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Photographic review of the new Huawei-Leica P20 Pro


Nick De Marco

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I just purchased the new Huawei P20 Pro mobile phone with 3 rear cameras/sensors - as a second phone for its photographic abilities. Having spent just over a week using it I have done a little photographic review here: http://rangefinderchronicles.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/huawei-p20-pro-photogarphy-review.html

 

Headline point - Huawei and Leica have done very well here producing what I think is the best photographic tool on a mobile phone device, by quite a distance. The 'night shot' mode, in particular, is quite staggering. I think I shall be using it often, not ever as a replacement to my real cameras (which remain overwhelmingly film) but for day-to-day mobile photography.

 

Nick

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I think it is a better software and better camera - esp the big sensor and 3 cameras.

 

Richard - it's true I bought it mainly as a camera, but that doesn't mean I don't also use it as a back up part device, especially for internet, email, and posting stuff. Also, I don't know of any small digital camera with good quality that is the size of a mobile phone. I'm happy with my digital cameras (Leica M, Q, Sony A7R, Nikon D750) as digital cameras - all would obviously outperform this phone - my point is to have something tiny to snap with always in my pocket.

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The first few days with it has been good. The phone itself is very stable and quick to respond. Call quality and reception is good on T-Mobile although the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail does not work with this phone. Portraits and sunrise/sunset photos have been phenomenal. However, my attempt at shooting fireworks was bad. It has long exposure settings in Pro mode, but it still tries to apply some anti-shake algorithm and the fireworks video looked terrible as well. The 5x optical and 5x digital zoom creates a 10x zoom that is incredible compared other camera phones. However, the 10x zoom causes a lot of shake and it kind of smears the details a little when the anti-shake feature attempts to fix it -- this is of course dependent on available light and shutter speeds.

 

My Galaxy S7 had inductive charging, so I was surprised when the Huawei did not. The Galaxy also has a keyboard layed out very similar to iPhone, and the Huawei is a little different, so I'm having to hunt for apostrophes and question marks from time to time. I can't really complain about that. However, the Huawei also has a virtual home button on the screen just below the space bar, and I have a tendency to hit it when typing. That was a poor design choice.

 

The battery life is great! Yesterday was a long, intense day of calls and emails while working offsite that started at 5 a.m., and at bed time I still had 30 percent charge. 

 

It has a unique gesture where you tap your knuckle against the screen twice to take a screen capture. That seems to work much better than the Galaxy and iPhone method of holding the home and sleep button at the same time.

 

Most of the pre-installed apps did not work in the US. I have no idea what they were supposed to do, but when I opened them it just said, "This app is not available in your country." This includes the Huawei AppGallery. Everything I've installed through Google Play works fine.

 

I had trouble getting my Microsoft Exchange emails working through the Huawei email program. I had to install the Outlook app for them, but inside Outlook they work fine.

 

Just saw a rumor article yesterday that the Galaxy S10 will have three cameras as well.

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However, my attempt at shooting fireworks was bad. It has long exposure settings in Pro mode, but it still tries to apply some anti-shake algorithm and the fireworks video looked terrible as well. The 5x optical and 5x digital zoom creates a 10x zoom that is incredible compared other camera phones. However, the 10x zoom causes a lot of shake and it kind of smears the details a little when the anti-shake feature attempts to fix it -- this is of course dependent on available light and shutter speeds.

.

 

 

 

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Most of the pre-installed apps did not work in the US. I have no idea what they were supposed to do, but when I opened them it just said, "This app is not available in your country." This includes the Huawei AppGallery. Everything I've installed through Google Play works fine.

 

This kind of stuff is what puts me off changing from an iphone. Prior to my first iphone pretty much every one I tried failed to work for certain things which were advertised but then 'not available in your region at present'.

 

Apple's odd design choices of late has made me less inclined to stay with them - I've already replaced my laptop with a Dell, but I not sure I'm ready to chance another type of phone.

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This kind of stuff is what puts me off changing from an iphone. Prior to my first iphone pretty much every one I tried failed to work for certain things which were advertised but then 'not available in your region at present'.

 

Apple's odd design choices of late has made me less inclined to stay with them - I've already replaced my laptop with a Dell, but I not sure I'm ready to chance another type of phone.

 

Well, I have no idea what the Huawei specific apps do, so I have no idea what I'm missing out on. If it was like the Samsung pre-installed apps it was just fitness tracking, finance tracking, autopay, etc. There are plenty of apps for those things.

 

I discovered another new feature today. If you point the camera at a document, it goes into document scanning mode, which automatically crops the edges of the page and fixes any angle distortion. It's a really cool feature.

 

I honestly haven't been this excited about a phone since I got the first iPhone back in 2007.

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One may be divided on what Phonecameras can do.
Nevertheless, one must admit that the performance of such small lenses is already amazing today.
My wife has a Huawei P9 and is also very satisfied.

 

The many effects and monochrome images are also very good.

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One may be divided on what Phonecameras can do.

Nevertheless, one must admit that the performance of such small lenses is already amazing today.

My wife has a Huawei P9 and is also very satisfied.

 

The many effects and monochrome images are also very good.

 

The 3D portrait mode is pretty phenomenal.

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