particular out of the shadow areas than the P20 Pro and iPhone XS Max.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, high-dissimilarity scene

Huawei P20 Pro, high-contrast scene

Apple iPhone XS, high-contrast scene

Compared to the P20 Pro, the Mate twenty Pro improves slightly on target exposure in backlit scenes. In the sample shots below, y'all can run across that the Mate xx Pro has exposed the subject slightly more brightly than the P20 Pro. The iPhone XS exposure sits between the two Huawei smartphones.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, backlit scene

Huawei P20 Pro, backlit scene

Apple tree iPhone XS, backlit scene

The Mate 20 Pro camera also performs impressively well in very-low light conditions and is capable of producing good exposures downwards to i lux. This makes the new Huawei an interesting device for anyone who must occasionally capture images in very dim weather.

Color

The Mate twenty Pro also performed very well in our color tests. Colour rendering and white balance are practiced in all conditions, and there aren't any real color issues to report on. As with the P20 Pro, saturation tends to exist a bear on more natural and therefore lower than for some competitors' smartphones. In the comparison beneath, you can see that the iPhone XS image is noticeably more saturated and vibrant than the two Huawei devices.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, outdoor color

Huawei P20 Pro, outdoor colour

Apple iPhone XS, outdoor color

We observed some very slight color shading towards the edges of the frame in some images, but the issue is hardly noticeable most of the time. Nosotros also found that the Huawei's auto white balance system works particularly well in portraits and improves over the P20 Pro, producing mostly warm and pleasant skin tones in almost outdoor situations. On the downside, we observed low levels of skin tone saturation in some indoor portraits.

Texture (74) and Noise (78)

The Mate 20 Pro'southward image processing finds a good compromise between detail retention and noise reduction. In terms of image detail, the new device performs on a very similar level every bit the P20 Pro, merely applies less sharpening, making images await a little less crisp but more natural when viewed at 100%. The iPhone XS besides applies a little stronger sharpening than the Mate 20 Pro, resulting in practiced edge item, just overall, the Mate 20 Pro is the best device for rendering fine low-contrast textures, such every bit the grass in this scene, in this comparison.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, outdoor item

Huawei P20 Pro, outdoor detail

Apple iPhone XS, outdoor detail

In low light, the Mate 20 Pro is capable of distancing itself slightly from the contest, visibly delivering the all-time item in our 20 lux comparing. As y'all can see in the crops beneath of our lab chart, fine textures in the subject's skin and chapeau are slightly better preserved in the Mate 20 Pro paradigm than in either the P20 Pro or the iPhone image.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, 20 lux

The Mate 20 Pro produces expert image detail across light levels, and is at the aforementioned time capable of keeping image racket depression. In bright outdoor shooting conditions, noise is pretty much unnoticeable. In lower light, some fine luminance racket becomes visible, but is still e'er well nether control. In the image of our studio chart captured at very low light (5 lux), the Huawei models are very close, and both capture a noticeably cleaner image than the iPhone XS.

Huawei Mate twenty Pro, 5 lux

Autofocus

The Huawei Mate xx Pro's autofocus is fast, accurate, and repeatable across all light levels, earning itself an excellent score of 99 points. As you can come across in the graph below, even at a depression light level of 20 lux, the AF locks on instantly after pressing the shutter, and consistently delivers sharp results. The system is non quite perfect, notwithstanding. In some low-calorie-free and indoor scenes, we saw the AF lock onto the groundwork rather than the main foreground subject. Hopefully this can be fixed at some bespeak via a software update.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, AF operation at twenty lux

Artifacts

We found a range of artifacts in the Huawei Mate xx Pro image output. However, the good news is that none of them are very strong and you take to look quite closely to spot whatever of the imperfections.

When viewing at 100%, you lot can see ringing effectually some difficult edges on some occasions, especially in indoor weather. On closer inspection, we too found some moiré in fine patterns and very slight ghosting on some moving subjects in high-contrast scenes. An aliasing or "jagged line" effect is often noticeable on diagonal lines in the image, such equally on the building in the sample below.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, aliasing on diagonal lines

The Huawei Mate xx Pro is capable of achieving very good flash results for a smartphone camera. When using the wink in complete darkness, images show skillful target exposure and a decent compromise betwixt texture and noise. There is some color shading and color quantization visible on skin tones, withal, and we also saw some slight focus inconsistencies between shots in a series.

When mixed with depression 5 lux tungsten low-cal, flash images tend to show a slight xanthous color cast likewise as color shading and noticeable lite fall-off towards the edges of the frame. We besides observed a red-centre effect in some images, but the camera captures good levels of item while keeping dissonance down.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, flash at 0 lux

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, flash at five lux

Zoom

Thanks to its 3x optical zoom lens, the Huawei Mate xx Pro is one of the best performers we take seen in the zoom category, only notthe all-time. In the comparisons beneath, you can see that at both brusque- and medium-range zoom, the Mate 20 Pro is noticeably better than the iPhone XS, only in terms of image detail, it is non quite on the same level as its Huawei stable-mate, the P20 Pro—likely due to the fact that the company replaced the P20 Pro's high-resolution monochrome image sensor with a super-broad-angle variant on the newer model. The P20 Pro is a piddling noisier, though.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, short-range zoom

Huawei P20 Pro, brusque-range zoom

Apple iPhone XS, short-range zoom

The differences between cameras become fifty-fifty more obvious at medium-range zoom distances. Although non quite on the level of the P20 Pro, the Mate twenty Pro'southward detail is very good, with noise well under control in both outdoor and typical indoor conditions when zooming. This said, nonetheless, adequately potent desaturation is visible in some images. We can as well see a color artifact in the Mate 20 Pro paradigm below: notice how some high-contrast edges are completely desaturated. The same outcome is also visible in the P20 Pro image.

Huawei Mate twenty Pro, mid-range zoom

Huawei P20 Pro, mid-range zoom

Apple iPhone XS, mid-range zoom

Bokeh

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro achieves good bokeh simulation results in its Portrait mode, although the quality has decreased merely a touch when compared to the P20 Pro. The newer model shows a few more than depth artifacts under closer inspection, simply the differences are quite small, and subject area isolation in general is quite authentic on the Mate 20 Pro.

Bokeh shape and spotlight rendering are fairly good, and the Mate 20 Pro not merely blurs the groundwork, but also objects in the foreground, achieving a more natural effect than some competitor devices. On the downside, subjects are ofttimes a touch soft and sometimes even out of focus.

Huawei Mate xx Pro, foreground mistiness in bokeh mode

Huawei Mate xx Pro, segmentation artifacts in bokeh mode

Video scores explained

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro achieves a very good Video score of 97 points, simply one bespeak beneath the P20 Pro. Its but real weak points are the stabilization that generates a noticeable drift, and dissonance in low light. We calculate the overall video score using the following video sub-scores: Exposure (84), Colour (90), Autofocus (98), Texture (58), Racket (78), Artifacts (84), and Stabilization (92).

Video footage recorded with the Mate 20 Pro by and large shows expert target exposure, with good exposure transition under irresolute light levels and adept exposure down to lite levels as low as 5 lux. Dynamic range is not as good as the best in course, but it's on a very similar level to that of the P20 Pro. Some clipping is noticeable in high-contrast scenes in both highlight and shadow areas, and we besides observed some exposure instabilities during recording.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, video target exposure beyond light levels

Color in video is generally good, although in that location is sometimes a slight desaturation visible on very fine details. We also saw some stepping in white balance transitions. In depression light, the white balance can produce a slightly pink cast, but footage remains usable, and the white residual system performs well overall.

Compared to its stable-mate P20 Pro, the Mate twenty Pro comes with a slightly less happy compromise between texture and noise when shooting video. Detail is pretty much on the same level, but the Mate 20 Pro footage shows higher levels of noise, especially in low light. Things look improve in brighter conditions, though. Footage is pretty clean in outdoor conditions, and in indoor weather condition, dissonance is non too coarse. Nosotros also meet some noisy edges in low lite; other artifacts we found in the Mate 20 Pro footage include a judder effect when panning, color quantization in the sky, and compression artifacts.

Huawei Mate twenty Pro, video acutance by lite level

Huawei Mate 20 Pro, video racket past light level

Just like in stills mode, the autofocus performs well for video. Nosotros did non experience any focus failures and tracking during our testing; moreover, focus transitions are accurate and smooth. One pocket-sized indicate of criticism is a slight loss of focus in some macro scenes.

The stabilization system has some room for improvement, every bit information technology isn't very efficient when walking or running, with a lot of high-frequency camera motility noticeable in the footage. Overall, however, the Mate twenty Pro is an fantabulous device for mobile video recording.

Conclusion

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a super-phone in every sense, and that is especially true when looking at its camera. The triple-lens setup is capable of producing splendid photo and video results across all shooting situations and deservedly shares the elevation position in the DxOMark Mobile ranking with its slightly smaller sibling, the P20 Pro, outperforming prominent competitors such every bit the iPhone XS Max, the Samsung Galaxy Note nine, and the HTC U12+. It's worth keeping in mind that the Mate twenty Pro comes with a super-broad-angle lens that does not have an impact on our score, but compared to the P20 Pro and other devices that don't have this feature, the lens offers an added degree of flexibility that could exist very important to many photographers.

Nonetheless images show pleasant colors, proficient exposure and dynamic range, and a well-balanced approach to detail retention and dissonance reduction. Thanks to its 3x optical zoom lens, the Mate 20 Pro is besides one of the best smartphones for zooming. Videos brandish many of the same characteristics as withal images. Stabilization isn't terribly effective while walking, and we observed a few video artifacts, but those are all relatively minor quibbles. Overall, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is an like shooting fish in a barrel recommendation to laissez passer on to both mobile photographers and video shooters.

Photo pros

Well-controlled levels of image noise, even in low light
Good target exposure and wide dynamic range
Pleasant white balance and color rendering
Fast and repeatable autofocus in most conditions
Adept zoom

Video pros

Fast and smoothen autofocus with good tracking
Efficient stabilization when holding the photographic camera still
Accurate white residuum and pleasant colors
Low noise levels, peculiarly in bright light
Good exposure adaption to changing light conditions

[/row]

Photo cons

Unnatural rendering of fine details
Loss of fine detail on faces in bokeh mode
Autofocus inconsistencies when using flash
Ringing

Video cons

Camera shake when walking while recording, specially indoors
Lack of fine detail
Judder

In the Press

Source: https://www.dxomark.com/huawei-mate-20-pro-camera-review-triple-cam-juggernaut/

Posted by: quackenbushfrond1992.blogspot.com